d20 spell conversion idea

[Mgellis]

I was playing around with ideas and had a curious thought...

You could map d20 spells onto GURPS by using a version of the Path/Book system. It wouldn't be an exact match for how d20 does things, but it would offer a way to use d20 spells with GURPS in a manner that avoids trying to write up the spells as powers, balance them with the regular spellcasting system, etc.

It would work like this...

You start off with your core skill, probably something like...

Ritual Magic (Faerun) and Magery (Path/Book) for a wizard or Religious Ritual (Appropriate Deity) and Theology (Faerun) for a cleric.

You then take appropriate Path skills like Transmutation, Evocation, etc.

Each spell can be taken as a Ritual, with a default equal to its casting level in d20. So Great Thunderclap, a third level spell in d20, would default to Path of Evocation-3.

Each spell would work pretty much the way it works in d20 (range, casting time, etc.). You could also use the limitations from d20, using the core skill as a prerequisite for certain spells (e.g., you can only learn True Resurrection, a clerical spell, if you have Religious Ritual).

Now, of course, this is not a one-to-one translation. You end up with characters who can use d20 spells, but they won't be dealing with the "I only get so many spell slots per day" issue. Some mechanic might have to be used to avoid the problem of wizards who can cast hundreds of spells every day (perhaps the level in d20 also determines how many FP the spell costs to cast). And you could have low level wizards who know high level spells (e.g., True Resurrection defaults to Path of Conjuration-9...hard to learn, but even a low level character could do it if they spend enough points on it).

Any thoughts on all this? I like this idea, but I admit it is a very rough start. Anyone want to tweak it a little?

Mark