-
The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Opposite of a nil-magic campaign -- anyone run an all-mages game?
- Thread starter Driddle
- Start date
Crothian
First Post
I've done it once, it was a Redhurt game of all young adult wizards. It was fun, though they all choose to share spells with each other so each had a very impressive spell book. I did add in the need to make spellcraft checks to cast speels since they were in theory aprentices.
Mouseferatu
Hero
I planned one out, even got as far as character concepts, before it fell apart due to external reasons.
The idea was, the PCs were members of the world's primary arcane council, not unlike Greyhawk's Circle of Eight. Each was a gestalt character--half specialist wizard, half something else. The idea was that they were from among a select group of people born with the capacity to wield magic easily, which is why they were not only powerful casters (we were starting at mid-level), but casters along with something else. Each had their own specialty, as the council only had one of each type. We also used the Unearthed Arcana specialist variants.
It could have been a lot of fun--was going to be as much political as anything else--but as I said, it didn't happen.
The idea was, the PCs were members of the world's primary arcane council, not unlike Greyhawk's Circle of Eight. Each was a gestalt character--half specialist wizard, half something else. The idea was that they were from among a select group of people born with the capacity to wield magic easily, which is why they were not only powerful casters (we were starting at mid-level), but casters along with something else. Each had their own specialty, as the council only had one of each type. We also used the Unearthed Arcana specialist variants.
It could have been a lot of fun--was going to be as much political as anything else--but as I said, it didn't happen.
Gez
First Post
Yes. It's a gimmick-intensive campaign.
Here's how it started out:
So, of course, we went with "all of the above". A family of "oriental adventures" sorcerers, who have all studied under the same master, and who have been forced to exile because of the failed political machinations of said master. And they're pirates. Yoho, yoho, a pilate's rife for me!
Here's how it started out:
Gamer A: Hey, I want to DM something. What about a swashbuckling pirate campaign?
Gamer B: Cool idea. You know what would be good? That, for once, we create all characters together, to come up with a good backstory reason why they're together.
Gamer C: Yeah! They could be all from the same family.
Gamer D: Maybe they'll all be multiclassed in the same class, which they learned together, with the same master?
Gamer E: What if they're political refugees from a foreign land?
Gamer B: Cool idea. You know what would be good? That, for once, we create all characters together, to come up with a good backstory reason why they're together.
Gamer C: Yeah! They could be all from the same family.
Gamer D: Maybe they'll all be multiclassed in the same class, which they learned together, with the same master?
Gamer E: What if they're political refugees from a foreign land?
So, of course, we went with "all of the above". A family of "oriental adventures" sorcerers, who have all studied under the same master, and who have been forced to exile because of the failed political machinations of said master. And they're pirates. Yoho, yoho, a pilate's rife for me!
Ankh-Morpork Guard
First Post
Gez said:So, of course, we went with "all of the above". A family of "oriental adventures" sorcerers, who have all studied under the same master, and who have been forced to exile because of the failed political machinations of said master. And they're pirates. Yoho, yoho, a pilate's rife for me!
Pirate Ninja Sorcerers?!
You have teh Powah.
jonesy
A Wicked Kendragon
If by mages you mean anyone who can use magic then yes. The party had a cleric, a rose knight/paladin, a white robe wizard/archmage, a red robe wizard/renegade hunter, a sorceror and a mystic.
It was a murder mystery/espionage campaign and the wizards weren't focused on combat spells. We had a lot of fun chasing clues and hunting down suspects.
It was a murder mystery/espionage campaign and the wizards weren't focused on combat spells. We had a lot of fun chasing clues and hunting down suspects.
I played in an online game where it was all mages except one person (me). Our party was a group of political emissaries from Halruaa. I (the half-dragon psiwarrior) was their one melee combatant/bodyguard. It was more of a political/economic game, so there was very little in the way of super dangerous combat.
Byrons_Ghost
First Post
My favorite world (and the only one I've run in the past 10 years or so) has always been Mystara. This is largely in part to the first Gazetteer I ever bought, the Principalities of Glantri. Glantri is a magocracy, full of wizards, and I've run about three different long campaigns set there.
I never had a group that was 100% wizard, but usually everyone but one or two people had at least a some wizard levels. During 2nd ed, of course, the elven wizard/X were quite popular. The 3e party I GM'ed for consisted of:
elven illusionist/rogue/arcane trickster
human abjurer/loremaster
human fire elementalist (home brew)
half-elven fighter/wizard/arcane archer
human cleric
There were also a human monk and a human paladin earlier in the game who later dropped. So, by the end, all characters had spellcasting abilities, and 80% of them were wizards. The fighter/wizard started off focusing on the fighter side of things, but finally started putting everything into wizard because it was the only way to get any IC respect in the setting.
It definately makes for an interesting game. The DM needs to know the various spells pretty well; it takes time to constantly look things up every few minutes. Straight hack-n-slash slugfests were rarely used; combat instead became a lot more tactical, taking into account positioning and ranges and creative ideas from the PCs. At higher levels the cleric was able to handle pretty much all of the healing; at lower levels, they party used a lot of potions.
I'd like to run another Glantri game eventually. Seems like I just run the same campaign each time I find a new group, but I like seeing how things differ from one set to the next. That, and since I tend to run high magic games anyhow, I'm pretty sure any groups I have in the future will also be wizard-heavy.
The only M:tG type feeling we had in the game was from the abjurer, who had all the counterspelling feats and used counterspells frequently. It made sense for the character and the setting, as well as tactically (if you've got the mages to spare, having one commit himself to keeping the enemy occupied is a damn good move). So it never bothered me too much. I mixed up my villains so that they weren't all spellcasters, and threw in big monsters that didn't use too much in the way of magic, so it's not like he was counterspelling every round.
We did get the occasional wizard's duel, which was sort of cool. Occasionally a PC would get burned, but more often it was NPCs underestimating their capabilites. For instance, right after Defenders of the Faith came out, I had an evil priest all set up to use his Inflict spells at a distance, using the Reach Spell feat. But the first time he tried it was on a PC with Spell Turning up, so the bad guy ended up zapping himself with an Inflict Critical. He was less than pleased.
At the end of the campaign, I was setting up an arranged duel between the abjurer and his superior in the Craft of Dracology (that was one of the "specialities" from Gazetteer) that had the potential to get pretty nasty. It never happened, though; I ended the campaign largely because I didn't feel like dealing with epic levels, and I think the other players were starting to get a little tired of the power creep as well.
I never had a group that was 100% wizard, but usually everyone but one or two people had at least a some wizard levels. During 2nd ed, of course, the elven wizard/X were quite popular. The 3e party I GM'ed for consisted of:
elven illusionist/rogue/arcane trickster
human abjurer/loremaster
human fire elementalist (home brew)
half-elven fighter/wizard/arcane archer
human cleric
There were also a human monk and a human paladin earlier in the game who later dropped. So, by the end, all characters had spellcasting abilities, and 80% of them were wizards. The fighter/wizard started off focusing on the fighter side of things, but finally started putting everything into wizard because it was the only way to get any IC respect in the setting.
It definately makes for an interesting game. The DM needs to know the various spells pretty well; it takes time to constantly look things up every few minutes. Straight hack-n-slash slugfests were rarely used; combat instead became a lot more tactical, taking into account positioning and ranges and creative ideas from the PCs. At higher levels the cleric was able to handle pretty much all of the healing; at lower levels, they party used a lot of potions.
I'd like to run another Glantri game eventually. Seems like I just run the same campaign each time I find a new group, but I like seeing how things differ from one set to the next. That, and since I tend to run high magic games anyhow, I'm pretty sure any groups I have in the future will also be wizard-heavy.
The only M:tG type feeling we had in the game was from the abjurer, who had all the counterspelling feats and used counterspells frequently. It made sense for the character and the setting, as well as tactically (if you've got the mages to spare, having one commit himself to keeping the enemy occupied is a damn good move). So it never bothered me too much. I mixed up my villains so that they weren't all spellcasters, and threw in big monsters that didn't use too much in the way of magic, so it's not like he was counterspelling every round.
We did get the occasional wizard's duel, which was sort of cool. Occasionally a PC would get burned, but more often it was NPCs underestimating their capabilites. For instance, right after Defenders of the Faith came out, I had an evil priest all set up to use his Inflict spells at a distance, using the Reach Spell feat. But the first time he tried it was on a PC with Spell Turning up, so the bad guy ended up zapping himself with an Inflict Critical. He was less than pleased.
At the end of the campaign, I was setting up an arranged duel between the abjurer and his superior in the Craft of Dracology (that was one of the "specialities" from Gazetteer) that had the potential to get pretty nasty. It never happened, though; I ended the campaign largely because I didn't feel like dealing with epic levels, and I think the other players were starting to get a little tired of the power creep as well.
Last edited:
PatrickLawinger
First Post
Driddle said:
Define "campaign."
The first session there were 5, 3 wizards, 1 sorc, 1 bard...
The next session we had
1 bard (survived)
1 wizard (survived)
1 sorc (new player)
1 fighter
1 cleric
1 rogue
2 months later I moved to Texas (San Antonio), but these guys did pretty well during that time.
First level, all-arcane groups do pretty poorly against undead and I didn't know (or plan) for their character choices ahead of time. I pretty much create a world and let the characters drive things from there. They ignored warning signs and paid for it. I have to admit, part of it was really bad rolls on their part, and a lucky streak on mine (I roll in the open, a natural 20 is hard to cover up). My players can tell you, I run really cold for a while and then in a single session my baddies will get crits and things get ugly fast.
If you start slightly higher level (where a crit from a skeleton won't kill you) I would think a well-organized group of diverse arcane casters could do well.
I do know that a group of clerics with a single rogue can do REALLY well, but that is a different story.
Similar Threads
