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Upcoming (Hopefully) Kelyn of Ilrion PDF

Reposted from the Google Plus page:

Looking to expand the Kelyn NPC from the previous post. The post about his unusual companion, Mishabroo, contained information about the mage at various levels. I hope to make it into a PDF with full stats of Mishabroo, two (only two) new proficiencies, new spells, new creatures and hopefully some new magic items. April is really busy, so I'm not sure of the timeline.

It will be stated per the ACKS rules, but hopefully won't be too hard to adapt to other systems.

I worry about proficiency inflation, so I only add two. One of them is a mage class proficiency related to mages that train under Kelyn. It will be similar to the Black Lore of Zahar proficiency. The other has to do with Kelyn's ability to quickly create formulas for magic items.

The spells will deal with Kelyn's unusual focus on constantly improving Mishabroo, his fear of teleportation and psionicists and his dislike of blasting spells like Fireball and Lightning Bolt. One of the spells will be Call Primordial - this is related to a series of posts I did on primordials a few months ago. Some of the other spells, including ritual spells, will come from the SRD.

The new creatures will initially come from his early cross-breeds and constructs. Kelyn has a preference for constructs, mostly because he is trying to duplicate Mishabroo and is unable to do so. Other creatures will be stated forms of the primordials mentioned earlier.

Kelyn won't have a fully detailed repertoire in order to allow GMs to customize him into their campaign. The snapshots of Kelyn through history should also allow adventures in time.

As far as the new magic items, a couple of them will appear to be of little use to the PCs. Hopefully these items can serve as hooks for possible new quests.

Mishabroo

Kelyn was born into a family of modest means. For reasons known only to the gods, he was born an only child. Others in the village of Issenthale, where he grew up, considered this a bad omen for the family. It wasn't his use of magic - a handful of children in Issenthale had the gift. More than that, the local mage was friendly enough and did what she could to help crops grow and protect the village from goblin and ire goblin raiders. What troubled the people of this small village was that Kelyn manifested his powers at five years old.

Most children with the gift do not begin to manifest the gift until twelve or thirteen years old. Even the local mage marveled at his tender years. She immediately began his training despite the fact that Kelyn's family could not afford the training. She was more concerned about him controlling the power rather than money. She felt responsible to do what she could to help.

When Kelyn began his training, the mage soon discovered that he had a great talent for magic. He had a knack for learning the language of magic very quickly. At the time, his ability to manifest magic seemed to be quite limited.

After two years, though, the mage doubted her ability to handle him and recommended that the family send him to her mentor in the city of Ilrion. The family did not want to be separated from Kelyn, but painfully agreed that it was best. The mage supported his training to avoid inflicting double pain on the family.

On the journey to Ilrion, he managed to make his favorite toy move on its own. Although roughly formed from odd-shaped wood scraps, Kelyn loved this toy because it was made by his father. Kelyn managed to hide his toy's power for a number of years while he trained.

When he ended his training at the age of 17, he made an unusual request at his graduation. The custom was that a graduate could only take one item from the house and the clothes on their back. Most graduates took the opportunity to take one of the magical devices the great mage either made or found on his many journeys. Kelyn asked only for Mishabroo, the toy made for him by his father. The great mage knew that it had some magical power, but he dismissed the animated toy as a trifle.

Those that know of  Kelyn of Ilrion are well aware of the error of that assumption. Mishabroo is the feared companion of Kelyn. Despite its rough appearance, unchanged since its creation, Mishabroo demonstrates a wide range of powers.

Since Mishabroo was awakened on that journey to Ilrion, Kelyn has imbued it with many abilities. Mishabroo has been given a level of intelligence and an ability to communicate through telepathy. Mishabroo can also plant any memory it possesses into the mind of another creature. These memories include many that Kelyn has placed there himself. If Mishabroo is somehow teleported away from Kelyn, it will always reappear at Kelyn's side a short time later.

In combat, Mishabroo can grow to twenty feet tall. It can also transform into stone or iron at any time. It can also extended any one of its limbs out to double its current height. When this power is manifested, the hand and limb appear to be attached by a thick rope. The rope is not visible until this specific power is manifested.

Using Kelyn and Mishabroo

Kelyn is ultimately fated to become a god of magic. When Mishabroo has all the powers described above, Kelyn is almost a demi-god in power. At this point of Kelyn's life, he has researched several unique spells, he has created all manner of constructs and bizarre creatures. He has traveled the Astral Sea and is able to summon any primordial he wishes. He has traveled to the stars and knows how to construct a spacefaring ship.

If Kelyn is encountered just as he is graduating, he will be a 4th level mage. At this point, Mishabroo can communicate through telepathy and has the intelligence equivalent to a dog. Mishabroo can also extend his limbs, however he cannot grow in size, nor manifest any of the other abilities listed above.

Kelyn is at his weakest at this point if you use the ACKS rules. He is not able to create scrolls, potions, etc. He can only imbue Mishabroo with powers from spells he already knows. This means his spell book contains: ESP, Phantasmal Force, Extend Limbs (a custom spell taught by his mentor) and any other spells the GM wishes to provide.

Once Kelyn is able to research spells at 5th level, he begins to amass formulas for creating magic items and generating his own spells. His spell book should include many custom spells, including the processes to call specific primordials.

At levels between 4 and 14, here are some guidelines for the powers that Mishabroo has and certain spells that should be in Kelyn repetiore:

6th level - Mishabroo can visually plant a memory in any creature. Kelyn has just begun to place his own memories into the Mishabroo. Mishabroo can also communicate telepathically and has the intelligence of a dog. Kelyn should have at least Clairvoynace, ESP, Phantasmal Force, Extend Limbs.

7th level - Mishabroo can manifest all powers listed above and can grow to twenty feet in height. Kelyn should have all the spells listed above plus his own spell Grow Wooden Objects. This version allow him to increase the size of any wooden object up to 20 feet tall or double its normal height, whichever is greater. Intelligent creatures get a saving throw.

9th level - Mishabroo can manifest all powers listed above and can turn to stone or iron. Kelyn should have all the spells listed above and the custom spells, Transmute Wood to Stone, Transmute Wood to Iron and Transmute Iron to Stone. All these spells are similar to transmute mud to rock and are reversible. Kelyn should also be able to reliably summon three types of primordials.

11th level - Mishabroo can manifest all powers listed above and can teleport back to Kelyn if it is teleported away from Kelyn. Mishabroo has the equivalent intelligence of a monkey. Kelyn should have all spells listed above and the custom spells Prevent Teleport, Reverse Teleport, Track Teleport, and the ability to call at least five types of primordials. In addition, Kelyn can also creature items that temporarily increase the target's Intelligence.

14th Level - Mishabroo has all the powers listed above and it has the equivalent intelligence of a human (INT 9). Kelyn has many ritual spells at this point. These include Dimensional Lock, Protection from Spells, Maze, Trap the Soul, Clone, Mage's Disjunction, Astral Projection, and Time Stop. Kelyn has also written the Codex Primordicalus - a complete guide to summoning any primordial.

Alternatives to Spell Lists

Talysman over at The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms wrote about Clerics without Spells almost a year ago. As is his talent, he can produce a simple mechanic that sounds intriguing and fun to play. It's fascinating the almost complete lack of bookkeeping required. Roll 2d6 + (2 * (Cleric Level - HD effect)) >= 9.

Read the post to get the details of the categories as well as the follow-up post with some clarifying details. Really good stuff.

Being a 2e fan, I began to mull how this could work with the idea of Priests of Specific Mythoi. For example, some Clerics do not turn undead, but incite battle rage (God of War). Some Clerics get a Druid-like shape-changing ability.

Under my proposed system, a cleric would choose any six categories. The original categories are: Command, Defense, Disease, Dispelling, Healing, Warning. My additional categories are:

  • Resistance:  Cleric is granted an automatic saving throw against certain types of attacks, energy or a specific class of spells for a number of turns equal to the Cleric's level. Resistance to Posion is a 2 Hit Dice Effect. Resistance to Fire, Cold, Lightning, Acid, and Sonic energy is a 3 Hit Dice effect. Resistance to Psionics is a 4 Hit Dice effect. Resistance to a class of Magic is a 5 Hit Dice effect.
  • Shapechange: Cleric can change into any non-magical, non-planar creature up to the Cleric's level divided by 2 in Hit Dice. For example, at 1st level, a Cleric could change into a fox on a successful roll while a 14th level Cleric could change into any type of bear on a successful roll.
  • Passage: Cleric can travel at normal rate regardless of terrain or physical condition. Examples include, underbrush, forest, sand, ice, snow, wind and more. Forest, hills, deserts, snow and rocky/broken areas are a 2 Hit Dice effect. Wind, mountains, jungles, swamps are a 3 Hit Dice effect. Ice is a 4 Hit Dice effect.
  • Communication: On a successful roll, the Cleric can communicate with any creature or plant. This can only be attempted on an individual creature or plane once. If the attempt fails, it will never succeed, regardless of level advancement and/or number of attempts. The effect lasts for a number of hours equal to the Cleric's level.
  • Favor: The Cleric can grant bonuses to saving throws, Armor Class or attacks to an individual. The Hit Dice effect is twice the bonus. For example, a +1 to Saves is a 2 Hit Dice effect. A +3 is a 6 Hit Dice effect. The effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to the Cleric's level.

The rationale for Resistance to certain categories of spells deals with a bias against mages in my campaign world. The reason for the psionics separation is again a campaign world thing. Psionics are the only form of magic available to those that want to use magic. Mages are like d20 sorcerers in that they were born with the ability.

For a couple of the categories, I had to make a table and I'm looking for a way around that. The other option, of course, is to rework the entire system to use the basic mechanic in ACKS. Hmmm.

For weapon choices, I would allow a few weapons that do d4 and two weapons that do d6. A missile weapon can never do more that d4 damage.

It also occurs to me that I could do the same thing with mages using spell types as categories. But if that happens, it will be another post.

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