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eidreff
2007-12-07, 07:30 PM
Here goes, I think that this is the right place for this one.

I built a world several years ago and have basically left it on the shelf because I had nobody to use it on (if that's the right way to put it).

This is a low magic environment, pretty much an early medieval setting (think pre Norman conquest England). Magic is frowned upon as meddling with things that man is not wont to know etc.

I have always really liked the Ars Magic system spontaneious casting system and think that a suitable simplified version would work in a D20 setting like mine.

So here is a brief outline of the ideas that I've had:

The mechanics of magic work in a similar way to the Ars Magica spontaneous casting.

Mages have a number of points in a sphere of influence (fire, water, flesh etc.) and another set of points in a way of manipulating that sphere (create, destroy, mold, command etc.) combining these two gives the score which must be rolled under on D20 to sucede in casting (as I said this is a low magic environment I want casting to be hard, costly, but also effective enough that it is actually worth playing a mage in the long run)

My thought is that based on intelligence a number of points could be allocated at character creation (with more added with level-up and if INT increases) and the character basically sets the flavour of their mage (ie the magic that they are best at) with the point that they spend.

This could also tie in to a level of magic resistance, low intelligence leading to a less effective defence against magic, and also potentially negative points is a casting sphere. Think of a dedicated water mage who decides to take a couple of points out of his use of Fire and Earth (a maximum would need to be set for this) to bolster his Air and Water powers.

This will leave all magic use very open. there are no set spells, but effects will be limited by the number of points that a character has in a sphere. For example points in Fire would mean that the character can create a ball of fire that would do 1D6 damage (the die is negotiable at the moment) for each point that they have in fire. Points spent in air might allow flight at a speed of 5m for every point. To actually be able to use a sphere the character must have at least one point in it. The only limit on magic is then the imagnation of the user and how good they are at casting.

I think that at least at first this system is self limiting, but might become a headache at higher levels. I don't think that a magic points system would work so instead I'm trying to think of a fatigue based system possibly based on a CON test which is modified by how powerful (how close to the characters maximum ability) a casting is, with some nicely debilitating effects for a failed role.

Clerical magic I'm leaving alone, I'm happy that that is doled out in limited chunks by deities (Still got a few rough edges to my pantheon, but ho hum..)

Any thoughts or suggestions are more than welcome. As I mentioned the above is a brief summary, and still needs lots of work!

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll
2007-12-07, 08:07 PM
I've been trying to think up a non-vancian method of casting spells as well.

I'm keeping vancian casting for wizards.

My idea is simple. Casting spells is free. You get an infinite amount of spells. That's right. infinite spells. I'll get to the catch later.

I won't be changing the spells. That would be taking too much time. And i like the structured spells. To cast a spell, you roll a Casting Check, which will probably just be Casting Stat plus level.

The DC is the spell level times two plus ten. So a 1st level spell will have a DC of 12. Easy enough right?

Except, after every spell, you add the spell level to the DC of all the rest of the spells you cast that day. And if you fail by 10 or more, bad things happen.

Demon-type bad things.

Wow, that's not a bad idea. Considering i thought it up while typing this.

Tyrrell
2007-12-10, 01:10 PM
I'll ask the obvious question. Why not just port the Ars Magica rules to your setting?

Have you looked at how cool the systems for clerical magic in Realms of Power: Divine and Realms of Power: Infernal are?

(There are lots of sensible reasons not to, which ones are your's?)

eidreff
2007-12-10, 06:32 PM
Several reasons for not doing a straight port, most of them a bit finnicky, but a couple of bigger issues.

Mainly I want to simplify/adapt to a D20 systrem. Ars Magica is almost totally based upon mages, and the system is heavily biased toward them. There are a few tweaks that I want to put in to tie in better with DnD style stats (intelligence limits/bonuses).

I want to try and create a different flavour to magic. Although my setting is mainly medieval I don't want to go the whole hog lie Ars Magica and I really do think that the system itsself "feels" medieval in spirit.

I suppose my biggest concern is balance. I've thrashed out a couple of things and am going to try a bit of a playtest with a small party of friends consisting of a mage (my new style obviously) a thief and a fighter. This hopefully will show up the first (of many no doubt) flaws in my creation.

Nebo_
2007-12-11, 04:47 AM
I've been trying to think up a non-vancian method of casting spells as well.

I'm keeping vancian casting for wizards.

My idea is simple. Casting spells is free. You get an infinite amount of spells. That's right. infinite spells. I'll get to the catch later.

I won't be changing the spells. That would be taking too much time. And i like the structured spells. To cast a spell, you roll a Casting Check, which will probably just be Casting Stat plus level.

The DC is the spell level times two plus ten. So a 1st level spell will have a DC of 12. Easy enough right?

Except, after every spell, you add the spell level to the DC of all the rest of the spells you cast that day. And if you fail by 10 or more, bad things happen.

Demon-type bad things.

Wow, that's not a bad idea. Considering i thought it up while typing this.

Truenamers work a bit like that and they're based on what is considered to be one of the worst mechanics in D&D.

Nostri
2007-12-11, 06:20 PM
I've actually been working on a system based on the Ars Magica magic system for awhile now and it's almost to the point where I can post it. I've set it up so that the verbs (creo "I create", perdo "I destroy", etc) are skills and the subjects are skills. There is a 'base spell' that is used as the model for creating a mage's spells and then all of the various effects not provided by the base spell are added via modifiers to the skill check the caster needs to cast the spell (these modifiers add everything from damage to healing to mind control and illusions). I should have it typed up in a workable format by the end of the week and posted soon after that.

The only reason why it might not be what your looking for is it's slightly more complicated then Vancian magic since the caster needs to actually create their spells in order to cast them but it's very flexible so it might work.