Tinkering with Magic

[ha-gieden]

A while back, I had this idea of playing what I thought of as a "Dream Mage". I imagined a class that could walk through people's dreams, send messages via dream, attack using dream creatures, ect.

I looked through my fairly extensive D&D library, jotting down the spells that seemed to fit the bill. What I ended up with was a fairly useless hodge-podge.

So I took matters into my own hands. I took spells that *almost* fit, changed only their appearance and name, and came up with a class that fit my original idea and that I loved playing.

For example: I read Bigby's Clenched Fist (Volume 1 of WSC, p.80) and thought that the target didn't *have* to see a big fist. No matter what the target saw, the spell would function the same. I decided that my version of a Dream Mage could cast this spell, but the image the opponent saw was straight out of the Dream Mage's dream. Whatever form the spell took upon its first casting, that form was permanent for that Dream Mage.

I had one character who was very silly at heart, so for her, this spell appeared as a pink baby rhinocerous. When it successfully struck an opponent, the rhino fell over. Another character once hit a dragon with a swinging water trough trap, and was extremely proud of the fact. Her "Clenched Fist" spell looked like a swinging water trough. For a more serious character, it looked like a spirit creature.

I really like this idea of changing just the *appearance* of spells in order to facilitate a wider range of character concepts. In the case of the Dream Mage class that I created, it really seemed to make roleplay a more integrated part of character creation.

What do you think about the idea?

 

[hong]

Sounds good. One thing to consider is whether you want to have players then exploiting the non-standard visual effects for further game effects. Eg if you change the appearance of Mordenkainen's sword into a longspear, can it then attack with reach? Or if it turns into a spiked chain, can it trip and disarm?

 

[Sigurd]

Other issue is how would this affect illusions. Lengthen, shorten, widen, etc....

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

'Occult Lore' by penumbra has a Dream Mage class along with rules for handling adventures in the dream world... I highly recommend it.

As to changing the visualization, I prefer to use Elements of Magic: Revised, a system that allows players to design spells and decide how they are visualized.

As long as the visuals do not grant addinitional mechanical benefits to the spell, you should be good.

 

[ha-gieden]

Thanks, everyone.


I tried very hard to make sure that the visualization would not affect the spell. In the cases where a spell had to be significantly altered, I did so only after making sure that balance was maintained...and I always got a second opinion on that front.

The visualization thing didn't affect illusions at all, because I didn't modify any illusion spells (I wouldn't recommend that, anyway, since we are just talking about altering the appearance).

The idea wasn't to allow characters to modify the appearance of spells at will or to change them during play. The real concept here is sitting down with the DM before gaming and laying out how "standard spell A" looks different when cast by your character. So if your character is truly evil, maybe your spells look unusually nasty - if your character is all sweetness and light, then your magic may reflect that. With the Dream Mage concept, I took it a step further...my spell list was very non-standard and almost every spell's appearance had been altered to make it fit with the theme.

The benefit was that it made character creation more creative and fun. The other players have also been pretty amused at my silly "Dream Mage" characters and impressed by my serious ones.

The downside is that this creates one more thing the DM must consider before play starts. I took the time to write out every spell and specifically mention each change. It only took my DM about 5 minuites to scan through my list and approve it. So that didn't prove to be much of a problem for us, but I can see how it could become one.

Just throwin' it out there

 

[GreatLemur]

I really like this idea of changing just the *appearance* of spells in order to facilitate a wider range of character concepts.

This isn't already standard practice? Unless there's some specific, setting-fluff reason why cosmetic customization of spells, magic items, class abilities, etc. isn't appropriate, I think it would be flat-out absurd not to allow it. I don't see any reason in the world why a player shouldn't be able to say that his stoneskin spell actually armors the target in metal or chitin or something.