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Thread: The CHALLENGE 4: Art block can't stop us

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    Default Re: The CHALLENGE 4: Art block can't stop us

    I meant to post this yesterday but internet cut out unexpectedly, so I'm going to have to claim one of my tri-annual (Hey, look, a pun!) free passes at a late upload.

    2194 words of a custom Magic set here. There's another 465 words in an MSE file but copying it all across is really annoying so you're going to have to trust me, okay?

    Spoiler: 2357 words of Elite 5
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    ## Arcane Bonds

    A magician has a bond with either an unusually powerful familiar, a little like the find familiar spell, or an intelligent arcane focus with a variety of special powers.

    ### Special Familiar

    You gain the service of a familiar, which works just like the find familiar spell with a variety of exceptions - you can't have a familiar from both sources. You can use the find familiar spell to change your familiar's form or to summon it again if it is slain, but you can do either of those things freely after a long rest without having to cast, or even know, the spell.
    ___
    The creature's type doesn't change from its original type. Unlike most familiars, it can attack. It is also not bound by the standard list of familiars - see the list below instead.
    ___
    The familiar's natural armour increases by 1, plus 1 per 2 levels after first, and its hit points equal either its listed hit points or half of your hit points, whichever is more. Its intelligence score becomes 6, plus 1 per 2 levels after 1st, if it isn't already higher.
    ___
    The familiar has the evasion ability, uses your save bonuses if they're better than its own, and has advantage on saving throws against spells. If you know the Scrying spell, you can cast it on your familiar as a ritual. You can't be surprised while your familiar is within your natural reach. You can't harm your familiar and it can't harm you. Finally, your familiar grants you a special bonus while it is within a mile of you. These bonuses are given on the table below:

    | Familiar | Benefit |
    |:---:|:-----------:|
    |Badger|+1 proficiency level to survival|
    |Bat|Darkvision 30 feet or +30 feet.|
    |Cat|+1 proficiency level to stealth|
    |Crab|+1 to AC (Natural armour)|
    |Crawling Claw|Resistance to necrotic|
    |Eagle|+1 proficiency level to perception|
    |Flying Snake|+1 proficiency level to acrobatics|
    |Frog/Toad|+1 hit point per level|
    |Haemonculus|Resistance to poison|
    |Hawk|+1 proficiency level to initiative|
    |Lizard|+1 proficiency level to athletics|
    |Octopus|+2 proficiency levels to intelligence save|
    |Owl|+1 proficiency level to wisdom saves|
    |Poisonous Snake|+1 proficiency level to deception|
    |Quipper|No speed penalty for swimming|
    |Rat|+1 proficiency level to constitution save|
    |Raven|+1 proficiency level to investigation|
    |Scorpion|+1 proficiency level to intimidation|
    |Seahorse|+2 proficiency levels to charisma save|

    \pagebreak



    | Familiar | Benefit |
    |:---:|:-----------:|
    |Slaad Tadpole|Resistance to acid|
    |Spider|No speed penalty for climbing|
    |Stirge|+2 proficiency levels to strength save|
    |Weasel|+1 proficiency level to dexterity save|

    ### Bonded Focus

    A bonded focus has a special power depending on its form. If your bonded focus is damaged, it is restored to full hit points when you complete a short or long rest; if it is destroyed, you may create a new bonded focus after any long rest; alternatively, you can use the find familiar spell to create a bonded focus instead of its normal purpose (you may still use it normally to find a familiar).
    ___
    You can also change the form that your bonded focus takes via either method that could create a new one.

    #### Bonded Crystal

    You can use your crystal to split any spell you cast into up to two, plus one per five levels, identical copies which each have the relevant fraction of the effect. For example, when you cast burning hands, you can create two cones of fire, which might overlap, each of which deals 3d6/2 points of damage.
    ___
    At level 15, you could make 5 mage hands that can each carry two pounds with a single casting of the spell, or four clouds of knives which each deal 4d4/4 points of damage to a creature who enters their area, and each damages the creature separately.
    ___
    Anything that is not a divisible numerical effect can have its duration, if it has a duration other than permanent, split between targets, otherwise it is lost. For example, even with a 3rd-level slot, you can target two creatures with a fly spell, but they can only fly for 5 minutes each in this case.
    ___

    #### Bonded Orb

    You can cast any spell as though you were in your bonded orb's space (and therefore able to use it as a focus, as well as casting the spell from its location), with the exception that you cannot use any spell to move further than you would be able to move normally (notably misty step and dimension door), so long as it is within 50 feet plus 5 feet/level of your actual location.

    ___

    You can also see and hear through your orb while it is within this range, though you are blind and deaf to your own senses when you do so.

    #### Bonded Rod

    When you use your bonded rod as a focus, you can cast spells at 50% longer range, plus 5% longer range per level, whether the value listed as the spell's range or anything else that provides a limitation on how far away the spell can affect.
    ___
    For example, at 3rd level, you can cast a spell with a listed range of 120 feet at a target up to 198 feet away, or use the Misty Step spell to teleport up to 49.5 feet.
    ___
    The minimum distance between dancing lights is increased, but not the area of light they shed or how far they can move per round, for another example.

    #### Bonded Staff

    A bonded staff can be wielded as a quarterstaff. You are a master with your bonded staff. The staff deals extra damage equal to your mastery bonus, or your eliteness bonus if you become elite with it.

    #### Bonded Wand

    You may imbue a spell into your bonded wand, expending a spell slot as normal (or not expending one in the case of a cantrip). When you do, you can give your wand to another creature, who can then cast the spell once at any point today.
    ___
    You can only imbue one spell into the wand at a time. The user of the wand uses your attack bonus and save DC, and the spell slot level that you used.

    ##### *................................................. ................................*
    **Q:** What does Bonded Crystal do in the case of...
    ___
    **A:** Oh, you are a pest, aren't you? Prestidigitation just doesn't work because it's too weird, you divvy up Alarm's volume equally, colour spray and sleep you divide the hit point roll and nothing else, no you can't divide feather falls to make people fall even slower, magic missile divides each dart up into mini-darts that do piddly damage, alter self doesn't work, haste's duration is cut up so it's probably a bad idea, bestow curse divides up the duration or damage, your choice, yes you can send three seven-word sendings, you can change which creature you bring for each fragment of dimension door... for anything else, extrapolate from this; I'm not doing the whole spell list!
    ___
    **Q:** Can I touch a creature as though I were in my orb's space?
    ___
    **A:** Yes, for example in the case of vampiric touch. You can't just randomly grab people as though you were in your orb's space, though.
    ___
    **Q:** What happens if I cast a spell from my orb that is limited in how far away the effect can travel from me during the duration?
    ___
    **A:** You are considered to be in the orb's space for the whole spell, so you don't need to be near the spell's effect to maintain the spell but if someone moves your orb away, being near the spell effect won't help you either.
    ___
    **Q:** What, specifically, is a range?
    ___
    **A:** Basically any limitation on the maximum distance between two or more things that isn't an area of effect.
    ___
    **Q:** Do these items work with spells from magic items?
    ___
    **A:** Yes, so long as you're considered the caster.
    ___
    **Q:** Can I swap between a bonded item and a special familiar?
    ___
    **A:** No.

    \pagebreak

    ## Schools of Magic

    A magician has the opportunity to specialise in one of a variety of schools of magic. Each one has one or more subschools: traditional schools of magic (abjuration, conjuration and so forth) which it specifically improves. Any school of magic grants you the following benefits regarding its subschools:

    - You are a master at spells in that subschool.
    - You can choose elite spells from that subschool.
    - The time it takes to copy a spell from that subschool into your spellbook is halved.

    ___

    Each school also grants you a variety of other abilities, at 2nd, 6th, 10th and 14th level. The schools of magic are as follows:

    - **Adjuration** holds people to a limited set of actions, allowing you to force them to perform specific actions or prevent them from attacking you.
    - **Animation** brings nonsentient objects into motion, or compels your enemies to act through physical force rather than subtle mental influence.
    - **Animism** is the control of, or assault on, the souls of living beings, or beings which were once living and retain, or are, the souls of the creature they once were.
    - **Apparition**s are much like phantasms, but rather than having a single effect and then going away, they stick around as though they had been summoned or raised.
    - **Coercion** is a direct assault on a creature's mind. If enchantment is picking the lock on someone's mind, coercion is bashing down the door.
    - **Cogitation** allows for super-fast rationalisation, thought, and understanding. You can look at a language they have never seen and learn the meaning in moments, or decipher a hidden message just by looking at it.
    - **Convocation** creates lasting forms of energy, allowing a pillar of fire to rise while you become living lightning.
    - **Deception** tricks people. Their beliefs are changed, and what they see changes to match; they see an illusion and their worldview reforms to suit it.
    - **Destruction** is its own explanation, causing life to become death and structure to become ruin. Proud stone towers collapse into rubble and creatures go up in flames.
    - **Diabolism** is the use of demons for one's bidding. It has a subschool, possession, but also allows calling of demons to serve the user. Possession effects are ones which force a demon into a creature's body, allowing some degree of control of that body (whether by the caster or otherwise).
    - **Effigy** spells are ones which affect one creature through another creature or object: the archetype of effigy is the standard voodoo doll, and this school of magic allows the pins in the doll to come to life in the victim.
    - **Exhibition** allows you to reveal the results of your divinations to other creatures, or project a message outwards. Alternatively, you can use your divinations as the targeting equipment for a powerful attack.
    - **Exhortation** is an appeal made to a creature to aid you, or a forceful attempt to bring a creature or object, willing or otherwise, to you.
    - **Illumination** is the control of light, allowing you to make devastating attacks which blind your foes, or plunge entire continents into darkness.
    - **Inhibition** dissuades people mentally from their goal, suggests to them another course of action, or leads them astray by suggesting the impossible. If all else fails, it crushes their spirit until they choose to stop.
    - **Intervention** convolutes things, it targets some creature and places impediments to their goal, or chooses some other creature and foils plans to harm them. To use intervention is to confound someone, somewhere, in some action.
    - **Malediction** is a fancy way of referring to curses: these are abilities which plague a creature in some way and are generally difficult to remove.
    - **Morphism** refers to the changing of one's form, or in this case merging one's form into that of a summoned creature, potentially allowing you to remain unharmed no matter how much damage the morph sustains.
    - **Oneirism** is the manipulation of dreams, allowing you to transmit messages between sleeping creatures or even bring a creature's nightmare to life.
    - **Petition** is a wide call for creatures to answer to you, to come to your aid, or to rally to your cause; using the power of petition allows you to send a rallying cry to those who would never normally even hear you out without leaving your seat.
    - **Precognition** allows you to protect yourself or other creatures with foreknowledge of events that are to come. Further, while neither divination nor abjuration have strong aggressive potential, the combination can be devastating, flooding a creature's mind with warnings against their untimely (and inevitable) demise.
    - **Protection** is the creation of physical impediments to harm: walls and shields of energy that block the attacks of those who wish to harm the allies of the caster.
    - **Replication** allows you to copy creatures, spells or abilities, enabling you to use abilities that are beyond your grasp, but within another creature's.
    - **Retribution** seeks to retaliate in full force against attackers. The weak points left by an opponent's attack are automatically exploited.
    - **Sacrament** guards one's soul, and wards against those with ill intent. It is used by necromancers to ensure that their undead are protected from the machinations of clerics, and by abjurers to ensure that they can protect all creatures, alive or dead.
    - **Seance** is the act of speaking to the spirits of the dead. They have the power to serve you or impart wisdom to you, allowing valuable information to be obtained or armies to be defeated.
    - **Silhouette** is the physical manipulation of shadows, allowing a creature to be strangled by the darkness or even forced to fight their own shadow in battle.
    - **Warding** is the ability to create safeguards which impede magical and physical assault on a creature, usually by changing the attack in a way that makes it less harmful.
    - **War Magic** gives up a subschool to empower your physical prowess.
    - You may also specialise in a single one of the traditional schools (**Devoted Specialism**), none at all, (**Generalism**), or all of them (**Universalism**).

    \pagebreak


    Outlander Symbol and Isoquar Set Symbol

    I suppose for the theme - and the last 484 words I need - I'll do another design spotlight.

    Spoiler: 487 words of Design Spotlight: Bonded Foci
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    Bonded foci were weird, because I needed them to act as some kind of object that you manipulate to distinguish them from familiars who act of their own accord. Passive benefits therefore seemed a little bit odd, and absolutely in-theme at the same time. The first one I thought of was a bonded staff, which was an easy enough item to design: writ large, a staff is a weapon above all else, so it made sense to make a bonded staff the key item for a battlemage. Originally, I made it scale like a cantrip, but that got a little crazy with extra attack, which I intended to be a benefit of at least one subclass. So, it now adds your mastery bonus, which is a slower-scaling number but still a significant damage boost.

    The rod came next, though I originally gave the ability to the wand, until I realised that I wanted to give the wand the imbue with spell ability. Bonded orb was originally going to allow you to bounce a spell off it, but I couldn't think of a clever way of doing that. Last of all, came the crystal, with its massive list of rulings because it's not massively well-defined in what it does in a lot of cases. I try to avoid this kind of ability, where you're not always sure what it does, which is why it comes with a boatload of rulings, the same way that wondrous items did. On the other hand, I really was running out of ideas at this point because trying to make a focus do something interesting was... hard.

    Incidentally, I recalled that Pathfinder had tried bonded items, so I went to check what they did, but all they do is give you an extra spell slot - and if it's anything that the magician has enough of, it's spell slots! Plus, it's a really boring ability, and I don't want to be boring, like, yeesh, seriously. Finally, it didn't mesh with the idea of the bonded focus - a focus is something that you carry all the time, that needs to be manipulated with one hand in order to actually work (Pathfinder's bonded items can be amulets or rings), and therefore something that needs to be able to do something more than once per day.

    That said, though, I ended up in this weird situation where you're not even in the same square as your focus if you choose an orb, but this is fine, because I thought of that at the time: you're treated as in its square and therefore able to use it as a focus (as well as able to cast spells with it). Though, the image of an orb being manipulated as though you were in its square when you're actually not is a funny one, it probably doesn't make any mechanical difference - or at least, I hope not!


    Oh, and for my theme choice, I'll make it Reanimation.
    Last edited by Jormengand; 2018-08-16 at 03:08 PM.