Thoughts on creating a Spellcaster that uses hit points for spell casting instead of spell slots.
I was just wondering about home-brewing a walock NPC who’s patron saps hitpoints in exchange for spell casting. Essentially, as long as the character has hitpoints they can cast as many spells as they like but with each one it takes a toll.
Balance is obviously an issue here in preventing them from just being healed by the party and used as a spell battery in exchange for healing but Im thinking perhaps balancing that out by making con saves to prevent them from passing out from blood loss or something from wounds appearing on their body as till for the spells. Aswell as that, spells would have different hit point costs that scale with levels like a first level costing 5, 2nd 10 and so on.
Backstory and lore could be pretty interesting as to how they received their patronage, why they took such a harmful deal, they could be good or evil depending on their motives for doing so and other fun stuff!
Let me know what you think or if you have any ideas!
How about instead of just spending HP, you have spell slots similar to the D&D system. Then, once you run out of slots, you can choose to spend HP and/or roll against CON to cast more spells? That way in a normal situation, the player would cast as per normal and within limits. Once things get tough, they can be pushed to run the risk of casting to exhaustion or unconscious states.
Additionally, it would need to be a holdout/failsafe option, to help with said balance issues. Something along the lines of that CON Save increasing in DC with each successive attempt to cast without slots. A failed save results in a level of Fatigue, lowered Max HP, etc., until they either stop attempting to cast or die from the effects and become a wraith in eternal service to the Patron.