Hi all!
Normally a request like this would go into the rules forum, but I figure that this particular question will better fit into House Rules. You'll see why in a minute.
One of my most beloved PCs was played in a campaign over 10 years ago in the early(er) days of 2e, before all the Skills/Powers stuff. I played a Cleric (more accurately, mechanically a Priest of Hermes) in a fairly straightforward fashion. Now this campaign was one of those campaigns that made the pillars of heaven shake, so it should come as no surprise to you that the character I started with bore little resemblance to the one I ended up with (what with my patron being involved in a deific war that stripped him of his power but not before he set me on a path to reawaken one of the elder goddesses and "giving" me to her to start her faith anew - talk about character development!). This character ended up being more "powerful" than in a standard game of D&D, but only in versatility and defense. It had very little in the way of offensive capability (or at least it did the way I played it!).
Anyway, this character ended up in the service of an elder goddess of magic - think Mystra but more raw and focused on the divine rather than the arcane. So, to model this "freeform" magic, my DM and I sat down and created something very similar to the 3e sorcerer - spell slots cast spontaneously - that had a very wide, yet limited, spell list that included almost all spells (both divine AND arcane) that had "self" or "touch" as the range. If it was an arcane spell on the list, it was considered a divine spell two levels higher for that character.
With me so far? Cuz here's where it gets even more complex...
We also stated that the PC had the ability to call magic in a pure and solid form, and that it was usable to create short lived objects. This was based on the spell Spiritual Weapon in that it was magic made physical, and we created 14 new spells - one for each level - to create weapons and armor from the stuff (OK - so I had read a lot of Quasar and Green Lantern that year - sue me).
As the spell levels went up, the weapons created did more damage (d3, d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, 2d6) and increased in + as if it were a spiritual weapon (there was also a funky downgrading mechanic where you could get more + for a lower damage die - a 4th level spell could give a d3 +3 instead of a d8 - in retrospect, I don't really like that). Armor was similar, giving a better bonus as the level went up (beginning at leather, going up through plate). But Armor also had two funky abilites - rationed duration and spell attachment.
Rationed duration was like this - you cast the armor spell of your choice at the beginning of the day, and your duration was in in rounds - 1 per spell level per level of the caster - 6th level caster with a 4th level spell = 24 rounds). However, this spell did not actually come into effect until the armor was called (which could be done as if casting a spell). After the armor was called, duration continued as normal. The armor could be dismissed with a "free action" and called up again later to continue the duration, and the spell ended when the duration was used up.
Spell attachment was the doozy - by attaching spells to the armor when you cast the initial armoring spell, you could also ration the durations of other spells with the "self" range. This meant I could attach a protection from fire spell to the armor and benefit from it whenever the armor was up until either the armor duration ran out or the protection from fire duration ran out (whichever came first). There was no limit on the amount of spell you could attach.
So here's my problem! I'd like to find a way to retain the flavor of these spells by modeling them with class abilities, existing spells, prestige classes, or any combination thereof. I've looked at the Favored Soul from the mini's book and it looks like a good place to start, but I realy need some ideas.
Adv-thanks-ance!
Normally a request like this would go into the rules forum, but I figure that this particular question will better fit into House Rules. You'll see why in a minute.
One of my most beloved PCs was played in a campaign over 10 years ago in the early(er) days of 2e, before all the Skills/Powers stuff. I played a Cleric (more accurately, mechanically a Priest of Hermes) in a fairly straightforward fashion. Now this campaign was one of those campaigns that made the pillars of heaven shake, so it should come as no surprise to you that the character I started with bore little resemblance to the one I ended up with (what with my patron being involved in a deific war that stripped him of his power but not before he set me on a path to reawaken one of the elder goddesses and "giving" me to her to start her faith anew - talk about character development!). This character ended up being more "powerful" than in a standard game of D&D, but only in versatility and defense. It had very little in the way of offensive capability (or at least it did the way I played it!).
Anyway, this character ended up in the service of an elder goddess of magic - think Mystra but more raw and focused on the divine rather than the arcane. So, to model this "freeform" magic, my DM and I sat down and created something very similar to the 3e sorcerer - spell slots cast spontaneously - that had a very wide, yet limited, spell list that included almost all spells (both divine AND arcane) that had "self" or "touch" as the range. If it was an arcane spell on the list, it was considered a divine spell two levels higher for that character.
With me so far? Cuz here's where it gets even more complex...
We also stated that the PC had the ability to call magic in a pure and solid form, and that it was usable to create short lived objects. This was based on the spell Spiritual Weapon in that it was magic made physical, and we created 14 new spells - one for each level - to create weapons and armor from the stuff (OK - so I had read a lot of Quasar and Green Lantern that year - sue me).
As the spell levels went up, the weapons created did more damage (d3, d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, 2d6) and increased in + as if it were a spiritual weapon (there was also a funky downgrading mechanic where you could get more + for a lower damage die - a 4th level spell could give a d3 +3 instead of a d8 - in retrospect, I don't really like that). Armor was similar, giving a better bonus as the level went up (beginning at leather, going up through plate). But Armor also had two funky abilites - rationed duration and spell attachment.
Rationed duration was like this - you cast the armor spell of your choice at the beginning of the day, and your duration was in in rounds - 1 per spell level per level of the caster - 6th level caster with a 4th level spell = 24 rounds). However, this spell did not actually come into effect until the armor was called (which could be done as if casting a spell). After the armor was called, duration continued as normal. The armor could be dismissed with a "free action" and called up again later to continue the duration, and the spell ended when the duration was used up.
Spell attachment was the doozy - by attaching spells to the armor when you cast the initial armoring spell, you could also ration the durations of other spells with the "self" range. This meant I could attach a protection from fire spell to the armor and benefit from it whenever the armor was up until either the armor duration ran out or the protection from fire duration ran out (whichever came first). There was no limit on the amount of spell you could attach.
So here's my problem! I'd like to find a way to retain the flavor of these spells by modeling them with class abilities, existing spells, prestige classes, or any combination thereof. I've looked at the Favored Soul from the mini's book and it looks like a good place to start, but I realy need some ideas.
Adv-thanks-ance!
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