First draft of my Forgotten Realms magic system. Opinions?

[Yamo]

Looking for opinions. Does this seem balanced for a Heroic (probably 75 +75 to start) campaign?

 

Magic in the Realms

 

Magic in Faerun is divided into two catagories: Arcane and divine. Regardless of type, all magic spells are purchased as individual Powers and Power Frameworks of any kind are not permitted.

 

A single spellcaster may practice both arcane and divine magic, provided that he or she abides by all applicable rules.

 

If a magic spell requires a Focus, that Focus must be Obvious and Accessable.

 

The greatest number of seperate spells that a spellcaster may have active at any one time is limited to INT/5. This includes spells with the Delayed Effect and Trigger Advantages.

 

"Arcane" and "divine" are not considered to be seperate special effects. They both fall under "magic."

 

All player-proposed magic spells and items are subject to GM modification or veto.

 

Arcane Magic

 

Arcane magic allows its practitioners to tap directly into the Weave and channel the raw magical power drawn forth into useful effects. This difficult and demanding task is possible because of years of extensive study and practice by the spellcaster. Arcane spellcasters often spend much of their time seeking to expand their magical knowledge by hunting down rare mystic tomes, long-lost enchanted artifacts, lost places of power and the counsel of secluded master mages.

 

An arcane spell requires a minimum of -2 worth of Limitations of the spellcaster's choice. Limitations in excess of this -2 minimum may later be bought off with experience points, but no spell may ever have less than -2 worth of total Limitations at any time.

 

No arcane spell can utilize the Healing Power.

 

Arcane spellcasters must be literate in their native language. Additionally, they must spend a minmum of three points on a Power: Magic Skill (INT-based and used as the default Required Skill Roll for all arcane spells) and a minimum of three points on KS: Arcane Lore.

 

Unless otherwise noted, innate magical effects like as a drow elf's ability to create magical darkness are considered to be arcane.

 

Divine Magic

 

Unlike arcane magic, which allows spellcasters to access the Weave directly through extensive study and complex mystic formulae, use of divine spells is granted to spellcasters by a divine patron in exchange for worship and obedience. Typically, this patron is a god, but sometimes more obscure extraplanar figures such as demon lords or elemental princes adopt this role. A divine spellcaster may have only one patron at a time, and changing patrons is a risky proposition at best. Whether they're called priests, clerics, shamans or something else entirely, divine spellcasters are nothing less than the chosen mortal representatives of the gods.

 

Divine magic is gifted to the spellcaster by an intelligent being with its own personality and goals. Because of this, no divine patron will ever grant a spell that contradicts its ethos. Sune, the goddess of beauty and love, for example, might grant a follower the ability to heal wounds or banish the vile undead, but she would never dispense the ability to cause terrible wasting disease or turn rotting corpses into zombie minions. Bane, the god of tyranny and strife, is unlikely to grant spells intended to protect the weak but very likely to favor ones that facilitate the domination of the weak at the hands of his minions. Kossuth, the elemental diety of fire, is unlikely to grant followers the ability to create water. The GM should always keep the goals and personality of a divine spellcaster's patron in mind and insist that any spells the character be allowed to purchase are in harmony with them. No patron will ever grant a request for a blatantly "out-of-character" spell.

 

As with arcane spells, each divine spell requires a minimum of -2 worth of Limitations at all times. One of the Limitations that can never be bought off must be the following one:

 

Limited Power: Religious Restrictions (-1/4)

 

This Limitations reflects the fact that the divine spellcaster must always abide by his or her supernatural patron's rules and commands or lose the ability to use divine spells until a process of sincere atonement is completed. Especially grevious or unforgivable sins may result in the loss of all divine spells from that patron permanently. Because of the wide variety of divine patrons with influence in Faerun, the precise standards for proper conduct and atonement in cases of transgression are many. Consult with the GM for details on a specific patron.

 

If a divine spellcaster chooses to permanently shun his or her patron (or the patron chooses to do the same to a wayward follower), it may be possible for the character to switch patrons and regain some measure of lost spellcasting ability. In general, spells that do not contradict the new patron's divine portfolio and ethos are regained with the switch, while those that do are not and the points spent on them are lost.

 

Still, divine spellcasters should never be permitted to switch patrons casually. A divine spellcaster that fully and willingly turns his or her back on a patron will virtually never be welcomed back into the fold by that same spurned patron. A new would-be patron will certainly require the petitioner to prove his or her worth and sincerity in some way, often with a great personal sacrifice or the completion of an epic quest. In any event, desire to regain lost magical power alone should never be enough to convince a new patron to accept the spellcaster. A sincere desire to serve is a must. Needless to say, after two or three such switches, no divine patron is likely to trust the spellcaster enough to grant him or her any measure of power.

 

Finally, all divine spellcasters are required to spend a minimum of three points on a Power: Faith Skill (EGO-based and used as the default Required Skill Roll for all divine spells) and a minimum of three points on a KS corresponding to their religion of choice. Before divine spellcasters can switch patrons, they require at least three points in a KS corresponding.to the new patron.

 

Magic Items

 

Both arcane and divine spellcasters can create magic items by investing an item with a portion of their own mystic power. Magic items include wands, staves, rings, potions, swords, suits of armor and countless other things besides. The possibilities are endless.

 

All magic items are usually purchased as seperate Powers, but may be purchased as Multipowers with the GM's permission.

 

Arcane spellcasters cannot create magic items that use the Healing Power, unless they also possess divine spellcasting ability. Divine spellcasters cannot create magic items with Powers that run contrary to the ethos of their patron and may not take the Religious Restrictions Limitation on Powers that represent magic items.

 

Only spellcasters may create magic items. In order to create a particular item, a spellcaster must already possess a total number of Real Points worth of spells equal to the total Active Points in all the items's Powers. The Real Points in a spellcaster's arcane and divine spells are counted together for this purpose, but those in innate magical abilities are not. If a character is both an arcane and divine spellcaster, only the total Real Points in that character's divine spells count toward this requirement when creating items that use the Healing Power. A divine spellcaster that loses his or her patron's favor cannot apply the combined Real Points in his or her divine spells toward the total required to create a particular item and cannot create any item that uses the Healing Power until that favor is regained.

 

Any Power possessed by a magic item that is successfully affected by an appropriate Dispel is deactivated for a period of one minute for every point by which the Dispel roll exceeded the Power's Active Points and cannot be reactivated before that period of time elapses. Because of this, magic items are often created with the Difficult To Dispel Advantage. Magic weapons, armor and similar items stripped of their Powers in this way may still be used, but function identically to their mundane counterparts until their enchantments return. A potion or similar consumable magic item that is used while its Powers are non-functional is wasted with no effect.

 

Characters may not begin play with magic items.

 

There are two types of magic items. Expendable magic items with no more than one Charge (such as potions) and standard magic items that possess either no Charges, more than one Charge or Charges of a type not allowed for expendable items.

 

Expendable Items

 

The ability to create an expendable magic item is purchased as a unique spell with the following required Advantages and Limitations:

 

Trigger, OAF Expendable (see below), 1 Charge (not Fuel and lasting no more than six hours if Continuous), Extra Time (one day for every ten Active Points or fraction thereof in the item's combined Powers)

 

None of these Limitations may ever be bought off.

 

The Focus for an Expendable magic item should be considered Difficult To Acquire if the Active Points in the item's combined Powers total 1-40, Very Difficult To Acquire if the Active Points in the item's combined Powers total 41-80, and Extremely Difficult To Acquire if the Active Points in the item's combined Powers total 81 or more.

 

Standard Magic Items

 

All standard magic items require the following Limitations:

 

Focus (any, but must be Universal), Independent.

 

None of these Limitations may ever be bought off.

 

Standard magic items require a Focus, and this Focus (or the materials to create it) should be difficult at best to acquire. Typically, large amounts of money must be spent on rare components and dangerous adventures personally undertaken by the spellcaster to gather ones too unique to purchase on the open market are necessary. Furthermore, a significant period of time is required to work those components into their final form and apply the necessary enchantments. This period of time can be days, weeks or even months depending on the power and complexity of the item. Spellcasters should never be allowed to create magic items instantaneously simply because they want to and have the points to spend. Generally, the higher the total Active Point cost of the item's Powers, the more effort and sacrifice on the spellcaster's part the GM is likely to require.

[Syberdwarf2]

Sounds good to me, but I would change that power limitation for divine spells.

"religious restrictions" IMO, sounds a lot like a Social Lim ala "subject to orders". Besides, having all divine magic saddled with that lim makes divine magic cheaper than arcane every time. So, instead, make it a requirement for divine magic practitioners to take that as a Soc Lim.

[Yamo]

Sounds good to me, but I would change that power limitation for divine spells.

"religious restrictions" IMO, sounds a lot like a Social Lim ala "subject to orders". Besides, having all divine magic saddled with that lim makes divine magic cheaper than arcane every time.

 

Cheaper, but more limited. Remember: Arcane casters can do anything. Divine ones can only do things "in character" for their diety. That's a distinct drawback and their spells SHOULD be cheaper as a result.

[Syberdwarf2]

Originally posted by Yamo

Cheaper, but more limited. Remember: Arcane casters can do anything. Divine ones can only do things "in character" for their diety. That's a distinct drawback and their spells SHOULD be cheaper as a result.

 

good point. I stand corrected, sir. Great job BTW. I think you've really nailed down the feel of FR magic. Kudos.

[Lucius]

Focus

 

Magic items require a Focus of course, and this Focus should be considered to be Difficult To Acquire if the Active Points in all the item's Powers total 1-40, Very Difficult To Acquire if the Active Points in all the item's Powers total 41-80, and Extremely Difficult To Acquire if if the Active Points in all the item's Powers total 81 or more"

 

Difficulty of acquisition only applies to expendable foci. Otherwise you are just making the item cheaper in terms of points, without really limiting its use. Unless you are trying to quantify the difficulty the crafter has in acquiring the materials to MAKE the focus, but not meaning to apply that as a limitation to the actual points spent.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

(-: :-)

[Yamo]

Unless you are trying to quantify the difficulty the crafter has in acquiring the materials to MAKE the focus, but not meaning to apply that as a limitation to the actual points spent.

 

This is what I meant. I should have been more clear. I've revamped the paragraph to be closer to my original intent.

[Gobbo]

Perhaps arcane magic should also have a limitation that can't be bought off, like divine magic:

 

Limited Power: Cannot cast while wearing heavy armour

 

Isn't it true that in AD&D (and D&D as well?) the major drawback wizards and bards have compared to clerics and paladins is inability to cast while wearing heavy armor?

[Yamo]

Isn't it true that in AD&D (and D&D as well?) the major drawback wizards and bards have compared to clerics and paladins is inability to cast while wearing heavy armor?

 

I've thought about it, but I don't want to copy D&D that closely. I just don't like that restriction.

[Gobbo]

Actually neither do I. Always thought that limitation about armour was too strict, even though I've never either liked the idea of having battlemages clad in full plate throwing lightning bolts left and right.

 

In group I used to play with, we didn't have casting in armour completely restricted: all magic had requires skill roll -limitation and any armour/encumbrance CV penalty was applied to magic skill roll as well. (Can't really remember if there was some house rule formula that was used to calculate how much was subtracted from the skill roll.)

 

That quite effectively kept magic users down to light armour - I really liked the idea of not being told by a stupid rule that armour hinders spellcasting, but failing a spell once in a tight spot made at least one bard-like character I know of throw away his chainmail.

 

--- If I'm not making much sense, just ignore me -- I'm posting a bit tired.

[Tony V.]

Talking of Bards- is it your intention to have them use Arcane magic still? I ask as in 3e D&D they are able to cast healing spells despite being arcane casters.

 

As for the whole casting in armour thing, I imagine that grand gestures are pretty difficult in armour, as is playing an instrument. For this reason alone I have always stuck with some sort of disadvantage to spellcasters wearing armour, be they divine or arcane.

[Yamo]

Talking of Bards- is it your intention to have them use Arcane magic still? I ask as in 3e D&D they are able to cast healing spells despite being arcane casters.

 

Somebody who wants to be a spallcasting bard can use any sort of magic he likes.Or both, if he wants to abide by all the prerequisites.

 

As for the whole casting in armour thing, I imagine that grand gestures are pretty difficult in armour, as is playing an instrument.

 

You'd imagine, but believe it or not, you'd actually imagine wrong.

 

Well-crafted real world armor hampers freedom of movement in no meaningful way whatsoever. I've seen men do cartwheels in full plated mail. It's hot and tiring to wear for long periods of time, but it doesn't make you slow and clumsy. Not by a long shot.

 

Two-handed swords, axes and hammers aren't "slow" weapons in real life, either.

 

Amazing how a lifetime of D&D warps ones perceptions, huh?

 

Playing an instrument? Well, you'd probably want to take off your gauntlets, depending on the instrument, but armor's no dealbreaker there, either.

[Tony V.]

Y'See, everyone immediately jumps to the Plate armour example, and yes, I have seen men doing acrobatics (of a sort) in Full Plate. Chainmail, on the other hand, is very constricting around the arms and shoulders.

 

As for playing an instrument, most bards go for string instruments and they are definitely awkward if you can't hold them against the body.

 

However, it seems that WoTC are going for the bards in armour idea as of 3.5, so who am I to argue?