Corrupting magic.

[NATOCM]

Corrupting magic.

Hello. I’m writing up some new magic rules to limit the use of it in my new world. Basically using magic has a corrupting effect, the more you use the more corrupted you become. If use magic a lot and get very corrupted then bad things can start happening. This is how it works

If the spell is successfully cast roll against Corruption check (D20+ Caster level) with DC of:

Spell level + Current Corruption Points + 5

If they fail they gain a Corruption Point, if they succeed the spell is cast as normal.

Every 5 corruption points they roll on the table of bad stuff, this is a D100 table of bad things ranging from tingling in the fingers for extended periods of time to hearing the whispers of the dead to temporary loss of ability points. Once the character has reached their Corruption limit (determined by 1D10 *10) they roll on the critical Corruption table, a D8 table that is all basically bad, this ranges from several rolls from the corruption table to becoming one with the magic and exploding in a massive white light giving out magic to everyone in the immediate area.

Anyway. How does this seem to you? I’m not sure about some of the dice mechanics so I could do with some pointers on them, along with ideas for this table.

Much thanks!

 

[Jack Simth]

A 9th+ level Wizard casting his highest level spell level spell with no current taint makes the DC automatically (1d20+9 vs. 5+0+5; minimum roll of 1d20+9 is 10, which makes the DC), and, if he's manage to avoid taint (or get rid of it) will thereafter never have any trouble with it (unless there's other sources). The first point of taint pushes that up one level; each further point of accumulated Taint pushes that up two levels (10th level caster for 1 point of taint with a 5th level spell, 12th level for two points of taint and a 6th level spell, 14th level for three points of taint and a 7th level spell, et cetera).

Before that line, though, unless there's a way to eliminate Taint, he's basically doomed.
Suppose you have a Wizard who casts one spell of his highest level per CR = character level encounter, and takes 13 CR 1 = character level encounters to go up a level. Well, for casting 13 spells, he's got 13 chances of picking up taint. The chance that he'll reach 2nd level untainted is basically 5%. Oh, and he's more likely to have three or four points of taint than one or two - it cascades. If he fails his first, the chance that the first point is his only point is only 3%. If he fails his first and second, the chance that those two points are his only points is also about 3%. And so forth.

Spellcasters in your game are doomed without an easy way to eliminate taint.

 

[Storyteller01]

Two books to look at, if you're interested.

Blight Magic. Think Dark Sun defilers on crack, with some hideous side effects (especially for sorcerers). It follows a point system as well, so it may integrate well with your system.

Chaos Magic from MGP. It's not point based, but the paths may give you soem ideas.

 

[NATOCM]

Spellcasters in your game are doomed without an easy way to eliminate taint.

This was the idea ... however not to this extent. Apart from removeing taint, how do you think I could rejig this to make higher level characters with no taint be effected and lower chartacters not be?

 

[The Forsaken One]

Use the sanity system from D20 Call of Cthulhu and change the table of effects. Best thing I can suggest to you .

 

[Pyrex]

You might also pick up a (used?) copy of the d20 Wheel of Time RPG and take a look at the taint rules in there.

Still harsh, but not quite as 'doomed' as your current proposal.

Also, the Sanity rules (probably the same as in CoC, but I can't be certain as I don't have the book) are available in the online srd.

 

[Jack Simth]

This was the idea ... however not to this extent. Apart from removeing taint, how do you think I could rejig this to make higher level characters with no taint be effected and lower chartacters not be?

Reword that. You want the chance of Taint to be effectively independant of level.

But fundamentally, if there's a meaningful chance of accumulating a meaningful amount of Taint (and 5% per spell is meaningful), where that Taint is meaningfully harmful, and there's not any way to get rid of Taint, then spellcasters are basically doomed.

How many spells do you cast from one level to another? My estimates for the original was that a 1st level character is going to be casting about one per combat. A 20th level wizard is liable to burn through four for a given combat (for a two-round combat - two Quickened spells, two normal spells), plus several buffs each day (Mind Blank, Moment of Prescience, Foresight, et cetera). A 10th level Wizard is liable to be somewhere in between. Even a Wizard that's conserving spells is liable to be casting at least two a combat. And, for CR = CL encounters, you're expected to have about 13 between one level and the next. So to go from 1 to 20th, you're expected to have about 247 or so combats. At a 5% chance per combat of picking up a point of eternal Taint, you're looking at an expectation of 12.35 points of Taint at 20th. If you get two 5% chances at a point of eternal Taint per combat, you're looking at an expectation of 24.7 points of Taint at 20th. Three, and you're looking at an expectation of 37.05.

It would be like the previous edition of D&D where making a magic item cost you a point of Con. You can only afford that so many times. No mage would be in the magic item business. Can't afford to be. So you only make so many magic items, if any at all. If every spell had a chance of burning a point of Con in that fasion, you wouldn't see any mages casting spells ... as it kills them. And WILL kill them, eventually. Mages wouldn't reach high levels.

Now, those issues go away if you have some way of eliminating taint. Doesn't have to be a spell, or anything that's done quickly. If spending a day in some form of activity (be that total rest, worship of a diety, contemplating your naval, or basically anything else not normally meaningfully beneficial to a D&D character) gets rid of a single point of Taint (or has a reasonable chance at it) then:

Spellcasters must conserve spells in a dungeon environment (they can purge a little taint later... but they can't now; they have a limited amount of spells they can cast, even if they rest up). They aren't doomed (there's a reasonable chance of continuing to progress), but they can't just blast through everything in whatever fasion, either. Those that abuse the power to hold onto something big (e.g., Disguise Self daily to impersonate the King) will perish for being too greedy, and so on.

Forces down-time between adventures, though.

 

[NATOCM]

Hum. The thing is I really don't want to have a way of removing taint. Apart from not using it for a very long time... Also I like bad things happening to my characters … not necessary ending up dead. Do you think there is a way of changing the dice system to allow for this? Do remember the really bad things only happen after accumulating a lot of points, in reality having 12 points at level 20 is not bad, if the average critical taint is 50.

I think increasing your critical taint level every spell caster level could work, Also taint only comes into effect every 5 points, so, by your reckoning, they only have to deal with taint effects twice between 1 and 20.

I may have you wrong here. But I see your point. I really don’t want to give the ability to loose taint points. Because then the part of the rules that has taint effects, such as the table of bad things, doesn’t actually get used because people dodge around it. I want to make it nigh on unavoidable to have to use it. It doesn’t mean that they will be doomed and die, but they will be affected by taint heavily. This could be no more than a tingling sensation in the fingers or strange nightmares up to having fits when trying to cast. The only seriously critical, directly life threatening taint efforts in the game would be for characters that abuse magic and end up dead because of it.

It’s a flawed and vaguely unfair system, but that the IC concept behind it.

 

[Storyteller01]

Again, look at blight magic:

http://www.rpgshop.com/product_info.php?products_id=30863


Their system uses accumulated blight points that are impossible to get rid of. The effects of the blight points are nearly as hard to remove. If the characters stop using blight magic, then the accumulation stops, but the earned blight points don't go away.

 

[The Forsaken One]

Some kind of sanity damage is impossible to restore, others are really really really hard to restore and take ages without special care. Even with special care it takes weeks at least.