Opinions wanted about alternate spellcasting system [updated]

[Turanil]

Well, it's meant to be a system for a d20 lite game inspired from Castles & Crusades (but with more customization allowed). I reread my copy of Arcana Unearthed (by Monte Cook) and thought of adding some of its ideas, but simplified. Basically the system I am thinking of would be:

1) Still Arcane and Divine spells.

2) Arcane spellcasters prepare/memorize their spells as spellcasters in AU do (i.e.: like a D&D wizard prepares a number of spells from his spellbook to cast as if he was a sorcerer, the prepared spells being "knonw spells" for that day).

3) Saints (white magic), Sorcerers (black magic), and Elementalists (fire/earth/etc. magic) are determined by feats a spellcaster must acquire.

-- Elementalist: all spells such as Acid Bolt, Fireball, etc. are replaced with generic evocation spells such as Magic Bolt, Magic Burst, Magic Explosion, etc. Then, if the spellcaster has purchased the Elementalist feat, he can turn a Magic Bolt/Burst/etc spell into a Fire Bolt/Burst/etc spell for example. (This is for the principle, as the exact feats will be discussed in the next post.) Of course, having such a "magic bolt/whatever" spell changed to an elementalist spell would increase its potency and/or provide side effects.

-- Sorcerers: taking and using the feat "black magic" would corrupt the spellcaster's soul, induce alignment changes, etc. Spells affected by black magic would be more destructive, visually horrendous, and more difficult to resist (with side effects such as induced fear).

-- Saints: a pure of heart would be entitled to make an oath, purification ceremony, or what not, to take and use the "white magic" feat. Healing and benevolent spells and such would be more powerful.

4) Ritual Magic: with a proper feat, spells could be turned into rituals. The idea would be to make the spells more powerful, permanent, or what not, but at the cost of an increased spellcasting time (minutes to hours), cost in money and preparation requirements, and need for some d20 rolls. Example: A summoning spell brings forth a creature for a number of rounds equal to the caster's level, then disappears; but the same spell cast as a summoning ritual brings forth the creature for several hours, and can bind them to places maybe for days long. Hence a mage could have bound "demons" accompanying him on a quest. Another example: Invisibility would have a permanent duration (until dispelled by usual means) as in old AD&D rather than the D&D 3.5 one minute per level.

Of course, all of this would require a document detailing all the spells, and their characteristics when modified by a particular feat.


Suppose you would be a player in my campaign using such magic houserules. Would you like it or not?
Any other comment?

 

[Turanil]

Feats for this alternate system:

-- Elementalist. The character chooses a prefered element. Then, all magic bolt/burst/etc spells are turned into element bolt/burst/etc spells. The caster can prepare a version of such spells in either his prefered element or the two other elements which aren't opposed to the prefered element. Now the magic energy turns into that element (as described in the spell description), and the prefered element deals 1 more point of damage per die and is +1 to the DC.

-- Fire Mage / Earth Mage / etc. The character exclusively focuses on his preferred element, and is forbidden all the others. The magic is even more destructive and difficult to resist. In the meantime, the caster acquires some subtle physical features that makes him appear indeed related to the element, while he gets a +2 bonus to saves against that element as well as a strong dislike and -2 penalty to saves against the opposite element.

Edited : no more elemetalism via a feat.

 

[Nifft]

Personally, I'd separate Theme from Energy and Element. I could easily see a Storm Mage command spells with Air, Electricity and Sonic descriptors -- but not all spells with those descriptors. I'd also separate Energy from Element (except for Fire, which is both).

-- N

 

[XeviatTranion]

I know what you're going through: tweeking the spell system to fit your vision can be difficult. I've been working on mine for 3 years now and have only recently managed to come up with something that's testable.

I do like your separations, but I would like to ask why you haven't considered simply making them separate classes? Elementalists would be thematically similar to druids, and you could mix the wizard and cleric lists together, then separate them to create your sorcerer and saint. Then, you could even separate each by the mental scores: elementalists are Int, sorcerers are Cha, and saints are Wis. That sounds good.

Even with feats making certain magic better, you're still going to face a problem when you give a single class access to all spells. Caster themes are balanced with their spell lists; the only way you can balance them is by using a sorcerer-esque casting system like UA's Generic Spellcaster, so the character can't access every spell.

I do like how things sound; if you need any more specific opinions and advice, let me know.

 

[Turanil]

Hum, with the two comments above and having thought more about it, I think I will abandon the idea about feats to become a saint or an elementalist.

However, there is the question of Black Magic. I want to see something with a feat. The idea is of a caster who learns about some dark forbidden knowledge, and then has more destructive powers at his disposal. However, each use of black magic endangers his soul, perverts him, etc.

Would it be a template applied to some existing spells, or a feat enabling to cast some horrid spells not available otherwise?

 

[XeviatTranion]

Turanil, since I've always been good at ripping off other things and making them my own, I'll suggest you do something similar to what OA's Rokugan world does. There are two casters in that setting, Shugenja (divine spellcasters who have influence over the elements) and Maho Tsuka ("arcane" spellcasters who use the power of taint and evil). You could easily do something similar; I don't think it would be best to have a feat to use dark magic.

If you want, though, to have a feat-like requirement to use dark magic, you could use something similar to the corrupt spells in Book of Vile Darkness, and then pick up Heros of Horror and use their Taint system instead of the ability damage caused by corrupt spells. Then anyone can learn Black Magic, but they taint themselves by doing such.

PS: Think you could check out my magic system? It's on this board as well, it might give you some ideas.