Non-binary Spell Training

Applying the principles of Dice Chain Competence to known spells.

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When a 0-level gongfarmer successfully goes out on his first adventure and decides to level up into a Wizard, he inexplicably learns 4 spells he wasn't able to use during that very same adventure. This raises a few questions.

When my campaign was beginning I was looking for ways to make this more narratively sensible, and at first I landed on having the PC research these spells in the way described in the book - a week spent on the task and an INT roll. This made more sense, but it's a lot of downtime to have after the very first adventure when they have leads to follow up on. They left town only knowing a couple of the spells they're supposed to have at their disposal, and it's several sessions before they have the downtime to research again.

By this point I had already established the Dice Chain Competence system of skill advancement so it only made sense to use it here to smooth the gaps out too. It's also way more fun to have that diegetic mid-session advancement where the players actively practice their spells as part of the adventure rather than just saying they do it while they're in town.

Here's how we do it: Upon gaining your known spells at level 1, mark "d12" next to each of them to signify your skill level. After successfully casting a spell (while under stress), go up a rung on the dice chain for that specific spell. That's it.

The standard way I handle skills involves an INT check to see whether you learn anything from your successful attempt. Spells are an exception to this, for a couple of reasons. You're already checking INT in your casting of the spell. The die used measures not just intellectual skill, but perhaps a bond with an unseen otherworldly entity or a corrupt arcane affinity for the spell's use. They're already something not all people can do anyway, so to be casting them you need to be in the "can cast" category. Spellcasting was already determined to be an exception to the rule, mostly due to Thieves' Cast from Scroll.

I think those reasons all help to justify it but the real truth is that I just felt like forcing an INT check to advance in a spell that the caster probably already had to spellburn to use was a little rough when, as per RAW, they should already have just been given the spell. It makes the process of learning a spell during play a bit more adventure-sized.

We haven't been using this system for Clerics because their spells are granted, not learned. That being said, you could absolutely start a Cleric with a d12 for casting in general (as opposed to specific spells) to smooth out the transition between a 0-level nobody with zero magic and God's Chosen handing out miracles like candy.

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Full mechanical details:

Spells a Wizard "discovers" through level-up begin at a d12 "skill level" and go up the dice chain after they are successfully cast.

Each level, the starting die of new spells goes up +1d. Level 2 Wizards learn spells at d14 and so on. 

Each higher level the spell, -1d to the starting die. Spell levels go up slower than Wizard levels, so high level Wizards still learn spells faster than low level ones.

Here's a matrix for those who prefer tables over formulae:

	Wizard Level
Spell Lvl↓	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1	d12	d14	d16	d20	d20	d20	d20	d20	d20	d20
2	-	-	d14	d16	d20	d20	d20	d20	d20	d20
3	-	-	-	-	d16	d20	d20	d20	d20	d20
4	-	-	-	-	-	-	d20	d20	d20	d20
5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	d20	d20

You can still use the standard week of downtime with an INT check to study a spell and make it a d20. Spells learned through means other than level-up generally also just get the full d20.