RedFred
2017-03-08, 01:06 AM
Hello all,
Little bit of lore first (you can skip this, what I really want is your help with the mechanics).
In my home-brew setting, magic is similar (for those of you who know Jim Butcher's work) to that in The Dresden Files. It is the use of will to project your own energy and manipulate external energy as desired . Most races don't have the necessary reserves of energy to do this on a large scale. Their bodies can't produce anything like the energy spell-casting requires, but what little they do have can be used to carefully influence the world around them as desired, by using formulas and theory to calculate how best that energy is to be applied. This is how wizards work. Sorcerers have something in their ancestry that means they have the necessary energy, all they need is the will to apply it. In other words, to cause a avalanche, a wizard leans where to place one snow-flake just so while a sorcerer just shakes the mountain. Alternatively, you could think of wizards as electricians, they can't produce electricity in any meaningful way but what little their bodies produce (i.e. that which is used to move muscles in hands/arms etc.) can be used to influence the external world, similarly sorcerers would be more like electric eels.
The alternate magic-point system in the PHB works well for this, but my issue is with the spell components. Material is fine, energy can be channeled, stored, shaped etc with wooded staves, crystals etc just as we use metals that are natural resistors, conductors etc. Verbal components I'm thinking of making optional, flavor-wise their like Kiai in martial arts, not actually necessary but useful for focusing the mind and will. Somatic components would be similar, so what I want is a way of balancing making verbal and somatic components optional to spell casting. Thoughts?
Little bit of lore first (you can skip this, what I really want is your help with the mechanics).
In my home-brew setting, magic is similar (for those of you who know Jim Butcher's work) to that in The Dresden Files. It is the use of will to project your own energy and manipulate external energy as desired . Most races don't have the necessary reserves of energy to do this on a large scale. Their bodies can't produce anything like the energy spell-casting requires, but what little they do have can be used to carefully influence the world around them as desired, by using formulas and theory to calculate how best that energy is to be applied. This is how wizards work. Sorcerers have something in their ancestry that means they have the necessary energy, all they need is the will to apply it. In other words, to cause a avalanche, a wizard leans where to place one snow-flake just so while a sorcerer just shakes the mountain. Alternatively, you could think of wizards as electricians, they can't produce electricity in any meaningful way but what little their bodies produce (i.e. that which is used to move muscles in hands/arms etc.) can be used to influence the external world, similarly sorcerers would be more like electric eels.
The alternate magic-point system in the PHB works well for this, but my issue is with the spell components. Material is fine, energy can be channeled, stored, shaped etc with wooded staves, crystals etc just as we use metals that are natural resistors, conductors etc. Verbal components I'm thinking of making optional, flavor-wise their like Kiai in martial arts, not actually necessary but useful for focusing the mind and will. Somatic components would be similar, so what I want is a way of balancing making verbal and somatic components optional to spell casting. Thoughts?