Reining-in Spell Granting

This is a Post-Script to yesterday's post about the Spell Granting perk/feat. It assumes that the reader is interested in using basic math for the sake of game design.  Here it is again in fine print.

Metamagic Feat; Spell Granting
Benefit:
You may gift a certain amount of your periodic spellcasting potential (spells per day) to another intelligent entity, to use at their discretion. Spells granted are subtracted from the Grantor's spells per day. The Grantor may offer as much or as little of his magical capacity to the Grantee as the grantor wishes. The Grantee may then generally choose which of the available spells he wishes to prepare for a given day (if you even require spell preparation as opposed to extemporaneous casting) The Grantor is free to place conditions on the Grantee in exchange. The grantor may dissolve the arrangement at any time for any reason.
Prerequisites:
The Grantor must be intelligent and have atleast 20 HD (Making this any lower would seriously impact the setting. If your second cousin grants you spells, it would tend to undermine anyone claiming to be a transcendental being on basis of their spellgranting. But that could also be cool.
Other Requirements:
The Grantor may only grant spells which he or she is capable of casting. (this assumes removing the distinction between arcane and divine spells. Otherwise you have the awkward question of who grants divine spells to the grantor.)
The Grantee must have the ability to cast the spell in terms of raw ability scores (10+level of spell in relevant stat for instance) and possibly in terms of class level (discussed below) At the DM's discretion, the Grantee may be able to attempt to cast spell above his capability, but there may be adverse consequences to this.
The Grantee must perform some sort of ritual or initiation which sympathetically binds the grantor and grantee on whatever magical terms. The nature of this ceremony may be defined by the grantor.

When I left off, I was proposing ways to moderate this ability to keep it from being Free Power, while still keeping it relevant. I don't mind breaking a setting, but I don't want a broken system. I ended with a vacuous reminder that Spells Granted are granted at the Grantor's discretion. Which is true. And keeping this in mind keeps the realms of possibility open. But we still need a reasonable guideline for how to implement this rule in general.

Here's what I got so far:

(1) Grantors may be varyingly demanding of the Grantee, based on the setting or the characters involved.

(2) Power on loan augments a character's overall effectiveness less than Powers which they own. (wizards>clerics) For now, we will call characters who control their own magic "Intrinsic Casters."

so:

Grantee's Effective Spellpower = (Spellpower of an Intrinsic Caster) x (Rigor of Grantor's requirements) 

 

G = I R

 



Where Rigor is a fraction or percentage value no greater than 100%.
For R, a value of 100% (one) connotes total, overbearing involvement, where the grantee is a zealot-slave to the Grantor and the adventures revolve around the whims of the Grantor. (sounds like fun, but a little one-note to make a campaign out of it.)
Being required to maintain an easy moral standard might be worth 10% Rigor
A harder moral standard could be up to 30%
Equipment restrictions could also increase R. Something simple like being restricted to blunt weapons might be 10%. Being banned from the use of all metal objects could be 30%
Being required to evangelize and spread the faith could be 20%
Special Diets, abstaining from alcohol (hard for adventurers) ritual requirements and other taboos could add to this number.

For comparison:
Rigor for a 3E druid would be at about 40%. An AD&D druid would be maybe 55%. A Paladin would be 25%

"Spellpower of an Intrinsic Caster" refers to a caster of the same overall level or point-value of the Grantee in question. What spellpower means would depend on the system you are using. It is also convenient if the system offers a way to calculate spellpower.
In D&D, this is not the case. Spells may be classed into spell-levels (the word Level gets in way too many contexts!) Though I doubt a 9th level Wish spell is equivalent to casting Magic Missile or Mage Shield 9 times.
We do however have the option of applying the R to the rate at which spells are learned. For instance An 8th level character with a 50%  Grantor Rigor would have the same spells per day as a 4th level character with 100% rigor.

 Here's a typical 3.5E spells per day spread:

The table above represents a typical Intrinsic Spellcaster or someone gaining spells at a whole rate (R=1)
But if a grantee is gaining spells at a fractional rate, we could parse it out so that a character gains spells very incrementally. If you look at the chart very carefully, you may discern the pattern by which spells per day increase by level. (I did, but I'm not good enough at technical writing to describe the pattern.)
Then you could parse the increases into fractional levels. like this:

Take for Example Robert the Adventurer. Robert is also a Grantee of a benevolent deity. Robert has sworn never to draw blood (bludgeon weapons only,) to be a generally good person (neutral good) And he also abstains from meat on Fridays and holidays, for a total of 25% Rigor.
Multiply his actual character level times R to get his effective caster level.
At 1st level, he may use a single 0th level spell of his deity's spell list. At 2nd, he will be Effective Caster Level 0.5, earning him another 0th level spell per day.
At Rob's 4th level, he will cast as a 1st level Intrinsic Spell Caster
At 5th, his effective caster level will be 1.25, not quite qualifying him for his fourth 0th level spell. but he will be able to get it when he hits 6th level.

If this seems complicated, we could maintain raises by whole effective caster-levels occurring every so many levels; equal to 1/R. So Robert would be normal until he finally hit 4th level when he attained Effective Caster Level of 1. 2 at 8th level and so on. His player however, would say "Screw That! If I'm only using bludgeoning weapons, I want my damn spells for it now!"

If all this seems punishing for spell-borrowers,  remember that this is the price for power ON TOP OF regular class powers.  This is not a hobbled character, it is merely a character which pays more for extra powers. It also allows for common, unlevelled religious folk (Rigor of 10-20%) to have some magic in return for their devotions.

That's enough math. I feel like we are due for a humanities post soon.