I've made a set of wild magic tables for use in the campaign I'm planning, which I figured I'd post here (or rather, post a link to here; the tables themselves are rather lengthy) for the amusement and use of others on the forum. (It might also be handy for reference when I post asking for feedback on something I'm planning for the campaign, like the custom boss monster I made a thread on last week.)
The long and the short of it is that I looked at the wild magic rules in the SRD, and was struck by a few things:
And to keep things interesting, I made a fairly detailed set of wild magic tables, which you can view in all their glory here:
It's a layered table system where your first roll tells you if the spell succeeded or failed, and what sort of additional effect (if any) happens. You then roll on one of four additional tables as determined based on your first roll. These tables are organized based on the nature of their effects:
The "Bad Effects" table has things that are unequivocally bad for the caster -- things like being dazed for 1 round, or getting bonked on the head with an anvil.
The "Risky Effects" table has things that are kind of a mixed bag -- they might be harmful, they might be helpful, or they might be a little of both. It all depends on luck and the circumstances. That burst of energy might finish off the enemy...but it might also finish you off. You never know!
The "Harmless Effects" table is the most likely to be rolled on, and is full of various silly effects that are there purely for flavor and have no mechanical impact on gameplay. Stuff like hair changing color, instantaneously growing a mustache, and so forth.
Finally, the "Bonus Effects" table is only rolled on for a spell that succeeded, and grants an additional boost to the spell, generally in the form of a free metamagic modification.
The idea is that there is such a large variety of options that you could go for quite a long time without ever rolling the same result twice. Keeps things interesting, and really makes the wild magic feel "wild", IMO.
Let me know what you think!
The long and the short of it is that I looked at the wild magic rules in the SRD, and was struck by a few things:
- It's pretty harsh on casters. While I'm all for taking casters down a peg, I'm primarily interested in wild magic as a way of spicing up magic over the course of a prolonged campaign.
- The method of determining when wild magic happens results in decreasing chances of triggering wild magic for your highest-level spell as you go up in level, which I didn't really like.
- The wild magic table is rather dull in its brevity and lack of variety.
And to keep things interesting, I made a fairly detailed set of wild magic tables, which you can view in all their glory here:
It's a layered table system where your first roll tells you if the spell succeeded or failed, and what sort of additional effect (if any) happens. You then roll on one of four additional tables as determined based on your first roll. These tables are organized based on the nature of their effects:
The "Bad Effects" table has things that are unequivocally bad for the caster -- things like being dazed for 1 round, or getting bonked on the head with an anvil.
The "Risky Effects" table has things that are kind of a mixed bag -- they might be harmful, they might be helpful, or they might be a little of both. It all depends on luck and the circumstances. That burst of energy might finish off the enemy...but it might also finish you off. You never know!
The "Harmless Effects" table is the most likely to be rolled on, and is full of various silly effects that are there purely for flavor and have no mechanical impact on gameplay. Stuff like hair changing color, instantaneously growing a mustache, and so forth.
Finally, the "Bonus Effects" table is only rolled on for a spell that succeeded, and grants an additional boost to the spell, generally in the form of a free metamagic modification.
The idea is that there is such a large variety of options that you could go for quite a long time without ever rolling the same result twice. Keeps things interesting, and really makes the wild magic feel "wild", IMO.
Let me know what you think!
