Magic as a corrupting influence...

[Desdichado]

Everyone's probably heard of the old Cthulhu convention of using magic being exposure to cosmic laws that Man Was Not Meant To Know^{[size=-3]TM[/size]}. This naturally corrupts them; Cthulhu spells cost Sanity at the very least, can also do ability damage, or even ability drain and all kinds of other nastiness. The taint of the Dark One on saidin from the Wheel of Time is another cause of using magic leading to corruption of some type.

So, does anyone have any other ideas on what could cause this type of corruption? I'm just brainstorming for my campaign, and want to come up with a good reason why magic is so dangerous to use.

 

[diaglo]

Everyone's probably heard of the old Cthulhu convention of using magic being exposure to cosmic laws that Man Was Not Meant To Know^{[size=-3]TM[/size]}. This naturally corrupts them; Cthulhu spells cost Sanity at the very least, can also do ability damage, or even ability drain and all kinds of other nastiness. The taint of the Dark One on saidin from the Wheel of Time is another cause of using magic leading to corruption of some type.

So, does anyone have any other ideas on what could cause this type of corruption? I'm just brainstorming for my campaign, and want to come up with a good reason why magic is so dangerous to use.

currently the use of spell components with elements... ask howandwhy99 about it in our OD&D campaign.

he touched the GOd Hangnail. edit: NOT physically touched... mentally touched.

 

[Crothian]

Rokugen has the taint me4chanic that could be used foir this, or you could borrow the darkside points and its corruption from Starwars. I don't have anything specific that I use that could help.

 

[Gentlegamer]

From all accounts, Mongoose's Conan game has a superb system for this very thing.

 

[Wild Gazebo]

I never wrote any hard and fast rules, but one of my homebrews has magic that alters the user physically. The more often a mage uses magic the more likely their appearance will alter. Usually based on the types of spells they cast: fire-based, hair turns white and eyes turn black; polymorph, subtle features of the dominant animal used; illusions, mage's edges start to blur when he moves ect...

It was pretty simple and only happened over years of use but everybody seemed to lilke the flavour--except for the illusionist who hated the recognition...I warned him.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Warhammer FRPG - Chaos fuels magic and the stuff of chaos corrupts.

 

[Samothdm]

I use a combination of the Rokugan taint rules, the Conan RPG stuff from Mongoose, and also the section on the Delifers and Preservers that was written up in Dragon for the "Dark Sun" section of the Campaign Classics issue.

It works pretty well. In order to not completely nerf my characters, I basically only apply it to arcane magic from wizards and sorcerers (not bards - that magic comes from a different place IMC), and it does not apply to 1st and 2nd level spells. Only when they start using 3rd level spells do they become aware that the magic can corrupt them. I make them make Will saves at DC 10 + Level of the Spell they're casting. On a failure, they get a "corruption" point. After they've gained 3 Corruption Points, they gain a free metamagic feat that they qualify for (without raising the level of the spell, but it only applies to certain spells and I don't tell them that it's happening), but when they use that feat their spells gain something kind of like the "evil" descriptor. The character also has to make a Wisdom check to actually know what is happening. If they fail their Wisdom check, I let the player know, via notes or an e-mail or something that "You feel powerful! Your spell seemed to last longer/cover a wider area/etc. You feel the urge to cast more spells to try it out." If they make their save, I let them know that they feel a little strange, as though some kind of outside force is trying to change them and make them do things differently.

Basically, I give the player ample opportunities to try to recover and get rid of the Corruption Points. If they don't, though, over time they're lose a few points of Wisdom, become Evil, and cast their spells with the Evil descriptor. The severity depends on whether they willingly let things happen, or just get sucked into it unawares.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

I like to think of magic as a corrupting force on two levels:

First, that it drains your live essence. If you use a con-draining spell casting system, this is easy to work in. The very energy that causes you to live is what you expend in order to cast a spell. As such, many spell casters become very weak and frail at a very young age.

Second, utilizing magic is stretching your humanity. In order to cast a spell, you touch a dark and mysterious force that humans are not meant to encounter. As such, you - over time - become twisted by the art... the more time that you spend mentally in this bizare other world, the more it chips away at your very humanness. I often times think of the weird episodes of Unsolved Mysteries where people are manifesting metal and it's oozing out their pores... weird stuff like that happens to the point that you could eventually become a complete, bizarr-o moster... generally, I like to think of the amount of corruption as based on the level of the spell... you could also work in something like - the more deranged you become, the more powerful you become at using the art of magic...

There you are! A glimpse into the imagination of the Queen of Dopplegangers!

 

[iwatt]

Everyone's probably heard of the old Cthulhu convention of using magic being exposure to cosmic laws that Man Was Not Meant To Know^{[size=-3]TM[/size]}. This naturally corrupts them; Cthulhu spells cost Sanity at the very least, can also do ability damage, or even ability drain and all kinds of other nastiness. The taint of the Dark One on saidin from the Wheel of Time is another cause of using magic leading to corruption of some type.

So, does anyone have any other ideas on what could cause this type of corruption? I'm just brainstorming for my campaign, and want to come up with a good reason why magic is so dangerous to use.

Your'e not asking for mechanics but for ideas of why corruption occurs I think? I'll give it a shot.

1) Magic involves tapping planar energies. The process of tapping this energy leaves the magic user open to be influenced by denizens of these other planes of existence.

2) There is no magic. What the ignorant call magic is just the manipulation of higher level energy levels. With enough knowledege, someone can even rip the time-space continuum (sp?). But enough exposure to these energies has a devastating effect on the users health. Mutations occur, the body ages faster, etc..

3) Channeling the weave is exhausting. Physically. The energy drain leads to a rapid decay of the body, since mere humans are not designed to be able to channel the magic.



Hope this helps.

 

[WayneLigon]

So, does anyone have any other ideas on what could cause this type of corruption? I'm just brainstorming for my campaign, and want to come up with a good reason why magic is so dangerous to use.

• Magic is, at it's root, inherantly evil. Corrolary: all magic comes from demons or evil gods.
• It causes subtle physical changes; these eventually affect the brain and the caster goes mad
• Magic is addictive. The caster gets to the point where he wants to use a spell to stir his tea or tie his shoes. He can't operate without it. Once he uses up his spells, he becomes depressed. Means of increasing his spells per day becomes the focus of his life: he'd kill for a Ring of Wizardry.
• Magic is life and life is magic. Everytime you cast even a cantrip, something somewhere has to die to power that spell.
• Go the Athas route: magic pulls life from the area, eventually destroying it.
• Magic is the soul, which is the source of all things moral, decent, compassionate about humans. Everyone can actually do a little bit of magic every now and again; when a mother lifts a hay wagon off her trapped child, or a person lives through a fever that should have killed them. This is kinda of normal and doesn't hurt a person. Mages, though, have learned to create these effects all the time, at the cost of carving off a chunk of their soul each time to do it. The soul does not regenerate. Eventually there is nothing left and they become undead. Enterprising wizards have three or four apprentices (read: batteries) that serve to power their spells, and are used up in due course.