Magic that is class neutral?

[harpy]

One of the things I've tossed around for awhile was the idea of magic being class neutral in the system.

Just as anyone can pick up a sword and stab someone, anyone who can read or recite can lean a spell, and it just comes down to your mental stats as to how well you'd be able to pull off the magic, just as your physical stats have a huge influence on your ability to fight in combat.

Has this been attempted yet?

 

[Saeviomagy]

One of the things I've tossed around for awhile was the idea of magic being class neutral in the system.

Just as anyone can pick up a sword and stab someone, anyone who can read or recite can lean a spell, and it just comes down to your mental stats as to how well you'd be able to pull off the magic, just as your physical stats have a huge influence on your ability to fight in combat.

Has this been attempted yet?

Most systems that do this are skill based systems. Often they have an additional entry requirement to the magic skills. For instance shadowrun requires that you spend some character creation points to be able to use magic, but doing so doesn't preclude you from cybering yourself up to hell and back and shooting people to death while never learning a single spell.

4e has ritual casting, which is available to anyone with the appropriate skill.

Eclipse phase again requires you to spend some points to be psi-capable, and certain backgrounds are prohibited from taking it, but outside that you can knock yourself out.

The advanced fighting fantasy roleplaying game expansion blacksand! (I think) featured a skill for minor magic which anyone could take to throw minor cantrips around. Again: anyone could potentially take major magic, but doing so required you to sacrifice your skill (which was basically how good you were at everything else).

So yes, it's been done. The main problem is that magic tends to be so damn good that it's hard to balance it without forcing a tradeoff on everything else the character does.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Sure; lots of systems have taken this approach. RuneQuest, for example.

Rolemaster also let anyone gain magical abilities, it just cost some professions more development points to do so.

 

[Herobizkit]

Ayup. Let me direct your attention to the products of our very own EnWorlder, Ryan Nock: Elements of Magic and EoM: Mythic Earth for the d20 system. This system, in its simplest form, changes spells into skills and gives the caster free reign to create virtually any spell. By tweaking its various parts (range, damage, type, AoE, etc.), the player generates a DC which he must defeat using his Spellcraft check. The Mythic Earth version is designed for use with d20 Modern; I have found it to be easier to use than the fantasy flavored edition, though YMMV.

 

[SiderisAnon]

I used Elements of Magic (with personal rewrites) in several campaigns. I find it an excellent way of creating magic that is neutral to class. The priests and the wizards can still learn their magic in different ways and dra on different power sources, but the mechanics are identical. It also allows for things like a character who picks up just a little bit of magic and can do a few cantrips. (The 1/2 caster level.)

 

[Starbuck_II]

One of the things I've tossed around for awhile was the idea of magic being class neutral in the system.

Just as anyone can pick up a sword and stab someone, anyone who can read or recite can lean a spell, and it just comes down to your mental stats as to how well you'd be able to pull off the magic, just as your physical stats have a huge influence on your ability to fight in combat.

Has this been attempted yet?

AD&D did this for Psionics.

 

[Alzrius]

3.5 had this with incantations.

 

[Nifft]

One of the things I've tossed around for awhile was the idea of magic being class neutral in the system.

Just as anyone can pick up a sword and stab someone, anyone who can read or recite can lean a spell, and it just comes down to your mental stats as to how well you'd be able to pull off the magic, just as your physical stats have a huge influence on your ability to fight in combat.

Has this been attempted yet?

Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed / Arcana Evolved had a very cool take on this.

There were three classes of spells: Simple, Complex, and Exotic.

Any spellcaster could prepare any Simple spell.

Some classes -- and some feats -- granted access to Complex spells with a specific descriptor. So you could make a Druid-type who cast all Simple spells, plus those Complex spells with the Healing, Plant or Fire descriptor.

Exotic spells cost 1 feat each. They are your character-specific "Signature" spells. Most people don't know any of these -- if you know one, you might be the only mage in the world who does.

Cheers, -- N