New Magic System Concept-Auras! [3.5, PEACH]

[Amechra]

Alright, before we begin, I would just like to say the following: I like the idea behind the Marshal. Seriously, I love playing an enabler, 'cause it gives me the warm fuzzies, ya know? Well, the Marshal fundamentally fails at its job. I mean, how hard can it be? Well, let's find out.

Aura Magic
Everyone knows about charisma, about leadership; the grand speeches and sacrifices of a grand general leading his armies to victory, and all that jazz.

Auras aren't precisely like that.

Auras awaken. in a sense, the inner instinctual abilities of a creature, and inspire them to true greatness. Of course, this isn't all; after all, if that was it, no one would even comment.

No, auras also can bring out inherent magic, as well, allowing the affected to truly exceed past their normal power.

Crunchy Stuff

Alright, so how does this work?
The effects of an aura affect everything within your Aura Radius (explained more in depth later) An aura will either grant your allies a bonus or apply a detriment to your enemies.

Only a certain number of auras, equal to the number of "aura slots" you have, may be active at once.

If your auras have a save, it is equal to 10+Aura Bonus+Your Charisma Bonus. Auras are supernatural abilities, and thus have all the benefits and penalty that entails.

An aura may be removed or added to a slot as a swift action; one aura may be swapped for another as a move action.

Basically, individual auras boil down to the following:

Aura Name (Aura Color)
Class Name:
Basic Effect:
Specialized Effect:
Synergy Effect:

Spoiler

Show

Aura Name- This is what the aura is, well, named. Handy for when your recording which auras you have.
Aura Color- Yes sirree, auras have a color; this acts essentially like "schools" of magic. An aura's color is split into two parts, shade and hue. Shade comes in either Light, Neutral, or Dark. Hue comes in either Red, Blue, or Green. This affects how the aura interacts with other auras.
Class Name- This section points out all the classes that can naturally take this aura.
Basic Effect- Essentially, this tells you what you add your aura bonus to or subtract your aura bonus from. This is the meat and potatoes of an aura.
Specialized Effect- This effect is not immediately available; instead, after a certain level in an projecting class, you may learn an aura a second time; in doing so, you also learn its Specialized Effect, which tends to be something schmexy. However, to gain the Specialized Effect, the aura takes up two slots, not one.
Synergy Effect-Essentially, each aura has a synergy ability keyed either to Shade or Hue; if you have another aura active that matches the aura's color in at least that regard (Dark Red and Dark Green, for example, or Light Red and Neutral Red), you gain the benefit of the synergy effect; however, you may only have up to half the number of aura slots you have in synergy effects.

An odd note about aura bonuses; due to the fact that auras are simply an awakening of inner potential and a sharing of instincts, they continue to progress when levels in a class that is not a Projecting Class are taken. However, due to a quirk in how "potential" is drawn out, any class other than a Projecting Class has differing amounts of progression that they give:

Aura Bonus by Level
{table=head]|A|B|C|D
1|+1|+0|+0|+0
2|+1|+1|+0|+0
3|+1|+1|+1|+0
4|+2|+1|+1|+1
5|+2|+1|+1|+1
6|+2|+2|+1|+1
7|+3|+2|+1|+1
8|+3|+2|+2|+1
9|+3|+2|+2|+1
10|+4|+3|+2|+2
11|+4|+3|+2|+2
12|+4|+3|+2|+2
13|+5|+3|+3|+2
14|+5|+4|+3|+2
15|+5|+4|+3|+2
16|+6|+4|+3|+3
17|+6|+4|+3|+3
18|+6|+5|+4|+3
19|+7|+5|+4|+3
20|+7|+5|+4|+3
[/table]

Column A is used only for those who have a natural Projecting ability.
Every other class follows the progression for Column D. However, by spending 2 skill points or 2 HP per HD, they may increase the bonus by one step (D->C->B) for those HD only; this cost can be mixed or matched, meaning that someone trying to achieve a B progression would have to spend any of the following at each HD:
-4 HP.
-4 Skill Points.
-2 HP and 2 Skill Points.

[Welknair]

I very much like this idea. It's interesting, flavorful, and promising. And bloodline-able. I look forward to seeing its continuation.

[Amechra]

Why thanks, Welkneir, it's great to hear that this would be BLOODLINABLE! Makes me joyous.

I'll give you a hint; the first Projecting Class I'll put up will be a remake of our good friend the Dragon Shaman Marshal.

But I can't do that until later today. Have to help prep for the celebration at my house (I'm having my Eagle Scout Court of Honor tomorrow.)

[Almagesto]

I think this has already been tried. See the general auras in Tome of Battle.

[Amechra]

Don't you mean Heroes of Battle? Yes, I'm going to crib ideas from there too, but this won't be precisely the same.

Believe me, it won't be the same.

[Almagesto]

I beg your pardon, I DID mean to say Heroes of Battle . And well, if you're thinking of improving it... I'll be more than joyous to see the results - and maybe implement them in my campaigns.

[Welknair]

I beg your pardon, I DID mean to say Heroes of Battle . And well, if you're thinking of improving it... I'll be more than joyous to see the results - and maybe implement them in my campaigns.

The Auras were just dabbled with in Heroes of Battle. I think there's much, much more that one could do with them. And that's what I'm hoping to see here.

Ohai guys, I'm back.

[Ziegander]

Color me intrigued.

[Garryl]

Please continue. I am intrigued by this system's potential.

Would it not be simpler and easier to work with to just have a single "projector level" for your auras which determines their strength via a straight lookup on a table (equivalent to the A column right now), and then progressing it in a manner similar to ToB's initiator levels? That way, you have one thing to track, rather than having to keep track of how many levels you have in each of A, B, C, and D classes (or sacrifices to improve them) and removes the risk of rounding down in a manner similar to the usual non-fractional BaB/Saves (eg: currently a Fighter B 1/Fighter C 2/Fighter D 3 would have aura +0, but a straight Fighter D 6 would have +1). It also gives another easily accessible, granular number to base smaller effects on (such as feat or prestige class access, or minor effects like increased hp threshold until you die).

[Amechra]

The Marshal


"Alright, look lively, men. I told the commander that we would take this castle by dawn, and damn you all to hell if you prove me a liar."

Fluff added later. For now, it is the same as the "official" Marshal.
Skills unchanged from standard Marshal (will officially fill this out later)

d8
THE MARSHAL

[Amechra]

Reserved for Aura list