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Category: Electrum Pieces (Page 58 of 156)

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My Own Spell Point System

January 14, 2014 /

I have always wanted to like a spell point system, but I don't. I think it bothered me because I just wanted to fire and forget. Tracking slots is so ingrained in my head, doing something different can be hard. Having said that, I think I found a system that just works for me.

I posted some of this as a comment on G+ already, but I expanded it here to be able to explain a few things more clearly. As always, the first option does not make use of my Emphases System. It is so similar to a comment that +Joey Mullins said here, that I am linking to him and the post that holds his comment.

I call magic-users on a spell point system sorcerers. I list them as a separate class with separate advancement tables. In my mind, it prevents me from confusing which character is using Vancian magic and which one is adding up points.

Spells have a point cost equal to the spell's level. The amount of spell points a sorcerer can have is located on the advancement table. As spells are cast, the player totals the amount of spell points or mana used. If that total is equal to the number listed on the advancement table, it will take 8 full hours of rest to be able to cast spells again.

The difficulty to cast a spell is 11+spell level. The sorcerer gets a bonus from INT and his or her level to a 1d20 roll. This means that if you have Roy, a 1st level sorcerer with an INT 15 attempting to cast Magic Missile, he must meet or exceed 12 on his roll. He gets a +1 bonus due to his high intelligence and also gets to add his character level, another +1. Roy rolls 1d20+2 greater than or equal to 12. For those that care, he has a 55% chance of success.

I have an more involved version that uses +Peter Fitzpatrick 's idea of having 20 levels of spells instead of 9. All the standard S&W spells are given new levels (i.e. Wish is a 20th level spell, Fireball a 5th level spell) The difficulty to cast a spell is saving throw + spell level. The sorcerer gets a bonuses from INT, his or her level, and specializations to a 2d12 roll.

Let's take Bob, a 1st level sorcerer with INT 15 that specializes in Detection spells. Since he is 1st level, he gets a +1 to roll. With an INT 15, he gets another +1 to the roll to cast any of the canonical spells in S&W. He also has a specialty in Detection that grants a +2 to the roll for detection spells. So when Bob attempts to cast Detect Magic, a 1st level spell, he rolls 2d12 + 4 to beat or exceed 16. However, if he attempts to cast Magic Missile, also a 1st level spell, he has to roll 2d12+2 to beat or exceed 16 because Magic Missile is not a Detection spell.

At every level, Bob can increase an existing specialty by 1 or gain a new one at +2. So if he reaches 2nd level, he can increase Detection to a +3 bonus, or grab a new specialty at +2. These specialties also come into play for spell research, so it makes for some really interesting spells.

Regardless of which variation you use, here is the Progression Table of the Sorcerer. All other rules for the magic-user apply. The GM may choose to say that Sorcerers do not use spell books and that 8 hours of sleep refreshes the ability of the sorcerer to cast spells.

Standard Sorcerer Table

Level XP HD ST Mana
1 0 1d4 15 1
2 2,500 2d4 14 2
3 5,000 3d4 13 4
4 10,000 4d4 12 7
5 20,000 5d4 11 11
6 35,000 6d4 10 16
7 50,000 7d4 9 21
8 75,000 8d4 8 27
9 100,000 9d4 7 35
10 200,000 10d4 6 44
11 300,000 11d4 5 54
12 400,000 11+1 hp 5 65
13 500,000 11+2 hp 5 77
14 600,000 11+3 hp 5 90
15 700,000 11+4 hp 5 104
16 800,000 11+5 hp 5 129
17 900,000 11+6 hp 5 145
18 1,000,000 11+7 hp 5 162
19 1,100,000 11+8 hp 5 180
20 1,200,000 11+9 hp 5 200
21 1,300,000 11+10 hp 5 222

Next time, I hope to do more with creating magic systems. Game Knight Reviews mentioned this project on G+. Like I said there, I hope to provide examples of building magic systems soon. The next post, however, should be an alchemist.

Four by Five Magic and Other Things

December 31, 2013 /

Thanks to 1and1 to getting the WordPress login issue resolved. I ended up posting my four by five magic system in the Swords & Wizardry community on G+ until it was resolved.

Here is a link to the PDF, I will post the text of it sometime later today or tomorrow. This was adapted from Robin Stacey's four by five magic for Microlite20.

Here is the PDF. Enjoy!

Some Houserules About Magic

December 27, 2013 /

Here are some things that will appear in the Next Big Project. Specifically, this information covers altering the Intelligence attribute table and moving one thing to the character sheet. Once that information is on the character sheet, there are ways to use the Saving Throw mechanic to cover learning new spells, creating scrolls and more.

On the Intelligence table in S&W, there are columns for maximum spell level, chance to understand a new spell, and min/max spells understandable per spell level. At first, it may seem odd to move the maximum spell level from Intelligence Table and move it to the Magic-User advancement table, but we'll see more about that in the Spell Points system in a future post. In theory, the min/max spells understandable column, a magic-user with INT 15 has a cap on the number of 1st level spells that can be understood. His or her spellbook will never have more than 10 different 1st level spells. In game play, though, I never remember to check this table. So, I removed it entirely.

The big change is making the chance to understand a spell a saving throw.

What are the odds of understanding a new spell on the spot, while in a dungeon and spending very little time studying it? Roll 1d20 greater than or equal to your Saving Throw + Spell Level. For example, a 4th level magic-user attempting to learn a third level spell spontaneously has to beat 15. But wait, 4th level magic-user cannot cast a third level spell! Understanding, in my sense of the game, is different than casting. Once a spell is understood, it can be copied into the magic-user's spellbook and kept for study. Casting the spell requires a certain amount of skill and determination.

My analogy for this is being able to understand a blueprint for building a dog house. I can understand what is required, I know how big the pieces need to be and how all the pieces fit together. The thing keeping me back from building the doghouse is a lack of skill with the tools to cut, measure and align the pieces. I'll get there one day, but right now, I am limited as a carpenter.

Take the same situation and allow the player to spend money on materials and time on study and the bonuses add up. Spending 1000gp or 1 day's time will add +1 to the roll. Regardless of the money spent, the amount of time spent in study is a minimum of one day. This means our 4th level magic-user can spend any combination of money and time that add up to +14 to gain an automatic success. At lower levels, the magic-user will require more time than money, but at higher levels, the magic-user will be able to pay the money. It may not seem like it, but the money adds up at higher levels.

The effect of all of this is that a magic-user may have an extensive library, yet be able to cast a limited number of the spells. Even if the spells is successfully understood, the maximum spell level that can be cast (remember that I moved this to the Magic-User advancement table) limits what he or she can actually cast.

Now Add Emphasis

The emphases system that I mention quite a bit around here, adds more variety. Remember from my previous post, that the spells listed in S&W Complete are considered Eldritch Magic. Anyone with an Intelligence from 13 to 16 will automatically have an Eldritch Magic emphasis of +1. For an Intelligence score of 17, the magic-user has an Eldritch Magic emphases of +2. For a score of 18, an emphasis with a +3 bonus.

Taking our 4th level magic-user with an INT of 15 that is attempting to understand Darkvision (a third level spell), he or she gets a +1 emphasis bonus for attempting to understand an Eldritch Magic spell. The bonus also applies for time and/or money spent . In other words, if the magic-user decides to wait until out of the dungeon to understand a spell, the bonuses stack from the Eldritch Magic emphases, the money spent (if any), and the time spent.

Now let's say that our 4th level magic-user has an emphasis of +2 on Darkness based spells. The magic-user gains the +1 bonus from the Eldritch Magic emphasis and the +2 bonus from the Darkness emphasis. Just like before, the combined +3 bonus also applies to spending time and/or money to understand a spell. The same magic-user attempting to understand a Fireball spell, however, would only gain the +1 bonus from the Eldritch Magic emphasis. Fireball can be creatively described in a lot of way, but not as a darkness type of spell.

To make this even more interesting, let us say that a GM adopts the Max Spell Level numbers I place on the Magic-User Advancement table.

Level Max Spell Level
1 0
2 0
3 1
4 1
5 1
6 2
7 2
8 2
9 3
10 3
11 3
12 4
13 4
14 4
15 5
16 5
17 5
18 6
19 6
20 6

Created with the HTML Table Generator

Using an emphasis bonus to the Max Spell Level value of this table determines the highest level spell a Magic-User can cast. Going back to our 4th level Magic-User, he or she can actually cast the Darkness spell, but not the Fireball spell. The Max Spell level for a 4th level Magic-User is 1. With an INT of 15, the bonus allows him or her to cast 2nd level Eldritch Magic spells, but up to 4th level Eldritch spells that deal with Darkness. Unless the GM adds custom spells, there are no 4th level Darkness type Eldritch spells.

Next time, the spell point system.

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