Giving arcane magic more personality

[Mad Bishop]

I am working on trying to distinguish three major guilds of magic in my homebrew campaign setting. Mostly, I am trying to come up with a small but discernable way to change the spellcasting rules to give each guild their own flavor of arcane magic. These are wizard guilds; no sorcerers, bards, or witches. Arcanists and alchemists are permitted in the guilds.

For instance, one of the guilds approaches arcane magic as if it were music. They let the magic flow through them, giving it slight guidance and direction, while focusing on the rhythm of the world around them. They have learned to band together, like a chorus, to cast spells as a large group. This greatly enhances the spell’s ability (allowing the area effected to by greatly increased or the duration to be extended) of certain spells. Through their chorus-like casting, they can put a Wall of Force around and entire city, for example.

My other guilds approach magic as a science or in a brute force manner. I am having difficulty coming up with some good flavor mechanics for these two and would love some suggestions.

I thought about making the brute force approach have stronger spells (maybe doubling any level-based factor in the spells outside of damage dice. Spells like Fireball could have the caster’s level added on to the rolled amount.) in exchange for the spell being tiring to cast (maybe requiring a concentration check or fort save that gets harder for each spell cast in an encounter) or high-level spells causing fatigue after casting. The guild is definitely more on the evil side of things so maybe the practitioners of this guild get around the tiring nature of their casting style through ritual sacrifice or drawing power from the life force of other (like in the Warcraft movie).

The science-based guild I have nothing for yet. I would love any suggestions.

[ThatMoonGuy]

May I suggest you give a look into Spheres of Power Casting Traditions? You could use them as basis forne whta you want.

Anyway, I did something similar on my game but to do so had to forget the requirements per spell and make them per tradition. I basically had four casting branches: one that focused on extracting magic from material items (material components), one that believed magic was inherent to a divine speech (verbal components), one that went in a performative way (somatic casting) and one that believed in sacred mathematics (those had to draw schemata of their spells).

Beyond the different casting components, each had a small edge over the others. Material casting increase the power of your spells according to the power of the components you used. Verbal reduced metamagic costs. Performative could be cast more slowly to add Cha. Mod to your casting stat. Mathematical basically required scroll casting but could be faster under certain circumstances.

Something a bit like that could work for you, I think.

[Mehangel]

I second the suggestion to look at Spheres of Power, and more specifically the Casting Tradition tools that the system offers.

[Mad Bishop]

I definitely like the Sphere of Power you mentioned. I think that might be a great way to show a very different approach to magic if incorporated in as the magic of a distant land. The drawbacks and boons could also easily add some flavor to a brute force mechanic. The Draining Casting drawback and the Overpower boon especially jumped out at me.

The Focus Casting drawback could be a flavorful way to show the scientific approach of the other guild. Their spell books could be the focus as if they are reciting algorithmic or mathematical formula as an incantation. Maybe Easy Focus could be the boon.

[Red Fel]

I am working on trying to distinguish three major guilds of magic in my homebrew campaign setting. Mostly, I am trying to come up with a small but discernable way to change the spellcasting rules to give each guild their own flavor of arcane magic. These are wizard guilds; no sorcerers, bards, or witches. Arcanists and alchemists are permitted in the guilds.

For instance, one of the guilds approaches arcane magic as if it were music. They let the magic flow through them, giving it slight guidance and direction, while focusing on the rhythm of the world around them. They have learned to band together, like a chorus, to cast spells as a large group. This greatly enhances the spell’s ability (allowing the area effected to by greatly increased or the duration to be extended) of certain spells. Through their chorus-like casting, they can put a Wall of Force around and entire city, for example.

My other guilds approach magic as a science or in a brute force manner. I am having difficulty coming up with some good flavor mechanics for these two and would love some suggestions.

I thought about making the brute force approach have stronger spells (maybe doubling any level-based factor in the spells outside of damage dice. Spells like Fireball could have the caster’s level added on to the rolled amount.) in exchange for the spell being tiring to cast (maybe requiring a concentration check or fort save that gets harder for each spell cast in an encounter) or high-level spells causing fatigue after casting. The guild is definitely more on the evil side of things so maybe the practitioners of this guild get around the tiring nature of their casting style through ritual sacrifice or drawing power from the life force of other (like in the Warcraft movie).

The science-based guild I have nothing for yet. I would love any suggestions.

I would second (third? fourth?) the Spheres of Power suggestions. There's a lot of great material there.

For the brute force guild, I'd recommend that their spells be narrow in scope - they use magic that lacks subtlety. So mostly blasting, creation/destruction type spells, not so much enchantments or mind-affecting things. I'd just make it a type limitation. Alternatively, yeah, an overchannel-type effect (exhaust yourself for more dice) is a pretty on-point thing.

For the science guild, I'd make them function along a spectrum. Their magic has the highest ceiling - it can do the most stuff, and is the most powerful when it does - but the lowest floor. They do best with prepared spells and ritual magics, not so much with combat casting. As such, they suffer penalties when trying to cast in combat, but bonuses if they're able to prepare things in advance, if they're surrounded by research or a sanctum, and similar. Basically, if they have time to study for the test, they're Batman; if they can't, they're Robin. And not Nightwing Robin. Regular Robin.

[Mad Bishop]

For the brute force guild, I'd recommend that their spells be narrow in scope - they use magic that lacks subtlety. So mostly blasting, creation/destruction type spells, not so much enchantments or mind-affecting things. I'd just make it a type limitation. Alternatively, yeah, an overchannel-type effect (exhaust yourself for more dice) is a pretty on-point thing.

This also makes a lot of sense and could add a great deal of flavor. They would either a) not have access to subtler spells or b) ignore them completely even if they had access. Schools like Illusion and Divination are not practiced. Enchantment is really only used for its ability to dominate the will's of others. This requires a quick rethink of the hierarchy of the guild as I had leaders of Illusion and Divination planned. I like it, though. Thank you.

Additionally, the Kineticist class could make for some nice thematic usage here as well. Maybe students that break during the dangerous and torturous schooling they receive as part of the guild sometimes manifest as Kineticists. Too useful to throw away, they are turned over to a select group of, lets call them "Hound Masters", who employ the broken minded Kineticists as attack dogs.

[Biggus]

For the brute force guild, I'd recommend that their spells be narrow in scope - they use magic that lacks subtlety. So mostly blasting, creation/destruction type spells, not so much enchantments or mind-affecting things. I'd just make it a type limitation.

This seems like a good idea, perhaps the simplest way to do it would be something like: give them bonuses on Evocation and Necromancy spells and penalties on Illusion and Enchantment.

As for the 'science' group, maybe part of their advantage is that they're highly active in researching new spells and the nature of magic itself (knowledge which they jealously guard) giving them a wider selection of spells to choose from than the other guilds, plus a bonus on Knowledge (Arcana) and perhaps also Spellcraft checks.

EDIT: Ninja'd on the first point

[Quertus]

I am working on trying to distinguish three major guilds of magic in my homebrew campaign setting. Mostly, I am trying to come up with a small but discernable way to change the spellcasting rules to give each guild their own flavor of arcane magic. These are wizard guilds; no sorcerers, bards, or witches. Arcanists and alchemists are permitted in the guilds.

For instance, one of the guilds approaches arcane magic as if it were music. They let the magic flow through them, giving it slight guidance and direction, while focusing on the rhythm of the world around them. They have learned to band together, like a chorus, to cast spells as a large group. This greatly enhances the spell’s ability (allowing the area effected to by greatly increased or the duration to be extended) of certain spells. Through their chorus-like casting, they can put a Wall of Force around and entire city, for example.

My other guilds approach magic as a science or in a brute force manner. I am having difficulty coming up with some good flavor mechanics for these two and would love some suggestions.

I thought about making the brute force approach have stronger spells (maybe doubling any level-based factor in the spells outside of damage dice. Spells like Fireball could have the caster’s level added on to the rolled amount.) in exchange for the spell being tiring to cast (maybe requiring a concentration check or fort save that gets harder for each spell cast in an encounter) or high-level spells causing fatigue after casting. The guild is definitely more on the evil side of things so maybe the practitioners of this guild get around the tiring nature of their casting style through ritual sacrifice or drawing power from the life force of other (like in the Warcraft movie).

The science-based guild I have nothing for yet. I would love any suggestions.

Well, Quertus, my signature academia mage for whom this account is named, would clearly be Science, so let's see what I can do.

Now, the problem is, real music and math / science are actually the same. But let's ignore that for now.

First, you're wrong about music. A bunch of people intuitively going in their own direction just produces a mess. Now, once an orchestra trains together for an extended period of time, they can produce effects far beyond what a person can do solo… kinda, in some ways.

So, IMO, they should act more like a Wild Mage, producing oddly variant effects all the time - and especially when they get together. And they should get some "on the fly" adaptation abilities (with increased failure chance and effects when they team up - yes, you put a Wall of Force around the city that will last for weeks. But the temperature inside the dome dropped 20 degrees, there's a constant London fog, and cats & dogs are getting together and having little baby dats. And, let me tell you, dats weird.)

Whereas the scientist? He's going to have much greater ability to write new code, and to view it as modular components.

So he'll research new spells, for free, constantly, not just on level up. And they would have free access to most metamagics - like energy substitution or squaring the circle - so long as they have a spell with the corresponding component to copy. So, for example, if he knows Fireball, he knows both "fire" and "circle shape".

But brute force? I've done brute force math. It's drawing 6 6x6 grids to see the outcome of rolling 3d6 for stats. It's drawing a 6x6 grid of 6x6 grids to see 4d6 stats. Brute force is slow, precise, and guaranteed success.

So, he needs something even better than "you know if the target made their save". How about "you know the effects and the reasons for those effects (made Save, immune (naturally or by spell), evasion, just an illusion, etc) for every subject targeted by or within the area of effect of your spells". Or, against a single target, they know whether the spell will work (but not why), and therefore can wait to actually cast the spell (you don't lose the spell, but you do lose the action). Further, the brute force mage can "take 20", expending 20 spell slots to guarantee that everyone fails their rolls against their spell. In any event, they drop in the initiative count by a number of segments equal to the spell's level. During this entire time, their casing is subject to disruption, and moreso than a normal mage (+5 concentration DC).

[Mad Bishop]

For the science guild, I'd make them function along a spectrum. Their magic has the highest ceiling - it can do the most stuff, and is the most powerful when it does - but the lowest floor. They do best with prepared spells and ritual magics, not so much with combat casting. As such, they suffer penalties when trying to cast in combat, but bonuses if they're able to prepare things in advance, if they're surrounded by research or a sanctum, and similar. Basically, if they have time to study for the test, they're Batman; if they can't, they're Robin. And not Nightwing Robin. Regular Robin.


As for the 'science' group, maybe part of their advantage is that they're highly active in researching new spells and the nature of magic itself (knowledge which they jealously guard) giving them a wider selection of spells to choose from than the other guilds, plus a bonus on Knowledge (Arcana) and perhaps also Spellcraft checks.


I like these ideas as well for the Science-y guild. A wide array of knowledge befits them with some incredible power at their fingertips but only with enough research. I don't want to penalize them so much as to take away combat casting but what if their casting in combat had other requirements? Requiring them to use both hands (one to hold their book and the other to gesture) or possibly requiring that they spend an action (move or standard) to quickly inscribe a runic circle around their square. They can only cast while in the circle. If they are force to leave, the must make a new circle or have their casting time increased by one step.

[Crake]

3.5 had a feat, i think it was called “spell thematics” or something similar? It made all of your spells cast and fit to a theme of your choice, having the mechanical benefit of making them harder to identify with spellcraft. I mean yeah, its 3.5, but it works as a simple solution.

[Red Fel]

I like these ideas as well for the Science-y guild. A wide array of knowledge befits them with some incredible power at their fingertips but only with enough research. I don't want to penalize them so much as to take away combat casting but what if their casting in combat had other requirements? Requiring them to use both hands (one to hold their book and the other to gesture) or possibly requiring that they spend an action (move or standard) to quickly inscribe a runic circle around their square. They can only cast while in the circle. If they are force to leave, the must make a new circle or have their casting time increased by one step.

Well, beating a dead horse, but Spheres of Power has you covered there, too. Under Casting Traditions, there are Drawbacks and Boons, as has been mentioned. There are a number of Drawbacks relevant to this. For example:
Diagram Magic: In order to perform spells, either you or your target must be in some kind of magic circle or other inscribed area. This can be done in combat, and there are rules for how to rush drawing it. Bonus, it counts as two Drawbacks when totaling your points.
Extended Casting: Your spells take one step longer. Swift actions become move actions, moves become standard, etc. Not a crippling penalty, but one that really forces you to think harder about casting while in combat. Also counts as two Drawbacks.
Rigorous Concentration: Your Concentration DCs (to cast defensively or while taking damage) go up by +10, unless you increase the casting time by one step.
These are just a few options, but they all basically cover what you're mentioning.

[Mad Bishop]

Well, beating a dead horse, but Spheres of Power has you covered there, too.

Yep. I need to go pick up a copy but I think I will wait until he puts out the Ultimate Spheres of Power book in September.

Now, for the artistic concert casting, I was thinking that such a casting would have to a full-round action, if not longer, depending on the amount you were trying to increase the spell beyond its normal parameters. There needs to be a limit, though, per person, as to how far you can push a spell. Two people, for example, shouldn't be able to cover a whole city in a Wall of Force dome.