Lysander
2009-07-05, 12:59 AM
A homebrew idea to limit the power of spellcasters. The premise is that magicians do not create spells out of nothing, instead they channel ambient magical energy. Different areas have varying levels of ambient magic, and the stronger the local magic the more powerful the spells it can support.
Each part of the world has a magic level from 1 to 9. In some places the same magic level covers hundreds of miles, in other places a different magic level exists every few feet. Most magic levels remain constant, but a few areas having shifting magical levels, some random, others following heavily studied and reliable schedules. Casters can automatically sense how strong the ambient magic is in the immediate area. Detect Magic will reveal the level of every area within a mile.
A spell can only be cast in an area of ambient magic equal to its spell level or higher. So a level 7 spell can only be cast if the ambient magic is level 7, 8, or 9. A few rare places in the world are known as Ley Lines, and allow the casting of epic spells. Powerful magicians constantly battle for control of the Ley Lines.
Charged magical items carry stored energy however, allowing wands, staves, and scrolls to be used in areas even if the local magic couldn't normally support that spell. A spell with an ongoing duration will still function if it moves into an area too magically weak to cast it in. Triggered spell-like abilities of creatures and magic items will not function if the ambient magic is too low for a spell of identical effect, but ongoing passive effects will function. Artifacts are fully functional in all magic levels.
How Ambient Magic Level Can Help Your Campaign
1. Prevents wizards from teleporting the party everywhere and skipping travel and adventure. Teleport would only work in level 5 or higher areas, so to teleport they would first need to journey to a level 5 or higher area.
2. Prevents wizards from instantly destroying powerful creatures and bypassing obstacles in low magic areas, providing a strong need for non-magical characters.
3. Makes multi-classing a more logical choice for spellcasters.
4. Explains why wizards don't run the world. Their powers only give them absolute control over scattered areas.
What to Avoid
Don't make your casters useless. Allow them and give them warning to prepare lower level spells in place of their higher unusable spell slots. Then while the fighters kill the giant monster your wizard can't do much harm to, throw lots of smaller enemies at them that they can blast with weaker spells. Don't overdo it though with little monsters. Make the challenge interesting. Give them falling boulders to divert with Telekinesis, enemies to delay with Hold Portal, creatures to mislead with illusions. The idea is, instead of your caster just shooting something and calling it a day, making them puzzle solvers who have to use their magic to save the team from a vast and diverse array of challenges. One solution to some challenges will be to figure out how to reach, or how to lure enemies to, an area where their more powerful spells will work.
Designating Worldwide Magic
The DM should pick the average magical level that covers any given kingdom in a nondescript place. Magical creatures are more likely to reside in levels of higher ambient magic, so a monster infested dungeon should allow more powerful spells than a farm in the middle of nowhere. Cities and castles are often built in the extremes, either in areas of high magic or areas of low magic depending whether the residents fear magic or utilize it. Some areas have natural cycles - for example a city might have average magic most of the year, then have wizards flock there from all over to cast their spells during an annual one week peak of high magic. Other places have magic that varies by season, or even from day to night, or dependent on weather. Other magical areas move across the land like storms, increasing or decreasing a place's magic while they pass. In those places magical forecasters are highly valued.
Optional Rules
Here are a few variant rule to customize Ambient Magic as needed:
1. Some areas have different ambient levels for different schools or types of magic. One area might allow very powerful conjuration spells, but thwart high level necromancy for example. Another might favor druid magic but suppress other divine and arcane casters. This makes things a lot more complicated and requires a lot of thought on the DMs part not to unbalance things.
2. Varying magical levels are very well known. Knowledge Arcana checks can tell them the magical levels of different areas of the world and find local hotspots, and maps may exist that carefully chart out the different magical levels like a topographic display.
3. Delayed spell casting - Allowing spells of any level to be cast in any zone, but require one additional hour or minute of charge time for each level that the spell exceeds the ambient magic. This is if you want your players to have access to all spells and limit their power in combat only.
4. Specialization rule - Casters can perform spells of their specialized school that are one level higher than otherwise allowed by the ambient magic.
5. Dead zones - Have zones that only allow level 0 cantrips, or zones that suppress spellcasting entirely.
6. Creature dependency - Magical creatures require magical areas to live. Every day they are in an area too weak to support them they take con damage or lose hitpoints, or simply operate with a penalty to certain stats. This requires assigning different magical levels to each creature you intend to use.
7. Target limitation - Targets must also be in a high enough ambient magic. For example this would prevent you from teleporting into any place with less than level 5 ambient magic.
8. Duration limitation - Spells with ongoing durations are suppressed in areas of lower ambient magic, as in an anti-magic field.
9. Charged Item limitation - Charged items use additional charges in areas with a lower ambient magic than the spell, perhaps one extra charge for every level the ambient falls short. Scrolls may simply not function.
10. Magic Item Limitation - Magic items have their magic temporarily suppressed, or weakened, in areas they could not be crafted in.
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Thoughts?
Each part of the world has a magic level from 1 to 9. In some places the same magic level covers hundreds of miles, in other places a different magic level exists every few feet. Most magic levels remain constant, but a few areas having shifting magical levels, some random, others following heavily studied and reliable schedules. Casters can automatically sense how strong the ambient magic is in the immediate area. Detect Magic will reveal the level of every area within a mile.
A spell can only be cast in an area of ambient magic equal to its spell level or higher. So a level 7 spell can only be cast if the ambient magic is level 7, 8, or 9. A few rare places in the world are known as Ley Lines, and allow the casting of epic spells. Powerful magicians constantly battle for control of the Ley Lines.
Charged magical items carry stored energy however, allowing wands, staves, and scrolls to be used in areas even if the local magic couldn't normally support that spell. A spell with an ongoing duration will still function if it moves into an area too magically weak to cast it in. Triggered spell-like abilities of creatures and magic items will not function if the ambient magic is too low for a spell of identical effect, but ongoing passive effects will function. Artifacts are fully functional in all magic levels.
How Ambient Magic Level Can Help Your Campaign
1. Prevents wizards from teleporting the party everywhere and skipping travel and adventure. Teleport would only work in level 5 or higher areas, so to teleport they would first need to journey to a level 5 or higher area.
2. Prevents wizards from instantly destroying powerful creatures and bypassing obstacles in low magic areas, providing a strong need for non-magical characters.
3. Makes multi-classing a more logical choice for spellcasters.
4. Explains why wizards don't run the world. Their powers only give them absolute control over scattered areas.
What to Avoid
Don't make your casters useless. Allow them and give them warning to prepare lower level spells in place of their higher unusable spell slots. Then while the fighters kill the giant monster your wizard can't do much harm to, throw lots of smaller enemies at them that they can blast with weaker spells. Don't overdo it though with little monsters. Make the challenge interesting. Give them falling boulders to divert with Telekinesis, enemies to delay with Hold Portal, creatures to mislead with illusions. The idea is, instead of your caster just shooting something and calling it a day, making them puzzle solvers who have to use their magic to save the team from a vast and diverse array of challenges. One solution to some challenges will be to figure out how to reach, or how to lure enemies to, an area where their more powerful spells will work.
Designating Worldwide Magic
The DM should pick the average magical level that covers any given kingdom in a nondescript place. Magical creatures are more likely to reside in levels of higher ambient magic, so a monster infested dungeon should allow more powerful spells than a farm in the middle of nowhere. Cities and castles are often built in the extremes, either in areas of high magic or areas of low magic depending whether the residents fear magic or utilize it. Some areas have natural cycles - for example a city might have average magic most of the year, then have wizards flock there from all over to cast their spells during an annual one week peak of high magic. Other places have magic that varies by season, or even from day to night, or dependent on weather. Other magical areas move across the land like storms, increasing or decreasing a place's magic while they pass. In those places magical forecasters are highly valued.
Optional Rules
Here are a few variant rule to customize Ambient Magic as needed:
1. Some areas have different ambient levels for different schools or types of magic. One area might allow very powerful conjuration spells, but thwart high level necromancy for example. Another might favor druid magic but suppress other divine and arcane casters. This makes things a lot more complicated and requires a lot of thought on the DMs part not to unbalance things.
2. Varying magical levels are very well known. Knowledge Arcana checks can tell them the magical levels of different areas of the world and find local hotspots, and maps may exist that carefully chart out the different magical levels like a topographic display.
3. Delayed spell casting - Allowing spells of any level to be cast in any zone, but require one additional hour or minute of charge time for each level that the spell exceeds the ambient magic. This is if you want your players to have access to all spells and limit their power in combat only.
4. Specialization rule - Casters can perform spells of their specialized school that are one level higher than otherwise allowed by the ambient magic.
5. Dead zones - Have zones that only allow level 0 cantrips, or zones that suppress spellcasting entirely.
6. Creature dependency - Magical creatures require magical areas to live. Every day they are in an area too weak to support them they take con damage or lose hitpoints, or simply operate with a penalty to certain stats. This requires assigning different magical levels to each creature you intend to use.
7. Target limitation - Targets must also be in a high enough ambient magic. For example this would prevent you from teleporting into any place with less than level 5 ambient magic.
8. Duration limitation - Spells with ongoing durations are suppressed in areas of lower ambient magic, as in an anti-magic field.
9. Charged Item limitation - Charged items use additional charges in areas with a lower ambient magic than the spell, perhaps one extra charge for every level the ambient falls short. Scrolls may simply not function.
10. Magic Item Limitation - Magic items have their magic temporarily suppressed, or weakened, in areas they could not be crafted in.
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Thoughts?