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drengnikrafe
2008-11-03, 11:28 PM
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and he was talking about an awesome character he had while playing one of those "(Descriptor): the (awesome word)" games (like Vampire: The Masquarade, and whatnot). Anyway, he started saying something about a Chaos Mage, or something like that, that controls the "Randomness of the Universe". I realized that would be incredibly fun, but then I realized a problem: I don't have whatever book or whatever he was talking about, so all I know about these mages is the little bit he told me, which is not enough. Does anybody know stuff about them that they could, perhaps, tell me about? Like, for instance, is it possible to describe them to the point where I could try to make a D&D 3.5ish prestige class out of one?

BobVosh
2008-11-03, 11:32 PM
there is a wild mage in arcane i believe

EvilElitest
2008-11-03, 11:33 PM
eh, whats is abut
from
EE

puppyavenger
2008-11-03, 11:34 PM
there is a wild mage in arcane i believe

he's talking about White Wolf I believe.


I'm not certain, but I believe there were a factions of "Marauders" in Old Mage, they were all insane and paradox slid off them to other near-by mages.

RPGuru1331
2008-11-03, 11:49 PM
You can't really make a Prestige Class out of an Entropy or Time Sphere mage. Try borrowing the book from him and playing in a game with him? Most people, in my experience, will at least allow a curious player to try the game out for free.

(It's Mage: The Awakening, or Mage: The Ascension, by the way. They're from White Wolf, and they're very interesting games.)

Morandir Nailo
2008-11-04, 12:02 AM
Y'know, I always thought that Exalted should have been called "Anime: the RPG" instead...of course I hate anime so I'm glad it's not.

Never played Mage, so I can't help you there, but IIRC there's some sort of Entropy Mage in one of the $platbooks. Elements from that, Fatespinner and Wild Mage might be useful.

Mor

quillbreaker
2008-11-04, 12:14 AM
Mage: The Ascension characters are pretty broken from a crunch perspective, but this is balanced by the setting itself, where the characters understand that they have incredible power and the decision to make is what to do with it. After all, hubris is a real thing that can negatively affect your magic in MtA, wheras it's a class feature that Wizards get at 15th level in D&D 3.5.

Poison_Fish
2008-11-04, 12:28 AM
Y'know, I always thought that Exalted should have been called "Anime: the RPG" instead...of course I hate anime so I'm glad it's not.

Never played Mage, so I can't help you there, but IIRC there's some sort of Entropy Mage in one of the $platbooks. Elements from that, Fatespinner and Wild Mage might be useful.

Mor

I'd point out that Exalted's ties to anime only relate that it takes a more asian centric view on fantasy rather then our standard Tolkien esque fantasy that's D&D.

And it's over the topness. The likeness really is what you make it.

Nerd-o-rama
2008-11-04, 01:37 AM
Y'know, I always thought that Exalted should have been called "Anime: the RPG" instead...of course I hate anime so I'm glad it's not.That was totally relevant.


drengnikrafe: the game you're thinking of is Mage: the Ascension (Old World of Darkness version) or Mage: the Awakening (New World of Darkness version). There's magic in Mage: the Ascension that covers the manipulation of chaos and probability in the form of the "Entropy" sphere, a sphere being something like a school or subject of magic. I believe this magic was rolled into the Time sphere in Mage: the Awakening, but I'm not totally sure as I haven't played it.

Mage magic (old Mage, anyway), is for all practical purposes impossible to directly translate into D&D, as it's very subjective and freeform, not to mention ludicrously dangerous to use. There's the Fatespinner and the Wild Mage in Complete Arcane, however, that have a similar theme.

Eclipse
2008-11-04, 02:35 AM
drengnikrafe: the game you're thinking of is Mage: the Ascension (Old World of Darkness version) or Mage: the Awakening (New World of Darkness version). There's magic in Mage: the Ascension that covers the manipulation of chaos and probability in the form of the "Entropy" sphere, a sphere being something like a school or subject of magic. I believe this magic was rolled into the Time sphere in Mage: the Awakening, but I'm not totally sure as I haven't played it.



Entropy was actually broken into two separate spheres: death and fate.

Back to the OP: My advice for trying to make a Mage from NWoD or OWoD into a D&D prestige class, like most others here, is don't do it. WoD Mages starting out can do the things that D&D mages start doing around 17th - 18th level. Sure, bad things might happen to them afterward, but that's beside the point.

However, if you're set on doing a conversion, there is actually a D20 conversion of the World of Darkness setting. I believe Monty Cook wrote it, but I could be wrong. Perhaps you could use that as a starting point, and adapt from there. Really though, I recommend you just try Mage if it caught your interest, it's an excellent game.

Eldaran
2008-11-04, 11:11 AM
Anyway, he started saying something about a Chaos Mage, or something like that, that controls the "Randomness of the Universe". I realized that would be incredibly fun, but then I realized a problem: I don't have whatever book or whatever he was talking about, so all I know about these mages is the little bit he told me, which is not enough. Does anybody know stuff about them that they could, perhaps, tell me about? Like, for instance, is it possible to describe them to the point where I could try to make a D&D 3.5ish prestige class out of one?

I think everyone here is missing what he asked. There is in fact a Chaos Mage class that works somewhat similarly to how the White Wolf mage works.

The class was described in two supplements, the first was 3.0 and called Encyclopedia Arcane: Chaos Magic. The one that I think is 3.5 is called The Quintessential Chaos Mage. I only have the first one, and it's a very good book, though you can probably purchase either one online from Mongoose Publishing.

The way Chaos Magic works is sort of like Epic Magic. You choose a spell type, then you add effects, and then parameters like number of targets or saving throw type. Each thing you add raises the DC, where your check is d20 + class level + cha mod. Every spell you cast also causes nonlethal damage equal to the DC divided by 5.

If you make the DC the spell goes off, if you fail, it doesn't. BUT if you roll a 1 on your casting check, you get a backlash. Subsequent 1s after the first one have only a chance to give you a backlash, which gets higher the more backlashes you've had over your character's existence.

Backlashes cause various effects, for the most part, you go progressively more insane the more you've had, until you've reached 8 backlashes, then you basically explode and can never be resurrected by any means.

Fan
2008-11-04, 11:24 AM
Okay, while we are on the topic of OWOD would anyone here actually be willing to run a game here on the boards?
I've been digging for a story teller for awhile, and WhiteKnight777 is also interested we just cant find a stoyteller for ****

Anyways on topic:
Chaos age can DEFINTELY be done with entropy/force with the whole rod o wonder type of effects. Etropy/Force can also be used to make peoples guns explode when they shoot at you, but thats different.

Mikeavelli
2008-11-04, 07:59 PM
It exists!

It has been done!

The "Chaos Mage" class was a 3.0 class from the Mongoose Publishing "Chaos Magic" book that translates the sort of spellcasting Mage: The Ascension has into D&D.

At least its as close as you can possibly get while still being D&D.

EvilElitest
2008-11-04, 08:01 PM
It exists!

It has been done!

The "Chaos Mage" class was a 3.0 class from the Mongoose Publishing "Chaos Magic" book that translates the sort of spellcasting Mage: The Ascension has into D&D.

At least its as close as you can possibly get while still being D&D.

i've seen that book but i've never been able to afford it when i do see it, is it a good book?
from
EE

Xenogears
2008-11-04, 08:24 PM
i've seen that book but i've never been able to afford it when i do see it, is it a good book?
from
EE

It's.... interesting? Atleast the Quintessential Chaos Mage is. Thats the only version ive read. Assuming you have good luck you can cast almost limitless extremely powerful spells even at low levels. The best parts of it though are the various paths of insanity. Especially the various ways in which you die if you reach the end. One of them you turn into a statue that dissapears and reappears at random, one of them you become a giant womb that continuosly births horrible monsters, one of them you go to an eternity of torture in a plane of shadows-like place. Great ways to die.

It can be extremely unbalancing though but it can easily be used for really goofy spells. My friend once used it at lvl 1 to make a spell that switches someones gender to the opposite one for five minutes. The spell construction basically works like Epic magic except you can create spells on the spot, have no spell slots, it doesn't cost XP to make the spells, and a they have the paths of chaos backlash and the subduel damage things. Either way I greatly enjoyed the book. Once I decided to make a Chaos God by making a Chaos Mage lvl 40 to see how it stacks up to other gods.... the most basic damaging spell i made did something like 800d20 damage at a range of a couple miles....

Innis Cabal
2008-11-04, 08:30 PM
Its a great book, own it myself. Just as great way to make chaos.