Legends of Nemract

Legends of Nemract is a homebrew setting I am currently developing using the D&D 5e system. This project will include a lot of reworks of the D&D 5e system, including to the species, classes, and action economy.

The Kindred of Nemract

The Kindred of Nemract describe the different peoples of the continent which players may choose to use for their characters.

Below is the current list of Kindred. Many are still in the process of having their stats fleshed out and play-tested.

Spell Slot System Rework

One system that I am in the process of reworking for this setting is D&D’s spell slot system. In D&D, any player that chooses one of the caster classes (such as Wizard, Sorcerer, Druid, etc.) gets a certain number of spell slots, which determines the number of spells they are able to cast daily in the game. Spell slots are meant to be a form of strategic resource management for the caster classes, but in practice they often generate frustration. There are four reasons for this:

1. Spell slots can be expended on spells that whiff entirely; losing a limited resource through no fault of the player’s skill or timing feels disproportionately punishing.

• This is because a spell slot is one of the highest value resources a caster has. If the spell misses, gets resisted, or is saved against (all of which is decided by a random roll of a 20 sided die) the player effectively loses:
  • Their turn
  • Part of their class identity
  • One of their most scarce resources
• This feels extremely bad to the player, because though they may have made the right decision on when to expend a spell slot, it feels terrible to get nothing in return just for rolling badly.

2. Spell slots encourage hoarding; players avoid using the tools that make their class fun.

• This is already a well known issue in RPG games! It’s very common in games like Skyrim for the player to stock up potions and spell scrolls but never use them, since they never know when it might be something they really need in an encounter. An issue with spell slots is that players will think, “This might not be the right time to use the spell, there may be a boss encounter coming up,” and as a result the players miss out on using really fun, really cool abilities!
• This is bad for the player, because players should feel rewarded for using their abilities, not punished.

3. Encounter design becomes inconsistent because player power is inconsistent.

• In D&D and other games based on the same system (such as Baldur’s Gate 3), the DM/designer cannot reliably predict:
  • Whether spellcasters still have resources
  • How many resources they have
  • Whether they hoarded or overspent
• This means fights can easily swing wildly between being trivial (since the players are stocked on spell slots) or impossible (since the players have already been drained of all spell slots).
• This is a problem for the player, because it can mean that very few encounters feel challenging but fair.

4. Utility and combat spells share the same pool, discouraging experimentation with more unique and niche spells.

• In D&D, casters get to choose a few spells that they learn from a massive list of possible spells. These are spells that they then get to spend spell slots to cast. However, this list contains all categories of spells, from reliable damage dealing spells (like Fireball) to extremely thematic but niche utility spells (like Create or Destroy Water). Because they have a limited number of spells that they can learn, they naturally pick the spells that are safest and have the broadest uses, such as “Scorching Ray” which is great for combat damage or “Feather Fall” which is always helpful for saving teammates from taking falling damage. It also means that they avoid the really cool and creative spells that have very niche uses, like “Rope Trick” which creates an extradimensional space for players to take shelter in.
• This feels bad to the player because a game should encourage diverse playstyles, and not require every player to converge towards one optimal meta.

My solution for this is to rework each caster to have a small number of “at-will” spell slots which regenerate on short rest, which often occurs between encounters. This means that casters are always able to cast a few spells in every combat, which goes a long way in reinforcing the fantasy of being a powerful magic-user in every fight and also means that players are a lot less sheepish in using their spell slots. I also divided D&D’s spell list into “Utility” and “Combat” categories, and let my caster players choose a certain number of spells to learn from each category. This ensured that the players had access to not only spells that had common uses (like dealing damage in combat) but also niche and thematic out-of-combat uses (like Illusory Script, which lets players write secret messages visible to only targets they select). Letting players choose spells in this way lets them take more niche spells that reflect their character’s personality and identity, while also letting them keep the spells with broader uses.