D&D Spells - Spell Paths/Traditions

[Azgulor]

While I'm a huge fan of d20 & OGL games, I'm not much enamored with the default magic system as presented in D&D. I like the idea of sorcery being more "art" than "science" and the pick-and-choose approach of D&D only reinforces this.

I've purchased a lot of variant magic systems. Currently my system of choice is the spellcasting rules from the Thieves' World Player's Manual - good middle ground of spellcasting uncertainty and what I would call "middle fantasy" rather than D&D's "uber-high-fantasy". The other benefit was it used D&D spells, which made source material easy for my players. However, I'm still left with the random pick-and-choose portion.

Previously, I had looked at Elements of Magic. While I loved the idea of magical traditions, EoM as a spellcasting system was too much of a departure for either myself or my players.

I recently learned of the idea of "Spell Paths", originally suggested by Wolfgang Baur in an old Dragon issue (AD&D 2e). Sean K. Reynolds also had a preliminary framework on his website.

Are there any recent d20/OGL products that group spells in "paths" or "traditions" in this type of fashion? I would want to apply this to wizards and sorcerors and I could see how they could be developed/grouped for clerics and druids much as Domains are.

Also, I'm not looking to consolidate the spellcasting classes down to a single spellcasting class.

Has anyone played with such a system? Any pros or cons you'd care to share?

Thanks!

 

[Nellisir]

Lions Den Press has a supplement out that details...spheres? Something akin to 2e priest spheres. I know there are also arcane spell path supplements out there. I don't have time right now to look them up, though.

 

[rgard]

Green Ronin's Advanced Player's Manual has the Eldritch Weaver class which is essentially the Wizard who learns spells that are listed in a thread. The spells are grouped in each thread by function or result. Each thread has about 2-4 spells at each level. The caster can know as many threads as his/her int modifier +1.

You could easily adapt this to the Thieves' World system you currently use or have all arcane casters use this in a straight 3.5 campaign.

Thanks,
Rich

Edited for horrible grammar.

 

[Azgulor]

Thanks, I'll check that out!

 

[rgard]

Thanks, I'll check that out!

You are welcome. You can get the pdf here:

Green Ronin pdf page

It's only $17.

The rest of the book is really good as well.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Thanael]

I have always found the Spell Path System very useful. I've used the original 2E version by Kuntz/Baur from Dragon 216 quite a bit. A revised excerpt can be seen here: http://hep-www.colorado.edu/~jladue/path.html

Sean K Reynolds adapted the basic system to 3E: http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfil.../pathmagic.html

Green Ronin did an even better version in their Advanced Player's Manual, for their Eldritch Weaver class. See some great additions and examples on this site: http://home.gwi.net/~rdorman/frilond/rul/dm/weaver.htm

 

[Aus_Snow]

Paizo is also having another Green Ronin sale, by the way. They might still have that book (they're all 50% off this time, IIRC.)

Anyway, thanks for posting those links, dyx. Particularly the extra material for the Eldritch Weaver. Awesome stuff!