D&D 4E Forked Thread: Al-Qadim, Land of Fate 4e

[the_mad_hatter]

Granted.

Concerning the Spellcasters:
The Spellplague shuffled away the old magic system in Faerun, with the Weave falling and such.

Do any of you see any reason why that shouldn't affect Zakhara?
Should we do away with the Elemental Mages and Sorcerers?
-> I'm loathe to rework all Wizard Powers to fit into the elemental categories.

But how to preserve the oriental touch with magic?

I'd like to see more Clockworkers and Astromages (the latter clearly Star Pact Warlocks) emerging.

---

Concerning the Mamluks:

As you pointed out with the Corsair, I don't see any reason why the Mamluks shouldn't invite any class into their ranks. Surely a spellcasting Mamluk is something to be feared, though I believe the majority to still be of martial classes.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Granted.

Concerning the Spellcasters:
The Spellplague shuffled away the old magic system in Faerun, with the Weave falling and such.

Do any of you see any reason why that shouldn't affect Zakhara?
Should we do away with the Elemental Mages and Sorcerers?
-> I'm loathe to rework all Wizard Powers to fit into the elemental categories.

But how to preserve the oriental touch with magic?

I'd like to see more Clockworkers and Astromages (the latter clearly Star Pact Warlocks) emerging.

Well, we've already discussed some of this, and I think the general consensus is that the 'Breaking of the Seals' disrupted magic, but didn't necessarilly radically reorganize it from the average Zhakaran's perspective.

All you need to do for any of the themes of magic you want to preserve for the 4E Wizard is take the path of Necromancy or Summoning in the latest issues of Dragon. There a few feats and a set of new Power is all you need to create the flavor of a specialist. At least until you get a dedicated class.

For most of the Wizard kits in the core Al-Quadim book you really only need a feat giving you bonuses to spells with certain elemental flavors. Maybe not even a feat. A background slot could cover ti just as well.

Concerning the Mamluks:

As you pointed out with the Corsair, I don't see any reason why the Mamluks shouldn't invite any class into their ranks. Surely a spellcasting Mamluk is something to be feared, though I believe the majority to still be of martial classes.

Sure. I mean what you'd have to do is write-up the Mamelukes two different ways:

First, there are PC Mamlukes and them you write up in a way that makes the vast variety of PCs comprehensible in terms of who Mamlukes are: Chaplains, scouts, spies, duelists, officers, and so forth.

Secont, there are the Monster Manual Mamlukes. Then you only have to write up in a way that gives them enough diversity to create a good challenge and enough power to reflect their importance in the setting.

 

[the_mad_hatter]

For most of the Wizard kits in the core Al-Quadim book you really only need a feat giving you bonuses to spells with certain elemental flavors. Maybe not even a feat. A background slot could cover ti just as well.

Well, that'd surely work. The Genasi get Feats that give bonuses to certain elemental powers - or else you could write the Zakharan arcane classes into Heroic Tier pathes for the Wizard class - namely just giving them advantages to their power.

What we could also do is enhance to roleplaying aspect simply by saying that a "magic missile" mustn't always be such. Different mages surely have different missiles - a Elemental Flame mage's missile would surely look as a fiery ray while an Elemental Earth mage's would look more like a stone flying unerringly toward it's target.

What bugs me still is that this kills off the antipathy between the Zakharan sorcerers and the purists who follow just one elemental doctrine.
Where does the famed Brotherhood of Flame distinguish itself from their lesser arcane brethren if not in their art?

Maybe I'm completely missing something here...

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Well, in theory, you will eventually get an Elementalist power source and those dudes will have some pretty great antipathy against the arcanists of Zhakara.

That said, you just introduce a Paragon path for Elementalists or - maybe more interestingly - a Warlock pact for people who throw souls unto the Elemental bonfires of the Terrible Lords of the Elemental Chaos.

 

[Oqlanth]

Old Al-Qadim Fan

Hello,
I noticed this forum threat from google search. And I read it -not completely but I will- and noticed you mentioned about old Al-Qadim fans.

You are right, most of the Al-Qadim fans I know don't like -some deeply hates- 4th E. and most of them seems to be not active on internet -at least about Al-Qadim subjects-. You may notice offical Al-Qadim fan site al-qadim.com does not active for more than two years.

I agree with most of ideas about 4th E. with other 'old Al-Qadim fans' but I am also interested with converting it to 4th E. Because it seems to be only way to make Al-Qadim known to younger/new RPers.

Well...About converting. I noticed this 'spellpleague thing and Zakhara' discussion;

Al-Qadim published at 92 after Times of Troubles. And there is no 'Death or Wild Magic Zones' in Zakhara! Zakharan magic -at least wizardly magic- has no connection with Mystra or Fearun.

Jeff Grub -who is also creator of old Manual of Planes- desined Zakharan Magic based on Elemental concept -you may also can see oldest verision of Al-Qadim spells from Anarouch accesory of FR which is also created by Jeff Grub. It seems to be first tryout of 'Arabian Magic'-.

Zakhara has much more direct connection to inner planes than any other setting -this is why genies can have easy access to Zakhara-. You may notice from Tome of Magic and Player's Option:Spells&Magic elemantal magic called as 'schools of effect' unlike traditional magic schools which are called 'Spells of Philosphy'. You may also notice in elemantal concept of planes inner planes are planes of effect while outer planes are planes of philosopy.

They probably take this idea (magical concept of al-qadim) from Alchemy of medieval near east/arabia; every matter from produced from fire, water, earth, air and aether (which is also called universal).

Even unique spell casters of Zakhara like Ghul Lords (they are necromancer) has their contacts from negative energy plane (another inner plane).

This is why any ajami spell casters can't use Zakharan scrolls or spellbook.And same thing also applied to them too. They are totaly based on different ways.

Well it is early morning here in Turkey and I did not sleep for whole night and I have to write some stuff about madrasas for tomorrow so I have to leave now. But I will return tomorrow adn I also will read all posts on this subject.And of course will come with ideas

If you wish to contact me or ask anything you may do this from here or e-mail/msn.

e-mail/msn: oqlanth@hotmail.com

Well see you tomorrow

 

[ShaneB]

Just wondering what fonts, etc were being used to construct the document.

- Shane

 

[Quickleaf]

Wow, been a while since I've worked on Al-Qadim!

Fonts were Bodacious-Normal (size 24 for headers) with Arno Pro (size 12) for main body text.

 

[ShaneB]

The Arno Pro fonts need to be purchased, so I will try something else for the time being.

 

[Deadstop]

Anyone still working on this?

I wonder if the "themes" announced for the Dark Sun book later this year would be of help in reconstructing 2e kits for Al-Qadim as well. Guess we'll have to wait to find out more about those.

Meanwhile, has anything else been done? The PHB3 classes seem to be a bust for AQ, but the PHB2 ones seem to offer some possibilities (and had just begun to be discussed when the thread went quiet).

Deadstop

 

[Quickleaf]

Anyone still working on this?

I wonder if the "themes" announced for the Dark Sun book later this year would be of help in reconstructing 2e kits for Al-Qadim as well. Guess we'll have to wait to find out more about those.

Meanwhile, has anything else been done? The PHB3 classes seem to be a bust for AQ, but the PHB2 ones seem to offer some possibilities (and had just begun to be discussed when the thread went quiet).

Deadstop

Hi Deadstop, I haven't been on enworld for a long time; working on my doctoral has consumed my time. However we had some great ideas pinging back and forth and hodag put together a whole monster mini-book. I would love to continue the discussion, and I have a ton of ideas sitting on my pc somewhere. One conversation I'd like to have is how (or whether) Al-Qadim fans as a whole would like to see the setting be updated in 4e. Also if this were an actual product under consideration by WotC what would the elevator pitch be? Who is the audience for this product and what is the setting's appeal? How (or should) the appeal be broadened beyond "Arabian Fantasy"? How to capitalize on popular trends like the upcoming Prince of Persia movie? Is this good timing? Who would be good writers (Wolfgang Baur & Ari Marmell *cough*) ?
These are some basic questions it would be nice to diseminate both in and beyond enworld. Ultimately for a project like this to really come together you need a lot of creative minds backed up with market research and a diversity of skill sets. In other words a true collaboration. I don't think WotC would really entertain doing an Al-Qadim setting book anytime soon (too many other settings to reboot first) or at all (given trend of 1 setting book per year and thats it for a settin). It also seems that WotC conceives of AQ as part of Faerun as the AQ threads over there were moved to Forgotten Realms board. What does this mean? Dragon article in all likelihood. I'm curious though if an e-magazine article qualifies as renewing the trademark/IP rights? You'd think it have to right? Anyhow while they might seem like souless questions they strike me as core to the AQ4e project.