Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Psycle 05-22-05, 10:58 AM	Im looking for different magic systems than the regular D&D slot system. Ive thought about using points, but that seems too bland. The only listing of things I could use as alternate magic systems I have found so far is the GURPs magic book. I just really want to find out if there are any different ways to cast spells.
BladeDrinker 05-22-05, 02:21 PM	I've heard good things about Monte Cook's Unearthed Arcana magic system, but I've not sure how functionally different it is from the PHB version. Do you want people to be able to cast lots of lower powered spells, or do you want them to have no limit of spell per day, etc? What specifically are you looking for?
Xorial 05-22-05, 02:29 PM	Monte's system is still the core system with some new mechanics for his setting & classes. You can ready a number of spells per day & have a number of spells you can cast per day. Essitially a combination of the wizard & sorcerer. For a really god alternate magic system, you can look into Elements of Magic (revised) (http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=2699&) available at RPGNow as a PDF. The system uses a spellpoint system and "elements" that you combine to build your spells.
Psycle 05-22-05, 02:51 PM	Monte's system is still the core system with some new mechanics for his setting & classes. You can ready a number of spells per day & have a number of spells you can cast per day. Essitially a combination of the wizard & sorcerer. For a really god alternate magic system, you can look into Elements of Magic (revised) (http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=2699&) available at RPGNow as a PDF. The system uses a spellpoint system and "elements" that you combine to build your spells. That book is making me tingly inside, thank you. What I mean by an alternate systems is a different wy of casting spells. Using points would be an example, bur a bland one. One of the ways in the GURPs magic book is to buy, like, bases and desriptors, so you could have" raining fire" or "spear of fire", or something like that... Also, where can I find steampunk material and spells? Ive heard of Dragon Mech, Shadowrun, Rifts(though those are futuristic) and something to do with mechanus... Thanks! :clap:
Xorial 05-22-05, 02:54 PM	That is similiar to Elements of Mago (Revised), EoMR. You get spell lists that have effects, then you can add enhancements and such that can let you modify the base effect. The same publisher has a steam punk book too. I dont have it, but the reviews on RPGNow are pretty good.
Psycle 05-22-05, 03:13 PM	A search for "steampunk" on RPG now doesn't turn up much. :mad:
Xorial 05-22-05, 03:47 PM	Try Steam & Steel (http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=2848&).
Psycle 05-22-05, 04:27 PM	Yeah, thats really all I found. I might just have to rip items out of D20 future, inscribethem with runes, make them psionic instead of electronic, and hand them to my gnome artificer. I wonder if Dms allow you to craft bullets...magical ones. I get excited at the thought of binding elementals to bullets and firing them. Can you image an earth elemental? Exploding dirt... I have to explore this idea.... Heck, sticking elementals in anything is fun. I have to look into this. Do you think it warrents a new thread?
Xorial 05-22-05, 04:38 PM	Propably needs a thread on the Eberron threads.
Xorial 05-22-05, 04:43 PM	Also on the Steampunk subject, check out OGL Steampunk (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2177) at DrivethruRPG. It is a PDF, or you could propably find it somewhere else as a print book since it was originally print only.
Psycle 05-22-05, 04:44 PM	Why ebbron? I don't have that book? Gosh, sticking elementals in things now sounds so fun. What if there was a feat/Prc that allowed you to imbune an essace of a creature in a weapon or other item? For example, put a multi-armed thing into a sword, and bang, a sword that attacks twice. Overpowered, but the idea is awesome!
bgt 05-22-05, 04:46 PM	Psionics?
Psycle 05-22-05, 04:49 PM	Psionics? ??? What the heck?
bgt 05-22-05, 05:04 PM	Psionics is an alternate magic system released by Wizards. It's been around since 2 edition, possibly earlier. 3.5 is the first edition where it's actually usable, however. There's an entire forum devoted to it on the D&D message boards. It's the category of forums right below Magic and Spells. Here's a link just to make this easy for you (http://boards1.wizards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=30). There's plenty of people there who would love to answer any questions about it you might have.
Psycle 05-22-05, 05:10 PM	I have that book. its great. Who else just loves decelibate? Anyway, what about putting monsters into items?
Xorial 05-22-05, 05:30 PM	I suggested Eberron becuase there is alot of imbueing of elementals in that setting. Gnomish artificers are renowned for it. I have the setting, so it is propably what you are looking for.
Psycle 05-22-05, 05:36 PM	Eberron always sounded good, but is it? Im reluctant to fork over the cash...
bgt 05-22-05, 05:44 PM	Oh, I was just trying to suggest an alternate magic system for you. Yes, Deceribrate is much fun. As for putting monsters in weapons, read this (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20041215a) (look for Nybor's Psychic Imprint). The Arms and Equipment Guide has rules for possesed items. For binding elementals into weapons, I'd say to have the weapon get a damage bonus of the type associated with the element. The damages would be based on how strong the elemntal was; 1 for small or medium, 1d4 for large or huge, 1d6 for Greater or Elder, the Burst weapon ability of the element's damge type for monoliths. I'm not going into primals.
Psycle 05-22-05, 05:46 PM	Go in to primals. Thatwould be so fun... Sorry for the spelling on the power. I just did it off the top of my head. I hate offending people.
RadicalTaoist 05-22-05, 06:04 PM	I wanted to come up with a new magic system for Wizards in order to make them stand out from Sorcs, Psions,and Artificers (my other alternative was to make the Wizard into a PrC). I came up with something like this: A Wizard can prepare a number of spells depending on the number of preparation slots available to him. (They work totally different from spell slots, just haven't thought of a different name yet). A spell requires one slot per spell level to be prepared - i.e. Magic Missile requires one slot, Cone of Cold requires five slots, Meteor Swarm requires nine slots. A wizard has a number of spell slots open to him equal to his levels in wizard plus his Int modifier (this replaces bonus spell slots). Once cast, prepared spells take a little while to recharge before they can be cast again, dependent on the level of the spell. A wizard may prepare a spell with less spell slots by increasing the Recharge Time, but cannot reduce this to less than one spell slot used for any spell prepared. Spell Level A B C D 1 1d6 rounds 2 1d6 rounds 1 minute 3 2d6 rounds 2 minutes 20 minutes 4 2d6 rounds 2 minutes 20 minutes 2 hours 5 3d6 rounds 3 minutes 30 minutes 3 hours 6 3d6 rounds 3 minutes 30 minutes 3 hours 7 4d6 rounds 4 minutes 40 minutes 4 hours 8 4d6 rounds 4 minutes 40 minutes 4 hours 9 5d6 rounds 5 minutes 50 minutes 5 hours A is the recharge time for spell prepared with the normal amount of slots. B is recharge time for a spell prepared with the normal amount - 1 slots (i.e. a Fireball prepared with 2 slots), C with -2 slots, and D with -3 slots. 0-level spells may be cast at will if the wizard has a spellbook at hand with the spells he is casting inscribed therein. Any 0-level spells memorized with the feat Spell Mastery may be cast at will. Read Magic can always be cast at will by a wizard, and does not require Spell Mastery to do so. Metamagic feats increase the level of the spell and therefore the number of preparation slots it requires. If you apply metamagic to a 0-level spell, it may no longer be cast at will. Preparing spells into preparation slots requires 15 minutes of quiet, undistracted work. As normal, a wizard needs a spellbook or the Spell Mastery feat to prepare spells. In addition, the wizard may not prepare spells unless all his currently prepared spells have recharged and are ready to be cast again (see Recharge Times above). This was my plan to remove Wizards from the spells-per-day mechanic.
RaspK FOG 05-22-05, 08:04 PM	I had this idea of how to implement the spell point theme in my homebrewed conversion of Masque of the Red Death: spells cost you twice their level (1 for cantrips; for low-magic settings, [spell level + 1] × 2 works wonderfully) in hit points... The secret lies in how you handle hit points: if you use the normal D&D system, you may say that the caster becomes fatigued when it drops him to half his hit points; if you use the Vitality/Wound point variant system, fatigue sets in when you lose more than half your Vitality points this way, and you become exhausted if you spend any Wound points this way (as normal, two fatigue effects bring up exhaustion).
Xorial 05-22-05, 09:57 PM	Eberron always sounded good, but is it? Im reluctant to fork over the cash... I think it is a great setting. First published setting that I have purchased since the Forgotten Realms came out for the first time, back in the late 80s.
Psycle 05-22-05, 10:00 PM	Any good crunchy bits? Good PrCs? I don't want a tome of backround with a few badly playtested races and feats, with PrCs thrown in.
bgt 05-23-05, 04:31 PM	Go in to primals. Thatwould be so fun... Sorry for the spelling on the power. I just did it off the top of my head. I hate offending people. You spelled the power wrong? Honestly, I think I spelled the power wrong. It's in italics cause it's a power, not because I'm emphasizing it. Fine...for primals, I'd say the weapon gets the blast ability of the element's energy type, +1d6 more damage for every 5 HD the primal has above 64. I've never played in an epic game, so I don't know If this is balanced or not.
RadicalTaoist 05-23-05, 07:41 PM	It's Decerebrate guys. :P
Xorial 05-24-05, 06:56 AM	Any good crunchy bits? Good PrCs? I don't want a tome of backround with a few badly playtested races and feats, with PrCs thrown in. The entire book is crunchy. The artificer class is really good. Very few PrCs though. The concept is that you can find anything from D&D in this world, except stuf specific to a setting like Forgotten Realms. Very original setting.
rbingham2000 05-24-05, 07:21 AM	Im looking for different magic systems than the regular D&D slot system. Ive thought about using points, but that seems too bland. The only listing of things I could use as alternate magic systems I have found so far is the GURPs magic book. I just really want to find out if there are any different ways to cast spells. Check out the Sorcery entry from Starfox's T3 (http://hastur.net/t3/wiki) site, which is a variant of the excellent Feng Shui game. The Traditions section goes into considerable depth as to what kind of magic can be done. I particularly like the Incarnation style of magic, which has the magic-user summon a spirit or some other supernatural creature into his body so that he can use the creature's powers. It's a particularly dangerous kind of magic because the magic-user is basically giving over control of himself to whatever's currently "riding" him and letting the creature do what it wants to do in the mortal world using the magic-user as a medium -- and the creature's goals and the magic-user's goals do not always coincide.
Psycle 05-24-05, 08:03 AM	Check out the Sorcery entry from Starfox's T3 (http://hastur.net/t3/wiki) site, which is a variant of the excellent Feng Shui game. The Traditions section goes into considerable depth as to what kind of magic can be done. I particularly like the Incarnation style of magic, which has the magic-user summon a spirit or some other supernatural creature into his body so that he can use the creature's powers. It's a particularly dangerous kind of magic because the magic-user is basically giving over control of himself to whatever's currently "riding" him and letting the creature do what it wants to do in the mortal world using the magic-user as a medium -- and the creature's goals and the magic-user's goals do not always coincide. It's Decerebrate guys. :P :bow: Thankyou!!! Those Schtick things would be well suited for a presteige classes... Does the actual fung-shui game have more? Or are these different than the real game?
rbingham2000 05-24-05, 08:12 AM	:bow: Thankyou!!! Those Schtick things would be well suited for a presteige classes... Does the actual fung-shui game have more? Or are these different than the real game? T3 is a derivative of Feng Shui, as Starfox points out, and it's very much an expansion on what the original game had to offer. I'd still recommend checking the real game out, though. It was originally made by Daedalus, but Atlas Games has picked up the license since then.
nihility 12-01-05, 10:01 AM	:dancin:
urukar 12-01-05, 01:18 PM	If you are looking for a rich magic system, look at ICE's Spell Law (for Rolemaster, but with rules for adapting to other systems) Basically, casters have themed lists similar to clerical domains, but with 1 spell/lv for 20 lvs (plus some "epic" spells at higher levels). It is a power point system, and it boasts over 2000 spells. As a system, it has the same problem as D&D magic - high lv casters blow away noncasters. But with Spell Law, the crossover is typically around lvs 10-12, while IMO D&D casters are beter than noncasters by lv 7.
Grug the Just 12-01-05, 08:11 PM	Something not noted about Monte Cook's spell system is the spell weave aspect of it. It's the best part in my opinion. The idea is that you can take a second level spell, break the magic down and create 3 first level spell. Or vise versa. It worked so wonderfully. Given that the spell preparation is something in between sorcerer and wizard in the sense that you prepare your daily spell list, but cast spontaneously. Also, another point that I enjoyed about the versatility of this system is the idea that you can deliberately heighten or diminish the effects of a spell at your option so that each spell is two or three spells in one for example. The is a spell that creates a web, I believe it was a second level spell. If the spell was cast as (not prepared as) a first level spell the duration was greatly reduced. If cast as a second level, it worked as decribed as in the spell description. If cast as a third level spell (first you have to be able to cast third level spells to use the heightened version) the web is electrified dealing 1d4 per round with some associated save I believe. On a different note; I've been tooling around with an optional system based more along the lines of skill points. Spell casters get "magic skill points" at each level. They can then spend these skill points to gain ranks in certain schools of magic. Some classes consider some of these schools of magic "cross-class" for instance paladins have difficulty putting their ranks in schools that are notably evil. I've been thinking of whether or not I should work out a system of specialization wherein you could put ranks into a more broad based skill set like Conjuration then you would get a +1 to any conjuration skills or maybe focus on summoning spells to get a +2 or +3 to summoning spells alone. The spells are a lot more free-form in this system. I figured I would write up a bunch of Spells with DC's for them like creating a finger of flame that could light candles and such that would be a realitivly low DC for spellcasting. The limitations to this system are that whenever you cast a spell from a certain school, the DC(s) for those schools would increase to the point that they are unable to cast until the following day after rest. (When the DC's would reset) I'm really enjoying working out this idea, because it gives a lot of leeway for roleplaying and would allow players to make spells on the spot for situations that aren't so damned combat oriented.