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My D&D 3e Arcane Magic Conversion


Killer Shrike

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Very nice. Your have to post a doc file with all the stats, be highly useful.

 

The only question mark I have is the limitation for Arcane Magic Only. I wouldn't see where a Witch or Wild Mage or even a Illusionist would get the limitation, so I question a Arcane mage having it. Just seems that they would be limited in thre spells they would be allowed to have in the campaign instead, which is one of the limitations.

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Originally posted by tiger

Very nice. Your have to post a doc file with all the stats, be highly useful.

What stats do you mean?

 

The only question mark I have is the limitation for Arcane Magic Only. I wouldn't see where a Witch or Wild Mage or even a Illusionist would get the limitation, so I question a Arcane mage having it. Just seems that they would be limited in thre spells they would be allowed to have in the campaign instead, which is one of the limitations.

 

Well, Limited Type Of Powers Available is a valid limitation on a VPP. "Magic" is generally -1/4. In a world with many different types of magic, particularly the big divisor between "Arcane" and "Divine" Magic and further subsets of each, "Arcane Magic" as a -1/2 seems reasonable. On the surface it stops a Wizard or Sorceror from using Clerical spells, which mechanically are identical and would slot into thier VPP no problem if not restricted.

 

A Bard has an even smaller subset of Arcane Spells, including a small handful which are Bard only (and therefore not usable by other types of spellcasters). Thus, they are even more limited in thier spell selection and -3/4 seems fair to me.

 

A hardcore specialist Wizard that ONLY knew how to cast spells from thier school of choice, such as an Illusionist could take a -3/4 lim (Illusions only in this case) if they want, but D&D Magic doesnt really work that way; specialists only loose access to 1 or a few other schools. In my conversion to the HERO System this will most likely be handled in a Specialist Package Deal with 1 or more Physical Limitations (Cannot Learn Spells from School X, All the Time, Slightly Limiting).

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Originally posted by Killer Shrike

What stats do you mean?

 

Nice doc file list the write-ups for the various spells. Be great material for other conversions and such

 

 

 

The write ups are quite nice and could easily be adapted into other GM's campaigns.

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Man, where was this stuff three months ago, when I needed it?

 

I've reproduced most of this work for my upcoming GenCon game, which will pit a HERO-ized D&D party (8th to 10th level) against a team of superheroes. All are built on 350 points.

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Originally posted by mattingly

Man, where was this stuff three months ago, when I needed it?

 

I've reproduced most of this work for my upcoming GenCon game, which will pit a HERO-ized D&D party (8th to 10th level) against a team of superheroes. All are built on 350 points.

Well dont be shy Dave; post it! ;)

 

As a point of comparison, my conversion spec currently has character of 8 to 10th levels coming out around 275-300 points, with up to an additional 50 points of disadvantages taken via Package Deals (from multiclassing, etc). Currently, Im forcing all classes to fit the same point scale to better model the supposed class balancing in 3e.

 

Id be very happy to see your conversion spec for ideas/counterpoint ;)

 

BTW, I got those documents sent off last week; they should be arriving at the 1 Haight St address soon. Let me know if they dont show.....

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Originally posted by tiger

Nice doc file list the write-ups for the various spells. Be great material for other conversions and such

 

 

 

The write ups are quite nice and could easily be adapted into other GM's campaigns.

Ah, well, yes, eventually I could easily dump all of it into HTML documents, which is my plan.

 

 

All help is appreciated and will be credited, so folx, dont be shy.

 

As time permits over the next few weeks, Ill be posting whatever data I can as I manage to get it done. Supposedly 2 of my players are helping out; Dr. Lucky is working on 4th level spells, and Wily Quixote is working on second, but what can I say except they are lazy good for nothing scum (until they produce something, at which time they become saints ;) )

 

After we get the Arcane magic polished enough to work with, Ill turn to on the Divine. Im mulling over how to handle Domain spells.....any suggestions are appreciated.

 

The big problem I have is that in 3e some spells are different levels for different casters. This is a big problem when doing magic as a VPP, because the AP limit on the spells is designed to fit into a VPP of a certain size. Thus if class A gets a spell at 3rd spell level, but Class B gets it at 4th, Im not sure how to resolve that cleanly. There are several options, but none of them are very 'elegant'....

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With the different classes getting same spells at different levels, you could always just apply the total points to whichever level it appears at on the class charts at the lowest level.

 

Say Class A gets spell at level 4, and Class B gets spell at level 3, then treat the spell itself at level 3 regardless of which other classes have it at whatever level they got it originally.

 

When translating D&D over I am not expecting everything to remain the same, but my god those spells you have converted over have the right feel, and now I am really seeing the versatility of HERO.

 

How long you been playin this game Shrike? I wish I lived where you live so I could be in a game that you run, if you run one.

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Originally posted by ShadowRaptor

With the different classes getting same spells at different levels, you could always just apply the total points to whichever level it appears at on the class charts at the lowest level.

 

Say Class A gets spell at level 4, and Class B gets spell at level 3, then treat the spell itself at level 3 regardless of which other classes have it at whatever level they got it originally.

Yeah, that is one of the options, but it begs the question why would a class that gets it at a higher level bother with a weaker spell rather than just redesigning it with 15 more AP (ie +1 Spell Level).

 

Its not a game stopper, just an irritating exception to an otherwise straight forward conversion.

 

When translating D&D over I am not expecting everything to remain the same, but my god those spells you have converted over have the right feel, and now I am really seeing the versatility of HERO.

Yeah, thats the view you have to take. I convert Databases for a living. Sometimes you have to go for "really friggin close"

 

 

How long you been playin this game Shrike? I wish I lived where you live so I could be in a game that you run, if you run one.

 

Ive been gaming for 18 years, and playing HEROs for 12 going on 13 years.

 

I run almost all the time in my group. Currently Im running a supers game.

 

In the past I ran many GreyHERO campaigns with my old 2ed ADD to 4th HERO SYstem game, over the course of 3 years. I recently ran a 1 year 3e campaign, and played in a 3 month 'accelerated' 3e campaign (1st to 13th level in 3 months -- very fast) to try the system out from the other side of the screen. Been back to HEROs now for about 7 months of actual play......

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  • 3 weeks later...

OK, now that the Continuing Charges gotchas seem to have been ironed out of Hero Designer, Im getting back to work on this. I have to go back through the levels I have done and find the spells that need to be edited and fix them. I had gotten about 1/3 of the way through 5th level before the Charges glitch in HD brought me to a halt before Dan went on vacation, so Ill resume completion of that list soon too.

 

 

Ive got one niggling problem however. How to do the Shadow Evocation and Shadow Conjuration spells?

 

Keep in mind that the Magic System already operates out of a VPP and the Shadow Spells would just be spells coming out of the slots.

 

1 way is to just treat it as a proxy in thier spell pool and let the caster switch it out for the appropriate spell at the time of casting, but thats really awkward/kludgy.

 

Im looking for some elegant way to do it that works within the existing framework rather than despite it.

 

Looking forward to any and all input; I hope to tackle this tonight and could am currently clueless. Ok, fair enough, Im always clueless, but in this case Im also clueless and irresolute :D

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I realize this isnt a post on Racial Characteristic Maximas or a Poll, but surely SOMEBODY has an opinion on the matter?

 

How to do Shadow Evocation and Shadow Conjuration within the framework described above.

 

Ideas?

 

 

 

 

 

Mental Illusions is one possibility that Ive been looking at, but it doesnt really yield the same effect.

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In my opinion this calls more for handwaving than an actual writeup. I would say that these spells essentially let a character cast any other appropriate spell without having to actually study it, but with reduced damage.

 

(Assuming of course, that I remember correctly what it is these spells do...I've only played 1st ed D&D, and not for about 15 years....)

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Originally posted by Captain Obvious

In my opinion this calls more for handwaving than an actual writeup. I would say that these spells essentially let a character cast any other appropriate spell without having to actually study it, but with reduced damage.

 

(Assuming of course, that I remember correctly what it is these spells do...I've only played 1st ed D&D, and not for about 15 years....)

 

Yeah, the placeholder effect is another Ive been looking at but it seems really kludgy.

 

The way SE and SC work in 3e is the target(s) get a Will save to detect that the spell is an illusion; if they do they take a small amount of damage, if they fail the save they believe the spell is real and it resolves normally, including further Saves as dictated by the copied spell.

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