Looking for an alternate magic system...
- Thread starter sfgiants
- Start date
If you want a new way to handle spells, try the system I wrote up and published on The Guild Companion .
You can find it here: http://205.200.64.249/gc/scrolls/2002/apr/matrix.html
You can find it here: http://205.200.64.249/gc/scrolls/2002/apr/matrix.html
MonkeyBoy
First Post
As an aside, what I originally planned to do was remove the concept of "spells" as entities that are pre-determined altogether...
I remember a CRPG (forget the name though) where the magic system consisted of combining components to get the spell effect you wanted.
For instance, you would find that Herb A gave a damage effect, Herb B gave a ranged effect and Herb C gave an area of effect. So by combining these you could make the "spell" you needed on the fly...
The system in that game was balanced by rarity and value of components, and the fact that some components did bad things in combination; you only found out by experimentation.
My plan was to provide a pallette of spell effects (damage, range, healing, duration, healing etc) and allow the caster to combine as they liked. More effects meant more mana cost. (to scale your damage you add in multiple damage effects...) This also included the concept of power components; Herb D, for example, might be a larger damage effect, but be much rarer than Herb A (above)
This would combine with the casting checks that I am using, wherein a check could be made to "learn" a set of effects as a spell, making the casting of learnt spells easier / quicker / cheaper than making it up as you needed it.
All in all this appealed to me as a concept, but I couldn't quite bring myself to spring that much of a change on the players, or (to be honest) to put in that much hard work redesigning the entire magic system from the ground up (you'd need all your compomnents prepped and named etc.)
Its still on the "wouldn't that be nice" list, though...
I remember a CRPG (forget the name though) where the magic system consisted of combining components to get the spell effect you wanted.
For instance, you would find that Herb A gave a damage effect, Herb B gave a ranged effect and Herb C gave an area of effect. So by combining these you could make the "spell" you needed on the fly...
The system in that game was balanced by rarity and value of components, and the fact that some components did bad things in combination; you only found out by experimentation.
My plan was to provide a pallette of spell effects (damage, range, healing, duration, healing etc) and allow the caster to combine as they liked. More effects meant more mana cost. (to scale your damage you add in multiple damage effects...) This also included the concept of power components; Herb D, for example, might be a larger damage effect, but be much rarer than Herb A (above)
This would combine with the casting checks that I am using, wherein a check could be made to "learn" a set of effects as a spell, making the casting of learnt spells easier / quicker / cheaper than making it up as you needed it.
All in all this appealed to me as a concept, but I couldn't quite bring myself to spring that much of a change on the players, or (to be honest) to put in that much hard work redesigning the entire magic system from the ground up (you'd need all your compomnents prepped and named etc.)
Its still on the "wouldn't that be nice" list, though...
From the SRD
Code:
[Color=White][Size=1]Power
Level Pts/Day
----- -------
1 2
2 3
3 4
4 7
5 10
6 15
7 20
8 27
9 34
10 43
11 52
12 63
13 74
14 87
15 100
16 115
17 130
18 147
19 164
20 183 [/Size][/Color]Bonus power points are a bit more complicated:
Code:
[Color=White][Size=1]Ability ————————— Bonus Power Points (by Psion Level)
Score 1–2 3–4 5–6 7–8 9–10
------- --- --- --- --- ---- -----
1–9 ———————— Can’t manifest powers with this key ability
10–11 — — — — —
12–13 1 — — — —
14–15 1 3 — — —
16–17 1 3 5 — —
18–19 1 3 5 7 —
[/Size][/Color]Spells cost a number of power points equal to spellcaster level: 1 for 1st-level spells, 3 for 2nd, 5 for 3rd, etc., and spells don't scale with spellcaster level unless the extra power points are put in.
Last edited:
MonkeyBoy said:
While interesting for a work of fiction, my first reaction to this as a game mechanic is... yuck
There's a problem with balancing the thing with cost of components. In general, your basic fighter pays for a sword and armor , and that wil serve him for a very long time. He can use them over and over at no additional cost, prety much forever. In D&D, a wizard pays once for a spell, to scribe it in his book , and it's his forever. there are a few exceptions, where a spell has an additional cost, but not too many.
Now, you're talking about a wizard dipping into his purse every single time he wants to do anything. That's not so good.
mmadsen said:
Yeah, then there are some irregularities in the PHB spells to be smoothed out. Normalizing the damage dice type for example. This irregularity among spells doesn't matter with spell slots based on level like the wizard or sorcerer, but when it all comes from the same point pool it's more important that things like this are consistent across different spells at different levels. There are a bunch of minor changes like this to other various spells.
s/LaSH
First Post
It occurs to me that a homebrew I'm working on would also be suitable, but I'm not done with it yet. It's based on a non-D&D system that uses calculators, but it should scale down well...
The basic idea is that of a freeform spell generator, in which you spend points to add effects to a spell. Not too complicated; 3 points of Damage, for example, equating to 3d6 damage, or perhaps 6 points of Mind Control for a DC 16 charm.
The part that makes it unique is the mechanic for increasing effects. By 'concentrating' the spell for extra points, you can double certain parts of the effect.
When it's done, it should fit in ten pages and be able to emulate 90% of all spell effects, as well as provide a few new ideas of its own. But as I've said, it ain't done yet. When it's finished, I'll make noise, rest assured.
The basic idea is that of a freeform spell generator, in which you spend points to add effects to a spell. Not too complicated; 3 points of Damage, for example, equating to 3d6 damage, or perhaps 6 points of Mind Control for a DC 16 charm.
The part that makes it unique is the mechanic for increasing effects. By 'concentrating' the spell for extra points, you can double certain parts of the effect.
When it's done, it should fit in ten pages and be able to emulate 90% of all spell effects, as well as provide a few new ideas of its own. But as I've said, it ain't done yet. When it's finished, I'll make noise, rest assured.
Similar Threads
