[Item]Materia

[jlousivy]

Mithril Bangle (Bracer)
Armour Bonus+3
3 Materia Slots
Cost: 25,000gp
Removing a materia takes a full-round action.
Adding a materia takes a full-round action.

Materia: Each usable 3/day range 50 ft
standard action to activate.

Lightning--1d6/HD reflex half cap 10d6
DC=13 + 1/2HD + Cha
Cost: 6,000gp

Fire-------1d6+1/HD reflex half cap 10d6+10
DC=10 + 1/2HD + Cha
Cost: 6,000gp

Ice--------1d6+1/HD fort half cap 10d6+10
DC=10 + 1/2HD + Cha
Cost: 6,000gp

Bio--------1d6/2HD fort half cap 5d6
lasts for 1d4+1 rounds.
DC=10 + 1/2HD + Cha
Cost: 6,000gp

Cure-------1d6/HD will half(harmless)cap 10d6
DC=10+ 1/2HD + Cha
Cost: 8,000gp

All--------Allows spells to affect
as many targets as your CHA modifier+1
(minimum 2) as long as no two targets
are further than 30 feet from one another
and all are within range.
Free Action to activate.
Cost: 10,000gp


What do you guys think? (yes... based on FFVII). I don't know if it would be alright for a character to wield two of these (so more materia, but the armour bonus wouldn't stack)
I think the II and III versions of the spells will just be increased to d8 with a 15 HD cap and d10 with a 20 HD cap.

[Fireball.Man.Guy.]

What damage type is bio?

[Roderick_BR]

I think it would work great for low magic campaings, where anyone can use them to cast spells.
I didn't plat FFVII, so I can't really comment on the power levels. They rise in power as the character levels up?
I know that weapons can be crafted to be able to hold materias, so you wouldn't need only the glove.
And if they got too powerful, you could make a feat to allow characters to use it.

[jlousivy]

Bio = acid
Yes, weapons had slots as well. I'm thinking if i can get this into a campaign I won't allow any Full Casters. Instead I might have each of them begin play with a weapon or bracer with 1 slot that has one spell of choice (this really scews wbl but it makes it survivable).

As for weapon enchantments, I was wondering how much a +1 materia should cost? --- ie: you don't enchant a weapon, you place materia in it to get better, Some weapons will have more slots than others (staves in particular) but each may have better versions of the weapon that has additional slots.

Now here's the question: If I make it so that the main source of magic is this materia (created by an island of wizards long ago attempting to carry out their legacy, I'd probably have a few of the wizards still alive---potential class they can pick up that has a rapid spell progression--like to the effect of 20 wizard levels in 10 levels. )
How can I help the party survive (healing mostly) without requiring them to have like 10 cure materia?

I WAS thinking about having a mana system linked to CHA, leaving int with only dealing with skill points, and wisdom with will saves. Something like (CHA Bonus*5) +class levels^2 mana. Then I'd have to assign mana cost to each spell. If that is the case, I'm tempted to lower the damage to 1d4+1 to allow for a mana cost of like 4-5, and cap the base spell HD to 7. Then at level 8 they could use the I or II version which increased HD cap to 14 and changed the damage to 1d6+2 with a mana cost of 12, then at 15 the III with a base of 1d8+3 increased HD cap to 21 with a mana cost of 35...
This is for the damaging spells.....
The cure spell would probably require more mana and a possibly a different system.
Other spells would be brought into play as well.
Also if this was the case: should the materia level up with you? And if so in what way?
Or should you have to buy new materia?
Should equipping materia have the special effects like it does in FFVII? (ie: if it was spell materia increased mana, lowered hp, increased spell damage, lowered physical damage)

[alchemy.freak]

lol, my friend would love this (she has a naked pic of cloud and sepheroith together lol)

i see how this could work for D&D though. in low magic i see this working out as a different magic system. it also works if your game has a different definition of magic, one that says magic does not come from inside.

[jlousivy]

In a campaign with this...... would it be alright to have only two classes?
fighter and rogue?

Maybe the most materia you can have at a time is CHA-10?
However would this in effect turn int into the current CHA (dump stat for alot of people)

What spells would you have seen as materia? So far i can see
Haste, Slow, Cure, Ice, Fire, Lightning, Bio, Summon Monster(single monster), All, Greater Magic Weapon, Dispel Magic, Mage Armour, delay poison-->neutralize poison, true strike?, reduce person, enlarge person, invisibility, raise dead(probably cost a TON of mana and probably an xp cost that is split), Stoneskin, Magic Stoneskin*

Magic Stoneskin = reduces effects of duration based spells by 3 rounds, reduces damage from spells by 10, Save-or-Die effects instead reduce target to a stabilized -9. Lasts for 10 spells or 1 minute/level

However, some people might want some non-magic stuff so:
Long Range: melee weapon may attack as a long range weapon with a range increment of 30 feet, ranged attack feats may not apply, nor may you power attack.
Damage Reduction: Self explanitory, various types here
HP Plus: Adds hp...
Mana Plus: Adds mana...
Initiative Plus: Adds a bonus to initiative
SR: grants SR

Potentially in this setting there would be no 'armour or shields' just rather 'high-tech' protection is commonplace: ie: bracers, some would be more catered to defence, others would be catered towards materia slots. Due to the lack of spellcasting magic items would be rare so materia basicly takes over everything.

[Neek]

I once attempted a d20 port of materia from FFVII. It's a great system, but as a direct port it didn't work. I ended up creating an entirely different system based on it, but it made for some pretty good steampunk stuff (Rather than materia and mako, it was magicite and etherol, or something of that nature.)

A direct port lends problems to abuse... so I'd start working on some interesting limitations. Here's a few things I'd recommend.

• Materia would be considered a magical item. In order to equip, use, and identify, Use Magical Device (or perhaps with some synergy, Knowledge (Arcana) would be necessary).
• Materia is inserted into a specially-designed slot that allows the bearer to channel the energy. Slots can be linked or unlinked. (As a variant, you can turn the Support materia, such as Elemental, into a different kind of slot; rather than having a materia, have an Elemental slot. On a weapon, equipping a Fire materia would provide a Fire-based attack, while on armor, would provide a spell resistance. The following suggestion'll clarify its usefullness).
• Any equipment can be modified to have slots. However, there is a limitation, based on equipment size, on how much materia can be equipped. A masterwork, and any magical item, can have +1. In order to create slots, you must have Craft Wonderous Item.
  {table=head]Weapon size|Maximum slots
  
  Fine|0
  
  Diminutive|0
  
  Tiny|1
  
  Small|1
  
  Medium|2
  
  Large|3
  
  Huge|4
  
  Gargantuam|4
  
  Colossal|5[/table]
• Characters can only have two slot-bearing items equipped at a single moment. Any attempt to set materia into slots when, on your possession, are already two items bearing materia, the set attempt fails.
• Change some of the support materia into providing metamagic feats. You can have one that turns the spell into a ranged touch attack to an Area of Effect. You can have Augment slots or materia, for example.
• The stat you use to determine the Materia's DC should depend on the materia. Having one stat is not that good, imo.

A lot of the Final Fantasy materia only works for that game. Counter Attack, &c. Including them in a game like D&D only risks making the players too powerful. It's a fun system that probably'll work more for a d20 Modern session, however, since the Hero base (Strong Hero, Fast Hero, &c.) would be more apt than the D&D niche-based classes.

[Maerok]

Cool. Reminds me of Incarnum vaguely...
(And Diablo 2 with the gems and sockets...)

Smite Yuffie 1/day FTW

[Nahal]

You could always create a use/day system, based on your mental score modifiers (or some other criteria), say you can use materia X/day plus additional uses based on HD and mental modifiers. Could take some tweaking, but you could also introduce a "caster" class that spec's in mental skills and gets either DC, damage or usage bonuses instead of fighter feats or rogue abilities.

I like the idea of size limitations to materia capacity. Perhaps materia-equipped items gain an enhancement bonus equal to the number of materia installed, with certain specific ones giving extra bonuses (think artifact-level materia, e.g. KotR or Ultima. Ridiculously rare and even more expensive, but SO worth it. Also makes you a target once anyone hears you have it)