Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Million Dollar TTRPG Crowdfunders
Most Anticipated Tabletop RPGs Of The Year
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
For a setting that emphasizes the five power sources
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 9792098" data-attributes="member: 58172"><p>Here is an update of the Modal Themes table. Some tropes within a theme split off to form their own theme. For example, Elemental Fire separates because its Fire and Radiant mechanics can alternatively riff off the Astral Celestial and Fiend imagery, thus can behave differently from the other Elemental tropes. The more nuanced update should feel more familiar for D&D settings.</p><p></p><p>Each of the four magic power sources -- psionic, arcane, primal, and divine -- features two of eleven themes. Altogether there are thirteen themes, but all magic classes access the Mage theme, and only weapon classes access the Martial theme.</p><p></p><p>The eleven themes saliently distinguish the magical sources from each other. Each magic class features six themes and lacks five. Two of these class themes match its power source. The remaing four themes might be any depending on class concept. The combination of themes is its prevailing "modal" themes. The class modality helps distinguish its flavor from other classes.</p><p></p><p>Each theme, including each trope of the Elemental theme, has at least twenty thematic spells. The eleven magical themes are as follows.</p><p></p><p></p><p>SPACETIME</p><p>- remote presence, prescience, time manipulation, teleportation, demiplane.</p><p></p><p>MIND</p><p>- telepathy, sapience, charm, domination.</p><p></p><p>FEAR</p><p>- frighten, trauma, psychic damage, subjective phantasm, confusion, stun, hold.</p><p></p><p>ILLUSION</p><p>- invisibility, objective illusion construct, lifelike force construct, construct made of "magical energy".</p><p></p><p>ETHEREAL</p><p>- Ethereal Plane, force, telekinesis, flight, force damage, simple force construct.</p><p></p><p>FIRE</p><p>- elemental fire, fire damage, radiant damage, light and darkness, skyey luminaries, volcanic geothermals.</p><p></p><p>ELEMENTAL</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Elemental: Elemental Planes, combination of elemental tropes, Elemental Chaos, acid damage.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Storm: elemental air-water, wind, precipitation, lightning-thunder damage, sound and silence, cold damage.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Alchemy: elemental earth-plant, metal-wood-etcetera fabrication, crystal, linen, herbalism, material sciences, architecture.</li> </ul><p></p><p>FEY</p><p>- Feywild, shapeshift, body enhancement, Beast, living creature types.</p><p></p><p>SHADOW</p><p>- Shadowfell, Undead, death, sleep, necrotic damage, disease, poison damage.</p><p></p><p>HEALING</p><p>- healing, resurrection, restoration.</p><p></p><p>ASTRAL</p><p>- Astral Plane, Celestial, Fiend, Aberration, combination of planar traveling.</p><p></p><p>And beyond the eleven magical themes:</p><p></p><p>MAGE</p><p>- discern magic, antimagic, alter spellcasting, prestidigitation, wish, mind over reality, soul, weave.</p><p></p><p>MARTIAL</p><p>- exemplary reallife accomplishments, superhuman heightening of such accomplishments.</p><p></p><p>Interestingly, the eleven themes somewhat suggest a gradation from nothingness to thought to force to matter to a resulting rich realm of ideals.</p><p></p><p>The four power sources are psionic (Spacetime, Mind), arcane (Illusion, Force), primal (Elemental, Fey), and divine (Astral, Healing). Each class has its two source themes, but the remaining four themes might be any other.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>MODAL THEMES OF POWER SOURCES </strong></p><table style='width: 100%'><tr><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Psionic<br /> Themes</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'></td><td style='width: 10.0000%'></td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Arcane<br /> Themes</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'></td><td style='width: 10.0000%'></td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Primal<br /> Themes</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'></td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Divine<br /> Themes</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'></td></tr><tr><td style='width: 10.0000%'><strong>PSION</strong></td><td style='width: 10.0000%'><strong>BARD</strong></td><td style='width: 10.0000%'><strong>SORCERER</strong></td><td style='width: 10.0000%'><strong>WARLOCK</strong></td><td style='width: 10.0000%'><strong>WIZARD</strong></td><td style='width: 10.0000%'><strong>ARTIFICER</strong></td><td style='width: 10.0000%'><strong>RANGER</strong></td><td style='width: 10.0000%'><strong>DRUID</strong></td><td style='width: 10.0000%'><strong>CLERIC</strong></td><td style='width: 10.0000%'><strong>PALADIN</strong></td></tr><tr><td style='width: 10.0000%'>SPACETIME</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>SPACETIME</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>SPACETIME</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Spacetime</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Spacetime</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Spacetime</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Spacetime</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Spacetime</td></tr><tr><td style='width: 10.0000%'>MIND</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>MIND</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>MIND</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Mind</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Mind</td></tr><tr><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Fear</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Fear</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Fear</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Fear</td></tr><tr><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Illusion</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Illusion</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>ILLUSION</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>ILLUSION</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>ILLUSION</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Illusion</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td></tr><tr><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Ethereal</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>ETHEREAL</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>ETHEREAL</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>ETHEREAL</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Ethereal</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td></tr><tr><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Fire</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Fire</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Fire</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Fire</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Fire</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Fire</td></tr><tr><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Elemental</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Elemental</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Elemental</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>ELEMENTAL</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>ELEMENTAL</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Elemental</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td></tr><tr><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Fey</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Fey</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Fey</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Fey</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>FEY</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>FEY</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td></tr><tr><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Shadow</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Shadow</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td></tr><tr><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Healing</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Healing</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Healing</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Healing</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Healing</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>HEALING</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>HEALING</td></tr><tr><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Astral</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Astral</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>Astral</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>.</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>ASTRAL</td><td style='width: 10.0000%'>ASTRAL</td></tr></table></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Yaarel, post: 9792098, member: 58172"] Here is an update of the Modal Themes table. Some tropes within a theme split off to form their own theme. For example, Elemental Fire separates because its Fire and Radiant mechanics can alternatively riff off the Astral Celestial and Fiend imagery, thus can behave differently from the other Elemental tropes. The more nuanced update should feel more familiar for D&D settings. Each of the four magic power sources -- psionic, arcane, primal, and divine -- features two of eleven themes. Altogether there are thirteen themes, but all magic classes access the Mage theme, and only weapon classes access the Martial theme. The eleven themes saliently distinguish the magical sources from each other. Each magic class features six themes and lacks five. Two of these class themes match its power source. The remaing four themes might be any depending on class concept. The combination of themes is its prevailing "modal" themes. The class modality helps distinguish its flavor from other classes. Each theme, including each trope of the Elemental theme, has at least twenty thematic spells. The eleven magical themes are as follows. SPACETIME - remote presence, prescience, time manipulation, teleportation, demiplane. MIND - telepathy, sapience, charm, domination. FEAR - frighten, trauma, psychic damage, subjective phantasm, confusion, stun, hold. ILLUSION - invisibility, objective illusion construct, lifelike force construct, construct made of "magical energy". ETHEREAL - Ethereal Plane, force, telekinesis, flight, force damage, simple force construct. FIRE - elemental fire, fire damage, radiant damage, light and darkness, skyey luminaries, volcanic geothermals. ELEMENTAL [LIST] [*]Elemental: Elemental Planes, combination of elemental tropes, Elemental Chaos, acid damage. [*]Storm: elemental air-water, wind, precipitation, lightning-thunder damage, sound and silence, cold damage. [*]Alchemy: elemental earth-plant, metal-wood-etcetera fabrication, crystal, linen, herbalism, material sciences, architecture. [/LIST] FEY - Feywild, shapeshift, body enhancement, Beast, living creature types. SHADOW - Shadowfell, Undead, death, sleep, necrotic damage, disease, poison damage. HEALING - healing, resurrection, restoration. ASTRAL - Astral Plane, Celestial, Fiend, Aberration, combination of planar traveling. And beyond the eleven magical themes: MAGE - discern magic, antimagic, alter spellcasting, prestidigitation, wish, mind over reality, soul, weave. MARTIAL - exemplary reallife accomplishments, superhuman heightening of such accomplishments. Interestingly, the eleven themes somewhat suggest a gradation from nothingness to thought to force to matter to a resulting rich realm of ideals. The four power sources are psionic (Spacetime, Mind), arcane (Illusion, Force), primal (Elemental, Fey), and divine (Astral, Healing). Each class has its two source themes, but the remaining four themes might be any other. [B]MODAL THEMES OF POWER SOURCES [/B] [TABLE width="100%"] [TR] [td width="10.0000%"]Psionic Themes[/td][td width="10.0000%"][/td] [td width="10.0000%"][/td] [td width="10.0000%"]Arcane Themes[/td][td width="10.0000%"][/td] [td width="10.0000%"][/td] [td width="10.0000%"]Primal Themes[/td][td width="10.0000%"][/td] [td width="10.0000%"]Divine Themes[/td][td width="10.0000%"][/td] [/TR] [TR] [td width="10.0000%"][B]PSION[/B][/td][td width="10.0000%"][B]BARD[/B][/td][td width="10.0000%"][B]SORCERER[/B][/td][td width="10.0000%"][B]WARLOCK[/B][/td][td width="10.0000%"][B]WIZARD[/B][/td][td width="10.0000%"][B]ARTIFICER[/B][/td][td width="10.0000%"][B]RANGER[/B][/td][td width="10.0000%"][B]DRUID[/B][/td][td width="10.0000%"][B]CLERIC[/B][/td][td width="10.0000%"][B]PALADIN[/B][/td] [/TR] [TR] [td width="10.0000%"]SPACETIME[/td][td width="10.0000%"]SPACETIME[/td][td width="10.0000%"]SPACETIME[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Spacetime[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Spacetime[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Spacetime[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Spacetime[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Spacetime[/td] [/TR] [TR] [td width="10.0000%"]MIND[/td][td width="10.0000%"]MIND[/td][td width="10.0000%"]MIND[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Mind[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Mind[/td] [/TR] [TR] [td width="10.0000%"]Fear[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Fear[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Fear[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Fear[/td] [/TR] [TR] [td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Illusion[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Illusion[/td][td width="10.0000%"]ILLUSION[/td][td width="10.0000%"]ILLUSION[/td][td width="10.0000%"]ILLUSION[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Illusion[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td] [/TR] [TR] [td width="10.0000%"]Ethereal[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]ETHEREAL[/td][td width="10.0000%"]ETHEREAL[/td][td width="10.0000%"]ETHEREAL[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Ethereal[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td] [/TR] [TR] [td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Fire[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Fire[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Fire[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Fire[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Fire[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Fire[/td] [/TR] [TR] [td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Elemental[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Elemental[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Elemental[/td][td width="10.0000%"]ELEMENTAL[/td][td width="10.0000%"]ELEMENTAL[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Elemental[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td] [/TR] [TR] [td width="10.0000%"]Fey[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Fey[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Fey[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Fey[/td][td width="10.0000%"]FEY[/td][td width="10.0000%"]FEY[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td] [/TR] [TR] [td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Shadow[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Shadow[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td] [/TR] [TR] [td width="10.0000%"]Healing[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Healing[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Healing[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Healing[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Healing[/td][td width="10.0000%"]HEALING[/td][td width="10.0000%"]HEALING[/td] [/TR] [TR] [td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Astral[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Astral[/td][td width="10.0000%"]Astral[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"].[/td][td width="10.0000%"]ASTRAL[/td][td width="10.0000%"]ASTRAL[/td] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
For a setting that emphasizes the five power sources
Top
