Andy Collins - Incarnum Support in Dragon Magic

[RodneyThompson]

That's not the only non-core mechanic you'll see supported in Dragon Magic.

 

[Odhanan]

We'll be doing a bit more toe-dipping for various systems in some upcoming books, including a small number of soulmelds in Dragon Magic. Enough to shell out for the book by themselves? Of course not--but that book has so much of the cool in it that you'll be happy you did.

It's too early to say whether that kind of support is an anomaly or a sign of things to come, so please don't take away an unreasonable expectation. I'm not promising that soulmelds are going to become a standard section in every sourcebook, and I'm certainly not suggesting that Complete Incarnate is high on our to-do list. (Though this thread certainly didn't hurt.) Take it for what it is, and keep telling us (and other folks) how much fun you're having allocating essentia and binding soulmelds. Anything can happen.

Just ask the psion.

Awesome! More toe-dipping, please! Complete Incarnate would be really, really cool too.

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

Dragon Magic's support of "other" magic systems was discussed several times. Chris Perkins made some early suggestions, Rodney and I talked about it between ourselves, I pitched more stuff to Chris, and when we were done Andy and the development team took a look at everything. There were things added, things cut, and things changed. I really like the final balance as I've seen it.

I personally think the addition of short, tightly focused sections for nonstandard systems adds to a book far more than it detracts. No book is going to have nothing but spells anyway (well, no book other than the Spell Compendium), and not all the rest of the space is taken up by feats, PrCs and magic items. and I wouldn't want it to be. A mix of ideas always means there will be some not everyone likes. Adding a few that some people will love as their only source of new soulmelds/invocations/true names seems a small price to pay, especually since people that don't want those might have hated whatever else would have been in that spot anyway. I don't think they should take up a lot of room, but a few pages isn't uncalled for, IMHO.

Owen K.C. Stephens
d20 Triggerman

 

[JoeGKushner]

It's too bad that this material and that from Tome of Magic, haven't been added to the SRD. Having it open would allow a lot of other things to possibly be done with it. Mind you that it didn't work that great for psionics, but there were a few books by Malhavoc and Fiery Dragon.

 

[JustaPlayer]

I don't think they should take up a lot of room, but a few pages isn't uncalled for, IMHO.

That's the way I think of epic support as well. I wish more people thought like that. Any kind new class or addition isn't going to see people jumping to pick it up when they know there is going to be 0 support on it.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

This may not be the best place, but I've got an incarnum related question.
Incarnum is unborn souls right? Those who use incarnum call upon the souls to make their melds right?

Where do the souls come from? Is there a plane where raw incarnum floats around, waiting be be pulled free and slapped into a baby?

 

[ForceUser]

Personally I find Incarnum to be an unwanted annoyance diluting an already over-filled pool of magic systems. No one asked for it, it fills no holes, and it does little to change the face of the game.

But it doesn't hurt anything, either. There's nothing wrong with having more options--nobody's saying that a particular DM must allow every option from every sourcebook, and I know of no DM that does. As with anything gaming-related, use what you like and ignore the rest.

 

[Andy_Collins]

Bah. I'd classify The Will & The Way and, to a lesser degree, Dragon Kings as support for the psionics system in 2nd ed.

Weird. I could have sworn I typed "before it got a second book of core rules support in the same edition" [emphasis added] because I was thinking of exactly those books (both of which are sitting on my shelf at home, next to my many well-used Dark Sun books) and wanted to differentiate CP from those tomes. I know I was thinking it, but that's what you get for posting after a long day.

(While I recognize that many folks used those books in their core game, they were certainly written and sold as DS sourcebooks--and, IIRC, the psionic powers within were pretty heavily themed in that manner.)

Apologies for suggesting that those books "didn't count" as support--it wasn't my intention to diminish their existence, but rather to characterize the "reality" of what CP set out to do (whether or not you agree with its execution) as different from that of those books.

 

[Knight Otu]

This may not be the best place, but I've got an incarnum related question.
Incarnum is unborn souls right? Those who use incarnum call upon the souls to make their melds right?

Where do the souls come from? Is there a plane where raw incarnum floats around, waiting be be pulled free and slapped into a baby?

Incarnum is soul energy, created from all souls, living, dead, and unborn. Those who use incarnum draw upon all souls in tiny little bits that don't harm the souls, and which return after use. Someone who creates a meld that grants liar abilities draws on the souls of all liars. Someone who creates a meld that allows the use of frost worm abilities draws on the souls of all frost worms.
The assumption is that souls come from the Positive Energy Plane, particularly from places called "fonts of preincarnate souls." One of those fonts is part of the adventure Bastion of Broken Souls. These fonts are said to be protected from divine meddling why a so-called Ban of the Unborn, that should allow those souls to retain free will.

 

[Razz]

Hey Andy, why don't you 'dip your toe' back into the Epic-level pool? Last time I checked, you co-authored that book, too.

I was thinknig the same thing. I really wish they'd bring back Epic Insights to the WotC website. That, next to The Mind's Eye, were the best articles there, giving us support for 2 things hardly ever given support by WotC in their books.