Help! Cool ideas for alternative magic?

[Dagredhel]

Hi there.

I'm toying with a campaign setting idea for a fantasy game. I'm thinking of a world in which magic takes alot of preparation and effort. There would be no spellcasting, in the sense of mumbling a few bits of gibberish while gesturing innanely and handling some objectionable bit of detritus. On the otherhand, I'd like to incorporate some sort of alchemy, magical items, magical constructs, and permanent effects. Any suggestions about how to handle this, either from other d20 games, or ideas of your own?

Thanks!

p.s. I posted the same question in the d20 forum.

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

In DnD, the functionality of any character ultimately comes down to how they can help the party overcome conflicts.

The spellcasters you have just described essentially have 0 role in combat, and a limited role in pretty much any other type of conflict.

Therefore, magic as you have described it would be best suited as an ability that any character could access with a feat (probably with prereqs like Int 13+ and level #+).

In regards to learning spells, I would simply use the Wizard's Spellbook information from the PH (adding new spells, not the 2 free spells per level).

To determine how long a spell takes to cast, I would just use the NPC spellcasting guide to determine a price for the spell (IIRC 10*CL*SL), and assume that the character could cast 1kgp worth of magic a day.

Essentially, spellcasting is just like item creation.

 

[Dagredhel]

In DnD, the functionality of any character ultimately comes down to how they can help the party overcome conflicts

The spellcasters you have just described essentially have 0 role in combat, and a limited role in pretty much any other type of conflict.

I would like magic to have a combat role--- in the form of potions, items, and permanent effects on characters. Magic would be akin to the tech in cyberpunk, providing weapons, equipment, and 'built-in' abilities.

Therefore, magic as you have described it would be best suited as an ability that any character could access with a feat (probably with prereqs like Int 13+ and level #+).

Characters aren't going to be "spellcasting." But how do you handle an alchemist, for instance, if his only 'magic' comes in the form of the potions, oils, powders, & etc. he concocts?

In regards to learning spells, I would simply use the Wizard's Spellbook information from the PH (adding new spells, not the 2 free spells per level).



To determine how long a spell takes to cast, I would just use the NPC spellcasting guide to determine a price for the spell (IIRC 10*CL*SL), and assume that the character could cast 1kgp worth of magic a day.

Essentially, spellcasting is just like item creation.

IO think I see what you're suggesting, although what "(IIRC 10*CL*SL), " means is beyond me. The problem I have with using the item creation rules is the cost in experience, which would be too prohibitive for one shot items like potions. I want alot of magic! I just don't want it in the form of 'spells'.

Does anyone know of any cyberpunk rules for cyber- or bio- ware that could be adapted with the assumption that the basis is magic rather than technology? That might work.

What do you think?

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

IIRC 10*CL*SL ==> If I recall correctly the cost of a spell cast by an NPC spellcaster is 10gp multiplied by the level of the spell (SL) multiplied by the level of the caster (CL)

A source of Mageware (or magical enhancing hardware) would be Dragonstar, a setting by FFG. ( Here is their site. )

The point that I was trying to convey was that the spellcasting classes would be extremely ineffective in a campaign where they were never allowed to cast spells during combat. The reccomendation that I would make to counter this problem would be to have characters spend a feat in order to become mages instead of using levels.

The 10*CL*SL is a guidline that I would use to determine how long of a ritual is required to cast the spell, there wouldn't be any extra cost involved in the ritual over the cost of any components the spell required.

For a character to construct magical items, I would simply allow characters who had the Mage feat mentioned earlier to also take the Item Creation Feats.

However, since you have indicated that you want magical items to be very prevalent in the campaign, I would go ahead and waive the XP cost that constructing these items normally entails.

Finally, one last step that I would take to encourage the production of larger quantities of these magic items woud be to combine several of the Item Creation feats.

Ie. Scribe Scroll and Brew Potion could be combined into one feat that would allow the character to creat one shot use activated or spell completion items.

Similarly Craft Staff and Craft Wand could be VERY easily combined, since they already do the exact same thing.

Finally, Craft Rod and Forge Ring could be combined, since they both allow for the creation of items with continious(SP?) and/or activated abilities.

Craft Wonderous Item could be left alone, since it already allows for a very broad selection of items to be made.

 

[CCamfield]

Well, alchemy can already be used without spellcasting per se. AEG's Mercenaries has a bunch of additional alchemical items (smoke bombs, stun bombs, signal flares, etc) and an Alchemist class who can't cast spells but prepares elixirs which reproduce spellcasting effects. I don't know if the class is well-balanced or not. The character could end porting around a ton of pre-prepared spells.

Also you could look at one of several books with rules for herbalism for increased variety in pre-prepared stuff. Atlas' Occult Lore or Bastion Press' book.