Elements of Magic - Mythic Earth (post-release proofread complete!)

[Borlon]

Astronomancy [Tradition]
You believe your magic comes from the power of celestial bodies.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (nature) 4 ranks.
Benefit: You gain access to the magic skills Attack, Defend, and Divine.
Every month the heavens align favorably for you, granting you a +2 bonus to your caster levels. However, opposite this time they align against you, and you take a -2 penalty.
Rituals: Rituals for this tradition involve drawing a chart of the heavens to map the paths of power you’re invoking. Doing so requires a Knowledge (nature) check with the DC equal to (5 + ½ the spell’s level).
Mishaps: Mishaps in this ritual misalign your stellar connection, and the celestial power temporarily overloads through your body, leaving you staggered for a number of rounds equal to 1/4 the attempted spell’s level.

Leeching [Tradition]
You believe your magic comes from draining the power of magic items.
Benefits: You gain access to all magical skills. However, you may only cast spells if you have at least one active magic item on your person. Casting a spontaneous spell leaves all of your magic items inoperative for one round while they recharge themselves. A signature spell only leaves a single magic item inoperative for 1 round instead of all of your magic items. When casting a spontaneous spell, you may, as a swift action, perform a touch attack against an adjacent creature. If the touch attack succeeds, one of their magic items (determined randomly) is rendered inoperative for 1 round, and none of your items are drained. If the touched target has no magic items, yours are drained as normal. You may not use this touch attack in conjunction with another spell or special ability.
Rituals: Rituals for this tradition must use a magic item to drain. A magic item drained by way of this ritual remains inoperative for one minute per spell level.
Mishaps: Mishaps in this ritual place too great a drain on your items. All of the magic items on your person are inoperative for a number of rounds equal to 1/3 the attempted spell’s level.

1 round doesn't seem very long. Do you really think this cost is enough to warrant granting them all magical skills?

For Astromancy, how long each month does the period of good/bad favor last?

 

[Alzrius]

1 round doesn't seem very long. Do you really think this cost is enough to warrant granting them all magical skills?

In all honesty, yes. Remember, they can't cast spells either while all of their magic items are inoperative, since they need to have at least one operational item on them to cast spells. Without their magic items, and unable to use magic, they're effectively sitting ducks, and it seemed unfair to make that condition last longer than 1 round. That said, I'm not married to the idea, and it's certainly open to change if someone presents a good reason for it. Likewise, maybe an idea would be that signature spells would only drain one item for a couple rounds, instead of one (though I wanted signature spellcasting to portray a clear advantage over other spontaneous spells with this tradition).

For Astromancy, how long each month does the period of good/bad favor last?

My default idea was three days each (e.g. full moon and new moon), but I sort of accidently/on-purpose left it blank so that a player and GM could decide the duration for themselves. In hindsight, that probably wasn't useful at all.

 

[RangerWickett]

I feel like dancing, despite it being 1:30 in the morning on a Monday, me being hungry, and my eyes being strained from looking at the computer screen for hours. And the reason? Well, because I read a thread where a guy recommended Mythic Earth as the best magic system he's seen for d20 ever.

Makes a guy feel a little proud, y'know?

But, I did make a few mistakes. I'm attaching a file here with a highly overhauled magic item creation section. I used this thread as inspiration to get things right, but I wrote the whole thing just tonight, so I'd appreciate if folks could give it a read-through, offer comments, and point out any errors.

Also, Alzrius, I'm attaching the new fantasy traditions I'm hoping to get entered into the Appendix with this little update. Let me know if you like how I tweaked things.

 

[Verequus]

Unfortunately, I still haven't read EoM-ME entirely - first I didn't have time to read and then I needed to find out, who dies in Harry Potter 6 (yes, the translation came out one week ago, but I couldn't get my hands on it until a few days ago). So I'm not sure, if my findings haven't been reported already:

Page 5 refers to table, which should be above the text passage, where this table is mentioned, but actually it is right next to this text passage.

Page 7: "Every ritual is based in a magical tradition, and some require other feats to work properly (such as Command Undead or Craft Permanet Spell)." "Permanent" misses a "n".

Page 10: "A ritual spell can only be a communal spell if it is designed that way; you cannot simply turn any ritual into a communal spell." What do you mean with that sentence exactly?

Regarding your rules revision:

"Activated Items

Activated items can be used as a standard action, and can be activated once per day. The Purchase DC of an activated item is 23 + spell level if the item can be used once per day. If the item can be used two or three times per day, increase the Purchase DC by 1. If it can be used four or five times per day, increase the Purchase DC by 2. If it can be used an unlimited number of times per day, increase the Purchase DC by 6. If it is a spell trigger item, reduce the cost by 1."

That has to be reformulated, because the first sentence is somewhat contradictional to rest.

 

[RangerWickett]

Page 10: "A ritual spell can only be a communal spell if it is designed that way; you cannot simply turn any ritual into a communal spell." What do you mean with that sentence exactly?

I mean that, say you find a spellbook with a ritual to call down a pillar of fire. That ritual of fire can be performed by you, or by you with a few allies, but the ritual was not intended to be a communal spell, so you can't go and gather to townsfolk to help you cast it. Only a ritual that was intended as a communal spell can be cast thus.

 

[genshou]

I mean that, say you find a spellbook with a ritual to call down a pillar of fire. That ritual of fire can be performed by you, or by you with a few allies, but the ritual was not intended to be a communal spell, so you can't go and gather to townsfolk to help you cast it. Only a ritual that was intended as a communal spell can be cast thus.

Can a ritual intended to be cast as a communal ritual be cast as a non-communal ritual should the ritual leader so desire? You know, like if the high priest's followers are presently running around on fire, but he needs to cast the ritual to summon his "god" (a high-CR devil) anyway.

Don't ask where that example came from; I'm being deprived of sleep... :\

 

[RangerWickett]

Honestly, I hadn't decided either way. I'd generally say yes, but if you lost enough followers, you probably wouldn't have quite enough free levels to cast the ritual. This would cause the ritual leader to have to make much higher spellcasting checks. Which works for the old 'break in while they're doing the ritual and mess up their spell' plan.

 

[Alzrius]

Also, Alzrius, I'm attaching the new fantasy traditions I'm hoping to get entered into the Appendix with this little update. Let me know if you like how I tweaked things.

Looking good! I can also see why you dropped the fiend-worshipping one, since it cut a little to close to some of the existing traditions. Any particular reason why Astronomancy, Leeching, and Targeted Leeching didn't make the cut? They seemed original enough, or so I thought.

 

[RangerWickett]

One part is that I wanted to move onto other projects. Another is that the leeching rules would have variable value depending on how many magic items are in a game, and I wanted to keep the book flexible. As for Astronomancy, it just didn't feel interesting enough of a mechanic.

 

[Verequus]

Okay, I've finally worked myself through EoM-ME. And I found several things:

Page 34: "Russell Vanderschmidt is too old to pin himself down with alleigances as he did in his youth." Allegiances isn't spelt correctly.

Page 39: "Because you are creating an entire spell, the dispel attempt takes only a standard action, not two full rounds. If your spell functions, you dispel the targeted spell." What do you mean with this sentence? Shouldn't be creating an entire spell last 2 rounds - or do you mean actually, that you don't create an actual spell?

Page 39: "The check is modified only by your ranks in Spellcraft, not by your Intelligence modifier or any other ability except those the specifically say they assist dispel attempts." The "the" after "except" should be "that".

Page 41: Confusion should be allowed to be taken as moderate and strong effects, although the only benefit is, that a simple save won't help the victim.

Page 51: No mentioning, what a scryed place counts regarding the Int check DC?

Page 53: The class skill "Profession (Wis)" should be listed as "Profession (any) (Wis)".

No telepathic communication with Charm?

How do you heal undead, if Heal harms them?

Why are certain uses of enhancements restricted in the number of times, which they can be selected?

I haven't seen an option, where Attack, Illusion, Move and Transform spells have no save.

Why can't the mental stats be improved in d20Modern? And why is the option missing to improve a Constitution skill (although there is only one skill)? Why isn't the bonus for strength skills doubled?

I'm missing Still Spell and Silent Spell. Are other metamagic feats available?