Thoughts on Harry Potter d20

[HeavenShallBurn]

After one of my cousin's children wanted a "campaign" in the HP setting I've been thinking about ways to try to fit that setting into d20 with minimum necessary modifications to fit the feel. It seems workable but I'd like some input on ideas.

1) Because of the shift in media from book to level based RPG there are some issues with magic and spell levels. I was thinking to decouple caster level from character level. So that numerically spells would be cast at caster level but access and learning would be tied to character level. This seems to be about the only way to reconcile that some spells are easier or harder to learn in one or the other and it's easier to just write a list of when spells become available then change all the mechanics. Caster level would probably remain uniform and quite high by D&D standards while character level would start low and progress.

2)It can be hard to quantify all the HP spells, which are often very vaguely defined or referenced in terms of an RPG. I went to the HP Lexicon, copied the list of canon spells and tried to find the best d20 fit but I'm still left with quite a few that don't have a counterpart. I've attached a PDF with my current table to facilitate this. I tried to assign D&D equivalents based on getting as close as possible to the HP effects mechanically.

3)I'll almost certainly used a simplified version of the recharge magic variant from UA. It fits with the 'cast all day' nature of HP.

4)Transfiguration is going to require extensive mods. Right now I'm favoring making all HP transfiguration based off Polymorph any object.

5)Right now I favor a level progression that has students of a magical school graduating after 7 years at about level 13-15 for character level and access to spells.

 

[Herobizkit]

Some quick ideas:

a) All casters are spontaneous casters.
b) Use Incantation rules (as seen in d20 Urban Arcana)
c) Really look into getting Elements of Magic: Mythic Earth, a pdf by our very own @RangerWickett . Turns spellcasting on its head by making it skill-based rather than the standard "point and shoot" magic of d20.

 

[Is_907]

Vancian magic will not work for Harry Potter...
Even if you make them all spontaneous casters, the spells per day limits would need to go through the roof!
I think you'd be better off with a spell points / mana pool type system.
(EDIT: I'm not familiar with the Incantation rules from Urban Arcana, but if it's at all similar to this... great!)

It's been a while since I read the books, but I think once you establish spells per day or spell points it'll just be a matter of rewriting spells or picking and adapting them.


You'll also want to consider making there be, say, 3 or 4 classes. The Hermione, the Harry, the Ron... as in:
- Brainy. Lots of spells known, lots of skill ranks to spend.
- Powerful. Fewer spells known, but plenty of spell points/mana, and good "think on your feet" skill.
- Generalist. A good balance of everything else.

There are probably more options there... and of course you may have players who want to play something other than a wizard. (Ghost, merfolk, lycanthrope)


My best advice here is to see what people who want to play a HP RPG want to play and make up rules for only what they want to do. Otherwise you'll be creating and creating endlessly.

 

[Androrc]

I think level 13-15 upon graduation on average is a tad too high...

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

a) All casters are spontaneous casters.

That's been a given from the start.

b) Use Incantation rules (as seen in d20 Urban Arcana)

Those rules are, really not very well done nor do they fit the HP themes. Mind you I was looking at variations of the UA Incantation rules for learning spells, but these are not suited for actually designing the spells themselves.

c) Really look into getting Elements of Magic: Mythic Earth, a pdf by our very own @RangerWickett . Turns spellcasting on its head by making it skill-based rather than the standard "point and shoot" magic of d20.

I already have Elements of Magic and it's a very good product, one I recommend. However it's actually worse for my specific purposes here than the standard one, by using a skill and DC system for effects you're tying down progressions into a certain pattern and the HPverse has a rather different pattern so to use it I'd have to rework the mechanics of significant portions of the system. Whereas with the standard D&D spell system I can leave them mechanically unchanged and just readjust when they become available/learnable to fit the HP flavor.

Vancian magic will not work for Harry Potter...
Even if you make them all spontaneous casters, the spells per day limits would need to go through the roof! I think you'd be better off with a spell points / mana pool type system. (EDIT: I'm not familiar with the Incantation rules from Urban Arcana, but if it's at all similar to this... great!)

That's why I was looking at a simplified version of Recharge Magic to replace Vancian or Mana Pool systems.

It's been a while since I read the books, but I think once you establish spells per day or spell points it'll just be a matter of rewriting spells or picking and adapting them.

Yes, that's my major task right now. Finding the closest D&D spell mechanically once that's done it's just a matter of tweaking them rather than designing an entirely new magic system from scratch. Please feel free to point me at a good D&D counterpart spell if you find my list incomplete.

You'll also want to consider making there be, say, 3 or 4 classes. The Hermione, the Harry, the Ron... as in:
- Brainy. Lots of spells known, lots of skill ranks to spend.
- Powerful. Fewer spells known, but plenty of spell points/mana, and good "think on your feet" skill.
- Generalist. A good balance of everything else.

Not really necessary as you can get the same kind of skill rank variations by different ability scores and skill point allocation. I'd peg all the Hogwarts students as a single base class mechanically differentiated by feats, skill allocation, and ability score. Wizards can learn new spells independently of their level and I'd have PCs learn new spells based on such a mechanic, rather than level-up freebies. (Though it certainly explains Harry and Ron's lack of known spells, they were coasting along just picking up freebies instead of going out looking for useful magic.)

My best advice here is to see what people who want to play a HP RPG want to play and make up rules for only what they want to do. Otherwise you'll be creating and creating endlessly.

The thing is I'm trying to avoid just that, instead of designing everything I can make a few rule-alterations and get close enough while mostly using what's already made.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

I think level 13-15 upon graduation on average is a tad too high...

I was using apparition(D&D Teleport) as a baseline since basically everyone graduates able to do it. How would you work the level progression and why? I basically stuck this up for constructive criticism so I'm glad to see alternate ideas.

 

[RangerWickett]

My thought would be to let characters learn a number of spells based on their level, let them generally be cast at-will, and make the success or failure be based on 'attack rolls' against touch AC. A hit has the spell go off, and for stuff like stupefy, you can make a save every round or minute to break free.

 

[RangerWickett]

I was using apparition(D&D Teleport) as a baseline since basically everyone graduates able to do it. How would you work the level progression and why? I basically stuck this up for constructive criticism so I'm glad to see alternate ideas.

If you're actually running real world modern fantasy Harry Potter, the ability to teleport isn't quite as powerful, because we have cars and planes and stuff. So I'd make apparate a level 4 spell, but since it doesn't require an attack roll and thus can't fail, it would probably need to have some daily limiter.

Yeah, okay, so attack spells are generally at-will. Other spells have spell slots (encounters and dailies, or is that not what you're going for?).

 

[Visigani]

Guys guys... it's OBVIOUS... Truename Magic. Might need a few adjustments but if there's ANYTHING in D&D that simulates Harry Potter magic... it's Truename Magic.

Take the rules for Truenaming and apply them to spells.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Yeah, okay, so attack spells are generally at-will. Other spells have spell slots (encounters and dailies, or is that not what you're going for?).

Actually that's the opposite of what I'm going for, it goes against theme, the HP setting has magic on tap and they don't ever seem to run out. That's why I was looking at Recharge Magic.

Guys guys... it's OBVIOUS... Truename Magic. Might need a few adjustments but if there's ANYTHING in D&D that simulates Harry Potter magic... it's Truename Magic. Take the rules for Truenaming and apply them to spells.

....Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that! I even have that book I just totally forgot about that system!

If I remember right the DCs were kind of borked resulting in a need for a particular magic item to even out the math, anyone else remember if it had statistical issues to deal with?