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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kalendraf" data-source="post: 1709110" data-attributes="member: 3433">Cool.  That's one of the primary foundations for my campaign.  I decided to take some real-world historical events and blend them together to form the background for this campaign.  I originally considered the possibility of the divine-side of the power having undergone some kind of major power loss, like maybe several gods had died, or lost worshippers and thus had no or little power.  A possible example of that could be the ending of the Egyptian, Greek or Roman theologies.  Later, I started looking at the arcane side as being the ones that had been devestated, and it just clicked.  The main real-world historical elements I've tried to blend in this campaign include:- The witchhunts of medieval europe/early colonial U.S. history.  In this campaign, the Witchhunters have been tracking down arcane casters for centuries, though now they are only supposed to only go after Tainted casters.- The crusades.  After the dawn of the Taint, the surviving churches wiped out the lesser or weakened ones, and launched full-crusades to eradicate all non-believers until only a handful of all-powerful churches remained.  The crusades ended just a few years ago.- Colonization/Settlement of North America.  The new continent is being settled with new arrivals coming every day.  The party began their careers in a town near the edge of the settled lands, which would be the equivalent of this world's Wild West.- Oppression/War against the Native Americans.  The natives of this new continent, known as the Wilders (druids, rangers, barbarians), and various humanoid clans have been pushed westward by the new settlers.  Some resistance and skirmishes have happened, and increasingly deadlier conflicts are inevitable.This isn't some alternate earth, though I suppose I could have save myself some map development and made it that way.  This is still a mostly normal fantasy world, but arcane power is dangerous & magic items are far less common.Wizards & Sorcerers have it pretty rough here.  Spells they cast can be dangerous, and permanent items they make are illegal to possess and may very well become cursed items.  Renegade witchhunters may try to kill them.  And even the local populace doesn't like them. To help balance all these drawbacks, they get some added benefits:Lingering Magic - As a result of the previous changes to the Arcane Spellpool, arcane magic now is less predictable.  All spells cast by wizards & sorcerers with a duration of 1 time unit/level now last an additional 0-3 time units.  This is determined secretly by the DM when the spell is cast.  For purposes of Extend type feats, the base duration is doubled, then the 0-3 additional units are added.  This lingering ability tends to help lower level casters more than higher level ones.1st level Wizards gain Eschew Materials feat1st level Sorcerers gain Arcane Preparation feat4th level Wiz/Sorc gain Heighten Spell feat7th level Wiz/Sorc gain Arcane Sight (detect magic & taint at will)8th level Wiz/Sorc gain Energy Affinity[Lightning] feat11th level Wiz/Sorc gain Energy Affinity[Fire] feat14th level Wiz/Sorc gain Energy Affinity[Cold] feat17th level Wiz/Sorc gain Energy Affinity[Acid] feat19th level Wiz/Sorc gain Free metamagic feat of their choiceDue to mistrust & stigma, Wiz/Sorc suffer a -2 penalty on Diplomacy checks, but gain +2 bonus on Intimidation checks.Were I to re-do this, I would likely incorporate several of the Sudden meta-feats from the Miniatures Handbook instead of the other feats I originally offered.</blockquote>

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