JackPhoenix
2017-07-04, 02:15 PM
So, first thing first: this isn't any attempt to balance or improve the game, more of a me having nothing better to do and throwing ideas on the wall, seeing if anything sticks. If something comes out of it, great, if not, no big deal. If it ends up balanced in the end, so much better. It's intended for low-ish magic setting. I can't tell if it ever actually be used in the game, or if it ends in my folder of "stuff I came up with that won't actually see the game for various time and player taste related reasons".
World is supposed be pretty low magic, more of a sword and sorcery setting. Exact details are unimportant for this purpose.
So, let's start with the easy stuff: Long rest is "few days in safe and comfortable enviroment". There's no exact time limit for it, it can be as little as day, it can be much longer, depending on the activities the characters are taking. Main goal is to make stops in the cities, friendly camps, etc. significant. Short rest is still 8 hours, as with the normal gritty realism variant. Now, this create some problems with actual dungeon delving... but that can be dealt with: most of the dungeons are ruins of ancient civilisations filled with mysterious magic that makes recharging much faster (also a good reason for evil mages to hang around in there), there may be potions that allows you to switch to normal rest variant, but they are either expensive/rare/dangerous to use too often, etc.. That's not a problem.
Sorry, Jack Vance, but your idea isn't quite working out for me. DMG version, but with some changes: taking an inspiration (OK, outright stealing) from Conan RPG, recharging spell points takes a long time. Conan had (IIRC) 1 spell point/2 hours of rest, which would mean that while beginner mages run out of juice fast, they'll also get it back fast, while more powerful mages last longer and/or use more powerful magics, but it also takes them much longer to recharge their "batteries" fully. It also had faster ways to recharge spell points, through sacrifices or mass ceremonies, which, once again, is great for the setting, because it would allow the "evil as an easy route to power" trope and give sorcerers a reason to keep a bunch of minions around. I may move the actual numbers around a bit, but that's the general gist. Unlike normal spell points rules, you *can* cast 6+ level spells more than once a long rest, but if you do, you risk Bad Stuff HappeningTM
I love the idea of ritual magic, and it fit the world so well. So, many more spells will get the ritual tag (even basic stuff like Mending). Pretty much anything with casting time of a minute or longer is now a ritual. But: it's an actual ritual, not just "you wave your hands and mumble nonsense a little longer to save a spell slot". Details may vary depending on the spell, but generally, expensive components, longer casting time, special location/time requirements, helpers, etc.. Some spells are also ONLY available as rituals... exact details are unimportant right now.
Magic items are the staple of D&D, but the current crafting rules are far from over. So, without going to the exact numbers, there are 3 ways to craft magic item: the boring way, the hard way, and the morally dubious way.
The boring way is pretty much the default rules. It's the most common and easiest way, most magic items are created this way. It takes less gold, but a LOT of time, but you get exactly what you want. Anyone proficient in Arcana can do it. The item also lasts pretty much forever unless deliberately destroyed.
The hard way shortens the time requirement considerably, but it requires more expansive and rare components (like *fresh* parts of some rare monster), similar to the crafting rules from Downtime UA. The resulting item, however, is a little more unpredictable: depending on the item and monster components used, you may get side effects, some benefical, some detrimental, related to the material in question: A Flame Tongue Sword created with the use of a red dragon's heart may also grant the user fire resistance, Ring of Regeneration made from troll's spine may slowly turn you into troll as heal your wounds, that sort of thing. Those items also don't last forever, and the magic may fail, because it's not bound to the object as precisely and painstakingly as with the boring way.
The morally dubious way is quickest and cheapest. All you need is a ritual that binds someone's soul to the item. Thanks to the soul inside, all those items are sentient, and if the soul is unwilling (let's be honest, the kind of sorcerer going for this isn't much into asking), it will try to turn against the creator. The more powerful item, the more powerful soul is needed, the results are highly unpredictable (the abilities of the sentient part are related to the soul used) and it generally won't keep the powers for long, as the soul *will* escape eventually. So it's less "Hey, I should sacrifice some of these peasants to get more bling" and more of a "I willingly give my life to create weapon powerful enough to defeat the demon lord destroying the kingdom." It's also how you get liches: the phylactery is this kind of magic item, with the caster's soul inside, and the innocent souls fed to it so it won't lose its magic.
Here's where the madness starts.
Barbarians are pretty much unchanged, maybe changes to Totem path to remove the ritual spellcasting.
Bards: the first big one. As much as I like 5e version of the bard class, unless I can find a way to turn it into a half-caster and keep the power level competitive, they are out.
Fighter: unchanged, Eldritch Knight may be out. Propably.
Monk is propably out, because it doesn't fit the setting. Way of the 4 elements is definitely out, Way of Shadows is propably out, and I'm not sure if it's worth keeping for Way of the Open Hand
Paladin: unless an usable spell-less variant shows up, it stays as it is, with the exception of general magic changes... but I'll get to that.
Ranger: spell-less variant. Revised, but that goes without saying.
Rogue unchanged, except Arcane Trickster is out.
Sorcerer is gone. Mortals don't have innate magic, so the class doesn't fit.
Wizard is pretty much unchanged, perhaps some changes in subclasses. Oh, and they don't learn new spells on level-up, but have to research them or copy them from other sources.
I didn't forgot cleric, druid and warlock, but what I'd like to do with THEM is a matter for a spoiler of its own. They are the biggest change amongst classes, going hand to hand with spellcasting changes
Forget arcane or divine: magic is magic. But there are still two different categories:
Learned magic is Int or Wis based, your choice when you first take level in appropriate class. Requires spellbooks. Mages either do spell research of their own, copy spells from other written/etched/etc. sources, or learn from other mages or supernatural entities. Yes, this is where the "I made a pact with demon to learn magic secrets" come in. It uses the normal spellcasting rules. Wizards do this sort of thing, and if bards will stay in, they will dabble in it. Paladins can choose to use spells this way, if they want (and they stay half-casters), but because the other abilities still rely on Cha and casting from Wis or Int would bring more MADness, they should propably stick to:
Pact magic: this is the first crazy part. You don't have to learn magic if you channel the power of some supernatural being. These beings may be gods, natural/ancestral spirits, demons, or gribbly monstrosities covered with more eyes and tentacles than any decent creature should have. The magic isn't your own you're just conduct. You use either Wis or Cha as your spellcasting ability (your choice when you first take the level in appropriate class). It's refreshed on short rest, and follows the general rules for pact magic, with some exceptions: you get to change your "spells known" on (long?) rest, and while the normal slots scale only up to 5th level, you get a variant of Mystic Arcanum: 6, 7, 8 and 9th level spell slot usable once a day, but you can cast lower level spell from these "slots", and while you only have one spell of each level prepared, you can also change them on rest. Reasoning: you can't ask your patron to act through you too often, but those entities are much more powerful than you, their spells are always of the highest power level you can channel. Paladins are generally pact magic half-casters, but don't have to be. The entities granting you spells don't pay attention to you all the times, but you should generally serve their interests, because they may decide you no longer deserve to channel their powers if you turn against them.
Spell lists: Welp, there goes the balance.
Learned magic has common spell list including all of the spells in the game. Jeez, I just HAD to break the wizard, didn't I? I know that I shouldn't try to balance OP stuff by making it annoying to use, but the slow spell point restoration kinda helps mitigate this.
Lot of spells is out, though, because they don't fit the setting. Teleportation, planar travel, raising the dead, most force effects and too "high magic" stuff. There isn't exact list YET, because I haven't got through all the spells in the game to see if they are appropriate to the setting or not: as I've stated in the beginning, it's more of a bunch of ideas I've had with nothing better to do than finished thing.
Pact magic, generally, also has access to all spells in the game, but not every patron offers everything: a goddess of healing won't grant spells to bring plagues and destruction, and demon lord of fire won't give you the ability to cast cold spells. And because gods are cheaters, they may have access to some spells unavailable to learned casters: god of travel may just decide that his servants could really use the ability to teleport, for example. Spells using knowledge from supernatural entities, like Guidance or Commune are also only available to pact magic users.
So, given the whole pact magic thing, there's a need for a new(ish) class combining cleric and warlock, because, really, there isn't much of a difference between channeling the power of a god or power of a demon.
I think warlock is better starting point, because it's more customisable: you've got patron, you've got pact boon, and you've got invocations. All of those together could be used to make really versatile class: patron is the entity you've made a pact with, boon can be gift like normal warlock's boon, but also Channel Divinity, and invocations can fill for the rest. Lot of homebrewing needed here. Druid can propably also fit in, with Wild Shape being appropriate to either option. Pact Magic is generally worse than spellcasting, but though the spellcasters are boosted by the change to spell list, I think the changes mentioned above (and the gritty realism variant) make it more competitive.
World is supposed be pretty low magic, more of a sword and sorcery setting. Exact details are unimportant for this purpose.
So, let's start with the easy stuff: Long rest is "few days in safe and comfortable enviroment". There's no exact time limit for it, it can be as little as day, it can be much longer, depending on the activities the characters are taking. Main goal is to make stops in the cities, friendly camps, etc. significant. Short rest is still 8 hours, as with the normal gritty realism variant. Now, this create some problems with actual dungeon delving... but that can be dealt with: most of the dungeons are ruins of ancient civilisations filled with mysterious magic that makes recharging much faster (also a good reason for evil mages to hang around in there), there may be potions that allows you to switch to normal rest variant, but they are either expensive/rare/dangerous to use too often, etc.. That's not a problem.
Sorry, Jack Vance, but your idea isn't quite working out for me. DMG version, but with some changes: taking an inspiration (OK, outright stealing) from Conan RPG, recharging spell points takes a long time. Conan had (IIRC) 1 spell point/2 hours of rest, which would mean that while beginner mages run out of juice fast, they'll also get it back fast, while more powerful mages last longer and/or use more powerful magics, but it also takes them much longer to recharge their "batteries" fully. It also had faster ways to recharge spell points, through sacrifices or mass ceremonies, which, once again, is great for the setting, because it would allow the "evil as an easy route to power" trope and give sorcerers a reason to keep a bunch of minions around. I may move the actual numbers around a bit, but that's the general gist. Unlike normal spell points rules, you *can* cast 6+ level spells more than once a long rest, but if you do, you risk Bad Stuff HappeningTM
I love the idea of ritual magic, and it fit the world so well. So, many more spells will get the ritual tag (even basic stuff like Mending). Pretty much anything with casting time of a minute or longer is now a ritual. But: it's an actual ritual, not just "you wave your hands and mumble nonsense a little longer to save a spell slot". Details may vary depending on the spell, but generally, expensive components, longer casting time, special location/time requirements, helpers, etc.. Some spells are also ONLY available as rituals... exact details are unimportant right now.
Magic items are the staple of D&D, but the current crafting rules are far from over. So, without going to the exact numbers, there are 3 ways to craft magic item: the boring way, the hard way, and the morally dubious way.
The boring way is pretty much the default rules. It's the most common and easiest way, most magic items are created this way. It takes less gold, but a LOT of time, but you get exactly what you want. Anyone proficient in Arcana can do it. The item also lasts pretty much forever unless deliberately destroyed.
The hard way shortens the time requirement considerably, but it requires more expansive and rare components (like *fresh* parts of some rare monster), similar to the crafting rules from Downtime UA. The resulting item, however, is a little more unpredictable: depending on the item and monster components used, you may get side effects, some benefical, some detrimental, related to the material in question: A Flame Tongue Sword created with the use of a red dragon's heart may also grant the user fire resistance, Ring of Regeneration made from troll's spine may slowly turn you into troll as heal your wounds, that sort of thing. Those items also don't last forever, and the magic may fail, because it's not bound to the object as precisely and painstakingly as with the boring way.
The morally dubious way is quickest and cheapest. All you need is a ritual that binds someone's soul to the item. Thanks to the soul inside, all those items are sentient, and if the soul is unwilling (let's be honest, the kind of sorcerer going for this isn't much into asking), it will try to turn against the creator. The more powerful item, the more powerful soul is needed, the results are highly unpredictable (the abilities of the sentient part are related to the soul used) and it generally won't keep the powers for long, as the soul *will* escape eventually. So it's less "Hey, I should sacrifice some of these peasants to get more bling" and more of a "I willingly give my life to create weapon powerful enough to defeat the demon lord destroying the kingdom." It's also how you get liches: the phylactery is this kind of magic item, with the caster's soul inside, and the innocent souls fed to it so it won't lose its magic.
Here's where the madness starts.
Barbarians are pretty much unchanged, maybe changes to Totem path to remove the ritual spellcasting.
Bards: the first big one. As much as I like 5e version of the bard class, unless I can find a way to turn it into a half-caster and keep the power level competitive, they are out.
Fighter: unchanged, Eldritch Knight may be out. Propably.
Monk is propably out, because it doesn't fit the setting. Way of the 4 elements is definitely out, Way of Shadows is propably out, and I'm not sure if it's worth keeping for Way of the Open Hand
Paladin: unless an usable spell-less variant shows up, it stays as it is, with the exception of general magic changes... but I'll get to that.
Ranger: spell-less variant. Revised, but that goes without saying.
Rogue unchanged, except Arcane Trickster is out.
Sorcerer is gone. Mortals don't have innate magic, so the class doesn't fit.
Wizard is pretty much unchanged, perhaps some changes in subclasses. Oh, and they don't learn new spells on level-up, but have to research them or copy them from other sources.
I didn't forgot cleric, druid and warlock, but what I'd like to do with THEM is a matter for a spoiler of its own. They are the biggest change amongst classes, going hand to hand with spellcasting changes
Forget arcane or divine: magic is magic. But there are still two different categories:
Learned magic is Int or Wis based, your choice when you first take level in appropriate class. Requires spellbooks. Mages either do spell research of their own, copy spells from other written/etched/etc. sources, or learn from other mages or supernatural entities. Yes, this is where the "I made a pact with demon to learn magic secrets" come in. It uses the normal spellcasting rules. Wizards do this sort of thing, and if bards will stay in, they will dabble in it. Paladins can choose to use spells this way, if they want (and they stay half-casters), but because the other abilities still rely on Cha and casting from Wis or Int would bring more MADness, they should propably stick to:
Pact magic: this is the first crazy part. You don't have to learn magic if you channel the power of some supernatural being. These beings may be gods, natural/ancestral spirits, demons, or gribbly monstrosities covered with more eyes and tentacles than any decent creature should have. The magic isn't your own you're just conduct. You use either Wis or Cha as your spellcasting ability (your choice when you first take the level in appropriate class). It's refreshed on short rest, and follows the general rules for pact magic, with some exceptions: you get to change your "spells known" on (long?) rest, and while the normal slots scale only up to 5th level, you get a variant of Mystic Arcanum: 6, 7, 8 and 9th level spell slot usable once a day, but you can cast lower level spell from these "slots", and while you only have one spell of each level prepared, you can also change them on rest. Reasoning: you can't ask your patron to act through you too often, but those entities are much more powerful than you, their spells are always of the highest power level you can channel. Paladins are generally pact magic half-casters, but don't have to be. The entities granting you spells don't pay attention to you all the times, but you should generally serve their interests, because they may decide you no longer deserve to channel their powers if you turn against them.
Spell lists: Welp, there goes the balance.
Learned magic has common spell list including all of the spells in the game. Jeez, I just HAD to break the wizard, didn't I? I know that I shouldn't try to balance OP stuff by making it annoying to use, but the slow spell point restoration kinda helps mitigate this.
Lot of spells is out, though, because they don't fit the setting. Teleportation, planar travel, raising the dead, most force effects and too "high magic" stuff. There isn't exact list YET, because I haven't got through all the spells in the game to see if they are appropriate to the setting or not: as I've stated in the beginning, it's more of a bunch of ideas I've had with nothing better to do than finished thing.
Pact magic, generally, also has access to all spells in the game, but not every patron offers everything: a goddess of healing won't grant spells to bring plagues and destruction, and demon lord of fire won't give you the ability to cast cold spells. And because gods are cheaters, they may have access to some spells unavailable to learned casters: god of travel may just decide that his servants could really use the ability to teleport, for example. Spells using knowledge from supernatural entities, like Guidance or Commune are also only available to pact magic users.
So, given the whole pact magic thing, there's a need for a new(ish) class combining cleric and warlock, because, really, there isn't much of a difference between channeling the power of a god or power of a demon.
I think warlock is better starting point, because it's more customisable: you've got patron, you've got pact boon, and you've got invocations. All of those together could be used to make really versatile class: patron is the entity you've made a pact with, boon can be gift like normal warlock's boon, but also Channel Divinity, and invocations can fill for the rest. Lot of homebrewing needed here. Druid can propably also fit in, with Wild Shape being appropriate to either option. Pact Magic is generally worse than spellcasting, but though the spellcasters are boosted by the change to spell list, I think the changes mentioned above (and the gritty realism variant) make it more competitive.