D&D 4E Harry Potter 4e

[erf_beto]

As much as I like the recharge mechanic available to players, do we really want them rolling that many d6 every turn? Perhaps another form of recharging would be better, like spending Action Points, healing surges, magic item daily powers (they won't be carrying a lot of them around, will they? it's basically wands, wondrous items, consumables...), or maybe even another pool, like Magic Points, if powers get too recharge-intensive. This could remove them randomness we don't like as players, and the extra dice rolling that might slow the game.

Either way, I still believe most spells can work within the daily > encounter > at-will structure of 4e. Any wizard can do most spells, but the specialist get to do them more often than others, meaning feats and paragon path could give you extra uses of those spells - akin to the healing word being an encounter power but used two or three times through the encounter, or like Lay on Hands at-will, but only a couple of times per day. The D&D game is already full of these tweaks: if I remember correctly, the Archmage epic destiny allows an encounter power to became at-will. And we can also base some spells on the Channel Divinity list of powers.

I'm not against "recharge ", but I think we could leave it as a last resource. There's a lot of room to explore within the system already.

As for the wizarding studies, I see them as deciding wich feat, power, or skill you take at level up (out of game conversation), not having players pronounce "Leviosaaaaahh" Adventures obviously happen "outside of" school hours.

I support the idea of leaving scholl by 10th level, but I don't think every student leaves at the same level: Hermione has always been ahead, and Neville always behind (generally speaking. Please, let's not be total geeks and discuss the actual XP total of each character for each year at Hogwarts ). I think it's safe to assume some main characters left school with paragon powers and feats (even if without their paragon paths - there's always retraining anyway)

Let's see how this goes!

 

[Gears]

Healing surges seem like a good choice for a recharge mechanic...doesn't every other battle in HP end with him passing out and waking up at the start of the next chapter in a hospital bed? Pushing yourself past your physical limits to power your magic seems to have a precedent here....

 

[TheProphet]

I agree completely. I like the idea of that. And you have multiple healing surges per day, so that would work out well, I think.

So, how are these House Pacts going to work?

 

[malraux]

T
I like how the two levels per school year ended up with 5th years being right there at 9-10 (the end of the Heroic tier in 4th edition and the time period during which students would take the OWLs in the HP universe.) But this doesn't really fit well with the fact that there are still two more years at school, so I offer a different option: staggered levels per year.

My potter fu is weak, but IIRC, weren't students only required to attend through 5th year? Certainly studying for the NEWTs corresponds well with the initial paragon path progression. And, at least for the PCs, it would seem odd for them not to score well enough to qualify for such a path.

 

[TheProphet]

Students were required to attend through their 6th year, with the optional 7th. But at 5th, they were already beginning preparation for their NEWTS, which could represent them moving into the Paragon Tier in the second half of their 5th year (Still in heroic tier at the beginning of the year at 10th, second half of the year at 11th.)

I think that all the students would advance at the same rate. Hermione is the same level as Neville, but she just has an 18 to intellegence.

 

[erf_beto]

Students were required to attend through their 6th year, with the optional 7th.

Really? 7th year was optional? I don't remember that... AFAIK, unusual circumstances prevented some characters from attending 7th year. Other than that, I think it was mandatory, wasn't it?

I think that all the students would advance at the same rate. Hermione is the same level as Neville, but she just has an 18 to intellegence.

Then how do we explain the fact she could always cast spells beyond her year? Book 1, she opens a door with a spell clearly not meant for 1st year students; book 5, she crafts a coin with an Alarm/Curse spell like Voldemort's Dark Mark - wich amazes most students, even older ones; book 7, she could cast several defensive and illusory spells, the same used to hide Hogwarts from detection. Just to name a few.

But clearly, Hermione is one of a kind, can't really compare her with 'regular' students, since she's been getting XP from extra curricular activities (though not the "killing monsters and taking their stuff" kinda of XP). We should keep in mind that most PCs are special as well: they are probably going to adventure and use theirs magics in life or death situations that will make them stronger characters in the end. Harry's Patronum spell is a prime example of this.

Speaking of wich... how should we handle learning higher level spells? Should we add a mechanic for it, or just say "Harry is a special guy, an NPC or whatever, that's why he could cast a Patronum at level 5"? I'd be fine with number two.

Another topic for discussion: treasure and rewards. Wizards could go dungeon crawling, treasure hunting, but that's not the way the story goes. D&D builds on that assumption, but what does a treasure parcel in HP world look like? These wizards can't even use wands other than their own! Sure there are lots of trinkets, but I don't see gold accumulation as a priority for most wizarding troupes...

Well, maybe treasure is a topic that should be left to each DM to ponder himself... but what about XP? Defeating creatures or other wizards, sure, but what about studying books? Most of heroic tier will be spent on libraries and classrooms. Is that free XP? Do we Skill check every class? Solo skill challenge every exam? What if a PC decides to spend his game time in a library (like hermione usually did) "just reading" to gain XP, instead of following the game? (I had this problem when I ran a Mage: the Ascencion campaign - but in there experience is handled differently)

I can see this as receiving a base XP every year in school - you're doing your homeworks, attending classes, etc: you must have learned something! Some times, that's enough to level up and get improvements on your stats, spells, skills, etc. In-school adventures, bigger assignments, participation in clubs, etc would be worth XP of their own. By the end of every semester, there's an exam for each class you're taking: a skill challenge that gives you big XP according to number of success/failures you got.

Any other ideas?

 

[TheProphet]

Really? 7th year was optional? I don't remember that... AFAIK, unusual circumstances prevented some characters from attending 7th year. Other than that, I think it was mandatory, wasn't it?

Well, it wasn't "Mandatory", but it would be like a student in the "muggle" world not goign to college. Employers look more favorably on those who have completed. IT was very unusual for a student to NOT complete year 7, and highly encouraged by parents.

Then how do we explain the fact she could always cast spells beyond her year?

Perhaps you can use higher level spells if you've completed a skill challenge to do so, and even then, you would suffer a -5 to perform it. Something like that?


I think we should definitely establish some rules about assigning XP to skill challenges. Perhaps there are 5 important classroom sessions per hallf-year, the ones that REALLY MATTER (AKA, the few classroom sessions you see in the novels) they would be a series of skill challenges which would give XP. You could go to the library to give yourself boosts to skills, but you don't get XP until you use the skills in a skill challenge.

 

[Narkaious]

What about giving all of the spells like a stunt DC and then if you don't "know" the spell you can still atempt to stunt it using the appropriate skill. An example would be corporeal patronus would have like a stunt DC of like 25 or something like that then you could use your DADA skill to try and stunt it out against dementors.

Each type of magic would be it's own skill
DADA, Transfiguration, Charms, Divination, Care of Magical Creatures(more of a knowledge), Potions, Herbology, Occlumency, Legilimency, Dark Arts, Runes, Arithmancy, we could roll Flying into athletics/acrobatics depending.

Sorry if I rambled but at work I am putting all the ideas I can down with very little organization.

 

[Bleoberis De Ganis]

Class stuff could be okay (quite important in a school thing)

Have a randomized class timetable and have punishments for not attending (if something is going on) for RP. You could make a class like a skill challenge for XP. Perhaps you need a certain degree of in class achievement in order to level - if not enough you have to do lots of homework and detention.

How good (fun) any of this would be is how you handle it.

Trying to balance school life and all the non-school stuff at the same time could be fun with teachers that don't like you, failures in class could cause runaway magic and conjurations, other children sabotaging your efforts and you theirs.

 

[industrygothica]

Oh, this thread needs a bump. This is a perfectly wonderful idea, and I certainly hope it hasn't been abandoned!


-IG