Yukitsu
2008-12-26, 03:07 AM
I'm making a campaign module that involves a heavy limitation on magic to keep a certain sense of tension and horror. I want to make a caster character a viable option (combat won't be the solution to many problems, much like older silent hill games, first play through) without letting it actually solve everything. As such, I wish to severely limit its power in certain categories, and wish to give it a severe cost in others.
For an overall cost, I plan on implementing sanity into the campaign, using the CoC d20 rules for insanity, and the book of broken dreams for insanity effects. I'm going to rule that spells of any school cost 1 point of sanity per 2 levels of magic, rounding down.
The first and most important school of consideration is conjuration. Not much point to the setting if the characters just teleport out of the module, or plane shift away. I plan on outright stopping it from working in that sense.
However, I can compensate by creating a "safe room" that the teleport takes them to instead. If they try any transdimensional travel while in this place, the get redirected to this safe room, making teleportation somewhat useful for getting out of really sticky situations. However, to increase tension, I'll make it fairly clear that the more often you teleport there, the less safe it starts to appear.
I also don't want planar help, as a shining angel of hope, bravery and mercy kinda also kills the setting. Again, I can do the "file not found, here's this instead" thing and give them a creature that, while somewhat helpful, also severely damages their sanity. Possibly a creature with the pseudonatural template that speaks in a thousand languages at once speaking only words of pain. It will help the players, but cost more sanity than most spells. This means people that try callings will be taking a double wammy to their sanity score, possibly losing enough to go insane.
The last kind of conjurations that I want to limit are healing spells. I want there to be some tension here as well. Should we heal up, and risk going insane, or should we tough it out and keep our sanity? The exception is restoration and greater restoration. Since it's a fairly short module that I may or may not allow inbetween "mission" sanity healing in, and since psychotherapy isn't a D&D skill, I plan on letting it work to reduce the effects of insanity without sapping the casters own sanity. However, I plan on making restoration and sanity healing spells to cause addiction and dependance. If they use a restoration spell, they get a -1 cuculative penalty to sanity checks until they can get off the dependance somehow. If they become addicted, I'm simply going to apply the Monte cook alternate rules for addiction into the campaign for that character. Given that the penalty for dependance stacks with itself, this can lead down a pretty harsh path.
I plan on littering the place with little potion bottles, all containing restoration. For instance in a liquor cabinet, a few of the bottles will contain this stuff, rather than the norm. This will make it possible for groups that don't have clerics to easily restore some sanity, though obviously it's not a light decision to make.
Next major problem school is divinations. I don't want people to see through scary illusions that can sap sanity, I don't want them to know when danger is lurking around a corner. I want them to be guessing, yet at the same time, I want them to be able to use this tool. As such, all divinations now ask the dead spirits that reside in this place, and as such, the answer you get is the one they want you to get, not the normal one. Because of this, running into plot important things, like an old dolly, or a fragment of bone becomes the answer. If the divination is to ask a question to solve a problem, I'll give the answer and more. My solution for those sorts of divinations will be to give them the answer, but increase the sanity cost 2 or 3 fold. Spells like scrying, prying eyes and true sight will all reveal similarly disturbing things, and will all provide additional sanity loss depending on what they see at the time. Others like true strike act as normal.
Other schools I don't believe I'll need to change as much. obviously necromancy is a flat out bad idea, for the reasons of treachery, but other than that has few insta win solutions for this sort of setting. Transmutation is nerfed to a degree because the setting takes place in a sentient, morphic building, and as such can do little to get the party out. However, to reduce dependance on magic, they are still going to cost the same sanity as other spells. In the setting, magic can be an effective solution where martial prowess often won't, but it solves the problem at a steep cost.
So, thoughts, criticisms? I'll go into further detail of what each effect is when I've fleshed it out more specifically.
For an overall cost, I plan on implementing sanity into the campaign, using the CoC d20 rules for insanity, and the book of broken dreams for insanity effects. I'm going to rule that spells of any school cost 1 point of sanity per 2 levels of magic, rounding down.
The first and most important school of consideration is conjuration. Not much point to the setting if the characters just teleport out of the module, or plane shift away. I plan on outright stopping it from working in that sense.
However, I can compensate by creating a "safe room" that the teleport takes them to instead. If they try any transdimensional travel while in this place, the get redirected to this safe room, making teleportation somewhat useful for getting out of really sticky situations. However, to increase tension, I'll make it fairly clear that the more often you teleport there, the less safe it starts to appear.
I also don't want planar help, as a shining angel of hope, bravery and mercy kinda also kills the setting. Again, I can do the "file not found, here's this instead" thing and give them a creature that, while somewhat helpful, also severely damages their sanity. Possibly a creature with the pseudonatural template that speaks in a thousand languages at once speaking only words of pain. It will help the players, but cost more sanity than most spells. This means people that try callings will be taking a double wammy to their sanity score, possibly losing enough to go insane.
The last kind of conjurations that I want to limit are healing spells. I want there to be some tension here as well. Should we heal up, and risk going insane, or should we tough it out and keep our sanity? The exception is restoration and greater restoration. Since it's a fairly short module that I may or may not allow inbetween "mission" sanity healing in, and since psychotherapy isn't a D&D skill, I plan on letting it work to reduce the effects of insanity without sapping the casters own sanity. However, I plan on making restoration and sanity healing spells to cause addiction and dependance. If they use a restoration spell, they get a -1 cuculative penalty to sanity checks until they can get off the dependance somehow. If they become addicted, I'm simply going to apply the Monte cook alternate rules for addiction into the campaign for that character. Given that the penalty for dependance stacks with itself, this can lead down a pretty harsh path.
I plan on littering the place with little potion bottles, all containing restoration. For instance in a liquor cabinet, a few of the bottles will contain this stuff, rather than the norm. This will make it possible for groups that don't have clerics to easily restore some sanity, though obviously it's not a light decision to make.
Next major problem school is divinations. I don't want people to see through scary illusions that can sap sanity, I don't want them to know when danger is lurking around a corner. I want them to be guessing, yet at the same time, I want them to be able to use this tool. As such, all divinations now ask the dead spirits that reside in this place, and as such, the answer you get is the one they want you to get, not the normal one. Because of this, running into plot important things, like an old dolly, or a fragment of bone becomes the answer. If the divination is to ask a question to solve a problem, I'll give the answer and more. My solution for those sorts of divinations will be to give them the answer, but increase the sanity cost 2 or 3 fold. Spells like scrying, prying eyes and true sight will all reveal similarly disturbing things, and will all provide additional sanity loss depending on what they see at the time. Others like true strike act as normal.
Other schools I don't believe I'll need to change as much. obviously necromancy is a flat out bad idea, for the reasons of treachery, but other than that has few insta win solutions for this sort of setting. Transmutation is nerfed to a degree because the setting takes place in a sentient, morphic building, and as such can do little to get the party out. However, to reduce dependance on magic, they are still going to cost the same sanity as other spells. In the setting, magic can be an effective solution where martial prowess often won't, but it solves the problem at a steep cost.
So, thoughts, criticisms? I'll go into further detail of what each effect is when I've fleshed it out more specifically.