The Magister's Staff (Power focus as a class feature)

[BluWolf]

I really like the concept from Monte's Aracana Unearthed where the Magister's staff becomes his Focus for casting spells. Similar to the cleric's holy symbol.

I have been re-writing my wizard and sorcerer to draw a wider difference in how these two classes approach magic. The Sorcerer is innate, the Wizard is external.

So I was thinking of writing this class feature into my wizards but wanted to expand the concept to more then just the staff. I was thinking of including the usual trappings, wands, rings and such. Then I thought why don't I inlude any item from the "equipment on the body" list from page 214 of the DMG minus the REALY dumbones like lenses or magical pairs of underwear.

Any thoughts??

How would I asign break or save rules for the less durable item??

 

[Nyaricus]

i am a bit familiar with Arcana Unearthed, with the magisters staff and all, but i am not quite getting the point of your post > think you could specify some details please

other than that, your description of the wizard having "external powers" and the sorcerer having "internal powers" is quite possibly the most simplistic description of otherwise very abstact ideas. thank you, that in and of itself will go a long way to helping me make my own worlds mage classes.

 

[BluWolf]

Well to clarify my scenario a little. I am changin my magic system to a spell point system and making everyone a spontaneous caster (divine & Arcane). This presents a problem because with out some major adjustments, there is no reason to play anything other than a Mage or Priest (my Wizard & Cleric).

One way I was thinking of changing this was sort of handicapping the Wizard a little by making the "Magister's staff" a requirement/class feature but I don't want to limit it to just staves. I want to open the door to allow each player to customise his or her Mage to what he sees fit.

So if you want a Gandalf-type with a staff, no problem. Harry Potter?? Easy, take a wand instead of a staff. Elrond? How about a ring instead?

Obviously the second someone knows they are up a gainst a Mage, their focus of power will become a target. So I wanted a nice neat a clean set of rules for determining AC, break DC, Hardness, HP....

I'm not that familiar with item rules and was just looking for ome guidance.

 

[Sigurd]

Mongoose Quintessential Wizard has a great set of rules for a staff as spell focus or 'nexus'.

S

 

[Nyaricus]

Break DC, Hardness, HP > for items? Do I have the book for you. Check out From Stone To Steel, a 300+ page book just about weapons and armorus, and gives specific HP/hardness for all of them, etc. It's like a Arms and Armour textbook with some d20 ruels thrown in (read: carefully crafted weapons info). At the back is errata for making other types of weapons, a neat thing called a strike chart (read it to find out, its an amazing varient rule) and just tons of otehr tables. You can buy it as a book or get it as a PDF (i dunno where though, i belive it has been rated in EN World though)

i will have to check my DL'd copy of Q Wizard about staff foci . . .sounds interesting.

 

[magic_gathering2001]

Why not use the familiar natural armor table for hardness and give it hitdice equal to one third(?) it's masters (d10)

 

[Varianor Abroad]

The one drawback to allowing things like rings, etc is that anything but a staff isn't a large target. It's like the Champions distinction between an Obvious, Accessible Focus and an Obvious, Inaccessible Focus. (The latter is worth less by the way.) So if you're going to allow that, you'll have to tweak something else to compensate.

By the way, I don't know what you're doing with wizards, but everyone I've ever seen given the option to play a wizard or a magister seems to wind up with the magister. I think that the tradeoff of more hit points and great flexibility of spells for less potential spell access (no magic missile, frex*) is worth it.

*Spell Treasury is going to bring in a lot of SRD spells. This will probably remove one of the last "obstacles" some folks perceive to using AE magisters.

 

[Merlion]

The one drawback to allowing things like rings, etc is that anything but a staff isn't a large target. It's like the Champions distinction between an Obvious, Accessible Focus and an Obvious, Inaccessible Focus. (The latter is worth less by the way.) So if you're going to allow that, you'll have to tweak something else to compensate.

Given how hard it would be to actually destroy a Magister's staff, if you used the same rules with a different item, I dont think it'd matter much.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Given how hard it would be to actually destroy a Magister's staff, if you used the same rules with a different item, I dont think it'd matter much.

Actually, it's fairly easy with the Acid template. Plus there are some spells that greatly enhance a sundering attempt by a warrior type.

 

[Kynn]

You can disarm a staff in combat; you can't disarm a ring.

This is the difference between an Accessible and Inaccessible focus; how easily you can get at them.

There's no Sunder to use on a ring, for example. You can't disarm a bracelet. If given a choice, I'd never choose a staff, because it's more of a liability than a magic helm.

--Kynn