Spicing up Magic - Magical Traditions

This isn't really a thread of house rules, but rather a bit of campaign design advice. Optional rules are harder to implement than flavor, and what I want to see here are everyone's favorite flavorful fantasy recipes.

As I was revising my old campaign to come up with my current campaign, I took my old world and matured the parts of it that I can now see were just the silly imaginings and thefts of a middle school student. Things like the 9000 year old dragon that ruled an empire (but no one knew he was a dragon, and he usually would teleport around and spread evil just for the halibut) had to go. To replace them, I wanted to play up the different cultures, and try to make my setting like a real world. I'm no Tolkien, I admit, but I wanted to make each culture have its own distinct history, mythology, and customs. My first, foolish foolish idea was to make dozens of prestige classes, almost one for each city or forest or rock on the side of the road. But my players didn't want to read dozens of PrCs, and frankly, after the first 10, I didn't want to write them anymore.

Eventually, though, I decided the easiest way to do it would be the minimalist approach. Taking a cue from Forgotten Realms, I made a few cultural feats, and used them as ways for PCs to get involved with their character's homeland. That helped give hooks to all the different cultures, but I had to give up my idea of having lots of cool types of spellcasting prestige classes. I mean, FR have red wizards, gem mages, spellsingers, and so on, but now that I had decided against PrCs, how was I to represent different magical traditions?

Easy. I use no almost no house rules. Instead, I just write up a paragraph for each culture, saying what their culture prefers to do with its magic, and how its ways of spellcasting might look different from mundane 'wizardry.'

For example, the Ragesians have a tradition of magical inquisitors, who specialize in antimagic and counterspelling. These spellcasters wear ornamental beast masks to hide their faces (and supposedly also their souls) from their foes. Though they study many different types of magic to know how to recognize and counter it, they have a relatively limited repetoire themselves. Aside from antimagic, most of their spells are abjurations or divinations, with some enchantment to help in interrogation.

Rules-wise, this is represented usually by high ranks in Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft, with most Inquisitors being sorcerers instead of wizards. Inquisitors usually take Reactive Counterspell and Improved Counterspell feats. The only real house-rule for them is that they gain Intimidate and Sense Motive as class skills.



Spellduelists of the Gabal school are trained that the most important part of winning a magical combat is good form. Always assume your opponents are using whatever tricks they could, and almost never let them get off any of their spells if you can help it. Good form consists of every once in a while, actively attempting to disbelieve anything that seems too good or too bad, never leaving behind items you once owned that can used to locate you, and always learning from your mistakes.

Gabal spellduelists are generally trained in evocation spells, which they hold until just as their opponents begin casting, so they can disrupt the opposing spell, or to clear out opposing warriors so you can focus your attention on magical opposition without worrying about people with swords. Also, uniquely among schools of spelldueling, the Gabal school emphasizes bluffing and misdirection as valid tools; if you can feint and make your opponent think you're casting a vital spell before you actually do, he might cast his disruptive damaging spell early. You'll still take the damage, but at least you won't lose your own spell.

Gabal spellduelists usually have high ranks in at least two of the four primary skills of the school: Bluff, Knowledge (arcana), Sense Motive, and Spellcraft. Bluff and Sense Motive are class skills for them. Though they cast their spells just the same as normal wizards, they are usually much more intense in learning and mastering different tactics. Though Gabal, the originator of the school, prefers evocations, one of his most famous apprentices made brilliant use of enchantments and illusions to outthink and outmaneuver his foes. This apprentice also was responsible for the forbiddance against the "Diogenes Gambit" in formal duels, in which a spellduelist uses an illusion to make his opponent seemingly disqualify himself by stepping outside the boundary of the dueling field.



Kohalesti spellsingers are Elvish mages from the Otdar Islands, with special mastery of both sonic- and water-based magic. Dressing in light netting and decorative shells, these exotic Elvish sorcerers are highly desired as ship mages for even human fleets. Most spellsingers have beautiful voices well-suited to song, and all are adept swimmers, because their magical power comes from the endless song of the lapping ocean waves.

Spellsingers learn spells like ghost sound, ventriloquism, message, whispering wind, water breathing, and tongues, and they always are capable swimmers (Swim is a bonus class skill for them). All of their other spells have water- or sound-based themes, so mage armor might create a humming field of sound to deflect attacks, or hold person might create a stunning shout that immobilizes the target. Most spellsingers take Still Spell to help them cast underwater, and some take Endurance. They cannot cast any spells without verbal components, so Silent Spell is useless to them, but if they're underwater they can cast spells, though saying a verbal component counts as 5 rounds worth of breathing. Thus, a spellsinger with an 8 Constitution who casts one spell underwater would only have 11 rounds left before she started having trouble holding her breath.



Do any of you have similar ways to play up different magical traditions without requiring lots of house rules.
 

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I had an epiphany about a mildly similar concept a few days ago, though it was more "root of magic" than traditions. I'm still waiting for Russ's answer on it it'd make a good EN Mag article or not. :D
 


I have a magic school in a city called Ravensgate. All 4th year students are given a raven as a familiar. In reality, it is the student who is the familiar, as the ravens are not really ravens, but are a long-lived sentient race from another world whose bodies resemble the ravens of this world. I've also come up with a detailed curriculum for the school, unique magic items for the students, and details about the city where the school is located. All of this is posted on the Plots & Places messageboard, under the thread titled "Kingdoms of the Elves and Dwarves".
 

How about if each tradition had a small list of spells that they focus on? In exchange for a few benefits, like the new class skills you mention, the caster simply has to choose their first spell of every spell level from that list of spells. They can choose their second and subsequent spells from the entire wiz/sorcerer list.

It works for both sorcerers and wizards, requires very little work per tradition, and adds a mechanism to reinforce the flavor text by insuring that the caster has at least one spell per level appropriate to the tradition. Otherwise there's no way to stop someone from being from a given tradition but not acting the part.

What do you think? Still too much of a rule?
 

Raangerwickett

Don't forget the time honored tradition of the "Rantis Check", whick involves checking to make sure someone hasn't swiped your pouches of spell components before you begin a duel.
 

Although I do use a variant magic system, I also have several flavor elements that aren't particularly tied to mechanics.

In my world (fairly magic-rare), a group of magicians had a massive spell go awry (or not, depending on your historical interpretation) during a war against some dragons. This spell laid waste to a 500-mile diameter area of fertile farmlands at the heart of a large empire. Ever since, mages have been viewed with some suspicion and fear (the fact that my variant rules do allow mages to go insane if they push themselves too hard means that there are several crazy magicians running around, enough to create a reputation). As the spell was believed to have something to do with summoning, most knowledge of summoning was systematically destroyed, and any who have knowledge of summoning are considered evil, or at least not to be trusted.

In the northern latitudes (north of the former location of this empire), an order of mages exists that has devoted itself to practicing magic without running afoul of the various temptations and irresponsibilities of magic. As a sign of their willingness to curb their ambitions for the safety of all, the members tattoo patterns of dots on their face, hands, and arms. These patterns grow in increasing complexity as the mage increases in reputation and position.

Other schools don't have these inhibitions, but also don't have the trust of the community.

Most mages also wear robes that are woven of alternating black and white threads (white is the color of death and nothingness, black the color of fertility and creation) signifying their weaving together of the living and the unknown. To wear the robe and have the tattoos confers upon you a certain amount of respect and prestige (game mechanic is a bonus on reputation checks having to do with magic and scholarship), but also reveals you as a caster to any with a bit of knowledge about the wider world.
[edit: attempting to type pre-coffee]
 
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Stahn Li said:
Raangerwickett

Don't forget the time honored tradition of the "Rantis Check", whick involves checking to make sure someone hasn't swiped your pouches of spell components before you begin a duel.

Michael, it's the Rantle check. Learn the names of the other PCs in your group, for criminitely's sake.
 

Other traditions in my campaign.

There are two major subraces of Elves, the Shahalesti and the Taranesti.

Shahalesti Elves focus on high magic: spells with direct effects, usually involving elemental energies or pure force. Their magic is very straightforward in most circumstances, and so many of the most common D&D spells were probably created by these Elves. Magic missile, mage armor, burning hands, bull's strength, invisibility, flight, fireball, stoneskin, telekinesis, disintegrate, and the power word spells all fall into their sphere of influence. Their magic is rather bland and standardized, and it is taught with the same regularity and strictness as Latin and the classics were taught in old English schools. You won't see spells like Tenser's floating disk, alarm, glitterdust, sepia snake sigil, bestow curse, or mind fog. A Shahalesti high mage would rather use a 5th level telekinesis spell to carry her luggage than learn the 1st level spell unseen servant, since certain spells are not proper.

Taranesti Elves, on the other hand, focus on magic that works more subtlely. Rather than using elemental energy to burn or freeze their foes, they attack their opponents' souls with necromancy, or summon demons to attack and leave little trace as to the spell's source. The only magic they use that has distinct physical effects involve shapeshifting and other transmutations. Taranesti Elves are master stoneshapers and pioneered the art of biomancy, but their true skills come through summoning.

Despite their different emphases of the way they use their magic, their methods of casting are relatively identical, since both groups effectively pioneered magic. The Shahalesti tend to have more stylized forms for their spellcasting stances (such as prefering to find a defensible position and stay there, instead of being mobile in combat), and the Taranesti use more exotic material components and focuses (like keeping samples of their foes' blood to empower their spells slightly, or collecting totems of defeated foes), but overall their styles are very similar.
 

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