The Magic of Eragon

[Dremmen]

While only those that have read Eragon will get this comment fully, I think the rest will get the jist of what I'm asking;

So I wondered how to do magic in D&D akin to how it is wielded and used in Eragon. In the book it is much more kinetic, with it being wielded, countered, reinforced with further power to blast through the enemy barriers - it is stored readily, and burned through as you cast spells. There is fatigue amd exertion the more you cast, but the more energy you draw on the more powerful the spells. Lastly, shielding your mind is paramount as spellcasters often invade the mind, reaching out to steal your secrets and then kill you, which is what answered my question.

In my view, the translation of Eragon's magic system into D&D means using Psionics instead of the traditional magic. Call it magic, but it is out of the Psionics book. Would you all agree? How do you think a fantasy campaign would progress if the "magic" was actually psionics, as were all magic items, etc. A Lich would be not a hugely powerful magic user, but the equivalent in level Psion, able to strip away your mental barriers and have his way with your mind. It is almost like every magic encounter would be like running into Mind Flayers.

Comments?

 

[theredrobedwizard]

I've done it before; the replacing Magic with Psionics thing. About half the players liked it, the other half were just upset about having to learn a new system.

I need to find me some players who put as much effort into understanding things as I do. *sigh*

Personally, I think that the True20 magic system captures the Eragon system of magic quite well, with its Fatigue saves and very fluid magic system.

-TRRW

 

[Dremmen]

I've done it before; the replacing Magic with Psionics thing. About half the players liked it, the other half were just upset about having to learn a new system.

I need to find me some players who put as much effort into understanding things as I do. *sigh*

Personally, I think that the True20 magic system captures the Eragon system of magic quite well, with its Fatigue saves and very fluid magic system.

-TRRW

So, aside from the way your player's responded, how did you personally like it from the stand point of developing adventures and resolution of encounters? If I ran it, I would not do it side by side with magic, but by itself. That would mean an adjustment to any spell casting creatures - not so much to creatures with spell like abilities, those would stay the same,but every lowly orc shaman and random spell casting plant would need translation into psionic terms, it would seem. And at higher levels, Dragons and the like would have their considerable spell casting ability translate into awesome psionic powers. I guess an alternative would be to use psionic creatures only, and no spell casting creatures, but I don't much care for that.

Or did you leave all that alone in your game, and run psionics with magic on the side?

 

[theredrobedwizard]

Magic was the penchant only of the monster-types, psionics was for the PCs. I kinda hand-waved the whole thing, simply because it was a test run for a larger campaign I wanted to run in the future.

I think I told the players that their entire world was based around psionics, but after about the first 10 minutes, there was a *(random event thing)* and they ended up in a standard D&D world.

It was contrived, to be sure, but 3 of 6 enjoyed it.

-TRRW

 

[interwyrm]

Even psionics would require some modification. The best fit I can see would be using hit points for powers instead of power points, and the players either don't know their hit point totals, the power costs, or both.

 

[WayneLigon]

You'd need a system roughly like GURPS. There, magic is based on your Fatigue. Each spell costs so much Fatigue, and you can cast until you run out. Most spells have rules for putting for energy than normal into a spell. Most physical spell damage is affected by armor, which in GURPS reduces damage taken.

 

[blargney the second]

When I was reading the Eragon books, I kept on thinking that the author was using Shadowrun magic.

 

[Tarek]

While only those that have read Eragon will get this comment fully, I think the rest will get the jist of what I'm asking;

So I wondered how to do magic in D&D akin to how it is wielded and used in Eragon. In the book it is much more kinetic, with it being wielded, countered, reinforced with further power to blast through the enemy barriers - it is stored readily, and burned through as you cast spells. There is fatigue amd exertion the more you cast, but the more energy you draw on the more powerful the spells. Lastly, shielding your mind is paramount as spellcasters often invade the mind, reaching out to steal your secrets and then kill you, which is what answered my question.

Comments?

Sounds like Hero System/Champions to me, honestly, with the slight variant that you can "push" your powers/spells (make them more powerful at the cost of additional Stun).

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Stolen from Eddings (the Will and the Word ... speak the right word and powered with your Will, but you can draw too much power and kill yourself). Salvatore used the elven language (or a similar ancient language) in one of his non-D&D fantasy series, so there are multiple sources for this sort of things. Eddings' use predates Salvatore, but he probably stole it from someone else.

But you can probably replicate it with a variety of systems. Within D&D, I think only psionics comes close.