What flavor are sorcerers in your campaign?
- Thread starter Gnome
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Tetsubo
First Post
I'll be playing a Sorcerer soon in a new campaign. My GM has given me the d6 HD option. Other than that I've decided that his bloodline is a distant Tiefling. I'm not using the Bloodline rules though, this is purely a role-playing thing. His "mark of sorcery" is a black right hand.
Woas
First Post
Wizards and Sorcerers are opposite of what the PHB says.
Sorcerers are people who discover they can minipulate magic powers sometime in their life and congregate into groups/guilds/organizations/schools to help each other, form bonds, learn from each other, etc. Much like what stereotypical wizards do... or in a way, like the mutants in X-Men, but minus the "whole of humanity hates you" part.
Wizards are vagbond spell casters who steal the powers the Sorcerers naturally hold and write it all down into little books to be cast later. They are seen as the Original Thieves. However in the current time-period of the campaign, the hatred toward wizards have died down, so if there ended up being a wizard and sorcerer in the party, they would not automatically kill each other. Still, wizards have that historical connection to sorcerers as Ur-Priests are to normal clerics.
Sorcerers are people who discover they can minipulate magic powers sometime in their life and congregate into groups/guilds/organizations/schools to help each other, form bonds, learn from each other, etc. Much like what stereotypical wizards do... or in a way, like the mutants in X-Men, but minus the "whole of humanity hates you" part.
Wizards are vagbond spell casters who steal the powers the Sorcerers naturally hold and write it all down into little books to be cast later. They are seen as the Original Thieves. However in the current time-period of the campaign, the hatred toward wizards have died down, so if there ended up being a wizard and sorcerer in the party, they would not automatically kill each other. Still, wizards have that historical connection to sorcerers as Ur-Priests are to normal clerics.
Gnome said:I perfer mint-chocolate myself.
Seriously though, I've always felt that sorcerers weren't different enough flavor-wise or mechanically from wizards. They use a different mechanic for casting spells, and there's some vague fluff about the "blood of dragons", but that's about it.
How do you treat sorcerers in your campaigns? Same as in the PH, or have you added different fluff, or tweaked the mechanics of the class to give it its own feel?
Fluff wise I eleminated the whole Dragon blood thing and instead gave them a non human bloodline thing -- it is a prefered class for Elves
Sorcerers IMC get all social skills as class as well as d6 Hit die and eschew components. They also get a bloodline ability that functions a little like a clerical domain and grants a bonus known spell of each level and a few special abilities
Also unlike Wizards and other arcane casters Sorcerers can learn the bardic healing spells
I have been considering allowing them use of the UA Bloodline rules (to be used with IH style traits) and letting them spend 1 trait pick for a mdeium and 2 traot picks for a major bloodline
Bloodstone Press
Explorer
They are not allowed in my homebrew. The setting predates them by several years and retro-fitting them won't work. Wizards and their methods of magic are an important part of the world's backstory.
Not to mention that dragons have been extinct for centuries.
Not to mention that dragons have been extinct for centuries.
painandgreed
First Post
IMC, they're the intuitive magic user who cast spells via force of will and emotion rather than hermetic knowledge. They are like an artist who hust has the natural talent to draw a picture of something, where wizards are the engineers who make detailed and exact pictures of the same thing. Although some play up the dragon thing, sorcerors are seen in most every race and intelligent monster and have no real link to them. They have a little less trouble with training than wizards.
I don't use them much but like sorcerers as if gives a mechanic to give somebody or something spells without saying they studied long and hard and read lots of books.
I don't use them much but like sorcerers as if gives a mechanic to give somebody or something spells without saying they studied long and hard and read lots of books.
Chimera
First Post
IMS (In My Setting);
Adepts, Bards and Wizards (and related Arcane classes) must possess "The Power", which is an inherited trait. You have it, you can learn magic. If you don't, you never will. The Power doesn't come to everyone in the line. For example, only two of the triplet children of one powerful Wizard and her Bard lover have 'the power'. Over time, lines may weaken so that only the occasional scion will manifest.
What this does is make people with this trait either feared and loathed, or highly desirable to bring into your family, depending on your view of magic and your position in society.
Human Sorcerers are viewed as a corruption of "The Power", but are actually something completely different, as yet unrevealed (though I know what they are). If their true background was widely known, they'd be hunted down and exterminated.
Adepts, Bards and Wizards (and related Arcane classes) must possess "The Power", which is an inherited trait. You have it, you can learn magic. If you don't, you never will. The Power doesn't come to everyone in the line. For example, only two of the triplet children of one powerful Wizard and her Bard lover have 'the power'. Over time, lines may weaken so that only the occasional scion will manifest.
What this does is make people with this trait either feared and loathed, or highly desirable to bring into your family, depending on your view of magic and your position in society.
Human Sorcerers are viewed as a corruption of "The Power", but are actually something completely different, as yet unrevealed (though I know what they are). If their true background was widely known, they'd be hunted down and exterminated.
Testament
First Post
Mechanically, sorcerers get 0 slots of the next level up at 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17, so they can metamagic up into their bonus slots of that level. They also get Use Magic Device and Eschew Materials, using XP for costed components and foci.
Conceptually, it comes down to how Arcane magic works in my homebrew. Arcane Magic is the art of superimposing temporary changes upon the Grand Design of the world, and sorcerers and wizards do it in different ways. Wizards are those who have learned to percieve the design, and are taught Primordial. They use components and foci to channel the energy needed to write their alterations to the design, performing the necessary rituals when they prepare spells, and storing the energy in a larger focus (usually a staff or a robe).
Sorcerers are those who are born with an innate connection to the design, and have an instinctual connection to the words and patterns of the design. They still require training in the art of magic, usually from older and experienced wizards, who have an extensive knowledge of Primordial, and can help the budding sorcerer find what elements of magic resonate with their connection, and what they can bring forth.
Conceptually, it comes down to how Arcane magic works in my homebrew. Arcane Magic is the art of superimposing temporary changes upon the Grand Design of the world, and sorcerers and wizards do it in different ways. Wizards are those who have learned to percieve the design, and are taught Primordial. They use components and foci to channel the energy needed to write their alterations to the design, performing the necessary rituals when they prepare spells, and storing the energy in a larger focus (usually a staff or a robe).
Sorcerers are those who are born with an innate connection to the design, and have an instinctual connection to the words and patterns of the design. They still require training in the art of magic, usually from older and experienced wizards, who have an extensive knowledge of Primordial, and can help the budding sorcerer find what elements of magic resonate with their connection, and what they can bring forth.
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