Abhorsen [Archive] - Wizards Community - Pages Merged by Solauren

Abhorsen [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
DolArrah
04-07-07, 03:14 PM Has anyone made any classes or prestige classes based on that series?
MarkusCryst
04-07-07, 05:21 PM Not yet. Though I've thought about taking a crack at it. The only problem is the fact that the magic is very different and D&D and the expansion books don't really have anything capable of dealing with it.
Tempest Stormwind
04-07-07, 05:43 PM The necromancers in that trilogy are essentially Dread Necromancers who cast spells like bards do (i.e. musically, although you can change it so that instead of being based on verbal components it's based on a focus, namely the seven bells). To fully model the necromancers, though, you'd need a custom cosmology for Death and a simple spell to enter it.

The Charter Mages are harder to handle without writing up a new magic system similar to a skills-and-feats system. They seem to shift around -- some charter spells blast, others shield, still others alter properties of items or heal. No single class covers all of these fronts without equipment (spontaneous blasting feels like the warmage, the protection spells are generally akin to Shield or Magic Circle or Globe of Invulnerability, the item-alteration/creation effects are similar to the artificer, and the healing is all over the place). What makes it particularly hard to model is that it doesn't appear to be an area of individual study -- Touchstone's a Charter Mage, but he's also pretty evidently a warrior and berserker as well as a statesman; most of the Clayr have their own supernatural Sight as well as Charter Magic; the Abhorsen him/herself has respectable combat ability, Charter Magic, AND necromancy. The closest class I can think of to the Abhorsen would be the CLERIC, of all things -- good combat, good defensive magic, healing, and necromancy all in one. You'd need to shift some components around, but it's otherwise a decent match.

Free magic is never really defined in the books, but the closest D&D approximation from what I do see would be the fey, the elementals, and the warlock (sans alignment restriction and somewhat more primal).
Karish
04-07-07, 07:36 PM I would play Abhorsens as good dread necromancers (remove that little problem), charter mages as wizards, and free mages as warlocks.

But that's just me.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
DolArrah 04-07-07, 03:14 PM	Has anyone made any classes or prestige classes based on that series?
MarkusCryst 04-07-07, 05:21 PM	Not yet. Though I've thought about taking a crack at it. The only problem is the fact that the magic is very different and D&D and the expansion books don't really have anything capable of dealing with it.
Tempest Stormwind 04-07-07, 05:43 PM	The necromancers in that trilogy are essentially Dread Necromancers who cast spells like bards do (i.e. musically, although you can change it so that instead of being based on verbal components it's based on a focus, namely the seven bells). To fully model the necromancers, though, you'd need a custom cosmology for Death and a simple spell to enter it. The Charter Mages are harder to handle without writing up a new magic system similar to a skills-and-feats system. They seem to shift around -- some charter spells blast, others shield, still others alter properties of items or heal. No single class covers all of these fronts without equipment (spontaneous blasting feels like the warmage, the protection spells are generally akin to Shield or Magic Circle or Globe of Invulnerability, the item-alteration/creation effects are similar to the artificer, and the healing is all over the place). What makes it particularly hard to model is that it doesn't appear to be an area of individual study -- Touchstone's a Charter Mage, but he's also pretty evidently a warrior and berserker as well as a statesman; most of the Clayr have their own supernatural Sight as well as Charter Magic; the Abhorsen him/herself has respectable combat ability, Charter Magic, AND necromancy. The closest class I can think of to the Abhorsen would be the CLERIC, of all things -- good combat, good defensive magic, healing, and necromancy all in one. You'd need to shift some components around, but it's otherwise a decent match. Free magic is never really defined in the books, but the closest D&D approximation from what I do see would be the fey, the elementals, and the warlock (sans alignment restriction and somewhat more primal).
Karish 04-07-07, 07:36 PM	I would play Abhorsens as good dread necromancers (remove that little problem), charter mages as wizards, and free mages as warlocks. But that's just me.