We're all familiar with the spell slots system. If you're a primary caster, you start with 2 first level slots at first level, at third character level you add two more second level spell slots and so on, basically at every odd character level, you get to cast another higher level spell. At various levels you get to add more lower level slots too. It gets a bit weird with your high level slots and you don't get tenth level spells and so on, but there's a neat pattern. Semi-casters, like paladins and druids, get a different progression, where they get spells later and slower. Warlocks are technically full casters, but get a different progression and rule system, but they access their spell levels on the full caster progression.
There's also an issue. Some spells of a given level are just better than others. Take, for example, Fireball and Lightning Arrow. Both are third level spells, both are AOE damage spells. It seems reasonable they should have similar effects. Yes, a ranger has more toys in their toolkit, so there might be some differences, but they also don't get third level spells until ninth level (instead of fifth) to help balance that up too. Fireball does 8d6 (Dex save for half) in a 20 foot radius. Upcasting does and extra d6 per level (and is really not worth it). Lightning Arrow requires a to hit roll instead, does 4d8 to the target you hit, and 2d8 (Dex save for half) to anything within 10 feet. Upcasting adds 1d8 to both sets of damage. Call Lightning is hard to compare because, while it does 3d10 to anyone within a 5' radius of the target point (Dex save for half damage), it potentially does this every turn for up to 10 minutes.
Do those look balanced? You can argue that more creatures resist fire (Lightning Bolt does the same damage as Fireball, it's just a line, not a sphere). Fireball potentially affects 8x more creatures, but even before you allow for flying it's often hitting up to 4x more creatures. You can argue 4d8 guaranteed on a hit (and as a ranger you can get really good to attack bonuses easily enough) is better than 8d6 with a save, which at high levels creatures are much more likely to make. That might hold some merit, but why is the radius and the affect on the surrounding creatures so lacklustre?
Even within a single caster type you have the same issue. Who takes Sleet Storm when you can have Haste or Fireball? While Catnap is actually quite nice, I've never seen it being used, who is going to give up a slot for that?
Switching to Magic Points, as a core part of the system does a few things. It lets us build a balanced pricing system for our spells. Obviously what that system is reflects how many MP we need to give out, but lets say we divide range categories a bit like 3e, touch, close, medium, long and special. Those cost 0, 1, 2, 3 and 5 points. We set damage to be 1 per average point expected, so your 8d6 Fireball over a 20' radius, we say a creature in every other space x28 damage, and assume half save, 30 creatures, so 15x28 +15x14=630 points total. Lightning Arrow does 4d8, that's 18, plus 2d8 in a 10' radius, that's 9, again assume a creature in every other space and half save and work it out from there. That's 12 creatures, so 6x9+6x4=78, 96 points total. These are huge numbers, but then they're big AOE type spells, but it's pretty extreme still. Let's add a Magic Missile to the mix, you get three missiles, d4+1 each, so that's 3x3.5=10.5 damage on average.
We could either keep these big numbers, or do some fun maths to make them a bit more manageable. After some playing, and some aiming for feel, taking log1.5 works out about right. This makes Magic Missile worth 6 MP, Lightning Arrow worth 11 MP and Fireball worth 16 MP. That's more manageable.
We need a way to work utility spells into this, buffs and so on, but we've got a pretty solid foundation. Heals fit in according to the same formula. A lot of buffs can be worked according to the extra damage they probably let you cause or they probably save. There's some consideration there of what an ideal fight looks like, so what is the effect of +d4 on your to hit rolls, +2 AC, an extra action per turn and so on, but it's all things you can work out. Working out the impact of a hand that can open the box from across the room... trickier.
Then we're faced with how to award MP. My first thought was something like your casting stat modifier, plus your level, per level, plus "invocations" you take would give you bonus MP as well as access to spells. That's probably not quite the right formula, something like 10+casting stat modifier+1/2*level(rounded up) might work better, so at first level with the current 5e paradigm you'd have 10+3+1=14 MP, at second level, another 14 so 28 total, at third level another 15 so 43 total etc. Your invocations let you add extra spell points, maybe 4 per level or something, and if you go full on caster you might be adding 8 or 10 of these by the highest levels.
In 5e we really saw the rise of the cantrip, so casters weren't useless after their big spells had gone. How does that fit with a MP system? At first glance, not easily. Firebolt and Eldritch Blast are both 3 MP at under 5th level. I think the easiest thing to do is to apply a blanket rule saying "if you cast a spell that costs less MP than your modifier in your caster stat, it is free. This means, if you get to 22 Int, +6 bonus, you can cast Magic Missile free, but I'm ok with that for the sake of a simple rule.
Having done away with spell levels and slots, you can also juggle how you access spells. I've already done this to some extent by having a small core of spells and then access to most spells tucked away behind "invocations" of course. But I wasn't meaning like that. Currently, you hit 5th level and you get a whole new sweep of spells. 6th level, nada (well, ok, there's a subclass feature but no new spells). 7th level, a whole new vista of spells, and so on. With this system, we can juggle the character level for accessing the spells. Maybe it's as simple as bands. 0-4 is cantrip, 5-8 is first level, 9-12 is third, 13-16 is fifth etc. and we stay close to the current pattern. Or maybe we do something a bit different, 0-3 is cantrip still. 3-5 is on a case-by-case basis, some cantrips, some first level. 6, 7, definitely first level access. 8, some first level access, some second level. 9 some second level access, some third. 10, 11 definitely third. 12 some third level, access some fourth. 13, 14 definitely fourth level access. And so on. Casters get more access at different levels.
Fudge D&D and MP
How does all this work with Fudge D&D? Honestly, pretty well. You need to change the spell descriptions anyway for Fudge D&D. You need to rework how you get MP and the formula maybe. but the core process fits right in.
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