D&D 5e Spell Points, What Are They? | Nerd Immersion

Spell Points...ever heard of them? Possibly in passing, but I personally don't know anyone that uses them. Spell Points were a variant spellcasting rule that exists in Chapter 9 of the Dungeon Master's Guide. Basically you are allotted a certain number of "Spell Points" and you use those to convert into spell slots. This adds a bit more complexity to spellcasting, but it also allows you a lot more flexibility in how you cast level 1-5 spells. While I don't think it's something I'd ever employ full time, I'd definitely be down for trying it out in a one shot. What are your thoughts?

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[kikaru]

I had the sorcerer in my game using them, and we just merged spell points and sorcery points into one resource. It wasn't any harder than tracking HP, and definitely makes sorcerers feel more versatile in how they use magic.

[LazyVideosGAME]

"If you use it for Sorcerer you kinda have it to use for everbody."
No?

[gabnel]

Honestly, I despise spell slots so spell points all the way for all casting.

[Fugax]

I use spell points in my game. I call them mana points. I give my players glass beads to represent their mana. They each also get a small plastic jar (3 of a $1 at dollortree). One jar is for their "mana pool" and the other is "spent mana". When they cast a spell they more the approreat number of beads from the mana pool to the spent mana. Arcane recover is fixed at the number of mana for the highest level spell slot the wizard could recover.

[anonymouslyknown]

I use mana points in my games. Really simple add spell slots together that how much mana your character has. Still can't use more than one 6, 7, 8, 9th lvl spells a day. Allows for down casting that I believe you should be able to do.

Example If you have only one 9th lvl spell slot left you can cast a wish spell or cast shield to not get hit once. (assuming the +5ac prevents the hit)
With mana you could cast shield and have 8 mana left. Allowing you to cast fireball 2 times and shield another 2 times.
Or cast fireball 3 times. Because the answer is always FIREBALL!

[dascientist]

I had a player run a sorcerer that used spell points in a game where other castor classes used slots. The player told me it helped to capture the idea of the sorcerer's flexible casting of limited spells.

The way I do it is replace the sorcerer's 2nd level ability with the use of spell points. They use the table to see how many they have at their current level, then add the number of sorcery points they would have at that level. I merge the sorcery and spell point pools as well.

If they multiclass and have this ability, they calculate their "total castor level" and consult the DMG table for that level, then add the sorcery points. Arcane Recovery and Natural Recovery do interact oddly with it, I'm inclined to say they use the highest spell level they cash cast to calculate how many spell points they get back.

[mavoc]

Sorcery Points and Spell Points have the same conversion rate so you can just merge the 2 systems together.

[myforeheadyourfuture]

I am currently using spell points in the game my dm runs and i absolutely love them.Thair versitility makes them really fun.

I personaly prefer spell points over spell slots as they are much closer to a mana system and make manedgeing resorces easier.

[fakjbf]

For the Sorcerer, all you do is add your sorcery points to the spell point pool and you can use those spell points for your meta-magic. Since the Sorcerer's Flexible Casting feature uses these same ratios for converting between sorcery points and spell slots this doesn't really change the math, the only difference is you don't need to use a bonus action in combat to convert between them. It gives the Sorcerer much more flexibility than Wizards, which is the main reason you would want to play a Sorcerer over a Wizard in the first place. It also adds to the lore, Wizards have to learn exact formulae that come in discrete packages and can only use certain ratios of various spell levels whereas Sorcerers draw their power directly from the Weave and can bend it to their will in any way they want.

[conradkorbol]

You could only give sorcerer access to this variant.
They don’t give it to warlocks and thus not every player gets access to it inherently.
It might feel unfair but sorcerers.

[Taylors]

Most my players that cast prefer the points over spell slots. I feel it allows a more flexible caster.

[hugotharador]

I would watch EVERY episode of a series just like this, and the mechanics that were displayed in this video will be so helpful in character creation and leveling up.

[elboricua]

Using spell points for an Elder Scrolls DnD Campaign, as a tribute to the Magicka/MP system in the video games, and it really helps spellcasting feel truer to the world. Maybe it is campaign dependent, but it helps magic feel like a physical resource one draws upon and can exhaust. Love it

[ascapedgoat]

If you look at the spell casting cost for spell points, it’s actually equal to the amount of sorcery points needed to gain spell slots, so it’d basically just be adding the sorcerer’s level to its spell points. Metamagic could just have their sorcery points required be treated as a spell point upcharge.

For example, heightened spell, instead of costing three sorcery points, will only cost a mere 3 extra spell points on top of the amount needed to cast a spell. It may not fix the limited spells known, but it does allow the sorcerer to be more liberal with its use of resources.

[nichuchu]

For sorcerer, just give them extra spell point pool equal to their level. They can spell points for meta magic and recover some spell point on short rest

[jthompson]

I find spell points to really bring a lot of versatility to warlocks even if it's not in the rules for them. It relieves them of having to only cast at the highest level, but still limited to the same amount of power per short rest

[irishwristwatch]

Back in 3.5e we used spell points like crazy. Everyone on out group chose spell points over the normal rules

[rexhex]

Finally Someone is talking about the awsomeness that is spell points!

[narsilsshards]

I use this for my storm sorcerer/tempest cleric, it’s definitely freeing. We combined sorcery and spell points into a single pool, which does make it easier to keep track of. While you can use them to create more of higher level spell slots, that does mean you run out quicker, which almost happened to me in my last session where I ended with only 8 points out of 63.

[buckveazey]

Used spell points in 2nd for a bit. Made casters useful at low levels