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First Post
The following is my attempt to convert the Ars Magica magus into a wizard character in D&D 3E. I would very much like any input on how do you think this character will fit into a D&D 3E campaign (the campaign has large areas controlled by Magi, btw).
This will probably make little sense to anyone that doesn't know Ars Magica. But if you don't know it but still want to know what I am talking about, I describe Ars Magica (ArM) in brief in the following paragraph.
Ars Magica is a roleplaying game centered around Wizards (the game uses the Latin term Magus, or Magi in plural). Each wizard has 15 magical Arts, arranged in 5 Techniques (Change, Create, Understand, Destroy, Control) and 10 Forms (Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Plant, Animal, Mental, Human Bodies, Sensory attributes, Magic). These are combined together to create an effect (for example: Create Fire to make a fireball). The precise effects is limited by your imagination only - but the more impressive and magical, the more difficult is the Spell. Each spell hence has a Spell Level indicating it's difficulty - typically from 5 (for a very weak spell) to 75 (for an immensly powerful spell). You add up both Arts (Technique and Form), and if you reach the Spell Level the spell is cast. IF it is lower, you lose a Fatigue level (you have 5 such levels). Typically, a magus has scores of about 5 to 15 in the Arts after, say, 20 years of studying magic in his lab - and can reach as high as 30 or more (magi typically live to 150 or 200 years, and begin their studies at age 25). For scale, a Fire Ball is a Create Fire spell of level 35, and does 1d10 + 35 fire damage.
Enough talk, now to my conversion.
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The Magus
A d20 Core Class
Hit Points: As Wizard
BAB: As Wizard
Skill Points: As Wizard
Skill List: As Wizard
Saves: As Wizard
The Magus has no class-level dependant special abilities. Instead, his class abilities are all related to his spellcasting ability, which is based on the Ars Magica magic system.
However, the Magus character can only learn spells or invest effects in magic items whose Level (as ArM determines it) is at most his Knowledge (Arcana) x 5.
Arts
The Magus character has 15 Arts he can develop. These are developed not with eXperience Points (XP), but rather with Enlightment Points (EP). It takes 1 EP to raise an Art to 1, 2 more to raise it to 2, and so on. EP are gained in the following ways:
Books: Only Summa are used in the game. Studying a Summa for three-months earns you [Int modifier + Quality] EP in the Art the Summa is about if your level in the Art is below the Summa’s, and 1 EP if it is equal to or above the Summa’s (the latter can only be studied with benefit once per Summa). The Quality of a summa is the [Cha modifier + Knowledge (Arcana)/2 + 6] of the writer at the time of writing.
The writer can write up to [Dex score] Levels of Summa per three-months, up to half his own Art level, and only once his own level is 2 or more.
Note: The ability to learn from Summa beyond their level is necessary as there is no spell mastery for Tractatus, and to give ancient books some usage even if your level is higher. Alternatively, the standard rules can be used, with the writing of a Tractatus possible only through investing EP in the spell – which would make the spell Mastered as normal. I think adding many types of books, and spell Mastery, is unnecessary in a game not centered around wizards.
Lab Study: Conducting lab research for three-months, with costs in materials worth 1,000 to 3,000 gp (assuming such materials are even available), earns you 1 EP per whole 1,000 gp worth of materials studied.
Spellcasting
The Arts are the standard ArM arts, and can be combined as usual to cast spells. To cast a spell, the Magus adds [Technique + Form + Con modifier + Aura] to a stress roll. The Magus may suffer Twilight, may suffer from a botch, and so on as normal in ArM.
In most locales, the Aura is +3. Other modifiers (such as Spell Foci) may be added as appropriate.
Only formulaic spells may be cast, there is no spontaneous magic. A Ritual requires no vis, but does require materials as explained below. Boosting the duration of a formulaic spell requires casting it as a Ritual, while investing materials increases its range. Boosting either range or duration of a Ritual increases both the time and the material requirements.
Spell Resistance works slightly differently. If the Spell Resistance is higher than the [spell’s Magnitude/2 + Int modifier + d20], the spell is resisted.
Every spell has a Saving Throw, whose type is assigned by the DM. The DC to save against the spell is the [spell’s Magnitude/2 + Int modifier + 10]. Damaging spells’ saving throws are of the “half” kind, such as “Ref half”. Most other spells are of the “negates” type. The DM should assign a Saving Throw, and its “type”, to each spell when the magus first learns it or casts it.
Formulaic spells are cast as a standard action.
If interrupted during casting, a Concentration check is required as normal in d20.
Any damage done is converted to hit points on a 1:1 scale, with each Body Level of damage equaling 5 hit points.
Fatigue levels loss is as follows: OK, OK, Fatigued, Exhausted, Exhausted with x2 penalties, Unconsicious.
Laboratories
Creating a magic item, a familiar, or inventing a spell and so on is likewise based on the Arts as usual. Instead of Magic Theory add the Knowledge (Arcana) ranks, divided by 2 (round down). Instead of Int, add the Int modifier.
Replace vis requirements with material requirements, worth 1,000 gp per pawn where the materials needed are widely available. These materials can be taken from the Form & Effects tables if determining availability and/or locating them is required.
Creating a basic lab requires three seasons (nine months) of work, and costs 3,000 gp in (alchemy-like) materials and instruments. Improving it further is done according to the WGRE, with a cost of 500 gp per difficulty (so a +1 general bonus would cost 3,000 gp).
Clarifications
There is no Parma Magica (though a ReVi can duplicate its effects), no Certamen, Finesse, spell Mastery or Multicasting, Magical Affinities or Penetration. There are no Virtues and Flaws – although the DM may allow you some instead of Feats on a case-by-case basis. It is impossible to create longevity potions – although this knowledge may be in existence in the world, beginning characters are not privy to it. Notice, however, the aging rules follow d20 rather than ArM.
Materials: Throughout the text, the costs assume a metropolitan area where Magi are common and trade is strong, so most materials are available for a price. The DM may approve the use of some materials at other prices or as worth a certain cost (the lava flowing from the fiery mountain into the wizard’s lab may count as a certain amount of materials replacing Ig vis, for example), decide no amount of money can locate the necessary materials for something, set a different price for study, or in any way change this mechanic to best suit the campaign, supply and demand, or his capricious abominable cruelty. When trying to visualize the materials, you may consult the Form and Effects tables for ideas.
This will probably make little sense to anyone that doesn't know Ars Magica. But if you don't know it but still want to know what I am talking about, I describe Ars Magica (ArM) in brief in the following paragraph.
Ars Magica is a roleplaying game centered around Wizards (the game uses the Latin term Magus, or Magi in plural). Each wizard has 15 magical Arts, arranged in 5 Techniques (Change, Create, Understand, Destroy, Control) and 10 Forms (Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Plant, Animal, Mental, Human Bodies, Sensory attributes, Magic). These are combined together to create an effect (for example: Create Fire to make a fireball). The precise effects is limited by your imagination only - but the more impressive and magical, the more difficult is the Spell. Each spell hence has a Spell Level indicating it's difficulty - typically from 5 (for a very weak spell) to 75 (for an immensly powerful spell). You add up both Arts (Technique and Form), and if you reach the Spell Level the spell is cast. IF it is lower, you lose a Fatigue level (you have 5 such levels). Typically, a magus has scores of about 5 to 15 in the Arts after, say, 20 years of studying magic in his lab - and can reach as high as 30 or more (magi typically live to 150 or 200 years, and begin their studies at age 25). For scale, a Fire Ball is a Create Fire spell of level 35, and does 1d10 + 35 fire damage.
Enough talk, now to my conversion.
==============================================
The Magus
A d20 Core Class
Hit Points: As Wizard
BAB: As Wizard
Skill Points: As Wizard
Skill List: As Wizard
Saves: As Wizard
The Magus has no class-level dependant special abilities. Instead, his class abilities are all related to his spellcasting ability, which is based on the Ars Magica magic system.
However, the Magus character can only learn spells or invest effects in magic items whose Level (as ArM determines it) is at most his Knowledge (Arcana) x 5.
Arts
The Magus character has 15 Arts he can develop. These are developed not with eXperience Points (XP), but rather with Enlightment Points (EP). It takes 1 EP to raise an Art to 1, 2 more to raise it to 2, and so on. EP are gained in the following ways:
Books: Only Summa are used in the game. Studying a Summa for three-months earns you [Int modifier + Quality] EP in the Art the Summa is about if your level in the Art is below the Summa’s, and 1 EP if it is equal to or above the Summa’s (the latter can only be studied with benefit once per Summa). The Quality of a summa is the [Cha modifier + Knowledge (Arcana)/2 + 6] of the writer at the time of writing.
The writer can write up to [Dex score] Levels of Summa per three-months, up to half his own Art level, and only once his own level is 2 or more.
Note: The ability to learn from Summa beyond their level is necessary as there is no spell mastery for Tractatus, and to give ancient books some usage even if your level is higher. Alternatively, the standard rules can be used, with the writing of a Tractatus possible only through investing EP in the spell – which would make the spell Mastered as normal. I think adding many types of books, and spell Mastery, is unnecessary in a game not centered around wizards.
Lab Study: Conducting lab research for three-months, with costs in materials worth 1,000 to 3,000 gp (assuming such materials are even available), earns you 1 EP per whole 1,000 gp worth of materials studied.
Spellcasting
The Arts are the standard ArM arts, and can be combined as usual to cast spells. To cast a spell, the Magus adds [Technique + Form + Con modifier + Aura] to a stress roll. The Magus may suffer Twilight, may suffer from a botch, and so on as normal in ArM.
In most locales, the Aura is +3. Other modifiers (such as Spell Foci) may be added as appropriate.
Only formulaic spells may be cast, there is no spontaneous magic. A Ritual requires no vis, but does require materials as explained below. Boosting the duration of a formulaic spell requires casting it as a Ritual, while investing materials increases its range. Boosting either range or duration of a Ritual increases both the time and the material requirements.
Spell Resistance works slightly differently. If the Spell Resistance is higher than the [spell’s Magnitude/2 + Int modifier + d20], the spell is resisted.
Every spell has a Saving Throw, whose type is assigned by the DM. The DC to save against the spell is the [spell’s Magnitude/2 + Int modifier + 10]. Damaging spells’ saving throws are of the “half” kind, such as “Ref half”. Most other spells are of the “negates” type. The DM should assign a Saving Throw, and its “type”, to each spell when the magus first learns it or casts it.
Formulaic spells are cast as a standard action.
If interrupted during casting, a Concentration check is required as normal in d20.
Any damage done is converted to hit points on a 1:1 scale, with each Body Level of damage equaling 5 hit points.
Fatigue levels loss is as follows: OK, OK, Fatigued, Exhausted, Exhausted with x2 penalties, Unconsicious.
Laboratories
Creating a magic item, a familiar, or inventing a spell and so on is likewise based on the Arts as usual. Instead of Magic Theory add the Knowledge (Arcana) ranks, divided by 2 (round down). Instead of Int, add the Int modifier.
Replace vis requirements with material requirements, worth 1,000 gp per pawn where the materials needed are widely available. These materials can be taken from the Form & Effects tables if determining availability and/or locating them is required.
Creating a basic lab requires three seasons (nine months) of work, and costs 3,000 gp in (alchemy-like) materials and instruments. Improving it further is done according to the WGRE, with a cost of 500 gp per difficulty (so a +1 general bonus would cost 3,000 gp).
Clarifications
There is no Parma Magica (though a ReVi can duplicate its effects), no Certamen, Finesse, spell Mastery or Multicasting, Magical Affinities or Penetration. There are no Virtues and Flaws – although the DM may allow you some instead of Feats on a case-by-case basis. It is impossible to create longevity potions – although this knowledge may be in existence in the world, beginning characters are not privy to it. Notice, however, the aging rules follow d20 rather than ArM.
Materials: Throughout the text, the costs assume a metropolitan area where Magi are common and trade is strong, so most materials are available for a price. The DM may approve the use of some materials at other prices or as worth a certain cost (the lava flowing from the fiery mountain into the wizard’s lab may count as a certain amount of materials replacing Ig vis, for example), decide no amount of money can locate the necessary materials for something, set a different price for study, or in any way change this mechanic to best suit the campaign, supply and demand, or his capricious abominable cruelty. When trying to visualize the materials, you may consult the Form and Effects tables for ideas.
