Corlon
First Post
Basically, I was just thinking of a new magic system, and I've always hated the fire and forget, the strict spells, the entire thing, so I thought of something that seems impossible for a person as lazy as I am to complete balanced, but I will try none the less.
A lot of this is kinda mabye this way mabye another right now, so just bear with me.
This magic system is called elemental magic, and it's completely new, alongside divine and arcane (this is designed so that other casters can coexist with these), and it's drawn directly from the magics of the elements themselves. Casters who use this strange type of magic are called Elemental Mages.
Basically, at first level, tenth level, and again at twentieth, the character picks an element (wind, water, earth, fire, sonic {I know sonic isn't really an element, but it's cool so I decided to include it}) and they get skills to let them use these elements. The skills are very broad, such as create, shape, control, charge, etc. I had a whole bunch, but I can't think of em right now, and if you have any more, feel free to suggest them.
All the mages have mana, which goes up as level increases and with the key mental ability score which is...something, probably charisma or wisdom.
Mana recharges by such and such an amount every round, and the characters can get feats to upgrade this recharge rate, as well as get higher recharge rate as they increase in level.
I'm still trying to work the skills out, but I think they'll get 2+int modifier normal and 3 element skills, and they can buy .5 ranks per normal skill, but still have max ranks as if it were a class skill.
The way the skills will work is that if characters make certain DCs then they can do up to so much with the element, to make it more flexible I'll probably make it so that it starts with a base difficulty of 5 or 10, and that can do so much, then depending on what they want to add on, they can do more depending on which skills they have. The more they do, the more mana it costs, so with a super-awsome-best check ever a character could use up all of his mana and blow the crap out of one encounter, but leave himself pretty much defensless for a while. (NOTE if a character rolls really high, they don't have to make the spell powerful, but they can only make it up to that powerful)
The skills are better or worse depending on the element you choose, basically this is what it is.
Create: This lets the mage create whatever element he specializes in, the higher the check, the more the mana, the more created (things such as fire and sonic that dissapear also have a duration that can be increased for more DC and more mana)
Shape: This lets the mage shape his element into whatever ever shape he wishes. This is useful for things like fire swords, wind walls, or making instant pits with earth. This can also be used to make things like wind and sonic bridges.
Control: This is kind of like shape, but more for mobile things, such as making tornadoes, whirlpools, directed fires.
Charge: This is for elements that don't hurt people at a touch (such as earth and air spikes can pierce people, but not burn or zap them), and charge lets them charge their element with a damaging energy (acid for earth, electricity for air, and cold for water), this can also make fire have uncanny heat, adding damage to normal fire. Charge also (for more DC and mana) can make people immune to that certain charged element (and in the case of fire, all of it).
The caster, depending on what he's doing, takes different amounts of time to use certain skills (usually a standard action). If the mage wants to mix his skills, the DC increases for the entire thing, but one check for every skill must be made. If one skill fails, then that part of the casting messes up (such as a charged air spike would just be an air spike if the charged check messed up).
I'm going to work on the specifics much more, but I'm just puting this up for comments and stuff now.
I'm trying to make this balanced, but it will probably come out horribly unbalanced one way or the other.
The complete rules will be posted when and if I complete them.
A lot of this is kinda mabye this way mabye another right now, so just bear with me.
This magic system is called elemental magic, and it's completely new, alongside divine and arcane (this is designed so that other casters can coexist with these), and it's drawn directly from the magics of the elements themselves. Casters who use this strange type of magic are called Elemental Mages.
Basically, at first level, tenth level, and again at twentieth, the character picks an element (wind, water, earth, fire, sonic {I know sonic isn't really an element, but it's cool so I decided to include it}) and they get skills to let them use these elements. The skills are very broad, such as create, shape, control, charge, etc. I had a whole bunch, but I can't think of em right now, and if you have any more, feel free to suggest them.
All the mages have mana, which goes up as level increases and with the key mental ability score which is...something, probably charisma or wisdom.
Mana recharges by such and such an amount every round, and the characters can get feats to upgrade this recharge rate, as well as get higher recharge rate as they increase in level.
I'm still trying to work the skills out, but I think they'll get 2+int modifier normal and 3 element skills, and they can buy .5 ranks per normal skill, but still have max ranks as if it were a class skill.
The way the skills will work is that if characters make certain DCs then they can do up to so much with the element, to make it more flexible I'll probably make it so that it starts with a base difficulty of 5 or 10, and that can do so much, then depending on what they want to add on, they can do more depending on which skills they have. The more they do, the more mana it costs, so with a super-awsome-best check ever a character could use up all of his mana and blow the crap out of one encounter, but leave himself pretty much defensless for a while. (NOTE if a character rolls really high, they don't have to make the spell powerful, but they can only make it up to that powerful)
The skills are better or worse depending on the element you choose, basically this is what it is.
Create: This lets the mage create whatever element he specializes in, the higher the check, the more the mana, the more created (things such as fire and sonic that dissapear also have a duration that can be increased for more DC and more mana)
Shape: This lets the mage shape his element into whatever ever shape he wishes. This is useful for things like fire swords, wind walls, or making instant pits with earth. This can also be used to make things like wind and sonic bridges.
Control: This is kind of like shape, but more for mobile things, such as making tornadoes, whirlpools, directed fires.
Charge: This is for elements that don't hurt people at a touch (such as earth and air spikes can pierce people, but not burn or zap them), and charge lets them charge their element with a damaging energy (acid for earth, electricity for air, and cold for water), this can also make fire have uncanny heat, adding damage to normal fire. Charge also (for more DC and mana) can make people immune to that certain charged element (and in the case of fire, all of it).
The caster, depending on what he's doing, takes different amounts of time to use certain skills (usually a standard action). If the mage wants to mix his skills, the DC increases for the entire thing, but one check for every skill must be made. If one skill fails, then that part of the casting messes up (such as a charged air spike would just be an air spike if the charged check messed up).
I'm going to work on the specifics much more, but I'm just puting this up for comments and stuff now.
I'm trying to make this balanced, but it will probably come out horribly unbalanced one way or the other.
The complete rules will be posted when and if I complete them.
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