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Message: <blockquote data-quote="trav_laney" data-source="post: 3278100" data-attributes="member: 46508">My wife is a huge Harry Potter fan, and she likes to watch the movies over and over again in sequence.  Which means, I also watch the movies over and over again in sequence.  I'm not saying the movies are bad, but...well, you know.Anyway.  I don't know if anyone else has this problem or not, but everytime I watch a movie (especially fantasy fiction), I start reducing everything down to D20 mechanics.  The question on the table is:If you were to develop a wizard class variant for the D20 system, based on J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series of books, what changes would you make and why?- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Here's my thoughts.The Wizard's Wand:  According to J.K. Rowling, a wizard cannot cast a spell unless he has a wand.  This wand is supposed to be attuned to the wizard ("The wand chooses the wizard," the clerk at Flourish and Blots said,) but it is possible to use another wizard's wand in place of your own (example: Gilderoy Lockhart using Ron's damaged wand in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.") And Hagrid used an umbrella instead of a wand to start a fire and to curse Dudley Dursley with a pig's tail.D20 Interpretation: all wizard spells have a Focus requirement for casting.  This focus is always the wizard's own wand, which is specially attuned to the wizard.  It is possible to use another wizard's wand, but requres a Spellcraft check DC 20 to avoid backfire.  It is possible to use an improvised wand (with a penalty to the Spellcraft check) from any item vaguely the same size and shape as a wand (such as an umbrella).  A new wand costs 100 gp.Material Components: No wizards in the world of Harry Potter use material components for casting spells...at least, not yet (there is still another boook out there, ya know.)  All spells appear to have verbal and somatic components ("Swish, then flick!" / "A-LO-ha-MOR-ah!"), and they all seem to require the afforementioned wand, but nobody mixes bat guano or grasshopper legs into their incantations.D20 Interpretation: all spells have a focus requirement, plus any V or S components that are listed in the spell description.  Arcane spells have no material components whatsoever.Houses:  The wizards from Slytherin are obviously the "bad guys," and the wizards from Gryffindor are obviously the "good guys."  Little is known about Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, except that they seem to have little interest in the affairs of Voldemort.  But if you dig deep enough into the books, you will find that Gryffindor favors courage, Ravenclaw favors intellect, Hufflepuff favors hard work and fairness, and Slytherin favors cunning.D20 Interpretation: wizards are separated into their Houses by alignment:Good: GryffindorEvil, Chaotic: SlytherinLawful: HufflepuffNeutral: RavenclawA wizard's House doesn't seem to have much of a bearing on the story, except that unless a character is in the Gryffindor or Slytherin houses, he/she will most often be ignored.Familiars:   In "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," Harry is told that students who apply to Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry may bring one of the following animals: a cat, a frog, a rat, or an owl.  We have yet to see a wizard walking around with a bat, hawk, lizard, raven, snake, or weasel.D20 Interpretation: all familiars must be cats, frogs, rats, or owls.  All of them appear to suck, badly.Parseltongue: some of the characters in J.K. Rowling's books (notably, Voldemort and Harry Potter) can talk to snakes.D20 Interpretation: this would be best handled with a feat:Parseltongue (General)You are born with the rare gift of being able to talk to snakes.Effect: you may converse with snakes (only) as if under the effects of a permanent speak with animals spell.What else?  Come on, help me out.  It's fun.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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