Anyone done Magic via the skills mechanic?

[Ry]

I'm wondering how many people have put these together already; I'd really prefer to be able to work magic through a skill mechanic, kind of like how the old Dragonlance: 5th Age game did it.

For those who aren't familiar, basically each spell required making selections off of several charts. Once you'd made your selections, you summed the numbers and this gave you a target you had to reach to cast the spell. I've seen a version of this in the Age of Mortals conversion for dragonlance, but I'm wondering if anyone else has done it. I'd love it if these skills could go alongside the rest of D&D, but that might be asking too much.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Looks like a request for House Rules. I'll just shift this over.

 

[Jdvn1]

World Tree uses the noun-verb system of music, and each noun and verb is a skill. Your skill in each noun and verb determines what spells you can cast and how complex your spells can be.

 

[maransreth]

Khan's Press sourcebook ElfClash has a magic system in which you need to have certain ranks in certain skills to be able to use magic. That might be something to look at.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Check out my post in this thread.

 

[shadowlight]

Green Ronin has done an excellent job of Skills and Feats based magic.

The upcoming Blue Rose campaign setting/rulebook will use skill-based magic. Check out the fast-play rules here:
http://bluerose.greenronin.com/

Also, Green Ronin's Psychic Handbook uses a Skills and Feats based psionics system that has been a lot of fun to use. I'd recommend chicking it out as well.

 

[Ry]

Hey... that sounds _very_ interesting. Is there a .pdf available of the Psychic Handbook?

 

[shadowlight]

Hey... that sounds _very_ interesting. Is there a .pdf available of the Psychic Handbook?

Not that I know of. It's pretty inexpensive though. It's been one of my best purchases. I've used it in Modern and in Fantasy. 2.5 thumbs up out of 2.

 

[Tetsubo]

Th Red Star Campaign Setting also has a skill based magic system.

 

[shadowlight]

Th Red Star Campaign Setting also has a skill based magic system.

Yep. That's also by Green Ronin. They seem to be getting a lot of mileage out of that... and really developing it well at the same time.