Harry Potter-Style Wizards

[Shayuri]

Correct, sir. The other major wizarding schools don't have those particular Houses. The specifics of their student arrangements are not made clear at this time.

 

[trav_laney]

Argh! Touche'.

Very true. That's part of the problem too, of course. In the fiction, wizards do whatever she wants them to. Those of us trying to reduce things into a stable set of rules are thus left with some odd inconsistencies.

...that "slashy" spell Harry learns seems more like evocation than transmutation too, in hindsight...

...and Sirius/Ratboy is said to have anihilated a street full of Muggles in a burst of flame.

lol...

I think it would probably be easiest to just leave the spells and spell effects as-written in the SRD, imo. Redoing the entire spell catalogue would be a bit beyond the scope of the "Harry Potter-style Wizard Variant" topic.

What do you guys think of the wand-instead-of-material-components aspect?

 

[Notmousse]

Here's a thought: HP wizards are actually a low magic (4th level) spontanious casting class with either bonus reserve feats, an expansive spell list, or a DM that lets prestidigitation (or a higher level version thereof) do pretty much everything.

 

[smootrk]

Using the wands for a required focus for virtually all spells is fine and appropriate.

Campaign-wise, the schools of evocation and necromancy are not 'taught' formally - and must be acquired through research or nefarious means, or by consorting with 'bad wizards'.

Mechanically, Wizards must learn their spells, similar to standard Sorcerers, with some sort of INT check or Spellcraft check for success, with an unsuccessful check meaning that the spell cannot be learned at this Wizard level. Unlike sorcerers, there is no upper limit to the number of 'known spells', but learning a spell requires 1week per spell level - placing a campaign time limiter on the process. Once learned, the intrepid wizard may cast the spell at will (like a sorcerer) as long as spell level slots remain (or alternatively some spell point variant might be used).

 

[SteelDraco]

Wizards in the Potterverse can also apparently cast spells all day long; none of them ever complain about getting tired, or running out of magical energy in any way. That makes it a pretty tricky point, for d20-based magic.

There are creation and conjuration effects - Dumbledore has created minor objects several times, mostly chairs. I think Hermione created some rope at one point, too.

Let's see here. What classes do they have at Hogwart's?

Transfiguration would be all Transmutation magic, clearly.

Enchantment seems to be mostly spells based on forces - the summoning charm, levitation... uhhh. That's all I can actually remember from the books about what they've learned in that class. Maybe a protective charm? Seems like mostly Evocation stuff, actually.

Defense Against the Dark Arts is almost all Abjuration. And Knowledge, but that's secondary.

Divination is, well, obvious. With the implication that some people have The Gift, and some don't, and thus can't do divination at all. Sounds like a feat to me. Wonder why they have people study it, then?

Potions seem to vary quite a bit, though they all take some time to make, measured in minutes at least. I'd probably say a minimum of ten minutes to do any potion. It's not clear why you'd use a potion for lots of things, though. Couldn't someone who was good at Transfiguration replicate a Polyjuice potion? Maybe you can't affect yourself with magic, other than potions? I can't think of any instances of someone using magic on themselves that wasn't a potion. You can certainly alter others, but perhaps not yourself? That might explain it.

Arithmancy and Ancient Runes are both unexplored, though we known Hermione takes both of them. Heck, we've never even met the teachers for these subjects. Probably both just specialized Knowledge skills, though.

History of Magic, Care of Magical Creatures, and Herbology are all Knowledge skills, rather than magic.

Personally, I think Potter magic would best be implemented with a skill-based system. Maybe something like the skill tricks that appeared in Complete Scoundrel, with skills based on the different types of magic?

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

In regards to the spell selection/style, I would go with Elements of Magic. Each 'school' would get a specific tradition that trends them to the spell selection known for that school, altho Move [Force] {which allows the moving of furniture around} would be commonly known.

 

[humble minion]

If you were assuming an all-wizard group of PCs, I'd be tempted to run it by making each 'class' of spells (Charms, Transmutation, Dark Arts, Defense against the Dark Arts) a separate skill, and require a Skill check to cast. Within each discipline you could have a list of spells you know - to add a spell to this list you'd have to have a certain number of ranks in the relevant skill, depending on the spell power, and then either be instructed in the spell, or research it yourself. Until you've successfully cast a given spell 10 times (in a non-classroom environment), the DC is 5 higher - after that, you're assumed to have gotten the hang of it. Wandless magic adds perhaps in the order of 10-20 to the skill DC. Failed skill tests can result either in nothing, or in magical backfire. Other magical techniques could also be represented by skills (Potion-making, Handle Animal, Pilot (broomstick), Arithmancy, etc) or feats (Animagus, Seer, Occlumens, etc)

The tricky bit would be balance - it'd be very easy to come up with a system in which Dex and Int are uber-stats. I'd be tempted to redesign the abilities from the ground up. Perhaps a 5-ability stat block, with 4 of the stats related to the virtues of the four houses (Courage, Intelligence, Drive, Endurance), with Physical to round them off. Physical could be split into Strength and Speed I suppose, but that's more to make it easier to represent Giants and similar creatures in the system - physicality simply isn't a particularly big deal in the books...

 

[mosaic]

I have nothing to add but I am enjoying your thread. I really like the idea that wizards need wands as a focus and think that would make a nice addition to any campaign.

 

[paradox42]

Wizards in the Potterverse can also apparently cast spells all day long; none of them ever complain about getting tired, or running out of magical energy in any way. That makes it a pretty tricky point, for d20-based magic.

Not in light of Complete Arcane. There was a thread here a few months ago about using the Warlock as a basis for Potter-style magic in D&D- the whole point of the class is that it fits this paradigm, being able to do only a few spells but never running out of the ability to use them. Maybe somebody with the Search feature could find it, or we could all just wait for ENWorld 2.

I don't recall specific details beyond that they started assigning spells shown in the Potter books to Invocation tiers; I think they removed the Eldritch Blast entirely and all its associated helper-Invocations. Of course, events like Harry using a Patronus (which is supposed to be difficult even for full adults) are hard to explain using the Warlock, but they'd probably also be hard to explain using any other d20-balanced mechanic, since Harry's clearly a mid-level Wizard at best when he uses it and thus shouldn't (by game rules) have access to high-level magic yet. Obviously, stuff like Avada Kedavra belongs at the top tier, whether you still call it Dark or not; others could logically be assigned based on when they are taught at Hogwarts in the books- that is, when students in a "normal" Hogwarts year (whatever that means) should be learning them.

 

[trav_laney]

Wizards in the Potterverse can also apparently cast spells all day long; none of them ever complain about getting tired, or running out of magical energy in any way. That makes it a pretty tricky point, for d20-based magic.

Gandalf never complained about getting tired or running out of magical energy either...no wizard does, in fact. I think this is because of the separation of roleplaying elements from game mechanics...a group of fighters in the pub wouldn't sit around discussing who has the highest Strength score or the best enhancement bonuses on their bastard swords; they would talk about great battles they fought and brave deeds they accomplished. The same for wizards; they wouldn't mention their spell slots, their save DC bonuses, and the like in a roleplaying setting.

Or at least, not in a good one. I'd lose interest very quickly, if Dumbledore started talking about how many bonus spells he gets per day...

The point I am trying to make is, the fact that game mechanics are not mentioned in the story does not imply they do not exist. Wizards must be capped to a certain amount of magic per day, and their spells must have certain components and power levels, all for the sake of game balance.