Concept: Low-Magic NPC wizard [skilled homebrewer needed]

[shadow_archmagi]

So, idea:

Fantasy setting needs to have high level magical effects without having the full ramifications of high level wizards.

Therefore: NPC class concept:

Wizard who gets vastly reduced spells known, spells per day, and takes serious penalties for casting high level magic (a 9th level spell risking death, perhaps) but in return gets 9th level spells relatively early (say, level 9?). That way we can have occasions where the players encounter powerful magical effects. It also explains the motive behind wizards making and using spell trigger items. (If you can only use teleport once a month with severe discomfort, you're just going to scribe a circle of teleport)

Unfortunately I have no experience homebrewing and not much experience with D&D (3.5) in general, so I was hoping one of the many rulesmiths here could forge one.

[sigurd]

Simply impose a number of rogue or expert levels on their progression.

Every level they have a test\quest\barmitsva (or whatever) if they pass the test they proceed normally in the class. If they don't they progress as an expert for that level and the next test is easier (perhaps).

If thats not slow enough make all wizard classes require 20% more experience.


A typical wizard might be Wiz3/Expert3 or wiz3/Rogue4.


Expert levels will give them lots of skills and languages making them more knowledgable. Rogues levels will give them more skills, some hp, and a few weapon abilities.

You could rule that a wizard with more rogue than wizard levels doesn't suffer arcane spell failure or remove spell failure completely.


Sigurd

[Kornaki]

That still doesn't answer the question of why a wizard scribes a circle of teleport instead of just casting teleport :) Or why they're wary of casting any high level spells at all.

One easy way is to just tack on an experience penalty for casting anything above, say, a third level spell. You bet people would be more cautions about using magic then. That may be a bit too blunt of a weapon though (since the PCs would NEVER cast a spell at that point). Causing backlash damage for all spells (1d4 subdual damage for each spell level) would slow things down a lot also, and explain why you have magic items that duplicate the spells you can cast. Increase the damage dice if you want to make it more death risking...1d6 or 2d4 per spell level, or maybe make it quasi quadratic... 1d4 for each of the first three spell levels, 2d4 for each of the next three spell levels, and 3d4 for each of the next. For example, a level 8 spell deals 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 3 = 15d4 subdual damaage

Are any of the PCs going to be casting these spells that you want to be exhausting? Because you can just say they're difficult to cast and not give an explanation from a mechanics point of view

[shadow_archmagi]

Oh, no, this isn't for the PCs at all. The PCs are rare, exceptional people who have honed their skills through constant trauma, Being The Chosen Ones, etc. I'm fine with THEM teleporting and meteor storming and screwing the world economy through excessive fabrications. They're SUPPOSED to be special, radical, world changing buggers.

This is for the NPCs.


Simply impose a number of rogue or expert levels on their progression.

That just means they'll have to be even HIGHER level to cast anything worthwhile, and the goal here is to allow for a low-level world with high-level magic.

[arguskos]

Just have a 10 level progression base class called "NPC Wizard". It gets Wizard BAB and saves, and the spell progression of an Ur-Priest (so, 9th level spells in ten levels and all that). It has spells known like a normal wizard, from the normal list.

It also has the following ability:
Spell Feedback: Whenever an NPC Wizard casts a spell, they take 1d4 points of non-lethal damage per level of the spell. If this damage would render the caster unconscious, they are so, but the spell works normally.

There, you have what you were looking for, I think.

[Set]

Just have a 10 level progression base class called "NPC Wizard". It gets Wizard BAB and saves, and the spell progression of an Ur-Priest (so, 9th level spells in ten levels and all that). It has spells known like a normal wizard, from the normal list.

It also has the following ability:
Spell Feedback: Whenever an NPC Wizard casts a spell, they take 1d4 points of non-lethal damage per level of the spell. If this damage would render the caster unconscious, they are so, but the spell works normally.

There, you have what you were looking for, I think.

This sounds like the ideal mechanic, and perhaps even saddle the NPC 'Magus' or 'Magician' or whatever with a 10x casting time requirement. If a spell takes a normal caster one action, it takes an NPC arcanist 1 minute. If it takes a hour, the NPC arcanist must spend 10 hours in complicated ritual preparation. The high level magic will thus be available, but the NPC arcanists will be unable to be 'adventuring wizards,' as they lack whatever special something allows a PC Wizard or Sorcerer to 'hang' a spell by pre-casting all but the final syllable and gestures and then releasing it later in a mere moment.

[Yakk]

Ritualist: +1/4 BaB, 1d4+Con HP every 4 levels. Weak will saves, no Reflex or Fortitude saves.



Spells Known
HD BaB Will 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 1d4 +1 1 - - - - - - - - -
2 +1 2 - - - - - - - - -
3 +2 2 1 - - - - - - - -
4 2d4 +1 +2 3 2 - - - - - - - -
5 +2 3 2 1 - - - - - - -
6 +3 3 3 2 - - - - - - -
7 +3 3 3 2 1 - - - - - -
8 3d4 +2 +3 3 3 3 2 - - - - - -
9 +4 3 3 3 2 1 - - - - -
10 +4 3 3 3 3 2 - - - - -
11 +4 3 3 3 3 2 1 - - - -
12 4d4 +3 +5 3 3 3 3 3 2 - - - -
13 +5 3 3 3 3 3 2 1 - - -
14 +5 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 - - -
15 +6 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 1 - -
16 5d4 +4 +6 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 - -
17 +6 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 1 -
18 +7 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 -
19 +7 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 1
20 6d4 +5 +7 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2

The above is a chart of how many spells a ritualist can know. These are not learned automatically, but must be found.

A ritualist may learn a new spell at the cost of losing the memory of an old spell. This requires 1 week of study, plus 1 week per level of the spell being learned.

All ritualists pick a single school of arcane magic. They are restricted to spells from this school.

It takes 1 hour, plus 1 hour per level of the spell, for a Ritualist to prepare a spell slot. If this time is interrupted by anything (including having to drink a glass of water), it is wasted, and must be restarted.

Ritualists can prepared one spell for each level up to 1/5 their character level, rounded down for an indefinite period of time. They get a new level 0 prepared slot at level 1, a level 1 spell slot at level 5, a level 2 spell slot at level 10, a level 3 spell slot at level 15, and a level 4 spell slot at level 20.

In addition, a Ritualist can keep 1 additional spell prepared by making a will save every minute against a DC of 10+spell level, increasing by 1 for every minute. This starts once the spell has been prepared, and stops once the Ritualist starts casting the spell.

This means Ritualists often roll the preparation of the spell into the casting of the spell.

Ritualists who are creating a magic item may sacrifice all of their spell slots for the purpose of having a spell prepared only for the purpose of creating the magic item. This only gives access to one spell -- so if you are creating a magic item that requires multiple such spells, you require multiple Ritualists.

On the other hand, multiple Ritualists can reduce the time it takes to construct the magic item. Ritualists require 100 days per 1000 gp the item is worth, divided by the total caster levels of the Ritualists working together (capped at 100), to construct a magic item. Ritualists who are not present for the entire enchanting period do not count (nor do their prepared spells help).

Each spell slot (including the temporary one) can be used at most twice per 24 hour period.

Socially, Ritualist enchanter guilds tend to have large numbers of the lowest apprentices, who are used to speed the creation of magic items. They work long hours under master Ritualists, who promise further education in exchange for the aid the apprentices bring to reducing magic item creation time.

[shadow_archmagi]

Thanks! That looks perfect. Thanks GitP