Little Changes with Big Flavor

[mmadsen]

Have wizards (and possibly sorcerers) learn their spells from their familiars. The familiars contain the intelligent consciousness of an outsider spirit that was sent back in animal form as a kind of punishment, and sometimes they find it more beneficial to teach their secrets to those who they deem worthy and of like mind (or who can be easily manipulated)....So, in effect, the familiars are training their wizards to fight their battles for them.

I like it. It might be fun to introduce it in a "low magic" campaign first, where none of the PCs have familiars. Then they slowly start realizing that every evil wizard they kill has a black cat. The same black cat?

Actually, I think reincarnation into a different animal form would be quite fun, as your familiar would speak out with compliments and complaints about the differences in forms, and nag about why they didn't choose a better one.

Fun!

 

[Voneth]

Nice Touch.

Thanks.

Dragonstar has a little change in the Magic creation rules that I like and may dovetail into the great "make magic items more story based" concept.

In Dragonstar, when a wizard makes a magical implant (something like a magic tattoo), it is the user -- not the maker -- who pays the xp cost. That makes much more sense to me.

In standard DND, a wizard would have to be very loyal to someone to give up his life essence into a sword he could never use. With the Dragonstar rule applied to standard magic items, a wizard would be much more willing to favor a friend or even a minion with an item. Now take this down the road a bit.

Such magic items are now more cherished and should have more of a history attached to them, becasue someone commissioned them. This also opens up the idea that to "attune" to a magic item before it can be used, one has to spend xp to activate all or some of its powers. With a "little change" to this little change, one can affect the power level of the game by determining a couple of things.

1.) Will the GM as for a full xp cost, or a fraction? In a low magic game, a full xp cost means that the players may want to think hard before commitment to an expensive item. Such items may also have a negative effect as well (mini-artifacts I suppose). A partial cost at half or a tenth makes PC much more willing to make a collection of items.

2.) Letting one buy the powers piecemeal vs. the whole package can open up the opportunity for the GM to provide adventures where one has to do uncover the secrets of the item to find out what the powers are in the first place!

Boy, this starting to sound as if finding a magic item is a big deal and possible start of new adventures surrounding the magical discovery.

What a concept

 

[mmadsen]

mmadsen, I've been observing this thread, and if this keeps growing as it does, you should make a netbook or something. This is just that good a thread!

Thanks for the kind words, Arthur Tealeaf!

Wizards can only be specialist wizards and can only cast spells from their schools (+ universal spells). Ofcourse you can multiclass into other specialist wizards (eg. level 10 diviner, level 4 evoker). This makes the different types of wizard more distinct, and now necromancers really are the masters of necromancy!

An excellent suggestion...that's already on the list. Yeah, I know, the list is getting a little unwieldly!

Have a campaign where orcs or kobolds or some of the other "lowly" races rule over the other races...

Good. I think Rune mentioned finally having a campaign where he takes Halflings seriously; they rule the skies -- and thus a large mercantile empire -- from their airships.

EVERY mythical or unnatural monster has a special weakness... just like vampires who can't stand sunlight or running water and norwegian trolls "pop" in the sunlight. The raksasha can't take blessed crossbow bolts, so maybe a balor demon dies if it gets pure silver in it's eyes; Beholders take great damage from salt in its central eye; Black unicorns can't take the dust from the crushed horn of a unicorn; Maybe evil fey can't stand the ring of pure silver bells.

I strongly endorse this one. As I said before, I much prefer DR with a weakness of silver, or mistletoe, or salt, or whatever to "+3 or better magical weapons".

Another option is to grant Improved Critical to anyone who knows the monster's weakness. "The dragon has a weak spot in his soft underbelly, to the right..."

"Every monster has a purpose: No "natural" monsters. Orcs exist to kill good creatures; the "Black Knights" all exist to combat a specific god; Basilisks are created by the god of stone to punish those who doesn't appreciate stone by turning them into it; and so on...

This might also be combined with the "every monster has a weakness with good effect. For example, the "Black Knights" can't stand the name of the god they combat spoken out loud.

I like this. It flies in the face of the not-at-all-fantasy style of most modern games, where every race just sort of sprang up along the way.

Eliminate monsters, and have the planet itself be the enemy. Safe areas exist, and this is where good races stay. When moving on evil ground, the planet itself attacks, by manipulating and controlling every aspect of nature. Maybe the whole campaign could be centered around stopping this curse?

This reminds me of a different idea, one that's neglected in most games even though it's at the heart of much fantasy fiction. In games, sorcerers generally cast spells that a powerful in some ways but very limited in scope. In literature, the Dark Lord turns his kingdom black under perpetual night, the White Witch blankets the land in perpetual winter, etc. Allow meta-magic (or some other mechanic) to vastly increase the size and duration of thematic spells.

(Someone once mentioned a Dark Sun supplement, Dragon Kings, that had 10th-level spells that enchanted an entire army's weapons, etc. That's what we're going for.)

Let the characters play the villains, plotting to take over the world and controlling their evil armies. Let them fight of bands of adventurers trying to stop their reign of terror. Afterwards, let them play adventurers taking on the villains they played earlier.

An old standby, but I like it -- and it belongs on the list.

 

[Voneth]

Have a campaign where orcs or kobolds or some of the other "lowly" races rule over the other races...

Have you ever seen the "Blues" in the PsiHB? The pic of these psionic goblins has the monster in a very Planet of the Apes type costume. Which inspired a whole set up for me.

The Blues psionicly dominate a society of "green skins" and have created a whole civilzation. This does borrow from some of the set up in PotA: Blues=Orangutans/Aristorcats, Orcs=Gorllia/warriors, goblins=chimps/clerks and gophers.

But the setting could change dramaticly as one takes in the effect of the Blues psionic powers and the effects of a civilazation. At the very least it would be PotA meets Klingons with some Dark Sun throw in. And humanity is at the bottom of the food chain.

So would this be an example of how a small change in DND assumptions and rules can spin into a whole new beast?

 

[Rune]

Originally posted by mmadsen
Good. I think Rune mentioned finally having a campaign where he takes Halflings seriously; they rule the skies -- and thus a large mercantile empire -- from their airships.

Actually, this isn't preciselythe idea in my next campaign, although it's very similar to the game I'm currently playing in (and helped to design). In this game, it's as you say, but with gnomes. In my next game, halflings won't rule the skies; they will rule everything! They will be the oppressors, the empire, the Man, as it were! If you're wondering how that happened, wonder on. I can't reveal it yet

By the way, here's another one:

In my games, the alignment of dragons is never tied to the type of dragon. Ever. Intelligent creatures should never be burdened with a single alignment because of their type, but dragons, especially, should be varied. It keeps the players on their toes, if they ever encounter a dragon.

 

[mmadsen]

Another neat trick is to raise the magic level. Yes i said raise it.

Good Pelor, no!

Also using power components is a nice change....A good list can be had in Hackmaster or the Chivalry and Sorcery Beastiary

This can add a lot of flavor, and it can lead quite naturally to plenty of quests (assuming you don't let wizards buy dragon's blood at the Quik-E-Mart).

Another option is too have a limited list of Mana components. To make say a +1 weapon you need StarMetal. There is no Adamantium Mithril whatever, just one magic metal.
+1 Shield, You need Livewood.

Or you can ignore D&D's definitions of admantine and mithril, and have all magic armor made from those materials. That works quite seemlessly in a Middle Earth campaign, of course.

Supplies of Power Material thus become stategic resources and a source of potential adventures

A mithril mail shirt might be worth a king's ransom...

 

[Ace]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another neat trick is to raise the magic level. Yes i said raise it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Good Pelor, no!

I am fond of Pelor too but...

Raising the magic level leads to very interesting campaigns with a very different flavor.

The world becomes a lot more "Jehereg" and less "Conan"

My age of power varient included Escaflowne style mechs (not statted sorry) ground vehicles and aircraft (powered by magic crystals)and twice the number of mages and spell caster suggested in the DMG.

Flavor change, Oh yeah when every group of encountered bad guys has a spell caster and magic items it leads to very wild and over the top games

Those orcs you thought you could easily take, well sorry they just summoned Fiend wolves.

People being healed and raised all the time. The flavor is very different then your standard 4 campaign types

Low magic (Conan type Games)
Low medium (A little less than DMG, most games I have played in)
Medium Magic (DMG assumptions)
High magic (Forgotten realms)

With very high magic all of the magic tends to cancel out. If every 2nd and 3rd level warrior has magic armor and weapons they tend to be equal

Granted the game lacks a "sense of wonder element" but its fun for the power gamer in all of us. It also the last thing anyone would expect and that is always a good thing.

 

[mmadsen]

...create a new Priest class based entirely on channeling positive (or negative, or elemental?) energy in a manner similar to Turning Undead. They would have many more 'Turning' attempts / day as their level increased and their reservoir of sacred (or profane) 'faith' increased. At the time they would also learn how to apply the energy channeled in an assortment of priestly ways, such as healing, blessing / cursing, bolstering / encourage allies, repelling opposing creatures, cleansing a body or an area of intrusions, toxins, hostile magics, etc, warding an area or even damaging or dispelling an opposing force or creature.

How is a Priest who uses slots labelled "Channel Energy" to heal, bless, and aid allies (i.e. cast Cleric spells) any different from a Cleric who uses slots labelled "Spells" to heal, bless, and aid allies (i.e. cast Cleric spells)? Wouldn't it be easier to make Turn Undead a 1st-level Cleric spell if we wanted turning and spells to share a common pool?

 

[mmadsen]

D&D for a Younger Audience

I just created another thread, D&D for a Younger Audience, to discuss "little changes" for playing D&D with kids, like having "killed" monsters turn to dust and blow away, etc.

Hope to see you there!

 

[mmadsen]

I mentioned using Call of Cthulhu magic, but I forgot some other obvious alternative, so here's a more complete list:

• Use Call of Cthulhu magic.
• Use Star Wars Force rules for magic.
• Use Psionics for magic.