Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Jaerom Darkwind 04-03-05, 01:13 PM	Anyone have ideas on how an NPC would go about constructing his own private Spellpool? What item creation feats, spells, etc. would be necessary, and would it require epic spellcasting? Please post your ideas here.
Norseman 04-03-05, 01:31 PM	Psions have magic gems that can store psi energy (IIRC), so I'd probably go along those lines. Those can't be tapped at range, and they're expensive, so something to fix both of those would be needed. For range, I think a non-epic spell, if that, would be appropriate. Perhaps an item like a thaumatransceiver (search the roots if it doesn't mean anything to you), something to allow stored magic to sent and received between another thaumatransceiver (which someone accessing the spellpool would use). Wiring of some sort (gold maybe) should allow a single primary thaumatransceiver to operate hundreds of magic storage gems. Finally, we need to solve that expense problem. A spell or magic item would be needed to monitor the balances of mages who use the spellpool. If you fall into debt, your debts grow, just like at a bank. If you're willing, you could pay in gold to resolve your magic debts. You could also pay extra gold to get a positive balance. That system would help repay itself over time. Granted, you might want a lich or an elf to be the one runnning this.
Grayequus 04-03-05, 02:38 PM	Hi, You may want to search on the REALMS-L and D&D-L discussion boards. i recall someone building an elaborately-detailed spellpool construction ruleset there that was pretty neat.
smrtgmp 04-03-05, 03:42 PM	Do you mean a spell pool that only s/he had access to? I would imagine it would take a combination of Craft Wondrous Item and perhaps a spell similar to Spell Matrix. Or maybe it could be similar to an insanely epic ring of wizardry.
Jaerom Darkwind 04-03-05, 07:17 PM	Hi, You may want to search on the REALMS-L and D&D-L discussion boards. i recall someone building an elaborately-detailed spellpool construction ruleset there that was pretty neat.Could you elaborate on that? I don't know what those are.
Grayequus 04-03-05, 07:24 PM	They're the archived lists REalms and D&D under 'Discussion lists' under the 'Community lists above' Just choose the right archives and hit the search button. It has an hourglass. Use the 'subject includes' box and search Spellpool.
Grayequus 04-03-05, 07:27 PM	Jeff_Nimitz <Jeff_Nimitz@MSN.COM> Subject: Custom, Rule, Role: Spellpool Creation [LONG] (Was: Creating a Mage Guild) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Someone asked in another thread (Creating a Mage Guild), how much creating a spell pool would cost. Hear are my original thoughts on the mattter, and would like any constructive criticism. NOTE: The cost below are very expensive, and basically prevent a single person or even a small group of people from having their own spell pool, except for the minimal spell pool. If needed, I could give examples on how much the spell pools would cost, from the very basic to a more extensive one. Thanks in Advance, Jeff Creating a Spellpool The creation of a spell pool is not something to be taken lightly. There are many steps in its creation and the cost is astronomical. Its creation usually involves many spell-casters, both arcane and divine. The main problem is in planning the future growth of the spellpool and its initial priming of spells availiable. The first step in the process is how to create such a thing. This takes a lot of research and is similar to creating a new spell (DMG, pg 42). There are some slight differences. First, the cost is based as though the spell is a 12th level spell. Thus, costing a minimum of 12 weeks of research at 1,000 gp per week. Also, the DC for successful research is 35, against Knowledge (arcana). The primary gets +1 to this roll for each item creation feat, that he or she personally possess. Additionally, the primary researcher can have assistants to help with the research, but to get the +2 for each assistant to his roll, each assistant needs 8 ranks in Spell Craft and 8 ranks in Knowledge (arcana). At the end of this research, the person rolls, and if successful, he knows the processes and planning requirements to create the spell pool. Otherwise, he has to try again. Now that the process is known, the person wishing to create the spell pool finds out the following: 1) a spell pool is an intelligent magic item, that may or may not have multiple "entities", 2) you need craft wand, rod, wondrous item, staff, and ring feats, meaning you will probably need more than one spellcaster, 3) Arcane spell casters can create a spell pool by themselves, but, usually involves a high priest/priestess of a diety of magic, 4) a spell pool is an ongoing and continuous creation, in expanding its power, 5) a lot of planning is involved, determining the initial ablities and future planning of expansions, and 6) a closed demi-plane is usually created to house a major spell pool, for its protection. Usually, the creator's next step is to involve a magic deity's high priest or priestess, in the process. Even though, this is not required, it reduces cost to create the spell pool and shows the diety blesses your endeavor. This is also why the research is considered a 12th level spell. In FRCS, Karsus used a 12th level spell to try to assume the powers of the goddess of magic. A spell pool is basically, a sentient being with abilities akin to providing arcane spells similar to how a god provides spells to his clerics. Albeit, at a very restricted level. Additionally, having a priest/priestess involved reduces costs by 10%. Another concern in planning, is that the spell pool is an intelligent item, and thus, an alignment has to be given. Additionally, a spell pool can have multiple "entities". All entities of a spell pool are of the most powerful intelligent items (DMG, pg 228, as though 100 rolled on Table 8-31), costing 45,000 gp each. Also, all the entities have a item purpose, generally, provide spells to members, but some entities have additional requirements. The last main concern of planning is what to include in the initial design, and what should be left to future enhancements. The main difference between initial design and enhancements, is that enhancements cost double what the initial design costs. This could be substantial difference, since some stages involve adding entities (base 45,000 gp) and wishes (5000 XP each). There are few things that must be placed at minimum in the initial design, and everything can be added as an enhancement. Here are the things that need to be determined: Note: Cost is actual cost to create, not market cost. This is because, spell pools are so expensive to create, that even lessor ones can be worth millions. Also, as enhancements, double costs. 1) Size 2) Number of entities, (min 1) 3) Number of pieces 4) Planes Accessible 5) Spell levels allowed 6) Each Item Creation feat 7) Each Metamagic feat 8) Spells Allowed 9) Maximum Stored Spells 10) Additional Special Needs SIZE - the size of a spell pool can vary greatly, based on the materials that are used in its construction and the number of powers you want it to have.. The can be anywhere from tiny to massive. To figure the size, simply figure the size the material would have based on the cost of the spell pool. For things costing XP, you need 1 gp per 5 XPs spent, all these costs are considered part of the durable materials of the spell pool. This is derived by Item creation costing 1/25 of the GP Value of the Item and XPs adding 5 gp each to the market value. For monetary expenditures consider half (1/2) of the cost to be durable materials to build the spell pool, and the other half (1/2) to be reactant, reagents, workmanship, wages to craftsmen, etc. Thus, making something out of adamantine would be smaller than made from mithral. Mithral a lot smaller than made from steel, etc. Special note: You can actually combine a Magic Item with a spell pool as a sort of disguise. Figure the magic Item cost separate from the Spell Pool cost. You can use the cost of the magic Item and apply it against the cost for XPs and the cost of the durable material portion (1/2) of the Spell pool. Note, since Spell pools require Wishes, they are almost always considered primary magic, and the magic item's abilities are secondary. So, even though you have determined the magic item's cost and applied it to the durable materials cost, you now double the cost. NUMBER OF ENTITIES: This is extremely important, because the base cost is 45,000 gp, (90,000 gp as an enhancement. A single entity can handle all the aspects of the spell pool for up to 100 people. If number of users is greater than that, then you need a dedicated entity (router), that only directs inquiries and spells to the proper channel. Additionally, if you want certain restrictions followed, then you need an entity for each restriction, plus a router. For example, the spell pool for the Guild Wizard of Waterdeep (Magic of Faerun, pg 26) has its spell pool broken down into 3 access levels for up to 3rd, 6th, and 9th level spells. Thus, three (3) restrictions equals four (4) entities, one for each restriction (total 3) and the dedicated router (1). Additionally, each entity has an alignment. The people creating an entity have to balance, in order to have the entity become a certain alignment. For example, you are LG and want to create a neutral (N) entity. You will need to find a CE person to help create the entity, to balance out your alignment. If you wanted a NG entity, you would need help from a CG person. If you wanted a LG entity, you could create it yourself. NOTE: you can cancel out people. For example, you (LG) and 2 CG people create an entity, One of the CG people cancel you out, thus the other CG person would be used to determine the entities alignment (CG). Multiple entities of the same alignment, naturally work together. If you want a multiple entity spell pool with entities of different alignments, then a Wish is required for each alignment after the first, to ensure they work together. If this Wish is not done, then the different alignments may refuse various requests, from the other entities. It doesn't matter how many entities of each alignment there are, only the total number of alignments. For example, you have a spell pool with 8 entities, that have a total of three different alignments. To ensure that they all work together, then you would need two (2) wished to ensure this. NUMBER OF PIECES - You can separate the pieces of a spell pool. Each piece requires at least a single entity. You have to cast one Wish for each piece after the first, to ensure they work together as one unit. This is very common with spell pools with multiple entities. The most common separation is the router from the rest of the spell pool. This is mainly done for security. Even though, spell pools are massive and hard to steal, they can be stolen. If a part is stolen, then the rest are still avialiable. For example, taking the Guild Wizard's spell pool, they may have created it in 4 parts; 1) the router, 2) Spells up to 3rd level, 3) spells between 4th and 6th level, and 4) spells between 7th and 9th level. This would require 3 Wish spells for them to work as a single spell pool. Or, it could be in two (2) pieces; 1) the router, and 2) the other piece, which contains three entitites. This would require only one Wish spell. PLANES ACCESSIBLE: The spell pool automatically works on the plane that it is on , unless blocked someway. So, if you want to be able to access the spell pool on another plane, then you need to create a Portal to that plane. Note: in the case of the outer planes, where there are separate levels, you only need to have the portal on one of those levels. For some reason, the pathways from one layer to another layer of the same plane, transmits the signal. For example, your spell pool is on the prime material. You wish the users to be able to access it from the Ethereal and the Astral planes, requiing 2 portals. If you have separated pieces of the spell pool, you have to have at least a portal containing connecting those two segments. Usually, a portal is connected from a piece to the router and in turn, the router has portals to all planes it is to be accessible by. Although, you could place a portal on a non-router piece and have that specific piece accessible to additional planes, that the router does not access, but, the access would be limited to the first 100 users on those additional planes, since there is not a dedicated router.. These portals come in two types; broadcasting and router portals. Router portals are the most restrictive, allowing information to only flow from a router to a piece and vice versa. Broadcasting portals are usually from a router or piece of the spell pool, to the individual user connections. You can trace, with extreme difficulty (DM specified conditions), the signal on a plane to a broadcasting portal, but not a router portal. And once the broadcasting portal is found, one can use analyze portal and other spells to find out where the portal is from. These portals are usually restricted portals for information only, and thus cannot be used to transport passengers or objects across planes. A common practice is to connect all the pieces to one router, then connect that router to another router, and in turn the last router is connected to the various planes. This is done as a security measure. Since, the signal can be traced to the broadcasting portal, they could find the second router. But since, the first and second router are connected by router portals, it can not be traced further to the actual spell pool. SPELL LEVELS ALLOWED - Each spell level (1-9) requires a Wish (5,000 XP) spell for it to be allowed to be stored in the spell pool. Additionally, you can go additional spell level of 10+, which also require the Wish Spell. These higher spell levels are only availiable for spells that are stored with metamagic feats already attached to them (see Metamagic feats allowed). 0 level spells only require Limited Wish with a cost of 2,000 XP, if the entire spell pool creation is done by Arcane casters. If a Divine caster of the Magic deity is involved in the spell pool creation, then this is free. Theoretically, you could have a spell pool that only held 5th level spells and no other levels. But, usually several spell levels are included at initial design. ITEM CREATION FEATS A spell pool gets one free Item Creation Feat for each entity. Each additional Item creation feat costs a Wish spell to incorporate into the Spell pool lets the connection item between the user and the spell pool to be that type.. You are probably wondering why spend the Wishes for the additional creation feats? Each item creation feet allows you to pay back to the spell pool, using that type of item. Thus, if you add Create Wands, then you can use wands to pay back your debt to the spell pool by using that items and targeting the user connection item. Also, you can use things with limited daily uses, to pay back, using spell equivalent. In addition to the above, Create Rod allows Maximum Spells Slots to be reused, instead of one time . METAMAGIC FEATS - Adding a metamagic feat to a spell pool, allows users to pay back spells with those metamagic feats, if the user already possess the feat. Additionaly, a user can get spells that have metamagic components and cast as such, without having the particular metamagic feat. Each Metamagic feat availiable on the Spell pool costs a Wish. For example, your spell pool has the Metamagic feats of Maximize and Quicken. One of the users of the spell pool only has the Quicken Feat. The user could receive a Maximized Fireball spell from the spell pool and cast the spell as though he has the Maximized Feat, still paying the spell level costs. He can pay back the spell pool with a Quickened Lightning Bolt. If the user had Still Spell feat, instead of Quicken, he could not pay back with a Stilled Lightning Bolt. This is because the spell pool does not have Still Spell feat as one of its own. Note: Energy Substitution and Energy Admixture are somewhat unique, in this regard. You have to place these two feats for each wanted energy type separately. Energy Substitution, since, it does not require any slots, can be used to translate any spell retrieved into the energy types that your spell pool has. The same is for Energy Admixture, with the only requirement that the spell be stored with Energy Admixture feat. For example, if you had Energy Substitution for all energy types, then any user could retrieve magic missile from the spell pool, and decide on the fly which energy type he wanted it to be. Example 2: If your spell pool only had Energy Admixture of Sonic and Force, then, a Energy Admixtured Fireball, could be retrieved and cast by a user using either of these two types at casting. It would not matter if the original supplier stored it as Fireball with Energy Admixture (Sonic) or Energy Admixture (Force). But, if someone, who only had Energy Admixture (Cold), tried to store the Fireball with the Energy Admixture ability to the spell pool, it would fail, since the spell pool could not accept Energy Admixture (cold) SPELLS ALLOWED: A spell pool requires space for each unique spell that it ever has stored. This is basically the spell pool's spell book. Since the space is fairly cheap, plenty is usually given for expansion in the future, and can be added later. You only need the one space for each unique spell. This space does not concern itself with how many times a particular spell is stored. For Example, you only need 1 space for the Fireball spell, for it to be or have been available for retrieval. Although, you could have it available 100 times at present. To a point, this area is slightly affected by which Metamagic Feats, you place on your spell pool. If you do not have any Energy Subtitution feats on your spell pool, then a version of each energy type for a spell would have to be recorded separately, and, the person placing it would have to research it as a unique spell. Thus, you would need at least 5 slots, one for each energy version of Magic Missile. Additionally, if two wizards created a sonic version of the Magic Missile spell and placed it in the spell pool under different names, it would take 2 slots. Also, this could cause confusion amongst the users, when trying to find a particular spell. For example, a wizard is looking for a "sonic" fireball, and the spell pool does not have Energy Substitution(Sonic). Even though, there may be 100 uniquely named versions of the same spell, the wizard may not find it, because he does not know the proper name of these versions, and was expecting to be able to call fireball and use Energy Substitution from the spell pool while casting it. MAXIMUM STORED SPELLS - This is how many spell levels your spell store can actually hold. There are two types of stored spell slotsl 1) one-time and 2) reusable. Originally, one-time slots are considered "un-used". Once you use one of these slots to store a spell, they are considered "in-use". Once you call for that spell and cast it, those spell slots are "used" and cannot be used again. So, maintaining these types of spell level slots are expensive and cause one to spend time adding them. The person adding the spell slots to the spell pool needs the feat; Create Rod. Once created, any user can add prepared spells to use these slots. One-time spell level slots cost 50 gp each. A potion costs caster level * spell level * 25 gp. I simply used the base 50 gp for each slot. Even though this seems to be cheap in comparison to scroll cost, you have to remember that spell pool entity requires at least 1 wish, which makes up for the difference. For spell slots to be reusable, you have to provide your spell pool with the Craft Rod feat and Imbue with Spell Ability. Giving the Craft Rod feat costs a Wish, as above. The cost of Imbue with Spell Ability cost per cleric spell if a divine spellcaster is helping, or a Wish if only Arcane spell casters are creating the spell pool. Thus, if you placed a fireball spell into a spell pool with reusable spell level slots, then 3 slots would be taken up and marked "in-use". When you retrieve that spell and cast it, then the 3 slots are freed up and marked "not-used". Reusable slots Cost: 225 gp, each. I calculated the cost for these by looking at a Spell Storing (90K market Value). This means it costs 45k to make and holds 10 spell levels. Thus, each spell level costs 4,500. Divide this by 50 (potion) you get 900. Divide 900 by 4 (level of imbue with Spell Ability) and you get 225. Also, I looked at Rod of Absorption (50K market value), that lets you use cast spells to cast prepared spells. Cost to make 25K divided by 50 spell level slots is 500 each. Divide 500 by 7 (level of Spell Turning) and you get 70. This was too cheap so I went with Ring of Spell Storing. ****************
Jaerom Darkwind 04-03-05, 08:22 PM	Thanks. Found it. Formatting and grammar are a mess, but the process is very well thought-out.