First off, thanks for reading my post. Based on the posts I have read people are obviously very passionate about this subject so please bare with me.
I'm the GM for a high fantasy game with 5 players in a world of my creation. I have found that the current rules in 4e have nerfed the mage (and primary character). Being a Robin's Laws Storyteller, I'd like to see this character hurling fireballs at his enemies. The problem is that he is simply too weak. It takes him many turns to deal the same damage as an equivalent warrior and when he is done, he has to sit down to rest for several minutes.
So... I've been thinking about creating some house rules. I'm seeking the opinion of other experienced GM's to point out other options or things I'm not considering. I'd especially like to hear responses from those who have play-tested your rules.
Here are some options I'm considering...
(1) Mitigate the enormous range penalty of non-touch regular spells by increasing the range incriment by their level of magery. (I.e. range penalty = range/magery rounded up)
I got this idea from another post which used a similar concept but skill instead of magery (sorry can't find it for linking). I prefer not to use skill as the limit for range because I don't want to totally negate the cost of range, just minimize it.
(2) Lower the final cost by a "success-by" cost redux. (I.e. For each success by X amount, the cost of the spell is lowered by one.) I got this idea from here:
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=1952. But I'd prefer not to require the mage to pay more than normal on a failure. This is an interesting idea, but not someting that can create the conditions I'm looking for all by itself.
(3) Go with a modified version of S John's unlimited mana rules at
http://www.io.com/~sjohn/unlimited-mana.htm. I'd prefer not to use the calamity rules in favor of spell points that are limited by 5x or 10x the wizard's magery level. The great thing about this is that it allows the mage to sling some powerful spells, but I don't want to keep track of a separate recovery (other than fatigue).
(4) Allow/encourage the mage to purchase magic-only fatigue and allow him to exceed the 30% HP limit (B16). (I think I saw this option in the rules somewhere.. Hmm... Was this from 3e?)
(5) Create a new spell for the mage called "Collect Mana" which can harness mana from the environment for use on the next spell (and ONLY the next spell). The mage could spend, say, 10 seconds for each mana point up to his magery level. (I.e. A wizard with magery 6 could spend up to 60 seconds to gather 6 mana for use on his next spell.) (Note: I stole this idea from Mab's post:
http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...9&postcount=28)
I like the idea, but my big worry is that it might unbalance the game. It essentially makes non-urgent spells free. Then again, I've been reminded that the Recover Energy spell (at level 20) allows the recovery of 1 FP per 2 minutes.
So, what does everyone think of these ideas? Are there others? Has anyone play-tested these? Lessons learned?