rollforeigninit
2013-04-30, 04:12 PM
So my little brother and I decided to brew up a new campaign world for him to DM in. He and I got together and we decided on the basics. Since I have a fair amount of system mastery, I got the wonderful task of reworking magic with the following goals in mind.
1: All magic stems from an other-planar origin. No longer can you just say the right words and "poof" stuff happens. You can make pacts, worship deities, be defended from something off plane, etc. We are open to ideas as far as that goes.
2: Spell lists need to become more thematic but not static. That is, not all spellcasters get access to all the same spells (with narrow exceptions). I'm not sure how far I'm willing to go down this road. It seems like a LOT of work to repurpose all the spells in the various books.
3: Prepared casters are out. Period. Deal with it. You have to cope with just breaking the universe a few ways now. Wizards are probably gone altogether. Clerics, Druids, Paladins and Rangers are probably headed to something more spontaneous.
4: Psionics out as well despite my love for them. They don't fit the extra planar origins theme.
5: Spontaneous casters with preset lists are probably out. We do want to reintroduce some of their class abilities back in some way as options for Sorcerers, Clerics, or Oracles.
6: Spell lists are getting a major rework with yet another major rule change. No longer will any spellcaster have access to their entire plethora of spells via wands, scrolls etc without any investment. Spell completion and trigger items will no longer exist. I'm not sure what to replace that with though. Command word is possible but not really appealing.
7: We are doing away with arcane and divine magic divisions. They will be consolidated under different descriptors and availability will be restricted in an as of yet to be determined way.
This project is in its infancy. I would like any insights you all have however.
1: All magic stems from an other-planar origin. No longer can you just say the right words and "poof" stuff happens. You can make pacts, worship deities, be defended from something off plane, etc. We are open to ideas as far as that goes.
2: Spell lists need to become more thematic but not static. That is, not all spellcasters get access to all the same spells (with narrow exceptions). I'm not sure how far I'm willing to go down this road. It seems like a LOT of work to repurpose all the spells in the various books.
3: Prepared casters are out. Period. Deal with it. You have to cope with just breaking the universe a few ways now. Wizards are probably gone altogether. Clerics, Druids, Paladins and Rangers are probably headed to something more spontaneous.
4: Psionics out as well despite my love for them. They don't fit the extra planar origins theme.
5: Spontaneous casters with preset lists are probably out. We do want to reintroduce some of their class abilities back in some way as options for Sorcerers, Clerics, or Oracles.
6: Spell lists are getting a major rework with yet another major rule change. No longer will any spellcaster have access to their entire plethora of spells via wands, scrolls etc without any investment. Spell completion and trigger items will no longer exist. I'm not sure what to replace that with though. Command word is possible but not really appealing.
7: We are doing away with arcane and divine magic divisions. They will be consolidated under different descriptors and availability will be restricted in an as of yet to be determined way.
This project is in its infancy. I would like any insights you all have however.