alternative magic systems [Archive] - Wizards Community

alternative magic systems [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
plaguewraith
01-27-08, 08:42 PM my DM is looking for alternative magic systems and i was hoping that i could gain a few links from the forums. if you post please dont criticize what im asking just giv a link. if the DM decides to add the system ill say so.
andinel
01-27-08, 09:13 PM Try Recharge Magic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/rechargeMagic.htm), Spell Points (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/spellPoints.htm), or Incantations (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/incantations.htm), all in the SRD. There are others, though, but they're all unofficial.
SkipSandwich
01-27-08, 11:39 PM if you like the spell points system, you might even want to go a step further and replace magic with psionics, Psions become Sorcerers, Euridites become Wizards, Psychic Warrior becomes Arcane Knight, ect.
InkBlot
01-28-08, 12:25 PM Spellpoints was the half-step between 3rd Edition Psionics and 3.5 Edition Psionics. It's not as bizarre and unusable as 3rd Edition Psionics, but it's not as beautiful and elegant as 3.5 Edition Psionics.

Just use the Expanded Psionics Handbook if you like spellpoints. The names on the classes and feats are easy enough to ignore.

Also don't overlook Magic Of Incarnum and Tome Of Magic. Each presents alternative magic systems. Tome Of Magic actually presents three; Pact Magic, Shadow Magic, and Truename Magic.

With Magic Of Incarnum (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20050907a), magic users shape incarnum (a.k.a. qi, prana, mana, or spirit) into forms called soul-melds which empower the meld-shaper. These are all-day self-buff effects, with an amount of power measured in points called essentia. The essentia points don't get used up, but can be shifted from one soulmeld to another at will. There are also incarnum feats, which are also powered essentia, but once you charge up an incarnum feat with essentia you can't move those points again until the next day.

The soul-melds all resemble magic items in form and function. Magic Of Incarnum is a decent system for making characters who's items level with them, or who can summon magic items from thin air. From the anime Bleach, Ichigo's sword could be a soulmeld.

Pact Magic (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060303a&page=2), from Tome Of Magic, presents a beautiful set of rules for playing a magic user who bargains with spirits from beyond the veil of reality. A pact magician is called a Binder, because he binds his soul to these spirits (and binds these spirits to his soul). In order to gain his magic powers, a Binder draws a circle and the vestige's seal, and call out the vestige's name and title. The image of the vestige then appears inside the circle, and will bargain with the Binder.

Mechanically, this pact-making process takes two minutes and requires a modified level check against the vestige's binding DC. Even if you fail the roll, you can still make the pact and gain the powers, but the vestige will be able to exert some minor influence on you (like making you forgetful, or requiring that you be nice to elves, or making you grumpy) and force you to show it's sign (like rams horns, or a star-shaped brand, or a boil with a worm squirming inside, or a broken arrowhead burried just under your skin).

Once you make a pact, you get a suite of supernatural abilities. Most of these can be used at-will, or are simply continuous. The most powerful abilities can be used once every 5 rounds. Each vestige's granted abilities follow a theme, although they each have a good bit of variety within that theme. For example, Malphas gives you all sneaky abilities: the ability to summon and control birds who's eyes you can see through; the ability to use poison; a couple dice of sudden strike; and the ability to turn invisible for a couple rounds.

You start off only being able to bind one vestige at a time, but you get two-at-a-time at 8th level, three at 14th, and four at 20th. Binders have 3/4s BAB, d8 hit die, 2 skill points per level, and a very good skill list. Binders can be either MAD or SAD, depending on what you want to do with them. They use Charisma to determine save DCs (which scale with class level not vestige level), but they don't need Charisma to use any of their abilities. Even a brute half-orc with 4 Cha can bind 8th level vestiges, if he takes 15 levels of Binder.

Shadow magic (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060303a&page=5) superficially resembles core Vancian magic. The biggest difference is that as a Shadowcaster learns higher level spells, her lower level spells become spell-like abilities, then supernatural abilities, and her lowest-level ones can be used at-will. There is also a very strong theme to all the spells. Check out the excerpt for more. I haven't played with Shadowmagic yet.

Truename magic (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060303a&page=8) will be instantly familiar to you if you've ever read any of Ursula K. LeGuin's (http://www.ursulakleguin.com/) Earthsea stories. Every creature, object, and concept in the universe has a truename. By knowing and speaking a truename, you can excercise power over something. Truenamers use as skill check to speak truenames, with the difficulty ramping up at every attempt in a day. Unfortunately, the DC also soars into the stratosphere as monster CRs climb. This has the effect of making truenaming useless unless you pour all your effort into buffing your truename skill, and overpowerd if your truename skill is too high.

The truename magic preview page says "New Weapon Special Ability: Shadow Striking" at the top. Ignore that. It's a big typo. The link above is indeed a link to the truename preview page.

if you like the spell points system, you might even want to go a step further and replace magic with psionics, Psions become Sorcerers, Euridites become Wizards, Psychic Warrior becomes Arcane Knight, ect.

To clarify for the unfamiliar with psionics, Erudite is a variant Psion class from Complete Psionics. Complete Psionics is the most reviled book 3.5 splatbook ever to crawl out of WotC. Complete Psionics is only worth buying if you truly love psionics and feel confident you can sift out the few microns of good material it contains, or if you're an evil DM who truly hates psionics and wish to make your psionics-loving player die of a heart attack. The Erudite itself is OK, a little weak until 5th level, much like a core Wizard. Erudites do require a little common sense houseruling to use (only slightly worse than houseruling that Monks are proficient with unarmed strikes).

If you're renaming psionics to match magic classes they're replacing, then Psions (including Erudites) would be Wizards, Wilders would be Sorcerers, Psychic Warriors would be Arcane Warriors, Ardents (CPsi) would be Clerics and Druids (depending on mantle choice), Soulknives would be Soulknives, Lurks (CPsi) would be Lurks, Divine Minds would be trash, Thoughtsingers (online) would be Bards, and Psychic Rogues (Mind's Eye) would be Arcane Rogues.
plaguewraith
01-28-08, 05:57 PM if you would mind putting ones from the forums as well id be happy:) ,anyway, id like to know as many as you could find, i got tome of magic yesterday and magic of incarnum on christmas

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
plaguewraith 01-27-08, 08:42 PM	my DM is looking for alternative magic systems and i was hoping that i could gain a few links from the forums. if you post please dont criticize what im asking just giv a link. if the DM decides to add the system ill say so.
andinel 01-27-08, 09:13 PM	Try Recharge Magic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/rechargeMagic.htm), Spell Points (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/spellPoints.htm), or Incantations (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/incantations.htm), all in the SRD. There are others, though, but they're all unofficial.
SkipSandwich 01-27-08, 11:39 PM	if you like the spell points system, you might even want to go a step further and replace magic with psionics, Psions become Sorcerers, Euridites become Wizards, Psychic Warrior becomes Arcane Knight, ect.
InkBlot 01-28-08, 12:25 PM	Spellpoints was the half-step between 3rd Edition Psionics and 3.5 Edition Psionics. It's not as bizarre and unusable as 3rd Edition Psionics, but it's not as beautiful and elegant as 3.5 Edition Psionics. Just use the Expanded Psionics Handbook if you like spellpoints. The names on the classes and feats are easy enough to ignore. Also don't overlook Magic Of Incarnum and Tome Of Magic. Each presents alternative magic systems. Tome Of Magic actually presents three; Pact Magic, Shadow Magic, and Truename Magic. With Magic Of Incarnum (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20050907a), magic users shape incarnum (a.k.a. qi, prana, mana, or spirit) into forms called soul-melds which empower the meld-shaper. These are all-day self-buff effects, with an amount of power measured in points called essentia. The essentia points don't get used up, but can be shifted from one soulmeld to another at will. There are also incarnum feats, which are also powered essentia, but once you charge up an incarnum feat with essentia you can't move those points again until the next day. The soul-melds all resemble magic items in form and function. Magic Of Incarnum is a decent system for making characters who's items level with them, or who can summon magic items from thin air. From the anime Bleach, Ichigo's sword could be a soulmeld. Pact Magic (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060303a&page=2), from Tome Of Magic, presents a beautiful set of rules for playing a magic user who bargains with spirits from beyond the veil of reality. A pact magician is called a Binder, because he binds his soul to these spirits (and binds these spirits to his soul). In order to gain his magic powers, a Binder draws a circle and the vestige's seal, and call out the vestige's name and title. The image of the vestige then appears inside the circle, and will bargain with the Binder. Mechanically, this pact-making process takes two minutes and requires a modified level check against the vestige's binding DC. Even if you fail the roll, you can still make the pact and gain the powers, but the vestige will be able to exert some minor influence on you (like making you forgetful, or requiring that you be nice to elves, or making you grumpy) and force you to show it's sign (like rams horns, or a star-shaped brand, or a boil with a worm squirming inside, or a broken arrowhead burried just under your skin). Once you make a pact, you get a suite of supernatural abilities. Most of these can be used at-will, or are simply continuous. The most powerful abilities can be used once every 5 rounds. Each vestige's granted abilities follow a theme, although they each have a good bit of variety within that theme. For example, Malphas gives you all sneaky abilities: the ability to summon and control birds who's eyes you can see through; the ability to use poison; a couple dice of sudden strike; and the ability to turn invisible for a couple rounds. You start off only being able to bind one vestige at a time, but you get two-at-a-time at 8th level, three at 14th, and four at 20th. Binders have 3/4s BAB, d8 hit die, 2 skill points per level, and a very good skill list. Binders can be either MAD or SAD, depending on what you want to do with them. They use Charisma to determine save DCs (which scale with class level not vestige level), but they don't need Charisma to use any of their abilities. Even a brute half-orc with 4 Cha can bind 8th level vestiges, if he takes 15 levels of Binder. Shadow magic (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060303a&page=5) superficially resembles core Vancian magic. The biggest difference is that as a Shadowcaster learns higher level spells, her lower level spells become spell-like abilities, then supernatural abilities, and her lowest-level ones can be used at-will. There is also a very strong theme to all the spells. Check out the excerpt for more. I haven't played with Shadowmagic yet. Truename magic (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060303a&page=8) will be instantly familiar to you if you've ever read any of Ursula K. LeGuin's (http://www.ursulakleguin.com/) Earthsea stories. Every creature, object, and concept in the universe has a truename. By knowing and speaking a truename, you can excercise power over something. Truenamers use as skill check to speak truenames, with the difficulty ramping up at every attempt in a day. Unfortunately, the DC also soars into the stratosphere as monster CRs climb. This has the effect of making truenaming useless unless you pour all your effort into buffing your truename skill, and overpowerd if your truename skill is too high. The truename magic preview page says "New Weapon Special Ability: Shadow Striking" at the top. Ignore that. It's a big typo. The link above is indeed a link to the truename preview page. if you like the spell points system, you might even want to go a step further and replace magic with psionics, Psions become Sorcerers, Euridites become Wizards, Psychic Warrior becomes Arcane Knight, ect. To clarify for the unfamiliar with psionics, Erudite is a variant Psion class from Complete Psionics. Complete Psionics is the most reviled book 3.5 splatbook ever to crawl out of WotC. Complete Psionics is only worth buying if you truly love psionics and feel confident you can sift out the few microns of good material it contains, or if you're an evil DM who truly hates psionics and wish to make your psionics-loving player die of a heart attack. The Erudite itself is OK, a little weak until 5th level, much like a core Wizard. Erudites do require a little common sense houseruling to use (only slightly worse than houseruling that Monks are proficient with unarmed strikes). If you're renaming psionics to match magic classes they're replacing, then Psions (including Erudites) would be Wizards, Wilders would be Sorcerers, Psychic Warriors would be Arcane Warriors, Ardents (CPsi) would be Clerics and Druids (depending on mantle choice), Soulknives would be Soulknives, Lurks (CPsi) would be Lurks, Divine Minds would be trash, Thoughtsingers (online) would be Bards, and Psychic Rogues (Mind's Eye) would be Arcane Rogues.
plaguewraith 01-28-08, 05:57 PM	if you would mind putting ones from the forums as well id be happy:) ,anyway, id like to know as many as you could find, i got tome of magic yesterday and magic of incarnum on christmas