D20 Black Company conversions/ideas sought

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

It strikes me that, with the exception of the few 'weird' magic users such as the rose who have very powerful particular talents, the magic of the world of the Black Company can be simulated very simply using core-class variants.

The big change would be to simply make spells really hard to find and learn. Attach an insanity penalty if you like, but the operative thing is that higher level magics are difficult to learn in and of themselves.

This very simply enables characters like the company's magic users. Consider the possibilities if you had a caster who only had access to first, second, and third level spells but had around twelve levels to play with. That caster could metamagic the hell out of the magic he or she had, given time, and would also prove to be quite adept at magical item creation.

For balance and accuracy to the series the classes would require adjustments like more skill points and skills on the list and more frequent bonus feats. I would also recommend expanding the uses of alchemy and herbalism and such that high level magic users can attempt. Magical item creation would absolutely have to be adjusted to be more flexible both in terms of spell requirements and conception. Remember that cool bit with the block in the first book?

For the 'weird' magic users I recommend looking up Swashbuckling Arcana which has loads of very specific types of magic-user classes designed for a world that is low magic in much the same way the Black Company world is. A few of them would be directly portable, but the big use would be the inspiration they could provide.

In specific terms I recommend an exotic weapon proficiency feat for the military spear that I saw on a Black Company web site previosly. Basically makes your eight foot spear work like a bastard sword in that the exotic weapon proficiency enables you to wield the spear with a shield and use it at close range.

I would also love to see a five level prestige class called 'Company Veteran' not something that would necessarily be the focus of the character, but something that would accrue over time and add something of the Company's espirit-de-corps to the character, company lore and brotherhood, toughness, deviousness, and grit in particular.

Good luck with this. I love the books and the world.

 

[hellbender]

Doctor Strangemonkey:
Thank you for all of the suggestions and the well wishing. If you would like to contribute, even just rough ideas, please feel free to contact me.

h.

 

[Inez Hull]

The magic-using classes also seemed fairly hard to progress on. One-eye and Goblin almost never seemed to level as spellcasters, yet they did lots of XP-earning stuff. (Research and item creation feats don't necessarily indicate leveling as a spellcaster.) Given Glen Cook's notion that magic makes you insane (which he said in an interview somewhere), maybe their are points in the Mage class where the character has to decide if he wants to proceed- and pay the price.

One way of capping the level of spell accessable to a caster would be to cap attributes at their starting level. That's right, no stat gains every fourth level and no wishes or magic items that increase stats. This would give casters a limit of what spell level they can ever access determined by their natural talent - their spellcasting stat. In this way casters like Goblin & One-eye might have gotten to high levels but because of intelligence scores of say 14 - 16 were denied ever accessing the really big gun spells.

Perhaps each spell level gained could also result in a -1 penalty to wisdom. Wizards with a high starting wisdom can go on to become powerful and still retain some sense of sanity but those with low wisdom to start with degenerate to become like some of the taken or shadowmasters, who were completely mad.

 

[mmu1]

There actually are Gates(opened during Taking to the lower planes), Planar Bindings (the Silver Spike was tossed inside an outer dimension to keep it from re-entering the world) Astral Projection (Murgen projects through time outside his body) and Antimagic Fields (the White Rose herself). Certainly these are different takes on DnD spells, but they exist in variant form in the Black Company world.

That's kind of like saying they had Fireball, because Goblin and One-Eye could probably make a 1" ball of fire to try to set each other's shoes on fire.

Yes, some version of these spells exists, but it is usually a)Nothing like the D&D version in detail, b)Less powerful, or c)Used once a century.

I guess the problem I have is that while powerful magic might exist, Cook doesn't let most of the world use it, it's the domain of a few powerful characters. Which is kind of a problem for the players - you either keep them outside the main story in the books (either temporally or geographically), in which case there's no particular advantage to playing in the Black Company world, or you mess with the story to accomodate them...

 

[hellbender]

That's kind of like saying they had Fireball, because Goblin and One-Eye could probably make a 1" ball of fire to try to set each other's shoes on fire.

Yes, some version of these spells exists, but it is usually a)Nothing like the D&D version in detail, b)Less powerful, or c)Used once a century.

I guess the problem I have is that while powerful magic might exist, Cook doesn't let most of the world use it, it's the domain of a few powerful characters. Which is kind of a problem for the players - you either keep them outside the main story in the books (either temporally or geographically), in which case there's no particular advantage to playing in the Black Company world, or you mess with the story to accomodate them...

I totally agree on your angle with spells and magic. And although I see what you are saying with magic, higher level magic, and the setting, I see it all from another angle. A player party I can see maybe casually encountering the Black COmpany itself or not even at all. Maybe they encounter the aftermath, or maybe they are working for another Taken, running alongside the Company.

I have never seen a themed setting as a world in which players have to encounter the main protagonists from the novels. Why roleplay in Middle-Earth, or Mega-City One? Why play in the setting of Conan? Or the Forgotten Realms? Why roleplay in the worlds of Elric, or Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser? The storylines are already there, the heavies are untouchable without altering the story. People play in campaign worlds for the flavor of the world. Sure, you can alter the storyline as well, place the PCs as main members of the Black Company, and what is wrong with that? Anytime a new Judge walks MC-1 the storyline ceases to be the same, and the setting belongs to the DM, GM, Storyteller.


h.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

For me the greatest challenge would be trying to put together magic that can actually simulate the sort of mega magical battles that the taken and their opponents engage in.

Isn't there a battle on the shelf in which the company fights under a sky which is lit up by the massive spell being cast by the rebellion and the Takens' response? I can't think of anything in the core rulebooks that would even come close to approximating magic that slow and terrible. Reminds me a lot of the magic from exalted only with a much more elaborate counter system.