Level Up (A5E) Making Magic More Magical

[TYP]

Good morning/afternoon/evening all. Years ago, I found this post about ways to break out of the "scientific" magic systems that are so common in D&D and D&D related games. I loved it, but never did anything with it. As I was messing around with A5E, though, it seemed like many pieces I didn't realize I needed were suddenly present, and so I started tinkering. I've just finished up a first draft of a tweaked magic system, and am interested to see what people think.

The essential idea is that, rather than have spells be cast anywhere at any time, that the spells need energy to come from particular places. To me, this makes a lot of sense when I think of the kinds of mythical or archetypical ways we think of magic. There are magical places where wonders can be performed, wizards put their towers in certain specific places, ground can be sanctified, etc. There are also powerful staffs that wizards need to use their powers (Gandalf) or sacred relics that render demons powerful or vulnerable (Hellboy), or powers that are lost if a geas or vow is not kept (Cu Chulainn). I tried to bring in these mechanics in a way that doesn't interfere too much with the ability of players to access their character's magic if they come prepared. That preparation takes the form of learning about places that they can draw their power from, which brings them more into the history and community of a place, or in acquiring powerful magic focuses, perhaps through quests, perhaps through great deeds.

If you've got the time and inclination, I'd love some thoughts and impressions. I haven't had a chance to find a group to try this out, but also wouldn't want to inflict a playtest on them before it's been gone over at least once. Cheers.

 

[xiphumor]

So I like the basic idea of tying magical energy to land from a world-building perspective, but as a mechanic I have some problems with it on a conceptual level.

1. The Narrator has to constantly decide which spell schools are available in a given place, and there are a lot. If you’re going to go this route, I would maybe follow MtG’s example and have maybe five or so basic schools that all spells can be tied to. Then the Narrator can make quick, rough choices about which categories the land falls under and proceed with the game.

2. This seems like it has a lot of potential for the O5e ranger problem, where a character never gets to use the abilities they most enjoy because they’re never in the right situations. It significantly limits the tools available to players and doesn’t give much back in return.

3. Some spells are best employed in spaces where their elements are not already in place. Freedom of Movement comes to mind.

4. This creates some weird character incentives. If I think I’ll need an affliction spell in a coming fight, I now need to torture something in order to make sure I have access to it.

5. Just a point I noticed: if undead magic requires you to be in a place where undead have already been, how did undead magic ever start?

 

[TYP]

Thank you so much for your reply! Those are some great points, and my brain is already percolating for draft two. Here are my initial thoughts:

1. The Narrator has to constantly decide which spell schools are available in a given place, and there are a lot. If you’re going to go this route, I would maybe follow MtG’s example and have maybe five or so basic schools that all spells can be tied to. Then the Narrator can make quick, rough choices about which categories the land falls under and proceed with the game.

That's a good point. I guess I went with the secondary spell schools because they were there; I guess it shows that I'm not a MtG player. What's going through my head now is all the extra work I'd have to do as a GM if I wanted to make a particular spell especially difficult to use. I think, unconsciously, I had always planned to make just about anything accessible as long as the players made the necessary history rolls, because if you dig deep enough into history you can find just about anything. Hmm hmm hmm.

2. This seems like it has a lot of potential for the O5e ranger problem, where a character never gets to use the abilities they most enjoy because they’re never in the right situations. It significantly limits the tools available to players and doesn’t give much back in return.

This is a good point, and one I'm going to sit on. My initial thought is I want to play test it and see what happens, because now I'm imagining players getting frustrated because they spend too much time in a session getting ready rather than doing the actual adventure.

I also left out of this document, because I'm not really sure about how it might work, an idea that you can supercharge your spells if you can harness additional energies. So if you got double the power required, you could increase the DC of a spell, or add a die to its effect, or something. I have a scrap of that, but got stuck on the table of possible effects. If I (or someone else!) figures out how to make it work, the idea would be that it would reward exceptional preparation by letting characters blast off more powerful spell effects by burning through special components, perhaps ones given as rewards for other quests. Like a holy relic a cleric can use, but only once, to maximize the healing from a spell, or a tiny bit of fulgurite a wizard can use to cast fireball a few levels higher. Etc.

3. Some spells are best employed in spaces where their elements are not already in place. Freedom of Movement comes to mind.

4. This creates some weird character incentives. If I think I’ll need an affliction spell in a coming fight, I now need to torture something in order to make sure I have access to it.

To me, this is a feature not a bug! Because it encourages players to come prepared by other means. Going into somewhere that you definitely want to be able to cast Freedom of Movement? Better bring along some components, like the hair of the fastest horse in the village (movement) or water from a fast running stream (water) to make sure! And Inflict Wounds should always been on the table, since you'll be attacking someone, but if you want to make sure you can supercharge it with additional levels, you might grab some dirt from a plague victim's grave. I can see how this might be annoying to some people, but to me (and maybe this says a lot about me!) it seems really fun and exciting to think about how characters will be creative in finding what they need in the world. And it makes them interact more with their environment, which fleshes out the setting.

5. Just a point I noticed: if undead magic requires you to be in a place where undead have already been, how did undead magic ever start?

I think this is why I referenced dark places in the world, or places of power where certain kinds of energy is rife. The first necromancer, or a beginning necromancer, would go about creating a desecrated space by blaspheming or doing other horrible things in order to have the particular energy they might want. Or would be drawn to a place where someone did something horrible and left a stain on the world. I guess it depends on how closely one cleaves to the definitions of the secondary spell schools; as a GM, I would be inclined to be expansive as a way to incentivize creative thinking and story telling, but then that does mean people might feel like they're constantly making it up as they go along.

So a lot to think about. My brain is excited for the work. Cheers!