Magic system sketch v2

After all this time, I've still haven't found a magic system that I like 100%. This is the current iteration I am working now. Numbers are made to fit with this other previous work, though they can work with any rules using roll-under, under a magic stat such as wisdom or intelligence.

Wizards grow in 2 fields:

# of Spells and Magical skill

There is a magic skill, lets say X in 6, that grows as the wizard gets more powerful. 

Using certain magic items (like oracles) passive reactions (like detect magic) or small magic effects (cantrips) uses a roll of this to work. Wands also use this as primary factor of power, I will explain soon. 

# of Spells is very reduced, even though if spells themselves are more "versatile" and should not have a single, ultra-specific effect.I want to limit it to four or five even in very powerful wizards. More spectrum is added by gathering items (jewels, wands, etc) that allow casters to have more repertoire. This magic items are not too overpowered because they need a good magic skill score to work, so it is fine. It is hinted in the books that Gandalf uses fire thanks to the elven ring he carries; so wizards having lots of power and not many spells has basis on the holy fantasy books.

This is a hint on how this could work:

Lets say you have a spell list of 2: Heal and Cold

You use the Cold spell to deal damage, so you roll 1d6 and check your magic score (3)

If you roll under or equal your score, you take that number of HD from your enemy or enemies (you decide how this damage is divided). Lets say that the Cold spell has a side effect or alternate effect of slowing enemies down: then everyone affected rolls a save or is paralyzed. At 0 HD they are frozen permanently until defrosted. 

Having more level or good gear might increase the number of dice you roll: If you roll multiple d6, treat them separatelly

If you roll OVER your magic score, then the result is assumed to be equal to your magic score (3) but either the spell is lost if all dice are over (like a vancian system) or you lose magic die which roll over (making energy decrease instead, instead of making spells deplete separatelly)

Depending on the spell, the number rolled can be interpreted as HD of damage, yards, meters, possible individual targets or just an abstract degree of effect (up to the GM to decide the spectrum of effects on all results from 1 to 6). 

A very interesting interpretation could be to make a spell (for example, CHARM) be able to target a monster with HD equal to [number rolled + wizard HD]. So the spell always works with monsters under the wizard's HD, and makes a nice progression for spells to grow up in power as the wizard does (per BX rules, sleep, charm or hold person have hard caps on which monsters can be affected based on HD or size, but seem a little arbitrary and make you wonder: why is a dragon never affected by a sleep spell, EVER, no matter the wizard's skill? it seems something that could happen on a fairy tale. Why not in a D&D game?

So, wizards get exponentially better as they raise their magic score, which is something I activelly want. My idea is to make multiclassing possible, but mathematically sub-par. Having one fighter and one wizard should render more "powerful" characters than having two fighting-wizards, even if the latter might be useful in some situations. 

Having made this, only one more task remains: to make a provisional spell list to be tested, and deciding what kind of effects can be used as cantrips or produced on a different way.

One idea is that both HEAL and COLD, as do FIRE or BOLT, can produce light under certain conditions (for example, when used by a "magic score=3" wizard who is carrying a wand). This way, you can have spells produce lights of different colors depending on the wizard's favored powers (just like jedis have different lightsabers)

Another one is that spells give you both active and passive abilities.

Having mastered the HEAL spell means that you must be a very lawful or righteous person, so you have a +1 to turn undead.

Having mastered the COLD spell might give you a passive resistance to cold temperatures, and so on. 

Ah! I almost forgot: Wands allow certain effects (such as light) but magically imbued wands give you an extra d6 when rolling to their favored spells (Wand of cold gives you an extra 1d6 when casting cold, for example). This die never depletes unless you are one of those sick people who makes wands a depleting resource.

Here is a big good list of spells alongside the cantrips/passive bonuses they grant to the caster that memorizes them. While I make my own list (the real tough work) this can serve as inspiration

initiative without rolls

 

Happy new year! it feels like its been a long time without posting. Or maybe its just my feeling. This blog has been boosted like x 10 in visitors since Alex Schroeder mentioned me in his blog (its not like I had many before lol) and I should be making only hIgH qUaLiTy posts from now on. 

I want to take an entry to talk about my initiative houserule, and why I like it so much.

Basically, unless there is surprise, initiative goes to the side whose has the single member with more max HP, and only in case of a tie I randomize it.

Additionally to this, I don't do the "one side acts, then the other side acts" thought it would work perfectly I guess. I complicate it a little further by making the side who acts choose one member which acts (for the monsters, the GM chooses) and then, after the action, a member of the other side acts; and this goes on until everyone involved has taken its turn. Arrows and Spells can be shot reactivelly (spells require an armor-based roll to work in time) but doing so it consumes the turn of the shooter/caster.

I've been playing like this in my last campaign and I've accostumed myself a lot to it; to the point that I don't think I am going back. Combat is much more swift (much more combined with the "no damage, just take a Hit Die" houserule), and also it makes interesting effects in game: 

Having a Fighter in the party is suddently much more important. His instincts help everyone to take the lead on a fight, even if he doesn't fight himself: Maybe he just grabs the initiative so the thief can do something first. Tougher monsters are also scarier, because their sheer "speed". Suddently it also matters in which turn of the watch the monster appears: if the fighter is asleep, the monster can get a great advantage.

The "alternate sides" thing also adds an element of strategy for the players, something that its often missing from combat when a game makes the fights a little bit abstracted. Using this (also abstract) ways to control combat gives PCs more buttons to press which, in my opinion, adds a +1 to old D&D.

Sometimes I like to distinguish swords from the other weapons because they add a little bonus to HP only for initiative purposes. They are the weapon of heroes after all.

And thats it. 

I want to note that it is also possible to make a much more gamist initiative without rolls, and I found out by playing pokémon this last weeks.

In the GBA games, initiative works like this: both trainers choose their movement at the same time, then the pokemon with most speed acts first. Stats are very granular, so having a tie is very rare.

Certain movements have priority over others, regardless of speed. For example, taking a potion or changing pokemon goes always before any attacks (there is but one attack AFAIK that specifically strikes before retiring the pokemon). Some attacks have a "quick" tag that makes them go before the enemy, and there are slow attacks too, which work the opposite way.

It could very easily be ported to tabletop by assigning a sort of speed stat (dexterity is the easiest) and then listing which kind of actions have priority over others. This very choice can lead to very different combat systems and tones (for example, if healing has priority over attacking, if spells go first or last, etc). 

Offtopic: If you speak or understand spanish and like the game, I reccomend you this awesome Team Rocket Edition hack by Dragonsden. You play as a Team Rocket recruit acting parallel to Red and Blue in the original Game Boy games. The lore of the game is so good that its really a pity that its not "official", I am really enjoying it!