Proto-Indo-European setting and magic...

[Dogbrain]

I have decided upon the following for all of the "magic guys" as taboos, though:

Can never cut their hair (or beards).
Cannot enter a building through an arch doorway (or pass under an arch).
Must not come in contact with a member of the opposite sex at certain times of the year.

Possible others:
May not learn to read or write (the bad habit has been picked up from another culture).
May not eat the meat or use any part of a specific animal species. Also may not bring harm to said species or even call it by its proper name ("Bear" becomes "brown one", "wolf" becomes "grey snapper", etc.)

They also get certain benefits, possibly level-related:
Free travel, even during times of war.
Demand of hospitality, even from enemies, but then must reciprocate in some way.

 

[Hygric]

Have you had a chance to look at Slaine by Mongoose Press? The Earthpower system from that may be of use to you. Also has a lot of things that can easily be yoinked for a PIE setting.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I have decided upon the following for all of the "magic guys" as taboos, though:

Can never cut their hair (or beards).
Cannot enter a building through an arch doorway (or pass under an arch).
Must not come in contact with a member of the opposite sex at certain times of the year.

Possible others:
May not learn to read or write (the bad habit has been picked up from another culture).
May not eat the meat or use any part of a specific animal species. Also may not bring harm to said species or even call it by its proper name ("Bear" becomes "brown one", "wolf" becomes "grey snapper", etc.)

They also get certain benefits, possibly level-related:
Free travel, even during times of war.
Demand of hospitality, even from enemies, but then must reciprocate in some way.

Interesting stuff, I like it.

What would happen if they broke one of the Taboos?

Would that be different if it's involuntary - Sampson and his hair, bear meat hidden in their salad, etc?

What happens to a person who refuses to provide the benefits, or worse still, violates them?

One option I liked from the OA Dnd setting was that casters pick up more taboos as they increase in power and got to pick from a selection. Slightly metagamey, but makes the classes more versatile for players, not to mention less stuff to get your head around at the start of a campaign....

 

[Dogbrain]

Interesting stuff, I like it.

What would happen if they broke one of the Taboos?

Voluntary--usually considered a sign of apostasy, although some situations may permit reconciliation--Eat goat meat and break the goat taboo or starve to death could be compensated for (and is a good adventure hook).

Involuntary breakage is a common way to "attack" one of these people. Purification rituals of greater elaboration and dangerousness will have to be done, depending on the power of the magician, and the person who forced the break is definitely a lifelong enemy of the victim.

So, yes, if you can get Alvmon the Powerful to shake hands with a menstruating woman, he will be out of commission for a year and may lose his life in regaining his powers, but he'll be out to add you to his trophy room.

This is a setting with very, very few magic items, so those people who can walk around with their own magical powers pay a price for it.

 

[Dogbrain]

So, yes, if you can get Alvmon the Powerful to shake hands with a menstruating woman, he will be out of commission for a year and may lose his life in regaining his powers, but he'll be out to add you to his trophy room.

And if Alvmon is powerful enough, then even being dead won't stop him from getting revenge...

 

[tensen]

I've been contemplating such a system myself.
You can see in 1st edition they thought about it... at least in regards to Bards. It was an attempt to display the order of progression of druids of old. or at least a possible belief of them.

I think one possibility is not a complete rework of the magic system, but instead a review of the multi-classing system.

Druids were in theory a progression of sorts. One of the steps was the bard. In first edition they used that as the Prestige Class of sorts. The view we have of bards in 3rd edition seems to be from the time of the bardic colleges. But that is a period beyond the time of Druidry, and in the beginning of Christianity.

So I would really suggest multiclassing bard/cleric... or bard/druid.