Crafting Karrak in Fate: Magic Systems

As part of an exercise in boredom I’m converting Karrak Seaborne, my character from the Orcanraytrel campaign, into a Fate PC. This requires me to know some things about the setting in the context of how they affect game mechanics and character creation before I attempt this. Part of this is knowing how Nel Gifts work in a narrative sense so that a system can be built around them that will represent them for what they truly are rather than the bastardization that a D20 system forces them into. Along the way to developing the Gifts I realized that it makes sense to also just go ahead and do Sorcery and Psionics as well since they share some major similarities from a mechanical standpoint. So here’s my collection of thoughts on the subject.

Psionics:

Psionics are a more measured and practiced form of magic in Hekinoe. The power of psionics comes from within the body of the manifester and is built up through training and discipline. It is also an extremely stable and reliable form of magic. Psionics is a skill that people train themselves in, it takes effort, but is really in the end and exercise of the will. The stronger the will, the stronger the effect.

I’ve already come up with a system for dealing with psionics before on my blog so I’ll basically just transcribe that and give it a bit of Hekinoe flavor.

So first off, Psionics in Hekinoe are currently based off of Pathfinder’s rules. So you have a ton of things that are very codified and laid out into classes and spell lists and all that. I hate that crap. It’s too rigid and it doesn’t feel right for Clint’s setting. I can break the basics of Psionics down into two effects.

One type of effect is the physical manifestations of psionics. Physical effects are things like throwing bolts of energy, telekinesis, creating force shields, creating giant crystal swords, teleportation, and so on and so forth. This is kept general to allow the player to have complete creative control over his character’s manifestations. It allows him to get creative with what he needs and not just rely on a spell list. This will be governed by a skill I’ll call Psionics: Physical for now.

The other type of psionics that you’ll see in Pathfinder are the mental based effects. These are your mind reading, mind control, telepathy, future reading, scrying, and such. Again, I’m just going to keep it general and lump them all together just for simplicity’s sake. The skill governing it will be called Psionics: Mental.

Both of these are based off their governing skills. These skills and powers can be enhanced with the use of stunts and possibly the Dresden Files RPG style “spells” where you basically just have a numbered amount of pre-written effects ready to go that gain a free boost. (I think it is governed by your skill rating in Dresden and I’d probably do the same here.

So mechanically speaking here’s how all of this works. You can use one of the Psionic skills to perform one of the four actions that you can use a skill for in Fate; Attack, Defend, Overcome, and Create an Advantage. Psionics is a tool like any other skill, and being magic it is a tool with a lot more uses. Basically you can use it in place of another skill by describing what you’re doing with it. Need to move a boulder but your Athletics skill sucks? Use Psionics: Physical instead with an Overcome action to telekinetically move the boulder out of the way. Fighting enemies at range and you don’t have a crossbow? Use it as an Attack to fling objects at people, or slam them into objects, or just hit them directly with something Pathfinder would describe as a Force Effect. Need to get past a guard? Psionics: Mental can allow you to have a bonus to convince them you’re not a bad dude, or you could just overpower their brain and take control of them for a bit. Fighting a big group of enemies? Why not force them to feel fear and panic at the sight of you? Or you could totally make them think you’re a dragon in disguise! The possibilities are endless.

I’m also a big fan of casters having the inherent ability to supercharge their spell casting by sacrificing something. Typically this is done via exertion or sacrifice of some type. For Hekinoe Psionics in Fate; what makes sense for me is inflicting Mental Stress in order to gain a boosted number of shifts. So similar to what I designed for Makass, a Psionic Manifester can take 1-shift of Mental Stress to gain a number of Shifts to their next spell up to their casting skill score. So say the character has a Psionics: Mental skill of 6; if the character takes 1 shift of Mental Stress he gains up to +6 Shifts to his next Psionics roll, which would really be a 12-shift baseline for the roll. (That sounds impressive, but we don’t know what the spell specifically is or what his opponent may have to counter such an action so it isn’t as broken as you might think initially)

Psionics is meant to be stable so there isn’t really a failure associated with it and I’m going to keep it that way as best as possible. It will also be limited to those races that have some type of psionic affinity… however I figure the races out…

Sorcery:

Oh Sorcery, you are a harsh mistress. I’m a fan of there being consequences for magic being used. It’s one of the best aspects of Hekinoe. I love reading about the spell backfires from some of the other campaigns that changed the course of the campaign world. Unfortunately D20 systems don’t like unreliable magic, it makes it necessary to have tables and a bunch of extra dice get rolled as you’re trying to cast and it has the potential to slow down gameplay along the way. Don’t get me wrong, I love the extra tables and dice. I’ve got an addiction like that. But it can appear intimidating to people unfamiliar with that type of thing.

Fortunately Fate is far more forgiving to an unreliable system.

So my vision for Hekinoe’s unreliable Sorcery starts off simply enough. Sorcery is more of an instinctual and “natural” form of magic. It can be used instinctively by certain races because it flows in their blood. In Pathfinder you have Spontaneous Spellcasters like Sorcerers and Bards who can cast their spells without any real training. Therefore there isn’t really a need for a split casting stat. So a single Skill of Sorcery to control the power and scope of spells seems appropriate to me.

Sorcery is a physically corrupting and unstable source of power. It is available to those who wish to learn about it and those whom are born with it. Being from a more instinctual and natural source and being physically corrupting tells me that in order to enhance the spells a person wielding sorcery would take Physical Stress in the same way a Psionic Character would take Mental Stress. These physical issues would manifest themselves in the typical ways, usually bodily corruption of some type.

“But what about the failure system?” you ask. Well, in order to cast a spell without some type of backlash affecting your character you probably need to roll some type of skill check to prevent the magic from getting out of control. A Control Skill would be the most obvious route to start with. This Skill would be useless for everything but allowing you to cast spells without destroying all of the oxygen in the room. The way I envision it working is that whenever you use the Sorcery Skill to cast a spell you have to roll a second time using your Control Skill. You need to get an equal number of Shifts with your Control Skill as you did on your Sorcery Skill otherwise “something bad” happens depending upon how badly you failed.

Basically you think of it as something like a reverse of the way that Fate’s successes work. If you get a higher Control roll than your Sorcery roll, nothing bad happens. If you Tie the roll I’m going to go with nothing bad happens but the spell may be lessened in effectiveness (for now). If you miss by only one or two shifts something bad happens, but it isn’t big, maybe the spell goes off but fails in a spectacular, but undamaging way. If you miss it by 3 or more shifts, then your spell fails and/or backfires in some way that’s nasty to everyone around you and is a perversion of what you were trying to accomplish.

How would these backlashes be determined? I don’t know, I’m going with GM caveat and whim right now. Maybe the tables could still be used, but that seems like a cop-out to me. My White Wolf background says that each backlash should be unique and cater to the nature of the spell and the person casting it similar to the way that Mage the Ascension dealt with Paradox.

I think I’d allow for Control Skill Checks to be enhanced in the same way that Sorcery Skill Checks are with similar effects.

I may want to enhance the core of Sorcery more using the Dresden Files RPG as a baseline to give it an advantage over the other two forms of magic to make up for it having a failure rate. Maybe I can add focus items and magic item slots to it. I’m also thinking of giving some type of extra boost, maybe when you boost it by sacrificing a stress level you gain an automatic +2 shifts and then add in your score, so that it is always just a little bit overpowered, but is also always a bit unstable as you pump more power into it.

Gifts:

Gifts are the ones I’m most concerned about since Karrak is kind of infused with these now.  From the descriptions I’ve received about them, Gifts are essentially potential. They are will and desire given form and pour directly from the life energies of the Nel. The form they take is directly related to the Nel that is using the Gifts. Each has its own flavor and it will always take shape in a way that the Nel is connected to. (E.G. Andorian is all about Cold and Lightning and Storms and such therefore his Gifts manifest like that because it satisfies him at a level we can’t fathom.) There’s a lot more to it than that but I’m not comfortable going into the details without permission.

Gifts are a part of the being of those with them. They are truly instinctual and don’t fail the way Sorcery does. Gifts will have to use a single Skill in order to represent their use and there is no counter stat because they don’t fail like the other types of magic. There are catches though.

Gifts are tied directly to the Nel, first you must have sponsorship of one or be one yourself. It must be an essential part of your nature, so it seems like your High Concept would have to reflect this. Secondly, they are tied to the very essence of the one using the Gifts. They must take the form of things directly related to who the caster is. For example, Andorian is an Utenel Lastborn. His mind, according to descriptions his mind is a storm. It is a wild, swirling vortex of lightning, cold, wind, and such. Therefore his Gifts take the forms of lightning, cold, wind, and other such things. Potentially he has the ability to use any elements or styles of magic that he wishes, but that takes real effort and goes against his nature (which would probably be represented by forcing the use of a Fate Point to even make the attempt).

Gifts manifest themselves to those that can sense them as a general “feeling” of some type. Whenever they are used near another Nel, or those infused with the Gifts of one and they can sense each other. Each one has a unique description that shows the true essence of whom they are. The gifts within Karrak began themed around Andorian’s flavor of gifts. The cold and windy mountain peaks of Andorian were there, but something different was brought by Karrak. The mountains turned to gold and there were hints of other things coming as Karrak gained more power. Keroen remade his Gifts with a blank set that changed the flavor of his Gifts to Karrak’s own nature.

(This is just the description of what his Gifts currently feel like. They evolve as he gains more strength and absorbs more power:

There is a ship upon the sea. The smell of the open ocean, a hint of powder recently spent, and a light, brine filled mist. The ship is filled with life. A crew of indeterminate races, all of them looking brutal, animalistic, and savage; drunkenly sing and sway as they cheer their recent victory. Monkeys chatter and screech from the rigging, providing much entertainment to the crew. The ship plows through detritus floating on the surface. The remains of the enemies the ship has crushed, all the valuables stripped from them and now filling the hold. A lone figure wearing a Captain’s tricorn hat stands at the bow staring ahead, determined. Before the ship lay the Waterfall at the Edge of the World. There is no fear, only passion and determination as the winds suddenly pick up and carry the ship forward to its destiny.)

Looking at Karrak’s nature determines that his Gifts will be Pirate-like and based around what would be a sailor’s desires or essential being would be. Each of those lines in the description is based off of an essential piece of who he is. Each piece can be tapped to give him something to use against his foes.

Anyways, back to the mechanics. Gifts will end up working exactly like the other two categories. They just have more restrictions on how the effects take place. They must follow your character’s themes. If the GM determines that the effect you desire isn’t consistent with your character’s nature it will require a Fate point to attempt it.  The caster can shape any thematically appropriate effect though by using said gifts. Stunts may enhance the specifics of the casting as well.

Because of the nature of Nel and their ties to their Gifts I think allowing them to use both Physical and Mental Stress tracks for boosting their casting ability seems appropriate to me.

Casting Restrictions and Stunts:

Now this could just be the game balance guy in me talking, but each of these sets of rules really seems to be very open to interpretation and potential abuse, especially Sorcery and Gifts. Maybe they need some type of restriction built into them, or maybe they don’t. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it. For the time being I think I’m just going to keep it simple and freeform. Restrictions of some type could come later as required.

As for ways to enhance the casting of each of these types of magic I look towards Stunts to be the best way to do it. Generally speaking, a Stunt is used to enhance something that already exists, let you use a skill in a different way, or a whole variety of crazy things. I’m thinking we start with simple things, like Fire Magic Specialty: +2 to Sorcery Checks when casting fire based magic.  Stabilized Sorcery: +2 to Control checks. Mind Control Expert: +2 to Psionic: Mental checks. Simple things like that are easy as hell. It’s when these turn into Stunt Trees that we’re going to have to put in the effort.

Maybe a character like Karl, the gunslinging mage who can cast spells through his gun, could have something like “Spellslinger: May use Sorcery instead of shoot skill for an Attack action when using his specially crafted revolvers. Normal Control rolls still apply, but with a +2 bonus.” Maybe one called “The guns give me a focus: +2 to control checks for spells/attacks cast through his gun”. A good one to start with as the basis for the Stunt tree might be “Gunslinginging Sorcerer: Karl may spend a Fate point once per scene to allow him to cast spells through a gun, giving him +2 to all sorcery checks with spells cast through said weapon for the remainder of the scene.”

So Karl’s Stunt tree would look like this: 1. Gunslinging Sorcerer => 2. Spellslinger => 3. The guns give me focus.

The first one on the tree, Gunslinging Sorcerer, basically an invoking of his High Concept combined with his magic and weapon. Mechanically it’s just a scene length bonus to his spellcasting abilities, but flavored to be through any gun. In my mind I am picturing that he’s investing whatever gun he has with some Sorcery, granting him temporary extra power due to the gun becoming an easier channel for him. Plus this can only work if he’s got a gun of some type in his hand.

The second one, Spellslinger, acknowledges that Karl is a craftsman and likes to cast spells through his gun. This lets him use any gun that he or someone like him has crafted specifically for casting spells through as a spell focus. This gives him the ability to work his attack magic through his gun, making it more stable in the process. Mechanically this is just giving him a specific item that boost his control skill for Attack actions using Sorcery, but thematically it adds flavor.

The third one is a thematically appropriate stacking effect on top of the previous two abilities. It implies that he is able to focus and maintain his magic because of the guns though.

Let’s say that he goes into combat and does what he’s supposed to do, which is shoot things with magic pistols. He spends a Fate point on his first turn to charge his father’s revolver with Sorcery and then shoots someone with it. He gets to take the shot using his Sorcery skill (let’s just call it a baseline of +5 for now, as opposed to his Shoot skill which is only a +2 or a +3), which is boosted by +2 now because of the first Stunt. He rolls his Fudge Dice and gets a +1, for a total of an 8 shift attack. Because he used his Sorcery skill he has to roll a Control check (we’ll say his control is a +4 baseline), so he starts off with his +4, adds in +2 for Spellslinger, and then an additional +2 for The guns give me focus for a baseline total of +8 prior to rolling the dice for the Control check. He has to not roll a -1 or below which gives him a 62% probability of success. Not bad at all.

And this isn’t even scratching the surface of the possibilities.

Fate in Pathfinder and 3.5

A thought occurred to me the other day while debating other gamers on Facebook about alignment systems and how I feel about them. Which of course, as you should all know by now, I really don’t like them because of how restricting and personality stunting they tend to be. My preferred systems tend to use personality traits of some type or another that reward role play with mechanic based rewards.

 

In Whitewolf’s old World of Darkness games this would be Nature and Demeanor, with acting out your Nature giving your character back extremely important Willpower points. In Fate, you have your character’s Aspects; High concept, Trouble and three Aspects. Having your aspects compelled gains you fate points you can use to enhance your rolls in some way shape or form related to your Aspects. It is one of the nicest and smoothest systems for encouraging roleplaying I’ve seen in a system and have been dying to use it for real.

 

Bringing up the topic of Fate’s aspects made me pause for a second though when I was debating the merits of alignment. Why couldn’t you put the Aspects and Fate points into DnD style games in place of the 2-axis alignment system?

 

You might be able to put the whole set of 5 Aspects (High concept, Trouble, and 3 “Other”) on each D20 character and make it work. Compels and Invocations could still work the same too. The only real questions that come up are related to the mechanical effects of Fate points in a D20 setting and the removal of alignment from a D20 setting. Those two concerns are not little. Both of those things are capable of completely breaking the mechanics of the game. I’ve talked about my problems with alignment before (maybe not on this blog, but I’ve had the discussion before!) and I think I can deal with the issues of removing it fairly well, but the Fate point question is a new one to deal with and is going to require some speculation and thought.

 

The removal of alignments is pretty straight forward. Overall I remove the descriptors of Law, Chaos, Evil, and Good from many different abilities, spells, and class features. In cases of spells like “Detect Evil” it becomes a spell that detects intent and/or actions and not just a general aura of “this dude is just totally reeking of Evil” to make it a more strategic spell to use. Any type of damage related abilities (e.g. Smite Evil, or Damage Reduction 5/Good) is replaced with either a generic “magic” descriptor or some specific type of damage modifier (Silver, Fire, etc). Good and Evil are actions, not elements. Holy and Dark can replace Good and Evil as energy types, but they aren’t inherently Good or Evil. Some spells like the Protection spells just get combined and turned into a generic spell that just does what it does in general and doesn’t care about specific types of enemies or their alignments.

 

Like I said, eliminating the 2-axis alignment is easy. Now for the hard part.

 

The creation of aspects is easy enough to put into D20 systems. You just use the same exact rules. Easy, simple, clean. The rules for that stuff are basically universal and could be applied anywhere since it is all really just about creating a character and defining their personality quirks and motivations.

 

Where it gets difficult is when you get into the mechanics of it all. Fate points and the Fate point economy are very different from most anything in standard D20 settings. Mechanically the Fate point grants a +2 bonus, a reroll, and a handful of other mechanic specific things unique to the Fate system that are only able to be utilized by invoking an Aspect on something. A +2 bonus isn’t very useful most of the time. It is really only improving your odds on a D20 by 10% and is only a minor boost to any damage roll. Very different from the significant increase that it grants you in Fate. The reroll is a useful tool and could be wonderful to use. The creation of a scene aspect is something that translates decently too. Maybe it’s time to look at some of the things available in the D20 system that might be similar.

 

In Unearthed Arcana you find Action points. Action Points are a rather similar thing that have also made an appearance in settings like Ebberon. A character, according to Unearthed Arcana, gains 5 action points at first level or 5 + ½ character level for characters starting at higher than level 1. The characters gain 5 + ½ Character level (rounded down) every time they level. Leveling is the only way (per Unearthed Arcana at least) is the only way to obtain more Action Points. Action points can be used to give a bonus on a D20 roll (+1D6 lvl 1-7, +2D6 lvl 8-14, +3D6 lvl 15-20, taking only the highest number rolled when rolling multiple dice), use a class ability an additional time per day, double their AC bonus for fighting defensively (goes from a +4 to a +8 Dodge bonus to AC normally, +6 to a +12 with 5 ranks in tumble), Emulate a Feat that they qualify for but may not have, gain an extra attack during a full attack action at their highest attack bonus, boost their effective caster level by 2 for a spell, recall a spell just cast, stabilize if they’re in negative HP, and enhance various feats that already exist (e.g. Applying metamagic feats on the fly, bonuses to power attack or combat expertise).

 

These action points sound like they’re a good place to start. I’m going to check Pathfinder’s rules for something similar though first to make sure that these are the best they can be.

 

Well, so a check with Pathfinder reveals them using Hero Points. Each character starts off with 1 Hero point and only gaining one every level (or with DM rewarding them for milestones and such, there’s a long list to give you ideas). Each character is only allowed a maximum of 3 Hero points at any one time. These points can be used for the following types of things: Act out of turn to perform a Move or Standard action, Bonus to any D20 roll (+8 Luck for prior to the roll, or a +4 after the roll. Can be used on another character for half the bonus), Extra Move or Standard action on your turn, Petition the GM for a hint, Recall a spell or daily ability use, Reroll any D20 roll, Special things not normally possible (like a fighter casting a first level spell, blind a foe with a normal attack, bypass damage reduction entirely, all of which should typically require a skill/attack roll), Cheat death (if your character would be killed you are instead left with negative HP and are Stable. This requires 2 Hero Points).

 

Well, they have some similar themes. That’s for sure. They also have a limitation of only allowing a single point to be used in a turn (the exception being the Cheating Death option). Maybe a combination of the two would be best since neither seems quite right for the intent and spirit of Fate points.

 

So obviously the amount of starting points is an important thing to establish. Starting Fate points are normally determined by your character’s Refresh rating. This isn’t possible to use since there is no refresh rating in the D20 system. Unearthed Arcana’s Action point starting number is way too high. It ruins the Fate point economy right out of the gate. Why compel an aspect if you have plenty of points on hand? So I think the 1 point of the Pathfinder Hero points system wins out.

 

Next up is how you earn them. I will continue with the 1 point free per level theme of the Hero points system here. It’s quite a logical extension of the system already established in the previous paragraph. Now as for other ways to gain points, we look to the normal way Fate points are earned. Here we use the normal rules for driving the Fate point economy. Compels give the PCs points to use while Invoking or placing aspects spends them. The hard limit set on Hero points of no more than 3 at a time is meant to limit the potential for abuse by players. Now that the points are being used via the Aspect system that means that there are other limitations on their use and the need to have a hard limit like that is unnecessary now. So we’ll remove that from the rules.

 

The uses of these points will be a little bit more difficult.

 

First you have to invoke you aspects. When you Invoke in Fate you have to show a good reason why it makes sense for this aspect to be used in the situation and context you are using it in. In Fate spending a point lets you do things like adding static bonuses to a roll for yourself or another PC, allowing a reroll on any of your rolls, or adding bonuses to the passive defense of something. Obviously these mechanics don’t translate well so I think just allowing a combination of both systems (Unearthed Arcana and Pathfinder) is the way to go. So I think a proper list of actions should be as follows:

 

-Give a Luck bonus of +8 to any D20 roll, or +4 to another player’s roll (if the aspect invocation is appropriate)

                -I’ve eliminated the penalty for before or after because of that’s the spirit of the Fate point rules

-Reroll any one D20 roll, taking the second result no matter what

-Recall a spell or gain 1 additional use of an ability/power

-Gain an extra Standard or Move Action (if the Standard action is an attack it is at your highest Attack Bonus)

-Act out of order, acts like a readied action. May only use a Move action or a Standard Action

-Cheat Death, does not require the invocation of an aspect. As above, spend 2 points and you survive a blow that should have killed the character with negative HP, unconscious, and in stabilized condition. This will force the character to have to take a new Aspect similar to a (Severe Consequence or Extreme Consequence, can’t decide yet) that is entirely a negative and is in keeping with the theme of the blow delivered to them. The recovery will require something similar to the recovery rules in Fate and will impose a new aspect on you until you are fully recovered from the blow.

-Boost your effective caster level by 2 levels

-Use a feat you don’t have but qualify for, or enhance one you already have

-Perform an action that is “impossible” (casting a spell as a pure Fighter, bypassing damage reduction, etc). This action should have a a skill check or an attack roll associated with it at an appropriate difficulty.

 

I will also replace the 1 point per turn limit with a rule requiring the invocation of multiple aspects, and the limit of only being able to invoke each aspect once per turn. Obviously Compels work the same way they always do. You gain a Fate point for accepting a Compel and can refuse one by spending a Fate point.

 

By adding in Fate points to the mix you might be able to add additional uses for your various skills in D20 settings. You could potentially use them to create advantages and Tags, or use them to allow the players to add a free-invocation aspect to a scene. The possibilities are really limitless and could really enhance the game. Obviously there are plenty of tweaks that can be made here and these are only the baselines I’m looking at for how I would implement these. I’d love to hear someone else’s thoughts on this.

 

(Hmmmm… what about the consequences rules being used as bonus HP…)

Campaign character guidelines

So I've thought some things over and decided that I wanted to change things up a little with my guidelines for character creation for my upcoming campaign. After digging into Pathfinder more and seeing how much it balances things out, I've decided to change a few things from my earlier post about the guidelines for character creation.


I'm changing the starting stats from the static 13-18 to the Epic Fantasy level of the point buy system. This gives 25 points for the player's to work with, that should achieve the epic feel for the characters and fits with the power level of the pre-designed mobs with PC classes well enough that they don't need a complete restat. I still need to recreate the various premades using Pathfinder's classes but at least I can keep their stats.
I'm going to keep my Max Hit Die at each new level because I'm accidently too brutal to PCs sometimes.
My original idea for having double starting gold was to give the fresh adventurers enough magical tools that I could throw anything at then. That was before I started implementing the magic system changes. Double starting gold doesn't do the player's much good in a world with no real magic items so I'm going to nix that idea for now which leaves you with your standard 3rd level starting gold of 2,700.
I'm going to maintain the ability to select any class, race, etc from before if people want to use something specific. I just want things run by me beforehand so that I can veto something that doesn't fit (doubtful, but there are somethings I'll probably say no to) and to make sure I have a good idea of what your characters are capable of to tailor the modules to you. Oh and letting me know the race is really important, some races are going to be slightly different builds than their core counterparts.
Psionics are up in the air right now, they might not be allowed. Flaws and traits will be allowed, 2 of each (possibly a 3rd trait will be allowed, not sure yet), let's see, what else would you need to know?
Oh yeah, guns! In this world guns and cannons are common weapons. I am using a modified version of the Commonplace Firearms rules for Pathfinder. All firearms are considered Martial Weapons and do not require Exotic Weapons Proficiency (Firearms) unless specifically noted in a racial description (I think that will be Elves, a few of the more savage or nature-friendly races, and some of the monstrous races). Early firearms cost 25% of what their list price is while advanced firearms are their full price under those rules normally, but advanced firearms (revolvers, non-misfiring single shots, cartridge based ammunition, etc) are a little bit too high tech for this setting. So what I'm doing is just ignoring the existence of the advanced guns for right now. Maybe some will become available at double list price or something later on.


Starting level will be changed from 5 to 3. This is because the scenario I had designed as the first module is more for the groups I was playing with while in Washington rather than a group that still hasn't been completely settled upon. I also got to thinking about how I was forcing a pretty hefty storyline piece cold turkey upon the player's and decided that they need to establish their characters and goals first before they get shoved into the story.

Near-release beta for my Campaign Magic System

So I’ve finally finished most of the work on my magic system for my campaign. I will be writing it up in a PDF style format in the near future but I’ll put it here for now so people can look it over. The specific terminology may change and there may be a few minor tweaks depending upon specific mechanics that might pop up as being incompatible with the system, but overall I think this system is play-ready.
Anything in brackets [ ] is subject to change.

Spellcasting Alterations for Generic Fantasy World #4:

Magic in this world is a dangerous and corrupting otherworldly force. By using magic you allow energies not of this world to pass through your mind, body and soul. Magic corrupts that which it passes through and those who choose to wield it tend to suffer all manners of mental and physical disabilities while attempting to master its many nuances. Mages are subject to discrimination and distrust because of these things and choosing to wield magic in this world is a dangerous and depressing decision.

All magic users have a [Sanity] score. You determine this score by taking the character’s Wisdom Score and multiplying it by 5 (Wisdom x 5 = [Sanity]). This is your permanent score and is the maximum your character can have at any one time [and maxes out at 99]. This represents your character’s ability to withstand the unnatural forces coursing through your being.

There are two [Sanity] scores. The first one is your permanent score as previously discussed. The second one is your current score which fluctuates depending upon the amount of magic you’ve been using. As you use more magic your score drops as you temporarily damage your psyche making you more prone to the corrupting influences of magic.

Whenever a spell caster casts a spell they lose 1D6 per Level of the Spell of [Sanity] from their current score. When they lose enough cumulative [Sanity] equal to ½ your Wisdom score the caster must make a [Sanity] Check. A [Sanity] Check is a D% roll versus your Current [Sanity] Score. If the number on the roll exceeds your current score you fail the roll and gain [Taint] equal to the Spell Level of the spell just cast.
Whenever the caster gains [Taint], they must make a Will Save of DC (15 + amount of [Taint] gained) or be Dazed for [1 round]. [Taint] has some interesting effects that it manifests upon a caster’s body. There are 3 levels of [Taint] Manifestations and two ways they affect an individual. They manifest in Physical Corruption, and Mental Depravity. The 3 levels are Mild, Moderate, and Severe. [Taint] Manifestations appear immediately after completion of casting a spell conferring all of their penalties immediately.

Wisdom	No Taint	Mild Taint	Moderate Taint	Severe Taint	Insane
1-4	0	1	2-5	6-13	14+
5-8	0	1-3	4-11	12-27	28+
9-12	0	1-5	6-17	18-41	42+
13-16	0	1-7	8-23	24-55	56+
17-20	0	1-9	10-29	30-69	70+
21-24	0	1-11	12-35	36-83	84+
25-28	0	1-13	14-41	42-97	98+
29-32	0	1-15	16-47	48-111	112+
33-36	0	1-17	18-53	54-125	126+

D20	Mild	Moderate	Severe
1	Dead Eye	Lips Sink	Lich Eyes
2	Aggressive	Treacherous	Murderous
3	Ear Scabs	Fingers and Toes Fuse	Shriveled Flesh
4	Bestial	Deranged	Unbalanced
5	Gums Swell	Bones Thicken	Great Swollen Growths
6	Compulsive	Hysterical	Unresponsive
7	Feet Curl	Joint Pain	Spine Twists
8	Crazed	Jittery	Craven
9	Lumps	Eruption of Sores	Wrigglers
10	Disoriented	Hallucinating	Paranoid
11	Odor of Decay	Paralyzed Face	Nose Rots
12	Mild Phobia	Moderate Phobia	Severe Phobia
13	Palsy	Uncontrollable Seizures	Skull Deformed
14	Neglectful	Distracted	Enthralled
15	Skin Seeps	Blood Eruption	Internal Corruption
16	Opinionated	Solipsistic	Hubristic
17	Skin Sloughs	Skin Thickens	Skin Lichen
18	Prophetic	Delusional	Apathetic
19	Winded	Chronic Illness	Lungs Eaten Away
20	Sycophantic	Weak-willed	Fatalistic

*These two tables have corresponding information that will be in the setting booklet.

This isn’t all doom and gloom though. Spell Casters go into their chosen paths knowing that they will be exposing themselves to these energies. With that in mind they start to develop a level of resistance to the corruption. This is represented by their Threshold. Threshold is equal to the character’s Caster Level. Every day a spell caster can ignore 1D6 of [Sanity] loss per Caster Level. So, a 3 rd level Sorcerer could ignore up to 3D6 of [Sanity] loss a day while a Fighter 2/Wizard 1 could ignore 1D6 a day. This Threshold pool is usable as the person running the character sees fit. The [Sanity] loss is traded out on a D6 for D6 basis. [If this is confusing ask me about it and I’ll try to explain it better]

There is an advantage that magic confers to those who wield it in this world though and that’s the ability to cast extra spells by taking extra [Sanity] loss a caster can exceed their Spells Per Day limit if they deem it necessary. The process for that is you add 1D6 to the normal [Sanity] loss for a spell and immediately must make a [Sanity] Check. If that check fails the Caster gains DOUBLE the [Taint] they normally would and must pass their Will save (DC 15 + [Taint] gained) or be Dazed for 1D4+1 Rounds.

[Sanity] is regained at a rate of [1D8 per Caster Level] per day. It can be quicker if in a special location/temple. [Taint] is lost more slowly, you have to avoid spell casting for 1 week and then you begin to lose it at a rate of [½ Caster Level (Rounded up)] per day until you cast spells again or have lost all of it. This spiritual cleansing process also removes Manifestations. The recovery from it can be sped along by finding special springs or recovery assisted in a specially sanctified temple room.

If a character loses all of their [Sanity] they are temporarily rendered unconscious. [This next part is still in flux. Mostly I’m looking at either making the character unplayable until they gain back at least a ¼ of their sanity. Maybe I’ll have them roll on an insanity table or something like that, but I’m not quite sure exactly how that’s going to happen yet. Losing all your [Sanity] will be a big deal with some type of semi-permanent/permanent consequences. Suggestions are more than welcomed.][This permanent consequences thing will also come up for those who exceed their [Taint] limit.]

Now comes the question of how magic items work. In short, unless they’re ancient heirlooms (most of which are controlled by the Sacred Empire and the Elves), they don’t exist and can’t be bought or constructed. [Item creation feats are going to be tweaked to compensate for this fact, eventually…] Magic enchantment has been replaced with Alchemical contraptions and multiple Masterwork item qualities. [Those systems are still in the early planning stages right now.][There is also a list of spells being developed that either don’t work, don’t exist, or work slightly differently. Mostly things like Wish or true resurrection, things that I feel ruin the game more often than not. If I nix a spell from your book, it’s because I hate the spell, not you.]