A new type of magic

[Michael Morris]

A new type of magic? Hardly. Freeform systems are nothing new, but they all place legitimate and often daunting limitations on what magic can do. What I gather from your system is one where barbarians are the best casters (as they do have the most hit points), the role of "real" spellcasters are largely irrelevant, and since every spell exists only at the DM's whim, magic can be largely irrelevent too, depending on the DM's mood.

No thanks. The DM already has enough control over the game, he doesn't need more. What you suggest turns the game into a play where the players have no real influence and the DM is firmly in the drivers seat.

Read and use a few existing systems before proposing your own.

 

[Coredump]

Despite MM's apparent attitude.... he has a point.

Granted the mage has a larger choice of 'power words', but the barbarian can do much more damage with one, since he has more hit points to 'spend' on an attack.

Also, how do you deal with non-damaging spells? Grease, teleport, mage armor, etc. (or the equivalent type of spell effect.)

Also, do the players choose their powerword for the level, or do you assign it?

How many powerwords have you thought of? I would suggest 3 times as many as any one player would need by 20th level. (So, if a mage can have 20 at level 20, I say you need at least 60 words to choose from.)

 

[boredgremlin]

It seems obvious to me that the casting of healing spells on others should cause damage to the caster (and there would be no way to regain non-lethal hp aside from resting). I thought that was what you meant originaly

I love the concept of effort or energy or life being exchanged for spells. I think fatigue and exhaustion should be worked in somehow.
I'll give it more thought and maybe get back to you.
As for Mage (white wolf), I believe the general premise is that
a) your in modern world where magic isn't normal an if you go to far and blow your cover well . . .
b) If you really go to far "reality" kills you -- and doesn't let what you were about to do happen

Anyway I've never actually played it, VAMPIRE is wonderful though. For those who don't mind if they go an entire night without ever trying to hit someone.

Lol yeah thats the mage premise. Its based on the idea of everyones collective belief. Basically all reality is subjective and the mage is gifted enough to reweave reality to some extent. However he has to overcome the sum total of everyone elses belief in what "reality" is. So since most people in the modern world think you cant throw a ball of fire from your hands its very hard for a mage to do and the force of reality can smack him for it. Its does say that greater feats of magic were possible in earlier ages though. So in a D&D setting the players could get away with more because most everybody believes magic is possible. Its an interesting premise. But mainly i am suggesting the set of modifiers they have. There are modifiers to the spells for everything from how long it lasts to its range or whether your using the Foci items the character believes he needs for magic to work.
Using a system like that for freeform magic is probably easier then trying to make your own. Since people have allready playtested it all to hell and found the bugs.

 

[Dracomeander]

It sounds as if the type of magic you are trying to create is similar to Dave Duncan's 'A Man of his Word' series. In that world, magic is driven by secret Words known and jealously guarded by people. The more words known, the more power the individual gains to work with. The more people who share knowledge of a Word, the weaker the Word becomes.

As a story, it made for an interesting and unique concept that I enjoyed greatly. As a game mechanic, it is almost unworkble. There are too many subjective variables for the system not to begin causing friction between players eventually.