Mercurius
Legend
The talk of psionics got me thinking (again) about one of my favorite magic systems from literature: the great Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea. If you aren't familiar with it, essentially it involves knowing the "true name" of something, from the "language of making" employed by dragons and wizards. Meaning, you gain power over something if you know its true name - and even people have true names, which they only share with close friends. There are various types of magic users, from weather workers to chanters, and there are also lesser powerful untrained witches. Le Guin uses a tier system of apprentice, sorcerer, wizard, and master, with the Archmage being the head of the School of Roke.
How would you adapt this to D&D 5E? I suppose the easiest part would be to adapt the tiers to something like this:
1-2nd level: apprentice
3-4th (?) level: sorcerer (requires 14 WIS*)
5th+ level: wizard (requires 16 WIS)
11th+ level: master (requires 18 WIS)
17th+ level: applicable to being archmage
(*I'm not convinced that INT would be the best ability score - either WIS or even CHA might make more sense, as power seems to have more to do with will than it does with intellect)
Or something like that. It doesn't exactly fit Earthsea, but the point is to adapt it to 5E.
Without giving too much thought to it, I would think true names could be grouped in levels - like spells. Meaning, a mouse would be a lower "level" name than a dragon. And as you increased in character level, you could learn more names - "name slots." I suppose also the control and power you have over a name would increase as you level up, via a difficulty casting system. Or to be more accurate to Earthsea, names aren't grouped in levels - but your ability to work with them increases. This would make Roke wizards more variable in power, as a low level wizard could know the true name of a dragon, but not be able to do much with it.
I think, overall, it would require a lot more ad hoc improvisation and creativity. If you know the true name of "fire," there could be guidelines as to what you can do with it at different levels, but it would also require the player and DM to come up with their own, unique casting.
Thoughts? How would you do it?
How would you adapt this to D&D 5E? I suppose the easiest part would be to adapt the tiers to something like this:
1-2nd level: apprentice
3-4th (?) level: sorcerer (requires 14 WIS*)
5th+ level: wizard (requires 16 WIS)
11th+ level: master (requires 18 WIS)
17th+ level: applicable to being archmage
(*I'm not convinced that INT would be the best ability score - either WIS or even CHA might make more sense, as power seems to have more to do with will than it does with intellect)
Or something like that. It doesn't exactly fit Earthsea, but the point is to adapt it to 5E.
Without giving too much thought to it, I would think true names could be grouped in levels - like spells. Meaning, a mouse would be a lower "level" name than a dragon. And as you increased in character level, you could learn more names - "name slots." I suppose also the control and power you have over a name would increase as you level up, via a difficulty casting system. Or to be more accurate to Earthsea, names aren't grouped in levels - but your ability to work with them increases. This would make Roke wizards more variable in power, as a low level wizard could know the true name of a dragon, but not be able to do much with it.
I think, overall, it would require a lot more ad hoc improvisation and creativity. If you know the true name of "fire," there could be guidelines as to what you can do with it at different levels, but it would also require the player and DM to come up with their own, unique casting.
Thoughts? How would you do it?
