Shardworking - campaign-specific magic (PF, WIP, PEACH)

[Grinner]

I've been developing a homebrew setting for a Tuesday night game, and I've also been working on a homebrew magic system to go with it.

Post #1: Introduction
Post #2: Shardworking & Basic Miracles
Post #3: Advanced Miracles
Post #4: Special Miracles

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Thoughts and Concerns
-should explain the general design and intent of the system

[Grinner]

Shardworking

The most basic element of Shardworking is Vita. Vita is collected into units called Shards, and when consumed, Shards allow a person to work Miracles. Initially, a person may only work a few basic Miracles. With training, they may learn to channel the Shards' energies into other forms.

• Each day, a character receives three Vita points per bound Shard. These points are not cumulative with unused points from previous days.
• Each casting of a Miracle takes one standard action, except where noted.
• Where noted, a Shardbearer may spend points in excess of the required amount to boost the efficacy of a given Miracle.

Spoiler

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Thoughts and Concerns
-should rephrase the second sentence of the first paragraph

Basic Miracles

Detect Vita

By focusing, a Shardbearer can detect the presence of other Shards.

• After focusing for one round, he can detect the presence or absence of unbound and bound Shards in the area aside from his own.
• After focusing for two rounds, he can detect exact number of unbound and bound Shards in the area aside from his own.
• After focusing for three rounds, he can discern the exact location of bound and unbound Shards in the area aside from his own. If he does not have line of sight to one or more of them, he can discern only those Shards' direction from himself.

Cost: none

Harm

By expending a point of Vita, a Shardbearer may inflict 1d8 points of damage on anything within 50 feet. This Miracle may be enhanced.

Cost: one Vita point, plus another per additional 1d8 points of damage

Heal

By expending a point of Vita, a Shardbearer may cure 1d8 points of damage on anything within 50 feet. This Miracle may be enhanced.

Cost: one Vita point, plus another per additional 1d8 points of damage

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Thoughts and Concerns
-Heal and Harm were originally phrased as " 1d8 points of damage on any creature within 50 feet." This was changed in order to conform with the setting's metaphysics.
-Is there a better word than "cure"? "Repair" tends to remind D&D players of constructs, but "cure" tends to apply to biological creatures...
-Counter-shardworking has been considered, but players would likely just spam countering attempts, limiting the effectiveness of any Shardbearing foe. Plus, it kind of subverts the metaphysical purpose of Shards and brings troubling questions.
-The current formatting seems a bit weird.

[Grinner]

Advanced Miracles

None, yet.

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Thoughts and Concerns
-Characters can gain additional Miracles by taking a special feat.
-This feat will grant the character new usages of Vita points derived from collections of thematically related spells.
-Ideas:

Mass Cure X Wounds
Mass Inflict X Wounds

Shield
Shield Other

Sound Burst
Sculpt Sound
Ghost Sound
Sonic Thrust
Piercing Shriek

Shadow Walk
Water Walk
Wind Walk
Air Walk

Ironwood
Repel Wood
Transmute Metal to Wood
Warp Wood
Wood Shape

Age Resistance
Youthful Appearance

Bestow Curse
Curse Water
Curse of Magic Negation
Curse of Disgust
Cursed Earth
Cup of Dust

Suggestion
Mass Suggestion

-A tree of advanced Miracles will be implemented using certain Miracles as prerequisites for others.

[Grinner]

Special Miracles

None, yet.

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Thoughts and Concerns:
-These won't really be intended for players but might make fun, late-game abilities nonetheless.
-They're pretty deific in scope.

[Grinner]

At the moment, my main concern is the number of Vita points per day versus the relative utility of each. Too much, and the players can rely entirely on Shardworking. Too little, and I might as well not even include it.

Edit: Also, please feel free to make suggestions.

[Mo_the_Hawked]

For the Counter-shardworking perhaps a feat is required to counter, and then it could cost more Vita points compared to the orginal effect.

Some ideas for the Advanced Miracles, maybe a True Strike type of effect. Or a critical effect that increases the threat range or maybe gaurantee a critcal hit.

Other ideas:
Magic Weapon
Greater Magic Weapon
Mage Armor, or at least the Magic Weapon effect for armor
Flame Arrow

[Empedocles]

I'm not really sure what you're going for. A tiny bit of fluff, or even some designer's notes on what you're trying to make, would go a long way to getting feedback.

[Grinner]

I'm not really sure what you're going for. A tiny bit of fluff, or even some designer's notes on what you're trying to make, would go a long way to getting feedback.

The problem with that is that the system was designed with the idea of form over function prioritized. So, there's a lot of fluff, and I'm not sure of what you need.

I can tell you that I'm aiming for a point-based spellcasting system for a low-magic setting. PC's should be able to use Miracles to aid themselves, but they shouldn't be able to rely only upon Miracles.

Additionally, the PC's will be expending feats to learn new Miracles, so packaging the effects into conventional spells won't work. Conversely, the setting is using Pathfinder, so I shouldn't be too generous.

If possible, it would be great if I could get a second opinion on the overall strength of the Basic Miracles. Since there are no dedicated spellcasters, everyone in the party can use these abilities. 3 usages of CLW or ILW, at an average of 4 points each, times four party members means about 48 points of healing or damage per day at level 3. I feel like I should bump that 1d8 down to 1d6...

[DetectiveFjord]

Monk 29 Hp
Rogue 20 Hp
Ranger 23 Hp
Bard 20 Hp (did he quit?)
Cavalier 27 Hp

I took near 20 ish points of damage in that shadow encounter, and was fixed with what would have amounted to four points of vita (roughly 1/3 of the party's vita resources). If we are basing this off the traditional 4 encounter - per/day scheme this sounds relatively balanced to me.

Its probably only a 4 person party so at level 3 our total party hp is 99. I'm a little unclear on a few things.

Vita is collected into units called Shards, and when consumed, Shards allow a person to work Miracles.

Does this consume the shard or the vita? I'm assuming it consumes the vita point, but leaves the shard intact to provide new vita on subsequent days.


"-Characters can gain additional Miracles by taking a special feat."
and
"Additionally, the PC's will be expending feats to learn new Miracles, so packaging the effects into conventional spells won't work."

What I think I'm reading here is that a non feat based understanding of vita provides the "Basic Miracles". A player can take the "Advanced Miracles Feat" and gain access to the listed advanced miracles. That's my understanding as you wrote it. But did you mean that we have to take a feat to use basic miracles? Or that we have to take individual feats to get use of individual miracles? Ex By being attuned to vita I can now use basic miracles, but I need to take the Advanced Miracle: Shield Feat to gain access to the shield miracle.

Getting all the advanced miracles with one feat seems a little powerful, but getting just one seems weak. I know right now that getting mage armor and shield are my number one concerns (being a monk who can't wear armor) and that it would make more sense for me as a character to spend resources on ac which will help me avoid hits entirely than spend that resource trying to heal up damage.

[DetectiveFjord]

woops double post

[Grinner]

Monk 29 Hp
Rogue 20 Hp
Ranger 23 Hp
Bard 20 Hp (did he quit?)
Cavalier 27 Hp

I took near 20 ish points of damage in that shadow encounter, and was fixed with what would have amounted to four points of vita (roughly 1/3 of the party's vita resources). If we are basing this off the traditional 4 encounter - per/day scheme this sounds relatively balanced to me.

Its probably only a 4 person party so at level 3 our total party hp is 99.

That was supposed to be the boss encounter though...

I'm assuming it consumes the vita point, but leaves the shard intact to provide new vita on subsequent days.

Pretty much.

"-Characters can gain additional Miracles by taking a special feat."
and
"Additionally, the PC's will be expending feats to learn new Miracles, so packaging the effects into conventional spells won't work."

What I think I'm reading here is that a non feat based understanding of vita provides the "Basic Miracles". A player can take the "Advanced Miracles Feat" and gain access to the listed advanced miracles. That's my understanding as you wrote it. But did you mean that we have to take a feat to use basic miracles? Or that we have to take individual feats to get use of individual miracles? Ex By being attuned to vita I can now use basic miracles, but I need to take the Advanced Miracle: Shield Feat to gain access to the shield miracle.

Getting all the advanced miracles with one feat seems a little powerful, but getting just one seems weak. I know right now that getting mage armor and shield are my number one concerns (being a monk who can't wear armor) and that it would make more sense for me as a character to spend resources on ac which will help me avoid hits entirely than spend that resource trying to heal up damage.

The idea is to crib mechanics from existing spells and repackage them into these "Miracles", and the one feat will allow access to one advanced Miracle each time it's taken. Depending on how powerful a given spell is, it may be worth a single Miracle by itself, or it may be packaged with a couple other spells.

And yes, basic Miracles are innate abilities had by virtue being bound to a Shard.

[begooler]

I think a way to balance how useful of a resource it is would be to have different types of shards which work with different schools of magic. This way, the players can't pool all of their resources into performing the same miracle all day. Then, you can throw lots of resources at the players, but they have to be more creative to get the best use out of them.
Maybe that's just making things unnecessarily complicated though.


I don't quite yet understand the point A to point B in having a shard and casting the miracles. Are there ability score requirements? What miracles can you cast without a feat? Do you have to be taught how to perform them? How does one actually bind to a shard? Does it run out of power eventually?

Slightly off topic:

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As for the boss encounter, we got lucky with how much of our resources it actually consumed. Had there been a rock or a twist in the cavern in the way, my the cavalier wouldn't have gotten a 30ish damage charge in and the combat would have lasted several rounds longer. (I think we would have each been doing around 4-10 damage each per round.) Since none of us could afford to be hit by the thing more than once, we'd probably have to kite it back through that awful cavern of holes. That situation would have easily resulted in us using all of the healing we had available in a day, and then still maybe losing a party member if they got hit by the giant and then later fell into one of the pit traps.
So, I think our resources in comparison to that challenge were pretty fair.