[Conan] - magic: any distinction between arcane & divine?

[Plane Sailing]

Does the Conan magic system have any division between arcane and divine magic, or is it all handled as one system of magic?

What options are there for differentiation between different practitioners?

Presumably the magic users work out quite a bit differently from the D&D "magic missile, shield, magic missile, fireball!" types of combat. How does it look? Is most magic for use within a combat round or outside of combat?

Sorry that these questions are a bit open-ended, but I'd like to get a handle on what is available in terms of magic in the Conan setting.

Cheers

 

[Ibram]

There is no mechanical difference between divine and arcane casters, they are all variants on the Scholar class.

magic is done using a spell point system (a rather good one). Most spells would be used outside of combat (like Black Death or Daemonic Pact) while some could be used in combat (Heart Clutch). The spells in the Conan book have little relation to the spells in standard D&D (a few of them are far more powerful then any D&D spell)

 

[zero skill LPB]

There's a notion of styles: Mesmerism, Counterspell, Nature, etc. The PC Scholar has access to certain styles based on the background you select; acolyte of a church, willing thrall, uh, master of a demonic force, etc. The styles themselves are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but the organizations that provide access to the styles pretty much ARE mutually exclusive. There's an "independent" Scholar to allow the PC free choice of styles, but there's a chance that this flavor of Scholar fails to pick up anything mystically useful when a new style is available upon leveling up (what with being on his own, lacking focused tutelage).

Example: If your Scholar is an acolyte of the church (of Mitra, say) then you begin with access to the Counterspell style, but if anyone in the church catches wind of your friendly dealings with demonic forces (Demonic Pact style somehow taken at a later level, say) then there may be some... complications with further associations with the church.

Make sense?

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I may need to pick this up ... hrm.

Too many RPGs. Not enough time.

I need to get a job as a full-time DM. This whole work/school/RPG thing is too stressful.

--fje

 

[S'mon]

The game is incredibly true to the original spirit of REH's work, here as in other cases, and ignores many pastiche conventions that deviate from Howard's grim vision.

It would probably be most accurate to say that there is no 'divine' magic in Conan - priests often know magic because as scholars they have the time & inclination to study the dark arts, or perhaps because they worship a demoniac entity that grants them hidden knowledge, but there are no gods granting spells in the D&D sense. Arguably there are no gods, period - REH's worldview is agnostic at best, such 'gods' as might exist beyond the minds of their worshippers would likely be closer to Lovecraft's Great Old Ones than to beneficent humanocentric divinities, although there's no reason to think 'good' Mitra is any more or less real than Set, his evil arch-enemy. Of course demons and other alien beings exist, but they're more dwellers in the Outer Dark (the depths of space beyond our Solar System), or usually-hostile entities from other dimensions, than horned pitchfork-wielders from a humanocentric Hell. There are ghosts - it's clear that something of a (particularly strong-willed?) human spirit can live beyond death, like Belit and Epimetreus, but what exactly happens to them, whether there is any 'afterlife' (heavenly, hellish or otherwise), is entirely an open question.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Excellent news about the spell-using class, and the way that they seem to have handled magic. Fantasy RPG benefits greatly from having different takes on how to do magic, and this sounds like a particularly interesting direction.

IIRC some of the evil sorcerers in REH works were big on human sacrifice - does that factor into the magic system too?

 

[S'mon]

IIRC some of the evil sorcerers in REH works were big on human sacrifice - does that factor into the magic system too?

Indeed yes - Sorcerers can boost their Power Points significantly through sacrifice, and there are lots of handy Feats available to boost that sacrificin' mojo - Tortured Sacrifice (ritual disembowelment type stuff), Opportunistic Sacrifice ('Blood & Souls for Arioch!' type stuff), and others.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Very cool indeed!

Hey - whereabouts in London are you S'mon?

 

[Ibram]

the Sorcery section in the primary Conan book is a little light on Styles and Spells, though they are coming out with a book (this week I believe) that further details Sorcery (hopefully once I get that book I'll be able to start using the Conan magic system in my d20 games)

 

[Iron_Chef]

Speaking of sorcerers, you'll probably want your PCs to plunder some Stygian tomb at some point, right? Here's a great site with 3D maps of the tombs in the Valley of Kings in Egypt, perfect for Conan GMs or anyone running an Egyptian adventure for any game system. Check it out and marvel at the insane amount of work that must have gone into this project!

http://www.thebanmappingproject.com/