After checking out Dragon #302's The Play's the Thing, I designed an NPC mage for the party (Basicly I took the example, because I liked it 
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The game is going to be Olde Fantasy, very LotRish, mysterious and mythical and not generic high magic.
One of the ideas I had was for the NPC's spellbook. Instead of just getting their magic from a Book, what about other sources? What would you use other then say, the Book, and the Staff? I had an idea: Crystal Balls.
Let us take Nusala, from the Order of Thulu, who's magic stems from the command of demons and outer beings (Basicly the visual effect/theme, their spells are still mechanicly the same).
Nusala, when she gains a level, must have collected special materials, and goes off somewhere. Here, she draws summoning symbols into the ground, and builds a fire. In the fire she sets a wide bowl, filled with water, puts some materials into the boiling water, and places in the center an indigo orb that floats in the water. She summons forth something Else, a being elsewhere, perhaps an outsider who is familiar with her. She is told how to bind the spells of Command into her Eldrich Sphere, and this is a long process of meditation, trance, and ritual to lay the foundations of magic into her Sphere. If she binds more then her 2 spells, then she must give the extra to the Other (the little being) in exchange for more knowledge, but this may have a chance of being too strenous, and thus a chance of failiure.
Whenever she memorizes her spells, she draws a smaller circle, and draws into a trance, where she draws the spells' frameworks from the sphere and etches them into her mind.
Note, that the boiling water needn't be done the same, it could be a pronged 'claw' that grips the ball over a fire where components are tossed into and the smoke filters up, or any manner of ways.
Similarly, when she casts spells, the Components are often bargaining chips for the outsiders that fuel her magic. A gem is given to the outsider before it does her work for her, or whatever the spell's component is.
All for flavor and mystery of magic.
What do people think, as opposed to plain ol' musty spellbooks?
. The game is going to be Olde Fantasy, very LotRish, mysterious and mythical and not generic high magic.
One of the ideas I had was for the NPC's spellbook. Instead of just getting their magic from a Book, what about other sources? What would you use other then say, the Book, and the Staff? I had an idea: Crystal Balls.
Let us take Nusala, from the Order of Thulu, who's magic stems from the command of demons and outer beings (Basicly the visual effect/theme, their spells are still mechanicly the same).
Nusala, when she gains a level, must have collected special materials, and goes off somewhere. Here, she draws summoning symbols into the ground, and builds a fire. In the fire she sets a wide bowl, filled with water, puts some materials into the boiling water, and places in the center an indigo orb that floats in the water. She summons forth something Else, a being elsewhere, perhaps an outsider who is familiar with her. She is told how to bind the spells of Command into her Eldrich Sphere, and this is a long process of meditation, trance, and ritual to lay the foundations of magic into her Sphere. If she binds more then her 2 spells, then she must give the extra to the Other (the little being) in exchange for more knowledge, but this may have a chance of being too strenous, and thus a chance of failiure.
Whenever she memorizes her spells, she draws a smaller circle, and draws into a trance, where she draws the spells' frameworks from the sphere and etches them into her mind.
Note, that the boiling water needn't be done the same, it could be a pronged 'claw' that grips the ball over a fire where components are tossed into and the smoke filters up, or any manner of ways.
Similarly, when she casts spells, the Components are often bargaining chips for the outsiders that fuel her magic. A gem is given to the outsider before it does her work for her, or whatever the spell's component is.
All for flavor and mystery of magic.
What do people think, as opposed to plain ol' musty spellbooks?
