Gestalt Campaign Idea - Everyone's a sorcerer

[MeepoTheMighty]

Ever since seeing the gestalt rules, I've been tossing around this idea for a campaign where everyone is a gestalt sorcerer/whatever. Perhaps there was some sort of magical cataclysm in the past, or some sort of radiation, or whatever. Suffice to say, everyone (or at least everyone important) has magical abilities, represented by the gestalt rules.

Does this sound interesting? Would it work?

I can forsee a few problems:

- A world where *everyone* can cast spells would be dramatically different than even the most high-magic campaign settings.
- It would make wizards a lot less common.
- Magic missle becomes deadly if you can field a whole army of people who can cast it.

What are your thoughts? I'd like to try to hash this out and see if it's viable.

 

[Frostmarrow]

It might work rather nicely for Redhurst Academy of Magic. I just finished looking at their free stuff and I must say that it looks pretty neat.

http://www.humanhead.com/hhgames/RAM/ram.html

 

[Li Shenron]

Does this sound interesting? Would it work?

Definitely interesting! No idea if it would work

- A world where *everyone* can cast spells would be dramatically different than even the most high-magic campaign settings.

True. But if you make some sort of cataclysm that just happened, then your world hasn't have time to change over time, instead there is probably a great chaos everywhere...

- It would make wizards a lot less common.

I don't think so. Every Wizard would be Wizard/Sorcerer and will know more spells and have all his original spells to prepare and the new spells to cast spontaneously. They will be very flexible.

- Magic missle becomes deadly if you can field a whole army of people who can cast it.

These are two of my on-the-fly thoughts:

- if it is a sudden cataclysm, perhaps everyone becomes sorcerer but the spells known are randomly generated (although you may want the PCs to negotiate with you, but not the rest of the world); this incindentally mean that not so many would cast Magic Missile

- since Sorcerers suffer from ASF, every warrior-like person in the world will have to choose between heavier armor / higher ASF or lighter armor / lower ASF; in general it will increase the number of light-armored fighters

 

[JimAde]

- if it is a sudden cataclysm, perhaps everyone becomes sorcerer but the spells known are randomly generated (although you may want the PCs to negotiate with you, but not the rest of the world); this incindentally mean that not so many would cast Magic Missile

I've always assumed sorcerers do get their spells randomly (in the sense that the character doesn't pick them, but the player does). In this sense it's kind of like a superhero character. Usually the character doesn't decide to get, for example, electrical powers, but the player/GM picks them. So you as GM can just say "about 20% of all sorcerers get Magic Missile". And if all your players pick it, well they're just in that 20%.

- since Sorcerers suffer from ASF, every warrior-like person in the world will have to choose between heavier armor / higher ASF or lighter armor / lower ASF; in general it will increase the number of light-armored fighters

It will also increase the number of people who take the Still Spell feat (which is cool).

Actually I think the supers comparison is valid. In a supers game, the vast majority of people don't have powers, but all the PCs do. You could run it like that. And maybe sorcerers (and bards) are the only arcane casters. There are ancient legends of tomes that can teach non-sorcerers to cast magic, but there are no wizards currently. Then the PCs could be the ones to re-discover this knowledge.

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

I don't think so. Every Wizard would be Wizard/Sorcerer and will know more spells and have all his original spells to prepare and the new spells to cast spontaneously. They will be very flexible.

Good point. I'm thinking of possibly restricting metamagic and item creation feats to wizards (and clerics and druids) to represent the difference between studied, ordered magic and the wild, chaotic stuff.

These are two of my on-the-fly thoughts:

- if it is a sudden cataclysm, perhaps everyone becomes sorcerer but the spells known are randomly generated (although you may want the PCs to negotiate with you, but not the rest of the world); this incindentally mean that not so many would cast Magic Missile

I've definitely thought about doing spells randomly, or otherwise preselecting them for the PC's. Normally I require a sorcerer to have some sort of underlying source of his magic (someone with red dragon blood would have a lot of fire spells, and so on). In this case, however, I see things being a lot more random and haphazard.

- since Sorcerers suffer from ASF, every warrior-like person in the world will have to choose between heavier armor / higher ASF or lighter armor / lower ASF; in general it will increase the number of light-armored fighters

That's no problem, I'd like to give this campaign a more swashbuckling feel anyways. I'll probably end up using class defense bonuses.

 

[jerichothebard]

Does this sound interesting? Would it work?

I can forsee a few problems:

- A world where *everyone* can cast spells would be dramatically different than even the most high-magic campaign settings.
- It would make wizards a lot less common.
- Magic missle becomes deadly if you can field a whole army of people who can cast it.

What are your thoughts? I'd like to try to hash this out and see if it's viable.

It sounds interesting, although incredibly high-powered. As for the magic missiles, if that were the case (instead of random spell generation for the general populace), I think Shield would also become extremely popular, thus negating the magic missiles. It's just the normal arms race of evolution on a magical level.

 

[Zappo]

Wait, sorcerers can choose to learn a custom spell when they level, if they have a chance to study a source of that spell. So the process isn't random, or at least not completely. I've always assumed that a sorcerer has to do lots of meditation, self-discovery, whatever, to further tap into his innate powers. By the same process, he can influence what form those powers will take. This also explains why they need XP like everyone else, instead of just nuking cities at 1st level.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Also, note that this will probably to be a highly "Charisma-based" campaign. If someone wants to use their sorcerous powers, they'll have to put some points in Charisma, thus leading to an attractive (ok not necessarily) party

AR

 

[Garmorn]

Also, note that this will probably to be a highly "Charisma-based" campaign. If someone wants to use their sorcerous powers, they'll have to put some points in Charisma, thus leading to an attractive (ok not necessarily) party

AR

This post brings up a major point. For most NPC's they will not be able to use first level spells and a large number 40 to 50% of the population would not be able to use even 0 level spells. As the power of the spell goes up the number of people who can cast them declines.

For some races this means dificulties. Dwarves for example are going to have a lot fewer people able to make use of the gift.

 

[Psion]

May want to check out this thread on RPGnet (of all places):

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?threadid=106973&highlight=sorcerer