Uses for Places of Power

[Yora]

I want to run a campaign in which the players explore ancient ruins and magical places to search for magic. But in addition to powerful magical items that anyone who finds them can take home, I also want to use a lot of magical locations that can be used by anyone who is able to reach them.

But I think there are not a lot of examples to draw from. A spring that can cure illness or an oracle are pretty common but they are not terribly creative and don't have a lot of room for creative uses by the players. I think it would be really great if players at later points in the campaign decide to return to a place they've been to before to use its power to help with their current problem.

Any ideas what such places might be able to do?

[hymer]

Some thoughts:
A waypoint system, which allows you to travel between them almost instantly. You can only use this to travel to ones you've already been to.
A place that allows crafting a great bonus of some sort. An anvil at the root of a mountain, a pond with willows to make arrows, etc.
An observatory, which allows you to use astronomy with great precision and predict something, perhaps only at specific times.
Two still lakes, which show each other's mirror images. This allows for communication over great distances.
A mountain top, which allows you to control the weather over the area you can see from it.

Edit: Something that cures or alleviates problems caused by beneficial magic. Not knowing the system you use, I'll throw out some 2nd ed. AD&D stuff: something that can cure magical ageing from Haste, or return a Reincarnated person to their former species.

[Max_Killjoy]

Uses for "places of power" vary greatly depending on the magic in your campaign setting -- the power, style, and such. The more versatile and powerful personal magic is, the less is in the domain of external loci.

[sktarq]

I can see many types of place as much as anything

Reduces xp and/or time for creating magic items with magical sympathy to the place

Allow free access to metamagic feats (usually one per location) within boarders

Allow certain spells/feats to be learned not otherwise available

Allow access to epic magic seed for non epic casters (or even for them too)

Allow ritual casting by nonspellcasters examples. (two people dance in circle of stones and cast a fertility oor love or whatever spell on them. A mountaintop cairn Charges the skull of a sacrifice with a plant growth area variant of a level equal to HD - spell origin point occurs when skull is buried. Dance ritual that summons Ian infernal animal but without more magic it is uncontrolled but used by a local warrior lodge as part of their iinitiation. Lots of options

Free casting (at boosted level) of spell on list-say a natural pool of scry that allows for. A free casting for a druid or +6 CL to the spell.

Permanent spell effect-ex. that owls wisdom permanent effect is why the monestary is built where it is and why so many visiting monks have had moments of clarity and insight there - not the other wway around as the Abbott claims.

[ClintACK]

A permanent anti-magic shell -- useful for disposal of cursed magic items.

A place where certain enemies (like Liches and Fiends) can be permanently killed.

A place where some of the Party's magic items can be "recharged" or repaired.

Healing of long-term effects and information gathering are pretty good, but covered.

A place where the Party can alter themselves -- effectively allowing retraining if they don't like their character build.

An interdimensional Marketplace, where they can sell the high-value magical loot they get at higher levels (which can be hard to fence in normal towns) and buy gear that suits them better.

[Yora]

Uses for "places of power" vary greatly depending on the magic in your campaign setting -- the power, style, and such. The more versatile and powerful personal magic is, the less is in the domain of external loci.

Oh yes, that's certainly a major consideration. Spellcasting in my campaign will be limited to only basic short-duration, short-range things. Shattering doors, summoning a small spirit servant, Jedi mind trick, controlling tree roots and branches. Basically only things that a few strong men with tools or weapons could do given enough time.
For everything more powerful you have to summon a powerful spirit, use an artifact, or a place of power.

I like the idea of hazardous magic disposal sites. Some D&D books had a place in the Abyss where demon lords kept prisoners that are too powerful to put into a cell and which they either don't want or can't destroy.

Also cool could be a portal that lets you go to any place you want, but not back. Odds are that in many cases getting to the portal will take longer than going to your destination directly, and any place that is really difficult to get in will also be really difficult to get out. Exploiting its potential power will need some clever thinking but could potentially be very useful

[LibraryOgre]

What about places aspected to certain kinds of magic?

Say, a volcano. The closer you get to the center, the more powerful fire magic gets. Within the first ring, you might get an extra caster level. The second ring might get that plus the Extend spell feat, or whatever is appropriate. Standing in the caldera, if you can survive it, will let you emulate being the God of Fire himself.

Or a sacred cleft in the earth, when you stand over it, anyone can cast the Augury spell, and powerful spellcasters find their effective level raised, able to even cast divination spells above their level.

Or an ancient battlefield where necromancy is easy... creating the undead there results in extra hit dice worth of undead being created, uncontrolled, and summoned undead become permanent... but leave your control once the summoning spell would normally end.

[sktarq]

Place where age can be removed

Place where the spirit of dead body can be woken via the blood of a sacrifice-possibly permanently possibly to be later bound to different location.

Place where a persons fears appear in semisolid form to attack them (20% real like shadow conjuration) but can be attacked with will/self control type challenges

Place where metal forged there takes on alignment descriptors permanently. (yes you can have chaotic spoon) or other similar traits (like bane for example)

Place where insanity is quelled and disturbing memories can be remembered cooly.

Place where the trees come alive and dance. . . few understand they are are CL 10+ augry spell for those who can interpret their movements

Place where animals can speak to humans at will

a place where the dead will always rest-they can not be raised, spoken to, or go to on to their final reward, they are both protected and trapped

a place where a person's dreams are actually the memories of a person's ancestors

[Mutazoia]

Ley Lines and Ley Line Nodes are a good one, especially if you use a mana system to cast magic.

Ancient cities covered in long forgotten enchantments are another good example, such as the ancient elven cities in Forgotten Realms, still covered in the ancient "Mystral". Or watch the old movie "Vibes". If you can get past Jeff Goldblum and Cindy Lauper's acting, you'll see a pretty good example of an ancient place of power.

[Garimeth]

Yora, I use a similar system of magic, I think, in that the most powerful types of magic require tapping into or summoning things. In my cosmology there are only two planes. The real world, and the Fey. Most magic comes from the Fey, and places of power is where the veil between worlds is thinner. This allows people to travel between the worlds easier, not easily - just easier. I also let ritual casting be done where the magic that can be worked is higher level than what the caster is normally capable of, particularly if it lines up with a cleric's holy day, or some lunar event.

This is a massive oversimplification, but the whole description is like 8k words long, lol.

Quoted Mark, because what he said about caster levels was in the same vein.


What about places aspected to certain kinds of magic?

Say, a volcano. The closer you get to the center, the more powerful fire magic gets. Within the first ring, you might get an extra caster level. The second ring might get that plus the Extend spell feat, or whatever is appropriate. Standing in the caldera, if you can survive it, will let you emulate being the God of Fire himself.

Or a sacred cleft in the earth, when you stand over it, anyone can cast the Augury spell, and powerful spellcasters find their effective level raised, able to even cast divination spells above their level.

Or an ancient battlefield where necromancy is easy... creating the undead there results in extra hit dice worth of undead being created, uncontrolled, and summoned undead become permanent... but leave your control once the summoning spell would normally end.

[hamlet]

Some thoughts:
A waypoint system, which allows you to travel between them almost instantly. You can only use this to travel to ones you've already been to.


There's actually an old, FANTASTIC!!!!, AD&D adventure in Dragon #10 based precisely on this. A series of towers that did precisely that. I highly recommend it to all. I'm planning on using it, in modified form, as the basis for an entire campaign at some point.


You might also want to check out Rifts and their concept of Ley Lines and Nexuses (Nexi?). Places of power like that typically sit at the confluence of Ley Lines and are places where you can do some really cool things with magic. Perhaps there are only a few places where certain spells will actually work, like Raise Dead, Ressurection, Wish, etc. In order to make those go, you need to find the appropriate place. They can also, perhaps, provide bonus "levels" to casters for level dependent spell effects: i.e., a fireball cast in a place of power is a little hotter and fiery-er than elsewhere.

It might be a spot where a caster would pick for a certain ritual, hoping that the added boost might help him pull it off.

Because it is a font of holy energy, no undead may tread upon the ground of what once was the greatest temple to a Sun deity a thousand years ago. The consecration of the land still persists to this day, though a vile cult of undeath is working to break it.

A crater from a long ago, nearly forgotten meteorite impact. Forest and a lake have long since filled it in, but deep in the center of it (perhaps miles across?) some very strange effects take place that allow somebody to commune directly with the gods.

A plateau/mesa that was the site of a mass human sacrifice and vile ritual that is now so soaked in the blood of innocents that divination will not function there and it is believed to be removed from the vision of the gods. Any who rest there are plagued by nightmares. Any who die there have their souls absorbed into the unholy energy permeating the place and are not able to be brought back. The attendant complex, once a temple to some forgotten power, is stirring again.

[iceman10058]

I see a lot of great ideas for places that can help the party, but there should also be places that can be deadly that they have to survive, like a haunted castle that actively tries to kill them as they search it for a legendary lost crown, or a labyrinth of caves and tunnels that slowly maddens the party while they try to navigate it to get to the other side of the otherwise impassible mountain range.

[Yora]

Good idea. Dungeons with features that aren't of any use but only a hazard. Wouldn't count as a reward to find them, but when used in dungeons that the party is searching for something else it probably can really make the whole adventure more unique.