Using Blue Rose magic system

[JBowtie]

I'm looking at the possibility of using the Blue Rose magic system in my games; one of my spellcasting players has gamely decided to playtest the new rules with her new character.

Now, in Blue Rose, there is only one spellcasting class, but in my campaign world there are at least five. So, I'm looking for suggestions on integrating the new magic system to fit this kind of spread.

Summary of BR system: There are six talents(disciplines). Access to talents is determined by feats. Once you have access to a talent, you can learn arcana (spells) covered my that talent; take a feat to learn any two arcana you have access to. Using spells is essentially a skill check (assumes maximum ranks), spell usage is controlled in two ways: need to maintain concentration and/or fatigue inflicted when used.

Some of the ideas I am playing with:
* Restrict talents to specific classes.
* Different spellcasting classes learn new arcana at different rates.
* Redistribute arcana among more talents, maybe add new arcana.
* Assign spell discriptors to various arcana and partitioning on that basis.
* Making some talents "cross-class" for some spellcasting classes.
* Assign a point cost (based on DC of effect?) and use a point-based variant to control usage.
* Just differentiate the classes on the basis of class features and flavour text instead of spell access.

I'm very interesting in hearing if people have had any success or experience in integrating the system into their own games.

 

[arscott]

hmm.

can you give a list of talents and disciplines?

 

[Kesh]

What are these five spellcasting types? Personally, I'd just make them all Adepts with different flavor, possibly some unique feats for their 'organization'.

 

[JBowtie]

Well, the spellcasting classes I have are:

Druid - nature boy, cross between core Druid and AU Greenbond.
Mage - magic specialist with knowledge bent, more or less as AU magister.
Psion - point buy w/tactical flexibility. Same spell list as mage but not tied to spell levels.
Witch - smaller spell list; focus is on class abilities but still needs some spell access.
Runecaster - strategic caster; conversion of Scarred Lands prestige class to core class with some AU runethane abilities.
Bard - Monte's variant bard converted to use common spell list.

(Yes, I know that's actually six).

I've been working with some ideas for each of them to preserve flavor/niche, I'll post those later.

 

[JBowtie]

So, here's a summary of my first round of design work. Note this is all predicated on the assumption that playtesting doesn't reveal any inherent problems with the system as written.

For the psion, instead of giving him max ranks (as is assumed by the system), give him no ranks. When he wants to cast a spell, he spends points to get ranks; he can go up to some mulitple (say, 1.5x) of the max ranks as long as he has the points. This leaves him with the tactical flexibility.

For the bard, make it easier for her to maintain multiple effects, and allow her to aid another spellcaster (using the standard aid another action). This preserves her role as a support caster and allows multiple bards to work together easily.

For the mage, allow him to boost his spell effects by using spellcraft checks and material components. Possibly allow him to add traditional spells using spell research, but make them fatiguing and/or wild (which will limit the number added).

For the witch, allow her to use all arcana untrained and train in a small number, say 2. This keeps her using spells but leaves the focus on her class abilities.

For the druid, give him a fixed selection of nature-related arcana. Probably with an inherent boost to compensate for the decreased flexibility.

The runecaster would need to be rethought, since all the class abilities are based around spell level.

In addition to the changes, I'd need to look carefully at the ritual magic rules in my world, use my own classification scheme for arcana and tweak the out-of-place arcana (because elementals and elemental magic do not exist in my campaign world).

 

[JBowtie]

hmm.

can you give a list of talents and disciplines?

The Blue Rose talents/disciplines with samples:

Animism - animal-related (Beast Speech, Gentle Beasts)
Healing - cure, harm, and kindred (Cure, Harm)
Psychic - Jedi mind tricks (Mind Reading, Psychic Blasts)
Shaping - Mostly elemental manipulation, some TK (telekenisis) (Fire Shaping, Wind Shaping)
Visionary - divination, mostly (Scrying, Visions)
Meditative - stuff you'd expect to see monks do (Body Control, Enhance Self)

There's a couple of unclassified/universal arcana and some feats (Wild Talent, f'r instance) that short-circuit the classification scheme.

In addition, some spells have been subsumed by feats, such as Summon Elemental or Purifying Light; I note the more expensive spells have done this mainly to limit access. Imbue Life is a feat that allows you to raise the dead, but you'd have to be at least 9th level with Cure trained, more or less on par with a fifth level spell IIRC.

 

[arscott]

would it work to simply offer certain arcana to each class as class skills? They look specific an limited enough that that wouldn't screw up balance much.

 

[JBowtie]

would it work to simply offer certain arcana to each class as class skills? They look specific an limited enough that that wouldn't screw up balance much.

I could, but I'm concerned that it would throw off the feel of my campaign. It is something I'm considering, but I think the differences should be deeper than that.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

The BR system reminds me quite a bit of the Alternity magic system. Mostly, I think, with those tight spell groups mediated my a larger ability.

So you could mix and match and create whole new arcana combining aspects/spells of the different existing ones that you LIKE and get to call it Wizardry and Psionics and Witchcraft, etc. Then let them take THOSE arcana as normal, concentrating on taking the same group.

--fje

 

[JBowtie]

So you could mix and match and create whole new arcana combining aspects/spells of the different existing ones that you LIKE and get to call it Wizardry and Psionics and Witchcraft, etc. Then let them take THOSE arcana as normal, concentrating on taking the same group.

--fje

That's certainly an option I'm considering. A quick count indicates there are about 60 spells, with 10 of them accessible only as unique feats. Certainly far easier to manage than the 250+ in D&D or AU systems. Since they all scale with character level, restricting a character to 10 or 20 of them is not going to be too awful a pill to swallow. I could easily add another 10-40 to get closer to the spread of core spell types without overwhelming myself (assuming I could justify that many new ones).

I was hoping someone else had done something like this in their own campaign already so I could be lazier. I'll report back after we do the playtest this weekend.