D&D 4E Simple system for a M:tG campaign in 4E

fissionessence

First Post
This is just something I've been thinking about for attempting a 4E campaign set in the Magic: the Gathering multiverse. A lot of stuff ports over easily, but the power sources don't really work, as anything non-martial should pretty much be the 'mana' power source. However, the colors of magic tend to be split up and mixed in with a lot of the power sources (for example, arcane easily includes both red and blue).

One simple solution is just to assign each class a color or color combination and say 'there you go, that's your color'. So a paladin changes his power source from 'divine' to 'white mana'. A warlock uses black and red, maybe with a bit of blue.

Another choice is to mostly drop the class strucutre. Have a player choose their homeland, which will determine their starting color, and they can choose a class, but this includes only a class's starting features, not power selection (you can figure out on your own what to do with the warlock pacts . . . )

From there, players can choose any power from any class as long as it matches their starting color. As a character travels and levels up, he may bond with land other than his homeland, potentially granting him access to other colors. Thus, maybe once per level a character can choose a few new 'lands' to bond to, and they can then gain the option to potentially learn a certain number of powers of their new land's color (restricted to the normal power-learning levels, of course).

Some other options you could use:
· In addition to the color restriction, you may only learn powers from your class's role (defender, leader, controller, striker), or perhaps one other. So, if you started off 'paladin', you get defender automatically and perhaps choose striker as your alternate, allowing you access to white powers (if you chose white) from the paladin, fighter, ranger, rogue and warlock classes. At this point there aren't always going to be a lot of options for colors from every class, but hopefully forthcoming classes and power books will expand it.
· You may also choose to free up ability score restrictions to support a player's power selection options from multiple classes. Maybe allow them a primary 'physical' score, and a primary 'mental' score for powers from their primary role, and a secondary 'physical' and 'mental' score for powers from their secondary role. This way they could focus on their primary role in both physical and mental capacities, or both their primary role (in a physical or mental way) and their secondary one (also choosing between physical or mental).
· I'm not sure what to do with martial. One option is to make these powers red or green; a lot of the warlord healing stuff could be white. Some rogue powers could be black or blue (for the tricky utilities). Or you could make them colorless and allow access mana-free (with the usual role restrictions in place). Or just let the players make their cases to gain access to these powers. You could also slightly modify each power (as you needed to, case-by-case) to add a flavor of a color of mana to it, perhaps by describing a fighter's regeneration power to be plant healing power, making it green. Change a ranger's twin strike to bolts of fire and make it red. The fighter's comeback strike could be white, green, or even black with a vampiric energy-drain description.

Any thoughts or stuff to add?

~ fissionessence
 

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Lets just forget about the power sources in D&D right now and lets look at each of the five colors and how they play in Magic:

White:
Leader with life gain, damage prevention, buffs, etc.
Striker with weenie decks.
Defender with walls, high toughness creatures, flash, and vigilance.
Controller with Wrath of God effects.

Blue:
Striker (somewhat) with "Fish decks" small fliers, etc.
Controller with counterspell.
Leader with draw spells.
Defender with counterspell.

Black:
Striker with creature kill and suicidal weenies and beaters.
Controller with discard and mass creature kill.
Not much of a leader or defender.

Red:
Striker with lots of burn and weenie attacks.
Controller with pyroclasm and other mass-burn spells.
Not so much of a leader or defender.

Green:
Defender with flash, reach, and big creatures.
Leader with lots of creature pump and life gain.
Striker with big fatties and weenie swarms.
Controller (somewhat) with artifact/enchantment/land destruction.
 

Yeah I agree the D&D power sources pretty much need to be dropped for a M:tG campaign. I also agree that each color for the most part needs representation in each of the four 4E roles.

I would add a black leader to your list in the form of a black knight type creature, and removal and life drain are both controllerish features.

~
 

Now that you bring up black leaders, it now occurs to me that any color could be a leader with tribal lords. Take Zombie Master for instance. It buffs all your zombies (+1/+1) and lets you pay mana to heal (regenerate) them.
 

That's true. I was hoping, though, to look at the potential for each color to support a PC of all the different roles.

As an example of what I was talking about in my first post, I put together a 4th level version of Kamahl, Fist of Krosa; he's a green defender/leader with a Fighter base (and he's human).

Powers:
At-Will
· Bolstering Strike (Paladin)
· Cleave (Fighter)
· Righteous Brand (Cleric)
Encounter
· Healing Strike (Cleric)
· Piercing Smite (Paladin)
Daily
· Avenging Flame (Cleric)
Utility
· Boundless Endurance (Fighter)

Feats:
Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Sword)
Human Perseverance
Alertness
Skill Training (Nature)

Items:
lvl 2 :: +1 Vicious Bastard Sword
lvl 3 :: Catstep Boots
lvl 4 :: Onyx Dog
lvl 5 :: +1 Barkskin Scale Armor

HP:
Hit Points 47; Bloody 23
Healing Surges 11; Value 11

Skills:
Athletics, Endurance, Heal, Nature

Abilities:
Str 19 (+6)
Con 14 (+4)
Dex 10 (+2)
Int 11 (+2)
Wis 14 (+4)
Cha 12 (+3)

Defenses:
AC 19
Fort 18
Reflex 12
Will 14

Attacks:
+10 melee Strength attack with vicious bastard sword +1
+4 attack with Wisdom

If it deals radiant damage, it's brilliant searing green mana, the Onyx Dog is a trusted animal companion he summons (he'll be able to summon more later, perhaps with druid powers assuming druid is a leader class he can take powers from it). His healing is obviously green-mana induced and his strength and wisdom come from his bond with nature and its granted powers.

If I do more, I think I'll do a blue Rogue-based character who's a striker/controller with illusion powers from Dragon Magazine's illusion wizard Class Acts article and invisibility from the warlock.

~
 

Lets just forget about the power sources in D&D right now and lets look at each of the five colors and how they play in Magic:

White:
Leader with life gain, damage prevention, buffs, etc.
Striker with weenie decks.
Defender with walls, high toughness creatures, flash, and vigilance.
Controller with Wrath of God effects.

Blue:
Striker (somewhat) with "Fish decks" small fliers, etc.
Controller with counterspell.
Leader with draw spells.
Defender with counterspell. i'd say returning your permanents to hand works better here

Black:
Striker with creature kill and suicidal weenies and beaters. and swampwalk
Controller with discard and mass creature kill.
Not much of a leader or defender (regeneration).

Red:
Striker with lots of burn and weenie attacks.
Controller with pyroclasm and other mass-burn spells. (things like outmaneuver also work here)
Not so much of a leader or defender.

Green:
Defender with flash, reach, and big creatures.
Leader with lots of creature pump and life gain.
Striker with big fatties and weenie swarms. and forestwalk
Controller (somewhat) with artifact/enchantment/land destruction. (fog)
 

Thanks, Szatany.

I think it might be helpful, as a general guideline, to look at the powers at each level and figure out where they stand in relation to 'mana costs'.

Level 1 At-Will = 1 mana
Level 1 Encounter = 2 mana
Level 1 Daily = 3 mana
Level 2 Utility = 2 mana
Level 3 Encounter = 3 mana
Level 5 Daily = 4 mana
Level 6 Utility = 3 mana
Level 7 Encounter = 4 mana
Level 9 Daily = 5 mana
Level 10 Utility = 4 mana

Level 11 Encounter = 5 mana
Level 12 Utility = 5 mana
Level 13 Encounter = 6 mana
Level 15 Daily = 6 mana
Level 16 Utility = 6 mana
Level 17 Encounter = 7 mana
Level 19 Daily = 7 mana
Level 20 Daily = 8 mana

Level 22 Utility = 7 mana
Level 23 Encounter = 8 mana
Level 25 Daily = 9 mana
Level 26 Utility = 8 mana
Level 27 Encounter = 9 mana
Level 29 Daily = 10 mana


...so at level one, a red mage's powers could include...

Lightning Bolt (at-will)
Summon Kird Ape (at-will)
Pyroclasm (encounter)
Summon Sedge Troll (daily)
 

I like this mana breakdown, though I haven't really thought about mana much. I was thinking there wouldn't need to be much focus on mana since a player can only use a limited number of actions per round anyway. That table could be a good guideline for how many 'lands' a player has bonded to, though. If a level 1 suite of powers requires a total of ~7 mana, then maybe the player needs to have bonded to at least 3 'lands', which can generate about 1-3 mana per round. Obviously there's more mana available than the character needs, but other players or even enemies or NPCs might be drawing from the same 'mana pool' since they've bonded to the same lands, making mana scarcer. Some lands could even have special abilities like "a power used with mana from this land that does fire damage deals an additional point of fire damage". Those would be like legendary lands, and most likely players traveling together would share that land and have to take turns with it. I'm not sure how any of these ideas would actually work out; I'm just rambling at this point.

~
 

It's good, interesting rambling though. It's the type of rambling that gets the brain juices flowing.

I kind of think maybe the power level of an MtG D&D campaign should be higher than that of a normal D&D campaign.

If level 5 dailies are equivalent to four mana, then black mages at level 5 should be able to get spells like:
Zombify
Damnation
Summon Juzzam Djinn

Blue mages should be summoning Leviathans at level 19.
 

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