:azy Design?
rounser said:
I don't think paladins and rangers should cast spells; rangers should have something like herb use, and paladins more stuff in the vein of lay on hands and smiting. Casting spells doesn't fit the archetype of a holy knight, nor a wilderness savvy warrior, IMO. The 3E assassin represents, to me, yet another lazy design step down this path. Assassins should have ninja-like special abilities, sure - casting spells, no.
Is it really lazy design, or just economy of same?
Yes, a "New Magic System" can be designed for each class. Can be done, has been done! MERP did it, and RoleMaster improved upon it. Rangers had their own spell lists, Bards had theirs, etc. To a certain (small) extent, D&D has done the same thing (Arcane/Divine Magic).
There are many places in LotR where MOST of the Non-Hobbit "PCs" use magic. Legolas speaks of the thoughts of rocks in Hollin, and trees in Fangorn and Helm's Deep. Gimli "hears the night speech" of plants and stones near Kheled-Zaram, and feels the strength of the stones in Helm's Deep. Aragorn does
something with the Morgul blade, while Frodo is laying there dying (I maintain it was a spell), and there were a couple of times that he awoke from a sound sleep, sensing trouble (when Gollum entered their camp near Rauros, and when the Orcs were near Tol Eressea). The men of Bree also said that they could speak with animals.
Now a game designed could design new "Special Abilities" for each of these things. I did this, creating a "Dangersense" Optional Class Feat for Rangers when I developed my own version of the Ranger class. As you can guess, this is more work.
An easier way is to look for pre-existing spells which fit the abilities needed (
Alarm and
Speak With Animals, for instance). Obviously, this is the easier route.
Taking the Ranger as an example, he needs the ability to set snares and traps (for gathering food). This is covered by the Wilderness Lore/Survival task (DC:10 in 3e). However, if a Ranger can set small snares, why can't he set larger ones? This was covered (in 3e) by
Entangle,
Snare, etc....
Now suppose, instead, that we give the Ranger a "Set Snares & Traps" special class ability, instead... This immediately brings up a whole host of questions. If the Ranger can do it, shouldn't the Rogue be able to? How about the Barbarian and Druid? And what about the Bard? Then there are the more esoteric ones... What about Clerics of the Travel Domain, who get Wilderness Lore as a Class Skill, in 3e? Do they get it too?
Now on to mechanics... What is the Search DC for finding a snare? What is the DC for disarming it? What are the requirements for setting a snare capable of holding (for instance) a Rhinocerous?
(Real-World Interlude: Setting snares is fairly easy; I learned how to do it in a single afternoon. Setting a snare for squirrels is about as simple as tying two knots. Setting snares for small game is easy. Setting a snare that will jerk a larger creature off its feet isn't so easy, as it requires greater force, and setting the trigger to both hold that force, and also "go off" when moved gets harder... So setting a Rhino snare would be pretty tough!)
So, to make a long argument a little shorter, yeah, it WOULD be nice if there was a different magic system, with separate mechanics, and perhaps even different versions of (say)
Detect Magic for each character type... But that means re-inventing the wheel about eight different times... Is it really worth it, even if it means that the Mage gets more info than the Minstrel? (And that brings up other arguements, like who has pre-eminence over which aspects? Is the Bard or the Wizard the chief Diviner? Is the Ranger the best at casting
Find the Path? If not, why not, and who is?)
So, no... I don't think you'll be seeing the development of anything like this for D&D. Not even in 4e. Only time will tell if I am right...
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