homebrew idea( looking for feedback/ideas)

had a cool idea for casting magic. all wizards are in a pact with evil aligned gods for their powers. in order to cast a spell you have to be in contract with an appropriate god and afterwards you must commit a sin that follows the theme of the god in question. severity of sin based on level of spell cast.

example, cast a confusion type spell possibly in contract with lloth, goddess of chaos/confusion. it lasts just long enough to present attack of opportunity. later in day to replenish spells per day you have to spread some chaos in a town.

opposite is true for clerics they have to spread good to use their spells.

sorcerers are different in that they house demons and draw from their powers for their spells(not sure on their costs yet)

so what do you guys think is it an interesting idea or should i not worry about it?

Interesting concept, but how will you have clerics and wizards/sorcerers in the same party?

Sounds cool. Only problems I can see are that it could lead to intra-party conflict, and that the various sins/etc. might just become an annoying form of bookkeeping ("How many spells did I cast today? Okay, I murder three orphans and a dog.")

Maybe it's best as a once-in-a-while thing.

well thats true but people i play with usually cause all kinds of problems in the inns anyway. mostly im trying to get more rp and npc interaction. wizards and sorcerers wouldnt be a problem but clerics would cause issues. again would cause interesting rp opportunities. maybe the different sects have kept the source of their magic a close guarded secret?

this came about because a player wanted an 18 year old wizard. and im trying to find a better way of explaining the powers than i have so far

Rakusia said:

this came about because a player wanted an 18 year old wizard. and im trying to find a better way of explaining the powers than i have so far

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You don't really have to always explain everything...

But that said, I think the idea is ok. You don't have to limit it to "evil" deities or outsiders (which as mentioned, can cause problems with good characters in the same party), you can do the same with good & neutral powers.

Normally, having characters follow a morality or code of conduct is a good idea to have both RP opportunities and interesting story development. The risk is only that your players might be more interested in action rather than motivations. Just try it out for a while and see if it leads the game to a playstyle that they like.

Sounds like you are trying to make wizards and sorcerers into warlocks.

There's the Binder class in the Tome of Magic book which goes along the lines of your idea. They can bind different vestiges to themselves, and each one has its own unique requirements and drawbacks.

I don't recommend having the magic be tied to evil deities, mostly because that entirely changes magic in the game in far more ways than you seem to understand. Plus you might need more mature players to properly get the RP out of that in the first place. If your group can't handle talking about the morality of committing those sins after casting the spells, don't even try to put this idea into practice. Speaking of morality, this idea would pretty much prevent high level wizards or sorcerers from being Good because, despite them trying to use their spells for good, the cost to use such things as Wish would have to be on the order of something that could change your alignment, other wise the entire system is pretty much pointless.

Have you thought about how much work you'd have to do to make every single spell line up with this idea? It would take you hours, if not days to go through all the spells and figure out which deity would sponsor each spell and what the toll for casting that spell would be.

I don't think this is a cool or good idea. It changes the game on so many levels and in some seriously screwy ways that I wouldn't even play with those rules. If all you want to do is encourage a bit more RP, this is not the right way to go about it.

If you want more NPC interaction, have the NPCs themselves start the interaction more often. Or give them personalities and features that will draw the players in.

Rakusia said:

had a cool idea for casting magic. all wizards are in a pact with evil aligned gods for their powers. in order to cast a spell you have to be in contract with an appropriate god and afterwards you must commit a sin that follows the theme of the god in question. severity of sin based on level of spell cast.

example, cast a confusion type spell possibly in contract with lloth, goddess of chaos/confusion. it lasts just long enough to present attack of opportunity. later in day to replenish spells per day you have to spread some chaos in a town.

opposite is true for clerics they have to spread good to use their spells.

sorcerers are different in that they house demons and draw from their powers for their spells(not sure on their costs yet)

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This idea might turn wizards into evil clerics, so I hope your campaign has room for more of those.

Consider that the usage of the spell might actually BE the required sin. So use your spell for the right purpose, get another.

I'm not sure that acts in service of an "evil" god would be considered "sins." I'm sure the church of Lloth considers its work very holy.

In an Earthdawn campaign I had an illusionist who had to do a practical joke prank each and every day to regain a kind or resource that was as important in that system as spell slot are in D&D.

It was fun at first, but after exhausting thirty prank ideas, it was a drag, and after more than a hundred, it was a horrible terror...

Rakusia said:

this came about because a player wanted an 18 year old wizard. and im trying to find a better way of explaining the powers than i have so far

Click to expand...

While your idea could lead to very interesting gameplay dynamics, if you're developing all this alterations to justify how someone young could develop ability into a class that for flavor purposes suggests years of education to achieve, you might be working to hard. A simpler solution could be to declare this player a prodigy of some sort, or include a wizardly education at a VERY young age, or have the player have grown up as a child in the company of Wizards, etc.

If you want to do the evil-power-bestowing-thing, cool, be aware of how it'll affect gameplay. But if it's all to justify a character age, don't make things tougher for yourself than they need to be.