Talk:Refresh Magic (3.5e Spell)

"nigh-impossible"

If you're rounding down the 50/3 number as well, a 10th level caster has a 10% chance of recharging a Ring of Three Wishes per 3rd level spell spent. Given that a 10th level caster really doesn't care much about 3rd level spell slots, knowing this spell and having such a ring means that they get about half a wish per day. If you're already operating under Wish Economy rules, that's not a big deal, but I don't think anyone assumes such for a High balance setting, since it's often considered too excessive by Very High standards.

More generally, recharging limited use items violates the point of having them be limited use in the first place. Something that gamechanging should be 5 levels deep in a PrC, or 10 levels deep in a normal class devoted to thematically related things, at least. --Foxwarrior (talk) 18:36, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

Oh, and consider how this spell interacts with time stop. Really, any spell with a higher level than 3rd or a shorter duration than 13 time units. --Foxwarrior (talk) 18:40, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

For recharging, intermediate values (like 50/3) are not rounded down, only the final result. --Luigifan18 (talk) 18:48, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

Oh, so you have to empower it, and use 5th level slots. I see. --Foxwarrior (talk) 18:53, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

Comments

Casting a 3rd level spell and more than doubling the duration of a higher level spell is a bit weird. Dropping to 1d6 + half CL (or just half CL) might work better. A limitation that you may not add more to the duration than would bring it back to it's normal full length might be appropriate. It also adds a bit of tactical concern to when you cast it, since some castings are going to be less effective than others.

Even the possibility of turning a 3rd level slot into multiple slots of the same or higher level by recharging items is something that I would suggest you avoid, since the slot eventually becomes relatively low cost for the preparer and that's a lot of gain from it. If you want to leave this as a magic item recharge option, and I think it might work out ok, I'd suggest putting a spell level 2 cap on it. So you could recharge a wand of web or charm person, but not of fireball or a ring of 3 wishes.

For the area version, the same d6 + half CL roll might be good for determining the number of spells that you add 1 time increment to.

The anti-dispel bit is a bit weird. You might be better off just saying that this spell automatically counterspells dispel magic with no roll required. It doesn't work against higher level effects anyway (or there aren't really any to use it against), so it's pretty similar to the current wording. - Tarkisflux ^Talk 18:43, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

Yes, a 2nd level cap on the recharge thing would stop you from using a wand of refresh magic to recharge itself. --Foxwarrior (talk) 18:54, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

I'm planning to make lesser, greater, and epic versions of this anyways, so making the refresh roll 1/2 of the caster level and imposing some other limitations makes sense. Thanks for the advice. --Luigifan18 (talk) 19:32, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

Done! I took a page from NetHack's book and made it so trying to recharge high-level magic items is a great way to suffer Yet Another Stupid Death. XD --Luigifan18 (talk) 19:55, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

Well, since it destroys the item, you avoided the silliness of recharge by proxy, except when you have a minion read a scroll of refresh magic in order to explode an enemy's staff from 150 feet away, dealing 300d6 damage in the process. --Foxwarrior (talk) 20:08, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

...Mr. Welch would be proud. --Luigifan18 (talk) 21:23, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

I can so see something like that happening, and the poor wizard's player saying something like "300d6?!?!?!?!?" --Luigifan18 (talk) 21:58, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

300d6, no save. Much better than paltry Veles missile. Even on something cheap like a wand of CLW, it's 50d6. --Foxwarrior (talk) 22:10, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

No, no, you get a save for being caught in the explosion - oh, you mean the sap holding the staff!! I'll lower it to 1d4 or something, then.

Well, it still lets you turn wands of light into remote detonated (or carried) explosives at the low cost of 375 gold for an average of 125 damage. More awkward than explosive runes, maybe, but also more reliably lethal. --Foxwarrior (talk) 22:53, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

And also freakin' hilarious. *snicker* I can't wait to hear what'll happen if someone pulls that stunt for real... --Luigifan18 (talk) 23:24, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

I see that you haven't been overly brainwashed by the balance police. --Foxwarrior (talk) 23:45, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

I'd just love to hear the DM's reaction when somebody uses refresh magic to blow up an item on purpose. --Luigifan18 (talk) 04:11, 30 October 2012 (UTC)