Dragonlance Dragonlance Moon Magic in 5E (conversion)

[toucanbuzz]

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by U2 often sums up my gaming experience. My players are off to Dragonlance in several months when we finish our current campaign, and here's my proposed Moon Magic rules (for those not in the know, arcane casters of the setting are affected by the phases of the 3 Moons of Magic, so High Moon = better, New Moon = worse).

I want to avoid too many plusses and minuses, a feature of 5E. Thus, I avoided something like +1 attack or +1 DC. While potent, it's more tracking of numbers. And, spell casting isn't all about combat. Casters are more potent all around.

Moon Magic. Effects are cumulative. For example, if all 3 moons are aligned in low sanction, you get Reserves of Strength but disadvantage on Concentration saves.

High Sanction (full moon). Spell durations double.

Moon is aligned with another. Advantage Arcana (INT) checks.

Low Sanction (new moon). Disadvantage Concentration saves.

All 3 moons are aligned. Reserves of Strength. You may increase a spell’s level by up to 3 levels and be stunned for an equal number of rounds. If you are immune to being stunned, you take an unavoidable 1d6, 3d6, or 5d6 damage respectively. This is borrowed from the 3E setting, previously a Feat.

Thoughts?

 

[Quartz]

How about:

High Sanction: Spells related to that moon are cast as if they use a slot one level higher. Maximum level is 9.
Low Sanction: Spells related to that moon are cast as if they use a slot one level lower. Reduce damage and effects appropriately or give Advantage on save if the level is reduced below the minimum level of the spell.

Note: if a spell is related to more than one moon the effects are cumulative.

Two moons aligned: free Arcane Recovery

Three moons aligned: Spells are cast as if they use a slot one level higher at High Sanction or one level lower at Low Sanction.

All effects are cumulative, so on the Night of the Eye, all spells will be cast as if 2-4 levels higher.

 

[toucanbuzz]

How about:

High Sanction: Spells related to that moon are cast as if...

Are you talking about schools of magic that originally were only for a particular Order (e.g. abjuration for White Robes)? Might be an interesting way to preserve that without barring any schools from players.

 

[Quartz]

Yes.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

The way I handle this in my current campaign is as follows:
I define all casters in the setting as either "Focused" (they gain their powers from an external source) or "Primal" (internal spark of chaos). Basically it's a slight tweak from the "cannon" but it makes the classes broadly speaking feel a bit different. The former can hypothetically have their powers taken away from them if the gods / moons aren't around or are blocked, and the latter are subject to wonky stuff like wild magic zones or pockets of reality being stretched thin (honing into the idea in the setting that sorcerers are "destructive" and ties into the whole Chaos god from Dragons of a Summer Flame.

The preamble isn't required for the Moon rules, but for context to know that I only have them effect basically Wizards, Artificers, Arcane Domain clerics, and in some cases Warlocks, Eldritch Knights, and Arcane Tricksters (I give these latter classes the choice at character creation to pick if they are Focused or Primal after I explain the implications of both).

For the relevant details to this thread...

They are attuned to a moon based on their alignment, White = good, Red = Neutral, Black = evil.

When their moon is at high sanction, I add +1 to their spell attacks and DCs, and when it is at low sanction I have a penalty of -1. This scales when moons are in alignment with one another, up to +3 on the night of the eye when they are all full, and -3 on the opposite night. Yes I get this breaks cannon a bit, but it's far easier to track and keep balanced and it really makes the players try to avoid fighting when their moons aren't good...which is ya know, kind of the point?

I've toyed with giving them the option to attempt to cast spells at a higher spell level and would suggest using this as an alternative to those who are concerned with this breaking bounded accuracy, or letting them reduce their bonus to raise the level, but to be honest most of this has only been stuck at theory-room crafting anyway as none of my players have yet to play a wizard in this setting. Even before I so much as mentioned the magic rules they all decided to play martial characters and it's been amusing as heck.

 

[toucanbuzz]

Even before I so much as mentioned the magic rules they all decided to play martial characters and it's been amusing as heck.

Aha, that may end up being how this goes. Clerics without powers? Count me out. Wizards with rules? No way.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

Aha, that may end up being how this goes. Clerics without powers? Count me out. Wizards with rules? No way.

I'm not surprised to be honest. I pitched the setting as heroic setting where people fought on dragon back and described it to them as "star wars, but medieval and with dragons instead of the force". One of my party tends to favor martials and really wanted to give the echo knight a spin while another was like "I get to be a half dragon ball of claws and fire? Sign me up!" (Homebrew dragon knight class with a subclass based on the dragon shaman from older editions), and our newest player took one look at the new dragon ranger and just said "this!" I can't really blame her.

 

[Stormonu]

I was sort of expecting the use of Sorcery Points, 0 for new moon and upwards until full moon (High Saction? Been a while since I read Dragonlance stuff). Conjuctions would add extra (or reduce?) Sorcery Points.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

I was sort of expecting the use of Sorcery Points, 0 for new moon and upwards until full moon (High Saction? Been a while since I read Dragonlance stuff). Conjuctions would add extra (or reduce?) Sorcery Points.

The problem with this is twofold: only one class has sorcery points without a feat, the sorcerer, which if you follow the actual canon lore, is explicitly not effected by the moons. Hell it was even discovered during a time period where the three moons weren't there and is even considered outright blasphemy by the moon gods. The Wizards Conclave makes this clear when Coryn is denied the position of head of the Orders simply because she practiced primal sorcery. (Albeit this is kind of a silly sticking point considering every other leader of the order did as well, but yeah conflicting canons is nothing new to the setting).

Additionally from a gaming standpoint how would you subtract sorcery points from wizards when the moons are low when they don't have the points by default? Same question with any the other classes aside from sorcerer you want to deem effected by the moons.