Anyone here use Soveriegn stone magic

[Archangel]

Very cool attitude.

I have another question (for anybody). Who uses this elemental magic system in the campaign setting? In other words... is the same system used for clerical spells, or are there no divine spell casters at all in the setting?

Well, in both Sovereign Stone and my homebrew, there are no divine spellcasters per se. There are two spellcasters - the Elemental Mage and the Void Mage (technically 5, as there is an Elemental Mage for each element - same class, different spells), but I believe that they would be considered Arcane (that is how I consider them).

IIRC, some cultures in the Sovereign Stone campaign believe it is from the gods (Elves for example), but I do not know enough of the Sovereign Stone deities to tell you if the gods have any control over the spells they can get or cast. I believe that the ones who think of it as divine either see it as a gift/tool (that they can learn or use) or as forbidden lore that only the gods should have (meaning spellcasters are outcasts to them).

I like this, because the spell system runs independantly of gods and religion. If a character is very religious in my world, he may get favors or miracles performed on a case by case basis, but he would not be of a certain class (meaning that his abilities, whether magical or not, would be independant of his religion). For the gods, I just have them use their powers to assist or hinder mortals if such an action is justified (and doesn't get the deity attacked by his peers).

Hope this helps.

 

[yipwyg]

SS Magic

I really like this system. I been toying with how sorcerers in my campaign world and thought about having Sorcerers be elementaly focused. I was thinking of having clerics and wizards use the standard Magic system, and have those that play sorcerers use the SS system. For those that use this system, what are your thoughts on using both systems at the same time. Do you think that Sorcerers would be more powerful this way then the standard wizard or cleric?

 

[Archangel]

Re: SS Magic

...Do you think that Sorcerers would be more powerful this way then the standard wizard or cleric?

Well, I think that it is a mixed basket. One one hand, you have spells that you can cast in one round and some have damage dependant on level (fireball, magic missile, lightning bolt, etc.), but, you also have a limited number of spells per day.

On the other hand you have a system with slower casting and set results (for the most part), but you can (as long as you are conscious) cast as many spells as you have time for.

I believe the combat mage would be more powerful, but the SS caster has the potential to rule if enough preparation time was available (granted, spell selection will affect both of them).

So, how was that for a non-answer (I guess I could have been more complete or supplied more examples - but, I think I got my point across)?

 

[Aristotle]

Okay... another question (You are all being really helpful and I thank you for your responses to my previous question).

I plan to use psionics. Now I already intended to run the "psionics are different" rule. So my question in... How well do you think the SS magic system will mesh with a campaign setting that also uses psionics?

I also was considering a sort of "hedge magic" system (maybe connected to the SS system or maybe just a very weak version of the standard magic system) for "minor spell casting" classes like the Ranger.

My setting uses extensive pantheons of gods that are very important in the day to day life of the mortals. So I want to also separate clerical magic from arcane magic as well... not sure how I want to go about that just yet...

 

[Archangel]

I would say, yes, it would work. My reasons for only using SS magic in my world is because it fits well and I want to keep it clean (one way for magic to work). I also have a somewhat lower level of magic and these rules work great for that.

I do not see a problem with using it in conjunction with other "magic" systems (Psionics, Divine, Arcane, etc.), as long as you keep in mind the strengths and drawbacks of the systems. I still feel that in a mixed campaign, many players would prefer the core classes for their familiarity, flash, and speed of casting.

Of course, with the easy mechanic of +1 Spellcasting Bonus, you could retrofit the SS magic to any core class by replacing their spell lists and progression with an adequate Spellcasting Bonus advancement (sort of like Base Attack). The Sorcerer, should probably be allowed to have more Intimate Knowledge spells, but would have no spells outside of that. The Bard would get a Spellcasting Bonus equal to a Wizards Base Attack progression. The Paladin/Ranger would get their +1 Spellcasting Bonus at 4th level and progress at +1 per two levels from there. Druids have a large number of nature related abilities -perhaps slowing their progress in Spellcasting Bonus to the same as the Rogue Base Attack progression. The Clerical ability, Spontaneous Casting may have to be replaced by a Lay on Hands ability.

Doing this would allow you to use a standard magic system, but keep the flavor of the core classes (Clerics still cast divine spells and even still get domains from their deities - yep, that means that they still cast some PHB spells after all; Bards still have perform-based abilities; etc.). Once again, I chose not to do this because of the magic level in my world, but there is nothing stopping others from taking this route.

 

[Stormprince]

Okay... another question (You are all being really helpful and I thank you for your responses to my previous question).

I plan to use psionics. Now I already intended to run the "psionics are different" rule. So my question in... How well do you think the SS magic system will mesh with a campaign setting that also uses psionics?

I also was considering a sort of "hedge magic" system (maybe connected to the SS system or maybe just a very weak version of the standard magic system) for "minor spell casting" classes like the Ranger.

My setting uses extensive pantheons of gods that are very important in the day to day life of the mortals. So I want to also separate clerical magic from arcane magic as well... not sure how I want to go about that just yet...

SS magic is independant from the gods, mainly because Margaret and Tracy decided to take a completely different tack with these novels then their other best-selling fantasy series, Dragonlance, where it sometimes seems too much attention is paid to the gods. In SS, the gods are there, and do have the occassional interaction with mortals, but for the most part, there is no direct interference from the gods.

That said, Psionics works perfectly well in conjunction with SS magic. Mentalism effects lie within the realm of Air magic (a speciality of the elves), while Divinations lie within the realm of Fire (viewing the past) and Water (viewing over vast distances). It'd just be a matter of drawing from different sources of magic.

In my old homebrew campaign, the one I was running before I started working here at Sovereign Press, I used Elemental Magic as the "ancient" magic, the path taken by Druids and Sorcerors, existing outside the more ordered and neatly deliniated abilities of Wizards, Bards, and Clerics. Paladins drew from the same source as Clerics, while Rangers were actually Druidic-Paladins, and thus drew from the Elemental Magic spheres. It seemed to work fairly well mixed together, and it really kept my players guessing when the ran into spellcasting NPCs.

Christopher

 

[CRG]

Done similar in the past myself.

Elvish magic, older in nature, was elemental - as were the druids and their order(s). Newer magic was either (1) semi-scientific (sympathetic magic, enchanted circles scribed on the ground, etc.) to represent wizardry or (2) standard divine

 

[Michael Sorensen]

Since the "crunchy" bits of the magic system are OGC, is there anywhere one could go to get more detail about the magic system? I would be the book, execept that I have no money, but I am very interested in the magic system.

Thanks.

 

[kenjib]

Two comments:

1. Subdual damage can never be healed by SS spell casters. This is important as it is the primary limitation on what kinds of spells people can cast. If you add other spell casting classes you need to close the loophole that would allow other casters to heal an elemental/void mage's subdual damage. It's an easy enough house rule though.

2. Spell casting bonus alone is not a sufficient indicator of how powerful a person is at casting spells. Hit points and fortitude save are also very important. Unfortunately, rangers and paladins get maximum hit points and fortitude saves (whereas magi get minimum in both), so just limiting their spell casting bonus might not limit their casting ability in the way you'd expect. They could still pull off some rather powerful spells. It would just take them longer.

 

[Archangel]

Good point kenjib, and I must admit that the balancing issues were one of the reasons I didn't convert PHB characters. That, and I felt that along with the Bushfighter and Samurai (which I call Ranger and Knight) their are plenty of good classes in the SS campaign setting without magic, so why bother.