Looking for new magic system

[bento]

I've been posting over at the "True Sorcery First Impressions?" thread about my disappointment that the book wasn't more spells to supplement the True 20 line. I though instead of complaining (and I can't complain because I didn't buy the book), I'd post my predicament here.

Since we have so many people who have tried different sets of magic rules and have great opinions about what works/what doesn't, I'd like to pick your brains.

I want to port over my Oriental Adventures campaign from D&D 3.5 to True 20. In our old campaign, some of our classes came from "Complete Divine" and "Complete Arcane" - Shugenja, Spirit Shaman, Warmage and Wu Jen.

While I'm basing my campaign in old Kara-Tur, I'm overlaying a storyline that's much more "Avatar the Airbinder" that's now running on Nickleodeon. Basic story - players live on island where a group of powerful Shugenjas are trying to overthrown the crown and establish a theocracy based on the Order of the Comsuming Flame. Our heroes will fail to foil their initial plot, and after fleeing the island, they will visit the other nations of Kara-Tur to unify the other Shugenja orders and ultimately defeat the OotCF.

Needless to say, I need a magic system that I can overlay elemental magic paths onto. WoTC developed 4 elemental paths with eight various orders, plus Void. I could also include a variation of a druid to represent the element of "life." The other magic user classes are Spirit Shaman, which I use as the local "Shinto" priest class, Wu Jen, which can tap into any of the elemental areas but lack their control and Warmage, which is the foot soldier for the Fire Nation (Oops - I mean the OotCF).

What I am looking for is established character paths for each of these and the appropriate spell lists. Maybe I only need to sit down with all my books and start coming up with this from scratch, but it looks like a lot more work than I'm willing to put into it.

I love the idea of fatigue, that most spells cost something to use, and you can burn out quickly if you use too many too fast. The other limitation is my players, who have on average less that 10 months experience with RPGs.

Any suggestions?

 

[Aussiegamer]

With some adaption I think you could use Nexus system, it does not use fatigue but does incorporate a system that of defeating the power of the spell with the casters abilities. If the spell power is too high then you get damaged after casting it.

There are no caster levels and it is skill/ feat based.

Feats are used to gain access to spell levels in each school and skills like concentraion and a new skill meditation are used to limit the number of spells.

There are no maximum number of spells per day, this is set by the casters mediation score for the time they can cast in. Each casting whilst in a trace state wears the creatures down slightly and makes it harder to regain a trace like state after the time period runs out.

You can cast out of trace but the DC is directly applied to the damage table, so quite painful.

 

[kingpaul]

You might want to take a look at Legends of Sorcery. There are no spells/day, and there's a chance of fatigue for casting spells. Each casting requires a roll, and every class has a Base Magic Bonus (BMB (similar in vein with BAB)).

 

[genshou]

Elements of Magic - Mythic Earth is quite adaptable and could easily fit your needs. I've been thinking for some time that it's an excellent fit for True20, but haven't had a chance to use that system in actual play yet.

 

[Greg K]

Elements of Magic - Mythic Earth is quite adaptable and could easily fit your needs. I've been thinking for some time that it's an excellent fit for True20, but haven't had a chance to use that system in actual play yet.

I have been wondering how EOM:ME would work, but havent tried it yet either.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I'll second the recommendation of 'Legends of Sorcery'. Really elegantly made, and works a treat. It is *very* adaptable, as well.

But then I have heard similar things said of the Elements of Sorcery books. I haven't had the opportunity to try them yet though, so I can't comment on any kind of real comparison there.

 

[genshou]

But then I have heard similar things said of the Elements of Sorcery books. I haven't had the opportunity to try them yet though, so I can't comment on any kind of real comparison there.

Elements of Sorcery?

 

[Aus_Snow]

Oh dear.

Yeah, that'd be Elements of Magic. In fact.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Legends of Sorcery takes the existing spell level / spell slot mechanics and strips away the per diem restrictions.
If you have issues with the actual spells, and not the rules limitations upon them, then you'll hate Legends of Sorcery. If you like the spells but dislike the way they are cast then Legends of Sorcery is right up your alley. It is a well done product, and going over it and my complaints about it helped me realized that while I had issues with the spell slot system, I have many more issues with the actual spells being used to fill those slots.

 

[bento]

Sounds like I have three different books to check out. Thanks for the suggestions.

I sat down this weekend and started putting the Shugenja spell lists into a spreadsheet, and will soon be adding their True20 power equivalent.

I guess in comparison, True 20 has far fewer spells but you have more flexibility in their effect, while there are many more D20 spells, but each does one (or a few) specific things.

And some of the D20 spell lists don't make much sense to me. If you take the plant domain, most of the spells on the list are very similar and don't increase (much) in power as you increase in level.

I think what I may try to do with the list is port over some of the D20 spells that aren't already covered, but put certain conditions on them, like the number of prior power levels (feats?), before they open up. Like create spell ladders, but let the player have different ways of getting there (reduce linearity of the list).

Opening up new spells could be one of the story hooks that some of the players could be pursuing.