Body Slots and Spell Schools (?) . . .

[nonsi]

.
I had this thought, from a purely flavorful angle.
Assuming that there are game rules that allow one to acquire spell-like abilities regardless of class/race/template (let's ignore the means and costs for now), I'm trying to see if there's any way of associating different body parts with different spell schools/subschools.

Given I'm not talking about Chakra Binding, I'm not bound to the MoI slot distribution and the various body slots break down a bit differently.

I thought of the following distribution:

Body Slots:
===============
- Crown
- Face
- Throat
- Shoulders
- Chest
- Back
- Waist
- 2 x Upper Arm
- 2 x Lower Arm
- 2 x Hand
- 2 x Upper Leg
- 2 x Lower Leg
- 2 x Foot


So far what I have is this:
Most senses originate from one's head, so divination powers could fit into the Face slot. Water Breathing also fits in nicely.
If someone was to possess the ability to produce earthquakes, then the most appropriate action for doing so would be by stomping the ground.
Ray attacks should come from one's hand.
Wings sprout from one's back.
etc.

This would allow a case-by-case distribution of spell-like abilities, but would require a lot of game time energy investment, so I'm trying (unsuccessfully so far) to assign specific spell schools/subschools to the various body parts (with each body part restricted to a single (Sp) ability, of course).
There's no reason to restrict each body part to a single school/subschool, but I wouldn't want body parts to be associated with an inappropriate school/subschool and the goal is to have all schoosl/subschools covered.


Any idea anyone?

[nonsi]

.
I'm bumping this in a last effort attempt to make something out of it.
I don't need a complete solution. Anything that comes to mind and sounds appropriate (in the spirit of the examples given above) would be helpful.

[Shinn]

I guess the hands would fit Conjuration ; one hand for the Creation subschool, and the other for any destruction spell.

About the crown, well... A crown is a jewel made for high social ranks, so it's made for inspiring respect. The Enchantment school, maybe ?

[Deepbluediver]

I'm a little bit confused on what exactly the overall goal of this is- is it just another way to classify spells? Or is it supposed to limit their power somehow? Or is it relating to different magical buffs being applied to different parts of the body?

I'm just kind of lost on what benefit this adds to the game.

[Zaydos]

I don't know the point either but...

Head (Crown): Illusion. The crown represents the seat of consciousness, i.e. your brain case, and illusion plays upon perception of reality.

Eyes/Forehead (Face): Divination. The mind's eye would be smack dab in the forehead usually but hey.

Mouths (Throat): Enchantment. Words to weave the mind into your grasp.

Left Hand: Evocation (blasty blast)

Core (Waist): Transmutation. It's the point where all your energy concentrates and flows from transforming in the process.

Heart (Torso): Necromancy. It's the source of life, and the place where if it falters you die.

Right Hand: Conjuration (come to me).

Shoulders: Abjuration... It's the body slot of Cloak of Resistance...

That's doing just schools and no overlap. If moving to subschools...

Mind-affecting illusions (phantasms, patterns, figments?) stay Head. Shadow becomes Left Hand. Creation becomes left hand (I make it Evocation as well). Teleportation becomes feet. Healing becomes Heart. I don't know what to do with Glamour so I'd leave it head. Calling/Summoning stays Right Hand.

[nonsi]

I don't know the point either but...

Head (Crown): Illusion. The crown represents the seat of consciousness, i.e. your brain case, and illusion plays upon perception of reality.

Eyes/Forehead (Face): Divination. The mind's eye would be smack dab in the forehead usually but hey.

Mouths (Throat): Enchantment. Words to weave the mind into your grasp.

Left Hand: Evocation (blasty blast)

Core (Waist): Transmutation. It's the point where all your energy concentrates and flows from transforming in the process.

Heart (Torso): Necromancy. It's the source of life, and the place where if it falters you die.

Right Hand: Conjuration (come to me).

Shoulders: Abjuration... It's the body slot of Cloak of Resistance...

That's doing just schools and no overlap. If moving to subschools...

Mind-affecting illusions (phantasms, patterns, figments?) stay Head. Shadow becomes Left Hand. Creation becomes left hand (I make it Evocation as well). Teleportation becomes feet. Healing becomes Heart. I don't know what to do with Glamour so I'd leave it head. Calling/Summoning stays Right Hand.


Hmm, this analysis makes a lot of sense.
That was the jumpstart I needed.

Going over your reasoning, I came to the following distribution.
Tell me what you think of it – especially if something seems to be misplaced.



Body Slots:
================================================== ===============================
- Crown - Divination (scrying, deciphering, telepathy), Enchantment (voice/language-independent), Illusion (figment, glamor, pattern, phantasm)
- Face - Divination (sensory: sight, hearing, taste, smell)
- Throat - Conjuration (calling) , Enchantment (voice/language-dependent), Transmutation (breath/voice)
- Shoulders - Abjuration, Transmutation (enhancement)
- Chest - Conjuration (healing), Necromancy, Transmutation (Polymorph)
- Back - Transmutation (Polymorph – self)
- Waist - Abjuration (self)
- 2 x Upper Arm - Abjuration (self), Transmutation (enhancement)
- 2 x Lower Arm - Abjuration (self/other/location)
- 2 x Hand - Abjuration (other/location), Conjuration (creation), Conjuration (summoning), Conjuration (teleportation), Evocation, Illusion (shadow)
- 2 x Upper Leg - Abjuration (self) , Transmutation (enhancement)
- 2 x Lower Leg - Abjuration (self/other/location)
- 2 x Foot - Abjuration, Conjuration (teleportation), Divination (tremor sense), Evocation (Earth), Transmutation (movement)

[nonsi]

I'm a little bit confused on what exactly the overall goal of this is- is it just another way to classify spells? Or is it supposed to limit their power somehow? Or is it relating to different magical buffs being applied to different parts of the body?

I'm just kind of lost on what benefit this adds to the game.

The latter. The motivation for exploring this angle was purely flavor-oriented.
Even though I feel that I nailed it quite accurately, after giving it some thought I decided to drop the subject. AFAICT, the extra work will not result in any meaningful gametime benefit to justify the effort.




@Zaydos - Thanks again. I needed this over with and out of my system to be able to regard body slots from a bystander's standpoint.