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Complete Wizardly Magic Rules for Daemonforge:
By Richard "Riot Gear" Hughes
Special Thanks to Virago on the EN Message Boards
In the world of Daemonforge, cut off from most divine power as it is, arcane magic is a fearsome and bloody force. Wizards are by far the most common force of magic in the land, and without divine mandate to limit their power, they have grown dramatically in knowledge since the Fall of the Gods.
In addition, they have split in to three schools of thought on the proper methodology of magic. One school has stuck to traditional methods of memorizing spells from spell books, and has gleaned great secrets of metamagical powers. They are called Spellchanter. Another school has turned to secrets of mechanical devices that cast their spells for them, allowing them much more endurance in casting at the expense of flexibility, as well as the ability to create powerful mechanical servants. They are called Spelljackers. The final school has discovered a strange and new art called spell-weaving. At the expense of endurance in spell casting, they can create almost any magical effect conceivable - But this art requires great crystal Focuses to work at all, and they can be easily rendered helpless. They are called the Spellweavers.
The dungeon master running a Daemonforge campaign has two choices for how to simulate this triad of wizardly disciplines. The first is to make use of the three alternate classes shown here, although they're closer to templates for a class than a full class entry. The second is to make use of the optional feats we have produced for you and have your Wizard characters take them at first level and as their bonus feats. Both methods have their ups and downs, so please look at both before you decide between them.
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The Spellchanter
The Spellchanters methods are identical, in form and function, to the wizards of old. Spending an hour each day fastidiously poring over their spell book, carefully protecting it from harm, researching ancient secrets in arcane libraries, and learning more and more about the secrets of magic every day. Looking down upon the foolish, headstrong children who demand to gain more magical power NOW through such crutches as Foci and Spelljacks, they consider themselves the only true wizards in the Kessel.
They have many more advantages than the regular D&D wizard, gaining remarkable skills as they increase in level at the expense of their bonus Metamagic/Item creation feats. These skills revolve primarily around the Spellchanters intense mastery of Metamagic.
However, not all of their skills are so lofty. As the last school of wizards who focus upon magical texts and writings, they alone retain the ability to create or even use magical scrolls. As a result, they gain the feat Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat at first level, and there is no other way to obtain that feat.
Straying in to the strange science of metamagical spells, however, has distracted them from forms of magic that they once held dear to them. The art of calling a Familiar is much less well known than it used to be, coming much more naturally to Sorcerers. Spellchanters must now spend a feat on Call Familiar in order to use the familiar summoning ritual.
Another form of magic Spellchanters have discovered is True Mastery of a spell. At 10th level, and only tenth level, a Spellchanter may choose a single spell in their spell book and gain True Mastery of it. At this point a Wizard may give up any spell that level or higher to cast that spell, as a Cleric gives up spells for Cure or Inflict spells. They cannot apply any Metamagic feats to that spell - Except for one exception that will be detailed later.
Primary to Spellchanters, however, is their great mastery of Metamagic. First of all, at 1st level they get a single Metamagic feat for free as a bonus feat. Second, all Spellchanters gain the abilities of Metamagic Specialization. This allows them to spend several low-level spells rather than a single high level spell slot on a spell, which allows them to memorize a very small amount of intensely powerful spells rather than their normal amounts.
In addition to this, at high levels they gain the powers of Metamagic Mastery and Metamagic Supremacy. At 15th level, all Metamagicked spells are considered to be boosted by one less level than normal - So Extending a spell is free, but Extending and increasing the distance of the spell raises the spell by 1 level, effectively. At 20th level, all Metamagic feats are considered to raise the spell level slot by 1 less - So Extending and increasing the distance of the spell is free.
Here are the abilities mentioned above laid out in a simpler, better explained format for your convenience.
Scribe Scroll: All Spellchanters gain the feat Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat at 1st level. There is no other way to get this feat, and only Spellchanters can use scrolls.
Find Familiar: Spellchanters are the only class capable of gaining this ability - However, to do so, they must spend a feat called Find Familiar, at which point they gain access to all the abilities necessary to call a familiar. Those without this power cannot.
Bonus Metamagic Feat: All Spellchanters gain a bonus Metamagic feat of the players choice at 1st level.
Metamagic Specialization: This ability is gained at 1st level. Instead of raising a spell slots level to cast a spell as a Metamagic feat, a Spellchanter may use up multiple spell slots of that spell level and lower. It's a simple equation. First, determine how many spell-levels the spell would have been boosted. For example, an Empowered, Enlarged Magic Missile would raise the spell by three levels, thus taking up a 4th level spell slot.
Then, divide that number by two and use that many additional spell slots of the spells level. For example, that Empowered, Enlarged Magic Missile spell would take up two spell slots - Three divided by two is 1.5, which rounds down to 1.
However, if the amount the spells level is increased doesn't divide evenly by 2, you add an additional spell slot for one level less than the spell being cast. So that Empowered, Extended Magic Missile takes up two 1st level spell slots and a single 0th level spell slot. If a 0th level spell has this situation come up, an additional cantrip slot is used.
Table, where L equals the level of the spell
L+1 takes up L and L-1
L+2 takes up L and L
L+3 takes up L, L and L-1
L+4 takes up L, L and L
L+5 takes up L, L, L and L-1
Divide level increase by two to find out how many extra slots of level L are needed. Leftover of .5 means a single slot of level L-1. So L+9 needs 4 extra level L slots and an L-1 slot
Metamagic Mastery: This ability is gained at 15th level. The first Metamagic effect applied to a spell raises the spell by one level less. So an Empowered, Enlarged Magic Missile takes up a 3rd level spell slot.
As a general rule, once a Spellchanter gains this ability he should pick a default Metamagic effect to apply to his spells, one that raises the level by only 1. All of his spells are considered to be memorized with this Metamagic modification by default.
Metamagic Supremacy: This ability is gained at 20th level. All Metamagic effects applied to a spell raise the spell by one level less. So an Empowered, Enlarged Magic Missile takes up a 2nd level spell slot.
With this ability all of a Spellchanters spells are considered to be affected by all of his Metamagic abilities that raise a spell level by 1 or less. This is really keen for the Spellchanter.
Aside from that, all rules are identical to that of a regular wizard.
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The Spelljacker
A Spelljacker is a man of good habits and keen mind, who takes reality in to his grip with greater and greater arcane tools, shaping reality as he sees fit with his great clockwork Spelljack. With this device he can unleash strange and powerful magical effects almost at will by flicking the right switch. Of course that doesn't even begin to hint at the days the Spelljacker spends huddled above his Spelljack, slowly tweaking and fine-tuning his instrument, or under a bright light in his workshop, fastidiously and carefully assembling clockwork components, crafting a new spell to be grafted to his magical device.
With their clockwork staves, called Spelljacks, a Spelljacker can create powerful magical effects in the same manner that a Spellchanter or a Spellweaver can. They do this by twisting levers and flipping switches in just the right way, so as to trigger a clockwork device within it - This clockwork device then casts the spell for the wizard. Simple as that.
In addition, their research in to the art of mechanical devices has given them knowledge of not only mechanical magic, but simple mechanics as well. As a result, Spelljackers are the only class that can construct Clockwork Golems, also known as Steamjacks.
Another great advantage to a Spelljacker is their ability to cast spells in full armor, only needing the very tips of their fingers uncovered to do their quick manipulations of their Spelljacks. They start with no armor proficiencies, but can use them without penalty or spell failure.
A final advantage to the Spelljackers is their ability to move during casting as their device casts the spell for them. During the casting of a spell, a Spelljacker may move their movement.
However, these advantages are not all the Spelljacker takes account of. Creating and maintaining Spelljacks is an expensive affair, and learning a new spell and creating a reference design costs far more than scribing a new formula in to a spell book.
Not only that, but Spelljacks are heavy, quite so, and due to laws of magic can't be held in especially close proximity to each other without causing unpleasant magical disturbances that can cause damage to the Spelljack that could take weeks to fix. As a result, only one can be safely carried on a human or on most mounts, and a single spell-jack has an expressly limited amount of space for spell-machinery. Thus, a Spelljackers Spelljack significantly limits his repertoire of spells. This inflexibility can be a Spelljackers downfall.
Here are the abilities mentioned above laid out in a simpler, better explained format for your convenience.
Statistics of a Spelljack: As a rule, Spelljacks are heavily armored and tough, one of the reasons they're so expensive with a base cost of 1000 gold with no spells attached. As a result, most beginning Spelljackers begin play in debt up to their eyebrows. They have 60 hit points, with hardness 10 and energy resistance (Everything) 20. It's hard to damage one.
A Spelljack can be wielded as a club, but all damage done by the wielder is also applied to the weapon, bypassing half the hardness.
Should a Spelljack be damaged, as in lose hit points, all spells on it immediately begin to malfunction, having a 50% chance to fail to cast and still cost the spell for the day.
There's no way to get a Spelljacker to let go of their Spelljack. They get a +10 bonus against being disarmed of it.
The Spelljack: A Spelljacker has as many spells per day as a Wizard does plus 2 spells per spell level. However, the way these spells are spent is unusual.
A Spelljacker expends a spell level by winding a spell on a Spelljack of that spell level - The magical energy is transferred from themselves to the device, allowing it to function. Winding a Spelljack is not done by twisting a key, but by an intense magical ritual taking one hour.
The practical upshot of all this is that a Spelljacker doesn't really memorize his spells, his Spelljack does. However, only the memorizing Spelljacker knows how to get it to cast them. Memorize spells as normal, treating the spells available on the Spelljack as his spell book. In fact, functionally, a Spelljack is an extremely durable spell book required for casting spells.
Example: Terwyn takes out his Spelljack and begins the Winding ritual that prepares it to cast. Terwyn has the spells Light, Detect Magic, and Sleep on his Spelljack, and he has six cantrips and four 1st level spell slots. He chooses three castings of each of his cantrips and fills up on Sleep. At the end of the ritual, his Spelljack is wound, and he can use it to cast Detect Magic three times, Light three times, and Sleep four times. However, he needs to be able to manipulate his Spelljacks controls to cast them.
An additional rule is that if his Spelljack were to be stolen by another Spelljacker, the thief would not be able to use his Spelljack aside from copying the spells on it. The winding ritual is different for each caster, and can't be duplicated by another.
A Spelljacker can only memorize spells with Spelljacks he created, but he can research someone else's Spelljack like a normal wizard can research someone else's spell book. He can then construct a prototype for half the cost of inscribing such a spell in to a spell book, and attach a copy of that prototype to the Spelljack for the normal cost of inscribing a spell.
Example: Tervyn the Spelljacker, whose Spelljack contains two cantrips and one 1st level spell, has found a Spelljack belonging to an old enemy of his. After researching it for a bit, he makes several Spellcraft checks to determine which spells he identifies. He succeeds at one of them and discovers a Burning Hands module on the enemy Spelljack. With great glee he retires to his workshop and examines it more closely. That night he makes another Spellcraft check at DC 16 and succeeds. He understands the spell!
The next day he begins construction of a prototype. If it were a Spellchanter spell, it would take up two pages, and cost 200 gold to scribe. As such, it costs half that, 100 gold, to create a prototype. This takes the time it would normally take to inscribe the spell - That is, two days. At the end, he has a fully completed prototype that he can copy and attach on to one of his Spelljacks.
He starts constructing, spending 200 gold, the full cost to inscribe a spell, and takes two days to create and attach it. His Spelljack now has two cantrips and two 1st level spells.
Maximum Spells: A single Spelljack can hold a fixed amount of spells. It can hold a maximum of twenty spells - Two per spell level. If a Spelljacker desires, he could take up a higher level spell slot to install a lower level spell - For example, install Burning Hands in a 2nd level spell slot. It's not possible to install a higher level spell in a lower level spell slot.
Clockwork Constructs: Spelljackers are the only class that can create Clockwork Constructs. Each Clockwork Construct's creation time and price, as well as requirements, is detailed in the Daemonforge Monstrous Compendium.
Free Movement During Casting: While casting a spell, a Spelljacker can move in any way that he could using only his legs - His hands are needed to activate his Spelljack.
Example: Bert uses his Spelljack to cast Burning Hands, a move-equivalent action. He can move his movement, and at the end he'll cast Burning Hands.
Full Armor Casting: Any Spelljacker can cast spells as long as he can manipulate the controls on his Spelljack. The deepest fear of every Spelljacker is the loss of their fingers.
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Spellweavers
A Spellweaver is a man of the soul, a man of great heart, a man who knows what counts. They have enormous respect for the great power that has been bestowed upon them, and would never deign to misuse it - Most of the time. Or perhaps a Spellweaver is a man of passion, a man of impulses, a man of flair. For after all, if you can do anything you want, why would you want to do anything else?
A Spellweaver creates magic by grasping rogue strands of reality and preparing them to become real - But real as the Spellweaver wants them to be. When he desires, he lets them loose, and the spell is cast. To do this, he requires a special focusing staff made of Red Iron.
The versatility of a Spellweavers power shapes everything they are. It is their defining characteristic. They can do ANYTHING, even if they can only do it once a day. They can cast any spell on the D&D spell list for Wizards and Sorcerers, and they can cast any home made spell that the DM approves as well.
Of course, a power so great never comes without disadvantages. The Spellweaver uses the Spells Per Day chart of the Sorcerer, minus three spells. If this results in 0 spells, they get no spells without a bonus spell. As a result, they have fewer spells than a wizard and gain powerful spells later. Fortunately they have a few quirks to counteract this.
Here are the abilities mentioned above laid out in a simpler, better explained format for your convenience.
(Morrus... I know you've already got all of my relevant material in my Red Iron submission, and I really don't feel like copying it from memory. Do you think that you could paste the old stuff here? Go to
http://www.rpg-e.com/enworld/oldsite/red_iron.htm to find it.)
Complete Optional Rules for Arcane Magic in the Daemonforge setting
By Richard "Riot Gear" Hughes
On Wizards, Wizardly schools, and forms of magic.
In the world of Daemonforge, there are four known forms of Wizardly magic, aside from the sorcerous magic of those with otherworldly blood, and they are runes, Spelljacks, crystal weaving, and spell casters.
These schools are very different, and rarely see eye to eye on anything. What they disagree on most is the nature of magic. Magic is not something definable, much as an atom can't be. After all, an atom can be envisioned, but not as it truly is, only through an analogy. So it is with magic. What the four schools differ most on is what their analogy for describing magic is.
To Rune-carvers, who create their magic by inscribing very delicate and fine runes in to enduring surfaces, reality is a mathematical matrix. By entering the proper shape and form (A rune) in to reality, it can tessellate and spread, and by doing so, have strange effects on the nature of reality. This allows a single, very fine rune, to have an effect over a large area by tessellating widely. All runes come in the basic form of a square, a triangle, or a hexagon, for these are the only geometric shapes that tessellate on their own. Of necessity, Rune mages tend to be very fastidious and precise.
To Spelljackers, who create magic by building extremely fine clockwork devices called Spelljacks that produce magical effects, reality is an infinite sea of tiny particles that sit around each other like marbles in a jar. By creating very fine vibrations, pushes, and strokes to reality, the marbles can be forced in to a position more beneficial to those creating the effects. These alterations are far too precise to be created by clumsy human hands and so can only be created by enormously precise and fine clockwork devices. Spelljackers tend towards an air of relaxed superiority, comfortable in their higher knowledge. The downsides and benefits of this art are both extreme.
To crystal weavers, reality is a set of infinitely thin strings that stretch through space, time, and the Planes. These rings define themselves by vibrating in certain ways. Some strings, called Rogues, make up the magical effects in the world by introducing themselves from nowhere. Crystal weavers use a crystal called Terraphor (Necessary to all forms of arcane magic to some extent) to capture these Rogues in their rogue state, weave them in to a proper form, then release them through the Terraphor to produce the sudden appearance of strange effects. Crystal-weavers tend towards a bit of eccentric behavior and impulsive action.
To spell casters, reality is a set of smaller states, which are composed of smaller states, and so on and on. Each state is, to a very, VERY limited extent, animate by it self, and can, by being exposed to some very strange circumstances, be convinced to do something it normally wouldn't. This produces a magical effect. Spell casters tend towards quiet, retrospective personalities.
Rune Mages
Rune mages have most of the stats of a normal PHB wizard except for their spells per day. They have none. Rather, they can inscribe powerful magical runes, which have an effect on whatever they are scribed upon or are scribed near.
Rune Mages make a Rune check in order to carve a rune, first rolling 4d6-4, adding twice their level, and
Taking 10 and taking 20 aren't possible with this skill check because in order to inscribe a rune at all you already need to take as much time and care as possible - Almost the equivalent of taking 40. However, even this incredible finesse has some randomness involved, and so a check is necessary.
Inscribing a rune requires a surface to have it inscribed upon and tools with which to inscribe it. These must be special tools - Only the very finest pens, knives, chisels, or brushes would do. The surface must be strong enough or high enough quality to hold the rune unerringly - Thus, high quality paper, fresh wax, fine wood, or smooth stone would do. Masterwork rune tools are not available, or rather, anything less than masterwork won't do, so there's no way to get a +2 circumstance bonus.
To inscribe a rune, you must meet a DC of 8 plus 4 times the Rune level, so that a 0th level Hex (The runic equivalent of a Cantrip or Orison) would be a DC 8, and a 4th level rune would be DC 24.
Each runes effect, costs to create in both Exp. and GP, and time required for creation is detailed in that runes entry. The cost to create the rune is paid before the attempt to inscribe the rune is begun, and is lost if you fail.
Spelljackers
Spelljackers are mages who create their spells by first creating a delicate clockwork device called a Spelljack and then activating them. These devices are enormously expensive and difficult to produce, but can produce vast, vast amounts of magical effects per day. Producing one costs time and gold depending on the level of spell.
Spell Level Time GP
0 1 Week 10
1 2 Weeks 100
2 3 Weeks 270
3 4 Weeks 900
4 5 Weeks 1900
5 6 Weeks 3600
6 7 Weeks 6600
7 8 Weeks 11000
8 9 Weeks 20000
9 10 Weeks 34000
A spell jack weighs a number of pounds equal to its level squared divided by 2 - 0th level Spelljacks weigh a tenth of a pound.
A Spelljacker can't have more than 2 Spelljacks per level they are capable of creating - They can create a Spelljack of a spell level up to twice their level minus 1. So, a Spelljacker capable of creating a Spelljack that casts 3rd level spells would be able to have 6 Spelljacks. A Spelljacker can't use a Spelljack that they didn't make themselves, and they have to wait a week before constructing a replacement for one destroyed. Replacements cost half the gold, and you can reuse the receptacle, assuming it is the same spell as before. If not, you have to pay the normal cost.
A Spelljack requires no components aside from the Spelljack itself, and that's probably plenty.
Triggering any Spelljack is the same action as the casting time of the spell held within it, but the caster can take movement actions while triggering it, like reloading a light crossbow. Only Full-Round Action spells require the caster to remain stationary.
A Spelljack also requires a recharging receptacle, crafted from Red Iron. This is included in the cost of the Spelljack and makes up one-tenth of the cost. They are a quarter the size and weight of their Spelljack.
A Spelljack has a Hardness equal to its level squared and twice as many hit points. It must be repaired before it can be used if it is damaged, and it can be repaired at a rate of an amount of hit points equal to the repairer's Spelljacker level per day.
A Spelljack can cast its spell X times per day.
Crystal Mages
See the Red Iron thing I did. They're that, with all the optional rules, except they have 1 less spell per day at each level. So at 1st level they need a bonus spell to cast a 1st level spell.
Spell Mages
Identical to the PHB mage, except whenever they get a Bonus Feat for their class, they get a special ability that they can use at will! These are Spell Like abilities, and each time they can pick an amount of spells equal to their intelligence bonus divided by 2 of no higher level than their own level divided by 5, and gain them as Spell-Like Abilities. Later bonuses to intelligence do not increase the amount of spells they can truly know retroactively. (If the previous sentence was confusing, e-mail me about it.)
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