Help with a Homebrew Magic System

[JEntropy]

Hello everyone, and thank you in advance.

I'm preparing for a campaign where the PC's will be playing a gish pseudo-gestalt class, but in doing so I'm deviating from the traditional D&D magic system a little. Instead of magic being as pervasive and academic as in D&D, it's going to be much more wild, and the magical capabilities of each member of the party will be essentially randomized. The campaign begins centered in a civilization within a (seemingly endless) forest.

Briefly, to set the stage, the notion here is that there is an inherent magical energy in everything around us, including ourselves, if we only knew how to tap into it. Most people are given a glimpse of this power, but no one has ever mastered its full range. As such, even low-level characters in the world will have minor magical effects that they can call out.

In line with this theory, I've picked out nine "paths", if you will, that seem fitting for the setting/culture/class. Each one will, when I'm finished, have a relevant skill that it gives bonuses to, as well as a set of powers that the PC can gain (as they progress in levels) essentially randomly. Gaining new abilities will be based on Wisdom (from the notion of attunement) while their capacity for casting will be based on Constitution (channeling powerful magical energies takes a toll on the imperfect mortal body).

Life (Heal)
Light (Spot)
Shadow (Hide)
Animal (Handle Animal)
Nature (KNature/Survival)
Fire (Intimidate? Not crazy about this, if someone has a better idea I'd love to hear it Perform/Diplomacy/Craft+DD)
Water (Swim)
Air (Jump)
Earth (Balance)

Now that I've laid the groundwork (and if you need any clarification, please ask, and I'll do my best to explain out of the fuzzy understanding I have), on to what I want your help with.

I need to work out a relevant set of powers within each "path". In doing so, I would like, instead of classifying powers as "3rd" or "6th" level, to give PC's more flexibility in how they allocate their magical abilities.

As an example, a "healing" ability within the Life path might fall something along the lines of Xd4/Y, where X is the number of "spell levels" they invest in that use of the ability, and Y is the number of targets.

I have a bunch of other ideas, but I'd like to see what the playgrounders come up with before I put more out there so I don't stifle or stray any creativity. If you just have a concept, feel free to throw it at me; if you have an X/Y form you can put it in, even better :)

[Set]

While it might sound counter-intuitive, perhaps Craft could be associated with fire (and craft become the go-to skill for disable device checks?).

Craft (cooking), (armorsmithing), (weaponsmithing), (alchemy) and even (pottery) make extensive use of fire, and even when fire is 'destroying' something, it is merely transforming it into something else (granted, a pile of ash that nobody needs for anything, but even in destruction, it is creating and transforming...).

This is a very neat idea, linking skills to 'spheres of magic.' At the lowest levels, magic might just give someone a massive bonus to the skill check, and the skills might have supernatural levels of effect only reachable via this sort of enhancement. If I use curing magic, I get a +10 to my Heal check, and only with a DC 20 Heal check and the magical enhancement can I cure hit point damage, or restore a lost ability point or whatever. If I use animal control magic, I can get a +10 to my Handle Animal check, and actually charm an animal, or magically teach it a trick in a moment, or communicate with it as if where a person, etc.

Linking fire to craft (which is just one idea, obviously) might lead to a fire-mage seeming to weave together strands of fire from his finger tips to create a ball of fire or curtain of flames, symbolically 'crafting' the fiery manifestation.

Linking earth to balance was a neat concept, and I could see the lower level earth effects causing tremors to unbalance foes (at first, foes in the area might be denied their Dex bonus to AC, have a -2 circumstance penalty to attacks and / or count the affected area as rough terrain, then progressing up to area effect Trip attacks, and even damaging effects, as the tremors begin slamming people around like rag dolls). On the other hand, spells like shape stone and wall of stone and turn pebble to boulder don't necessarily fit the 'feel' of something connected to a balance check... (They could, I'm sure, but I'm not feeling the connection yet.) "You move quickly, and the ground seems still and lifeless beneath your feet. By stilling myself and clearing my mind of such perceptions, I can see and shape the subtle motions of the earth itself, causing it to rise up!"

[JEntropy]

While it might sound counter-intuitive, perhaps Craft could be associated with fire (and craft become the go-to skill for disable device checks?).

...

Linking fire to craft (which is just one idea, obviously) might lead to a fire-mage seeming to weave together strands of fire from his finger tips to create a ball of fire or curtain of flames, symbolically 'crafting' the fiery manifestation.

I had considered both craft and DD before, but hadn't thought of blending them. Aside from that, you could always make it "fire-related craft" checks.

Your suggestion also made me think of something else: perform.

[Set]

Your suggestion also made me think of something else: perform.

Perform and / or Diplomacy make sense for mind-control / emotion control / enchantment effects.

Diplomacy might more strictly target mind-control, while Perform could be more primal and effect emotions? Even then, it becomes a question of whether or not there should be this many subtle gradations of magic. Do we go one step further and have Intimidate govern fear-magics, or do we just make Intimidate a function of Diplomacy?

Various knowledge skills functioning as divinations might also work, with knowledge (arcana) becoming detect magic, identify, etc. and knowledge (history) becoming object reading, legend lore, etc. (and perhaps even foresight, at the higher ranks, as one learns that 'this has all happened before, and will again,' and from the wisdom of the past, learns to anticipate the future).

[JEntropy]

Perform and / or Diplomacy make sense for mind-control / emotion control / enchantment effects.

Diplomacy might more strictly target mind-control, while Perform could be more primal and effect emotions? Even then, it becomes a question of whether or not there should be this many subtle gradations of magic. Do we go one step further and have Intimidate govern fear-magics, or do we just make Intimidate a function of Diplomacy?

The reason I didn't like intimidate before was that I didn't like the stereotype of all fire mages being hot heads (excuse the pun). I had toyed with the idea of a 10th path, that no one in the PC's culture is attuned to but that their antagonists (separate race and culture, also living in forest) are. Death, as a path, seems to fit well with fear and intimidation and curses and such, so I felt like it fit better there.

I actually like perform and diplomacy, which makes it a hard choice. I like the idea of fire as mesmerizing, captivating, etc, "warming men's hearts" in diplomacy to influence them towards your desires, or stirring up a crowd through a powerful performance.


Various knowledge skills functioning as divinations might also work, with knowledge (arcana) becoming detect magic, identify, etc. and knowledge (history) becoming object reading, legend lore, etc. (and perhaps even foresight, at the higher ranks, as one learns that 'this has all happened before, and will again,' and from the wisdom of the past, learns to anticipate the future).

This is golden. I'll have to cite you somewhere. I was worried about limiting the PCs too much by taking away magic, but strengthening skills instead seems like a brilliant way to balance that.

Given that there may be no healer within the group originally (I had toyed with the idea of everyone within a "path" getting the same base power, but it doesn't feel right), I had planned on expanding an interplay between KNature and Craft Alchemy to allow for (1) finding magical plants with restorative powers, (2) creating salves/ointments to speed the out-of-combat healing process.

Ironically, though magic will be pervasive, I think it will feel like a "low-magic" game, but my group tends to gravitate towards that anyway.

[Set]

Given that there may be no healer within the group originally (I had toyed with the idea of everyone within a "path" getting the same base power, but it doesn't feel right), I had planned on expanding an interplay between KNature and Craft Alchemy to allow for (1) finding magical plants with restorative powers, (2) creating salves/ointments to speed the out-of-combat healing process.

For a lower-magic world, feel free to bump up the Heal skill so that a non-magical use of the Heal skill can restore some hit point damage (perhaps converting lethal damage to nonlethal instead of outright curing wounds?). It doesn't have to be a lot, and it could expend 'uses' from a Healing Kit to do so, but it would allow the non-magical healer to actually function.

Non-magical Heal skill benefits might also be limited to no more hit points / day than your Con mod + HD, or a point of damage removed from each wound taken (which sounds like a pain in the butt to track).

Using Profession (herbalist / apothecary) or craft (alchemy) to create healing salves that function in one of these manners would also be an option. Perhaps the poultice, applied within a minute of an injury, removes 1 hit point from the total damage taken, while this particular tea causes 1d4 pts of lethal damage to become nonlethal damage, but can only be ingested once per day for full effect. Combined with expanded use of the Heal skill, a low-level party could at least function without curing magic, and as skills increase, more effective versions might be craft-able, while the best healers, who combine magic with healing, can make wounds fade away, instead of just turning them to nonlethal injury.