A new type of magic

[dicechild]

Has anyone ever tried to modify the magic for the players. As a DM I liketrying new things, and this is my newest idea. I have altered the way magic works for the players in my world. Instead of spells, they recieve one *power word* per level. These "power words" are words like fire, death, life, water, etc. Anything you can do with a spell, you can do with these. The trick to these is the players creativity. They can do pretty much anything if they can explain the process to you. Like with the *power word* fire, a character can create a magical flame in his hand the size of a match, or start a forest fire. Since there were no precedents for me to work with, I had to guess at limits at first. But I thought of a new way to do it. Instead of limiting their spells, I make the players take nonleathal damage based on what they cast. they take roughly 1/4 of the damage, healing, etc. that they dish out. This seems to work well especially since it limits what they can do in a fix. I also made it so every class may use magic. Fighters, and barbarians get one power word every four levels, rougues, paladins, rangers, bards get a power word every two levels. Sorcerers, and wizards get 2 power words a level, and druids and clerics get 1 a level. Tell me how this sounds to you
Dicechild

 

[dcollins]

House Rules, please.

 

[Hypersmurf]

House Rules, please.

Indeed.

Whoosh!

-Hyp.
(Moderator)

 

[Sledge]

25% back of what they deal sounds very bad at first glance. Your average wizard has less than 50% of a fighters HP. So to kill one fighter of equal level will take up half the caster's HP. If there are two fighters, the spellcaster is totally innefectual. Even a magic missile (doing average of 3.5 or 4 at lvl 1) will be deady to the caster at low levels.

 

[Hodgie]

So am I to understand that they are able to choose how much damage they deal with the only limitation being that they take non-lethal damage equal to 1/4 that amount? If so, that seems a bit off.

I guess I completely disagree with Sledge, I think that a wizard being able to give up half their life to kill a fighter of equal level is NOT good design. Plus this makes no mention of area of affect, saving throws, SR, ranged touch, or any other balance elements. Finally, I am assuming that these power words are similar to spell slots, aka at 1st level a wizard can cast 2 power words per day. A normal wizard/caster will quickly out pace this variant.

All of that said, I like the flavor....

 

[Corlon]

it's neat, but you need a lot more limiting factors, with the current system, you could say with the fire power word that you deal 80000000000000000000000000000000d6 damage within a 70k mile radius. Sure you die, but I mean, KABOOM.

Also, if you get 1/4 the healing you dish out, you can heal your companions and yourself at the same time.

it's an interesting idea, but when you open up a new magical system, it's going to take a LOT of work, especially if you want this kind of flexibility.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Check out Elements of Magic [Revised]. It's a great system, and should be pretty easy to mod for taking damage to cast spells.

 

[palleomortis]

it's neat, but you need a lot more limiting factors, with the current system, you could say with the fire power word that you deal 80000000000000000000000000000000d6 damage within a 70k mile radius. Sure you die, but I mean, KABOOM.

Also, if you get 1/4 the healing you dish out, you can heal your companions and yourself at the same time.

it's an interesting idea, but when you open up a new magical system, it's going to take a LOT of work, especially if you want this kind of flexibility.

One thing my DM(dicechild) forgot to mention is that if the spell kills you, then the spell is not cast at all. That and you still die. As a player, i LOVE the flexibility. Spells like powerword kill are way to bland. You can only do one thing with the spell, death. But with this, your imagination is the only limit to your spell casting. You guys are just jelouse of the new guys brains . JK. I'm sure all comments are ok here for him. And in that case, YOU'RE AN EVIL, MEAN, EVIL, AND REALLY MEAN DM!!!

 

[palleomortis]

Indeed.

Whoosh!

-Hyp.
(Moderator)

Well what ELSE is this supposed to be?

 

[dicechild]

All the ideas are great. I already have some limiting factors. There are no limits to spells per day, so anyone can cast any amount of spells. I agree with you about the healing, haven't quite figured it out yet. Most of the spells are only limited by my descretion. I can also twist what they say if it is too powerful. Such as in one case, a tiny spellcaster attempted to cave in a dirt cave and managed to kill himself with the casting and his companions with the cave in.