Elements of Magic Comments

[Mortaneus]

Great work people! A truly superb product.

I'm eagerly looking forward to putting this to use in my campaign.

A few comments, though:

I'm still puzzling what to do about the cleric. I read the new review of the work, plus comments, and noticed the suggestion that a cleric merely be a fighter/mage. The difficulty with that is then they'd have a decreased spell progression. I'm going to have to come up with my own cleric class, I guess.


I noticed a quirk with the evoke [element] spell list. Compare the ray and missle versions of the spells.

Evoke black element, 9th lvl, Mage20:
Ray: 17d6+20 = 122 max damage
Missles: 9 missles at 1d6+20 = 234 max damage

This isn't too bad considering you have to roll to hit with each missle. Things break down when you look at the evoke force table, though.

Evoke force, 9th level, Mage20:
Ray: 9d4+20 = 56 max
Missles: 9 missles at 1d4+20 = 216 max

Even considering to-hit rolls, there is ABSOLUTELY no reason why someone would should ever throw a force ray when they could throw force missles. Adding the /level damage to each missle causes things to get fairly out of whack, since EACH MISSLE gets that bonus damage, while the ray only gets it once. The fact that the missles have a longer range than the ray makes it even worse. Personally, I'm just going to remove the /level bonus damage from the missles and leave it at 1dX+1 per missle.


Biomatter evocations require some interpretation. Are they just wood? A big exploding lump of protoplasmic goo might appeal to some, but I find the idea more than a bit gruesome.


A question: What to do with spell-like abilities, spell-casting items, and such. Leave them as they are? That seems the easiest route.

I'm currently considering ways to incorporate staves and wands into this system. Maybe as channels, mana storing items, or some such.

 

[Cyberzombie]

For the cleric, I'm recommending either the red or the grey mage, depending on whether you want them to have life or death magic. I don't think a cleric with full spellcasting powers (like in the Core rules) would work very well -- it would overwhelm the poor mage class.

Or you can make your own cleric class, as you wish. Once it's in your game, it's yours.

Evoke [Element]: I'll take a look at that. That looks like it might need to be an errata. The first one I've seen, though Ranger Wickett claimed he caught one.

Biomatter: It can be any sort of inert natural material, such as wood, horn, bone, or even goo, if you wish. So an Evoke Biomatter missile could look like a sharpened horn thrown at the target. An Evoke Area Biomatter sphere could be an explosion of splinters. Whatever suits your character.

Spell-like abilities and items should be okay as-is; I tried to make my rules balance to the Core rules. I haven't got any hard & fast rules on converting them (including wands and staves) as it quickly became obvious that I wasn't going to have room for them. If you wish, let us know what you come up with. We're always open to new ideas.

Thanks for the comments. Let me know if you have any more.

 

[Cheiromancer]

The Abjure Creature spell allows the target to attempt a will save to avoid a grapple by the abjured creature. What is the DC of the save? When Abjure Creature is used to ward an area, how big can the protected area be?

 

[Cheiromancer]

Is the xp cost in the Alter Reality table the minimum, or is it in addition to any xp costs that may be incurred for creating items or raising ability scores?

 

[Cheiromancer]

A 10th level caster could use alter reality 3 multiple times to get a +6 inherent bonus to some ability score, correct? (Assuming he has enough xp, of course).

 

[Cheiromancer]

When you talk about Incorporeal creatures, you treat them as if they are ethereal (e.g. page 90, last paragraph under polymorph creature). I had always thought they were distinct phenomena.

The duration entry for 0 level spells in the Invisibility chart: it should read 2 rounds, shouldn't it?

 

[Cheiromancer]

Sorry for the gratuitious post-count padding- but I've just discovered that short posts (without italics or urls or sigs) can actually be posted!

 

[Cyberzombie]

Abjure Creature: As with the save DC of all spells, the Will save is 10 + the spell level + (for tEoM mages) the Charisma bonus of the caster.

Warding with Abjure Creature: You have found an Official Errata (TM). The area is a 5 ft. radius per spell level -- so you can't do this option with a cantrip, it's a 5 ft. radius with a 1st level spell, and 45 ft. radius with a 9th level spell.

Alter Reality: That is the minimum XP to cast the spell. I'll have that clarified in the errata.

You are correct about the inherent ability bonus. A 10th level character is unlikely to have 15,000 xp to use for one ability score, however.

Incorporeality: Well, the DMG and the Blink spell in the PHB seem to say that incorporeality and etherealness aren't the same thing. Ethereal Jaunt, however, talks about how the ethereal character in incorporeal. (Not to mention that's the way they've always done it in past editions.) So, while the evidence leans in your favour, it's still not clear.

To clarify, so it doesn't matter which version is correct: Ethereal or incorporeal creatures can be targeted by this spell only if you are also ethereal or incorporeal.

Invisibility: Ouch! That is a very bad cut-and-paste error. Another errata. Thanks for spotting that one.


Thanks for the comments. I've looked over the book so many times that the errata know how to hide from me.

 

[Mortaneus]

Finally! I can post again!

Anyway, here's what I attempted to post this past thursday:

If you wish, let us know what you come up with. We're always open to new ideas.

Well, off the top of my head, here's a few ideas:

Mana Vault- It is capable of storing magical energy. Basically, it works the same as a Crystal Capacitor from the PsiHB, has the same cost, and doesn't occupy any slots, regardless of form. Personally, I like the idea of them being usually in the form of rings: ordinary rings, earrings, nose-rings, etc. Thus, the mage with a ring on every finger becomes a possibility, since these don't take up a slot. Also, restricted forms of these items are a possibility, providing energy points that can only be used for spells of a particular [element] or [creature], and costing less than the univeral form.

I say ring because the ring of spell storing becomes the ultimate version of this kind of item, providing 19 points (10th level spell).




Wands- I've found the current form of wands to be a bit lackluster. Using EoM, you can give them a much more telling role. What if wands were items geared towards a particular [element] or [creature], and serve as power channels for spellcasting using that [element] or affecting that [creature], increasing the DC of spells cast through them by a certain amount, depending on the power of the wand. Then you could have, for instance, a wand of fire that adds +2 DC to all Fire spells tossed through it (and maybe +1 DC to kindred elements]. Pricing it would be fairly easy. Just base it on the price of a CHA increasing item of comparable power, and give a discount from that because it's limited application. Maybe 2k GP for a +1 DC, 10k GP for a +2, 25k GP for a +3. As for them affecting related elements, have the + count as 1 less. So a +1 does nothing for related, a +2 gives a +1 for related, and +3 gives +2 to related.




Staves- Same reasons for changing as wands, but even more so. I've always thought staffs were given the short end of the stick under 3rd edition. The sheer amount of money you pay for an item that goes after 50 (or less) uses is almost never worth it. The only really worthwhile staff is the Staff of the Magi, and it's monstrously powerful.

With that in mind, what about making staffs be a universal casting tool? Maybe working like the Torque of Psionic Might, reducing the mana point cost of spells. Then you'd see mages running around with them. Yet again, you could have limited forms of these, perhaps helping only for specific [element] or [creature] types, or maybe helping spells from a certain spell list, regardless of type.


Tokens- One shot bundles of magical energy. Fetishes, Pawns of Vis, Enchanted gems, rare spell components. Provide a certain amount of magical energy for a single spell, perhaps of a specific [element] or [creature] type, and then are consumed.


Anyway, just some ideas. Most of these are easily turned into tables and formula. Having the option of [element] and [creature] specific versions of each allows for a huge number of permutations of each, giving GMs some very flavorful magic items to toss around. If you want, I could sit down and fully write each of these up. I'll probably wind up doing so eventually for my campaign anyway.

 

[Mortaneus]

BTW, a few other questions:

I noticed that the sub-classes of Mage, specifically the Black and White Mage, seem to merely be restricted versions of the Mage class. Wouldn't it have made sense for them to have some factor to balance then with the much more versitile Mage, in case someone wants to use both? I like the idea of being able to play a generalist mage, or being able to focus more specifically with a sub-class, and gain some other benefits on top of what you could have for being a mage.


Also, the radius on the hemispherical wall is pretty pathetic. According to the table, a 10th level caster creating a wall with Wall of [element] 5 would either be able to cover 10 5'x5' squares, for a total surface area of 250 sq. feet, or a hemisphere 10' feet across, having a surface area of ~54 feet. Why so small? It seems the chart should be adjusted by a factor of about x4 for a hemispherical shape, or x2 for a sphere.