I'm curious how this looks for closing the gap between martial adepts and full casters.
A lot of the 9th level maneuvers seem to compare closer to 6th or 7th level spells. I was thinking of having them come online for PCs at about the same time. I'd thought of two basic approaches to do this:
1) Modify the maneuver list put existing maneuvers at lower levels where needed, and write new ones to fill in the gaps, or
2) Modify when casters get spells, and cap them at 6th or 7th level spells.
So, for this thought exercise, I'm going to try the second route. Also, I'm operating on a few assumptions for spells (based on some house-rules I'm working on):
Spell assumptions[spoiler]
Save or diesThese take an entire round to cast (not a full-round action)
Save or loseThese take a full-round action to cast. This includes spells that reduce other's movement to half or less, or ones that make them useless, like Baleful Polymorph.
Direct DamageThey will deal extra damage. If I'm capping spells at 6th level, I'll add one point of damage per spell level per damage die. So a 10d6 Fireball would deal 10d6+30, and a 15d6 Cone of Cold would deal 15d6+75. Also, they'd have extra effects based on the damage type.
Certain spells will probably need to be addressed on a case-by-case basis, such as Polymorph.
[/spoiler]
Modified spell progressionSo, all 9th level casters would be spontaneous casters. They'd start with 0 and 1st level spells. They'd gain a new spell level every three levels after first (2nd level spells at level 4, 3rd level spells at level 7... and 6th level spells at level 16). They'd start with two spells known each spell level (three at 1st) and two spells per day each spell level. This would cap at six spells known per spell level and four per day (I can work up tables, if you'd like). Other than that, casting stats and bonus spells would work the same.
So, comparing spell levels to maneuver levels, you'll end up with these rough equivalences:
Maneuver Level Spell Level
1 1
2 2
3 2
4 3
5 4
6 4
7 5
8 5
9 6
Saving ThrowsNow, with spell levels being lower, it might be prudent to adjust how saving throws work. Perhaps for all spells and maneuvers, the save should simply be 10 + 1/2 HD + casting/initiating stat.
Issues I already seeD&D has a rich heritage of pitting players against monsters with nasty abilities several levels before they get counters to those abilities. You run into creatures that can paralyze you well before you get Remove Paralysis. You run into creatures that can drain levels well before you get Restoration. Petrification is even worse. Delaying spell levels like this only exacerbates the problem. An easy fix is to move some of those spells up a level or two. This would end up putting Remove Paralysis at 1st level and Restoration at 2nd level (and probably Lesser Restoration at 1st, by extension). It's a kludge, but it might work.
There are some weird side effects, like Dread Necromancers having to wait until 10th level to animate dead. A quick fix is to move Animate Dead to 3rd level for them.
So why am I considering doing it like this?Well, I figured this might be a quicker spot fix than redoing the entire maneuver list and writing new maneuvers from scratch. With 6th level spells, you still get a lot of staples, like save or dies, teleportation, planar travel, making outsiders do your bidding, raising the dead, and some other thematic effects. It's still enough to tell most stories.
I also did this to help balance against monsters. If I started doling out maneuvers that keep up with 9th level spells, the game would just go full RLT at high levels instead of mostly-RLT. Personally, I'd like the game to be somewhat playable at higher levels. It's still breakable, but I'm hoping the broad case would work better, and I can deal with corner cases as they come up.
What'd I miss?So, how's it look? Terrible? Has promise? My heart's in the right place but I'm a misguided fool? How does this look like it'd stack up against maneuvers at equal character level?