Mage: the Awakening magic system...in D20?

[Absol197]

Hey there, Playground!

So, I've been trying to work on something recently, but I thought before I got too far into it that I'd see if some of the work hadn't already been done.

Now, as the title may had already hinted at, this is something a little bit strange.

I really (really really) like the magic system of Mage: the Awakening. I like the feel that each of the 10 Arcana has, I like the way that, with the right knowledge set, you can make any spell a sympathetic spell, and I like the ability to do free-form magic.

The main problem is that the group I play with is rather stuck in their d20 ways. They are very reluctant to try anything that is not d20, and they're not overly fond of modern settings.

So, I've come up with a great setting, partially based on the Giant's hoembrew setting that he was building at one time (see the sidebar), another setting that was briefly mentioned here by another Playgrounder (yes, I'm a thief like that <_< >_>), plus a bunch of my own stuff. The setting is the kind that my group would like, and it uses the Mage magic system, like I'd like. Everybody wins, right?

Well, almost. I still need to find a way to mimic that same feel inside a d20 system. Does anyone know of anyone who's already done it, or have ideas about how best to go about it? I can post the current skeleton of my mechanics, if you'd like, but I'd also like to ask if there are any other ideas out there.


~Phoenix~

[BowStreetRunner]

I don't actually know of any d20 system games that work magic like that, but there are a lot of them so you might look around a bit at the different choices available.

One list can be found here (http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/srd/gamelist.html).

[2xMachina]

How about you use Mage: the awakening, and add rolls (d20) instead?

Much easier (but still difficult), and once they like it... Introduction complete!

[sdream]

Pathfinder has a words of power system that allows flexible spell building.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=205030

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/words-of-power

And pathfinder is firmly d20.

Combining that words of power system with a mana points system, where spell caster level = pp cost (ala psionics) would get you a good deal of the way there.

[Absol197]

How about you use Mage: the awakening, and add rolls (d20) instead?

Much easier (but still difficult), and once they like it... Introduction complete!

This is basically what I was doing, but it does require me to re-write the entire mage magic section (including all the spells) for d20. Which is quite the undertaking, and one that I'm hoping to either avoid or drastically reduce.

My original idea was using a pool of d6s instead, with a "success" being translated to a total of 5, but I figured that would make things too complicated, so I changed it to a d20 + stuff.


Pathfinder has a words of power system that allows flexible spell building.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=205030

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/words-of-power

And pathfinder is firmly d20.

Combining that words of power system with a mana points system, where spell caster level = pp cost (ala psionics) would get you a good deal of the way there.

I glanced through words of power when I got Ultimate Magic (not related to this, though). I think the system has merit, but I haven't been bothered yet to read through it in detail. Maybe I'll give it another look.

I was definitely going to use a mana system, but I don't want it to be quite like that. I want most spells to be at will, but with a chance of failure, and only spell that are a) outside your primary "school" focus; b) sympathetic spells; or c) too powerful if used several times in a row would require expentature of points. Plus, you could spend additional points to basically increase your roll by 5, allowing you to spend them for an additional boost, if you need it.

The downside being, you don't get your full compliment of MP back every day - you only get a number equal to your spellcasting modifier (well, one of them) returned per day. Otherwise, you have to seek out other avenues of restoring them, so powerful spellcasting becomes something you only do when needed, not something that every high level caster slings around liek candy.

[Absol197]

Okay, one more try, and then I'll let sleeping threads lie.

[Slipperychicken]

There's this one spell in Mage which lets you drop grenades on people from across a continent. That'd be pretty sick to see in dnd.

[Absol197]

There's this one spell in Mage which lets you drop grenades on people from across a continent. That'd be pretty sick to see in dnd.

Which spell is this? Oh, apportation? Yeah, I never actually thought about that, that's a good use!

Of course, grenades don't really exist in D&D. Yeah, alchemist's fire or acid flasks, but those aren't really powerful enough to be a gamechanger. Obviously, if I'm changing the magic system this much, I'm going to be changing magic items, as well, so there won't be necklaces of fireball to toss around, either.


~Phoenix~

[sdream]

It sounds like you have very specific goals for the magic system, and I think you would be well served by trying to do a complete adoption of the spheres and ranks from Mage.

This has the advantage of providing simple guidelines on what may be acheived by spells of varying rank, as well as providing a VERY good trainer for later getting them into Mage.

I'm not sure where you would be able to adapt classes from (an essential element of D20), but I would make sure you gave all classes (played by PCs) some minor way to take advantage of your system.

Like:
- Noncasters get 1 point of magic per level
- Half casters get 2 points per level (paladin, ranger)
- 2/3 casters get 3 points per level (bard)
- Full casters get 4 points per level

These points serve 2 functions:
1 - they represent your mana pool max
2 - you can buy sphere dots (increasing in cost as usual)

So a full caster at level 1 could have 2 ranks in time and one in life
1pt+2pts+1pt