Help. Eastern mysticism is impenetrable to me

[RangerWickett]

I'm trying to come up with ways to differentiate traditional magic of China from magic of the rest of the world. What makes it unique? If you were going to take the D&D wizard or sorcerer class and add/subtract one or two small abilities to give it the feel of Chinese magic, what would you do?

 

[Psionicist]

Interesting, here are a few ideas: Wis instead of Int. High bonus to senses (spot, listen). Remove the "movement" component so all spells can be cast standing perfectly still.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

I'd just use the Wu Jen. That's what it's there for.

Otherwise, focus on things that emphasize personal power, and have a focus on herbalism. Chinese magic is usually something beyond the ken of mortals. Go watch Big Trouble in Little China to mine it for ideas.

 

[Glyfair]

Chinese magic can be very tied into religion. At the same time, the magic isn't necessarily intertwined with the religion. Taoists are often portrayed as magicians in some chinese stories, but it's quite possible to be a Taoist without having any instruction on the "magic" aspects.

One thing to watch when doing research is that you'll often see references to "alchemy." Chinese alchemy isn't really related to western alchemy. Chinese alchemy tends to deal with internal issues (balancing chi, obtaining "immortality", etc).

 

[tarchon]

I'm trying to come up with ways to differentiate traditional magic of China from magic of the rest of the world. What makes it unique? If you were going to take the D&D wizard or sorcerer class and add/subtract one or two small abilities to give it the feel of Chinese magic, what would you do?

Daoist or Buddhist? The Chinese Buddhist magical tradition is big on scriptures, reciting them, writing them on objects, that sort of thing. Daoists are more inclined to what would be called alchemy in the West. Both traditions placed an emphasis on asceticism, but Buddhists tended to be more communal (monks) whereas Daoists would tend to be more of the stereotypical mad hermit. Buddhism also inherited (from Hinduism) the notion of gaining divine boons through the performance of ascetic acts. Daoists sometimes recognized the existence of divine entities, but their magical practices focused more towards accruing power through knowledge and self perfection than sucking up to powerful supernatural beings. Thus I'd probably make a Buddhist-like spell caster somewhere between a monk and a cleric (Ranger strikes me as ideal, if you swap some of the special abilities-with a mandatory material written spell component). Daoists might be more like sorcerers, with an emphasis on alchemy. I might even make them something like arcane druids.

 

[RangerWickett]

Honestly, I should be asking more along the lines of "what sorts of Chinese spellcaster archetypes are there in movies, and how are those archetypes different from European or American spellcaster?"

Basically I'm writing a magic syste where the rules themselves are fairly open to interpretation. For instance, an Attack spell can be a curse that wracks the body with pain, an evil spirit that manifests and tears open wounds, or a burst of flame.

I'm looking for small rules that will help you give flavor to your character's magic, depending on what tradition they're from. For instance, the Classical Fey tradition is unseen, so those who don't believe in magic won't notice you cast the spell; and the Christian Healer tradition gives you a bonus to cure spells; and the Matrix-esque 'Freed Mind' tradition gives you a bonus to resist charms and illusions; and the Stage Magic tradition gives you a bonus to cast illusion spells.

I want to know a few different types of Eastern magic, and small ways to make them stand out from normal traditions. What types of magic are they good at? What are they bad at?

I've already got it in my head to have a sort of 'Uncle from the Jackie Chan Adventures' style tradition, but I can't think of what specifically he's good at. I suppose he deals with antimagic and defense well, but the villainous spellcaster in the third season looks like he uses the same tradition, but he gets access to attack, divination, and teleportation magic. Basically it's just general sorcery that can do anything, or that's what it looks like.

That's the problem. There's nothing that Chinese magic seems bad at, so it's hard to think of anything it's especially good at that it should be rewarded with.

 

[tarchon]

Shapechanging, life-extension, flight (leaping, and fast travel too), speed, Buddhist magic often has a strong counter-magic theme too.

 

[Nuclear Platypus]

Uncle (Jacke Chan Adventures) practices good chi magic while Daolong Wong is a dark chi master. Think the Force I guess. What about using Feng Shui, I Ching, 8 trigrams, etc as a basis for the magic?

It seems that lots of (good) magicians in Hong Kong movies are good at warding evil spirits by using those paper seals (Buddhism I think). Uncle, Sailor Mars and Miroku (the monk from Inuyasha) are a few that have used them in cartoons and I think Caffeine Nicotine used it for the odd effects in Samurai Shodown. It also seems like they use trinkets to make the spells work such as the paper seals, prayer beads, that monk staff with rings, Uncle's dried blowfish and lizard, etc.

The dark magicians can also take control of hopping vampires as shown in Spooky Encounters. Similarly they can take control of people using something like voodoo dolls (the good chi wizard did the same however), also in Spooky Encounters.

Overall the wizards of the East seemed to be quite capable fighters while their magic isn't so easily divided into the 'arcane / divine' camps D&D has.

 

[Nyeshet]

Hmm, perhaps a Feng Shui concept would work? Seems there was more focus upon asceticism, incantations, drawing kanji / wards (either on an object or in the air), etc. A lot seemed to do with perfection of self, resulting in faster / stronger / agiler caster, but that might be more an aspect of Japanese / Korean animation I've seen in the past.

I also recall in some animes purporting Chinese mysticism the use of a wooden octogonal (more sides, actually) board with either Chi Ching symbols or chinese characters (supposed to regard constellations, I think) for divinations. Floating one on water and watching it move / spin, holding / turning it while casting divinatory spells, etc.

I doubt this helped much, but good luck in your search. (for enlightenment? )

 

[Turanil]

I suggest you look at several Wuxia movies to get the idea (I recommend Chinese Ghost Stories). One of the things, is that spellcasters almost always use written ideograms to cast spells. They can write a symbol on their palm (with special ink) then show it to their foes; they can write it (or use already written) on sheets of paper thrown at their targets; or they may use spell-scrolls that do not fade upon casting. All magic has some religious aspect in it (Buddhist sutras; taoist formulas; etc.).

I want to know a few different types of Eastern magic, and small ways to make them stand out from normal traditions. What types of magic are they good at? What are they bad at?

Movies almost universally portray Abjuration and (flashy) Evocation magic (+ Jump-Fly related magicall abilities).