Harry Potter-Style Wizards

[szilard]

I'd do one of two things:

1) Adapt the skill-based Truename magic system from Tome of Magic. Just require a wand.

or

2) Create classes (either by house or school) that worked along the same lines as the Warmage or Beguiler: spontaneous casting from a defined, limited spell list (with the opportunity to add some spells to that list)

-Stuart

 

[Spatzimaus]

but the the common rule would be no wand - no magic.

The problem is, while this philosophy is fine for a story (where the only times the hero will be wandless is when the author wants him to be), it'd be terrible for a game system. Every fight would boil down to:

"Bob, you win initiative."
" I try to destroy/disarm his wand."
"You succeed."
" I win!"

Take D&D's Cleric, and pretend that his holy symbol (divine focus!) was something he had to actually hold in his hand all the time, and was a flimsy little thing made of wood. It's almost the same thing; the Divine Focus rules don't cause a massive vulnerability because there's no easy way to "disarm" it from the Cleric. But the combat in the Harry Potter books was all about disarming someone.

 

[trav_laney]

Take D&D's Cleric, and pretend that his holy symbol (divine focus!) was something he had to actually hold in his hand all the time, and was a flimsy little thing made of wood. It's almost the same thing; the Divine Focus rules don't cause a massive vulnerability because there's no easy way to "disarm" it from the Cleric. But the combat in the Harry Potter books was all about disarming someone.

In my campaign, clerics are required to hold their holy symbol in their hand when casting any spell that requires a focus, as well as when turning the undead, spontaneously casting a healing spell, or performing any other supernatural/domain ability. I don't know if I got this rule from reading the sourcebooks or if someone at my table made it up and I never questioned it, but we've played it this way for years. As you can imagine, disarm and sunder attacks, as well as warp wood and heat metal spells, are quite handy when facing down an undead-bolstering evil cleric. And it is the primary reason our cleric carries no less than four holy symbols, one of them made from clay.