Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Mindolin 07-06-07, 11:24 AM	Okay, thing is I am going to be running a high power, high magic game soon and I was thinking of a way to truely capture the high magic feel. I am thinking of taking the Martial Study feat from Tome of Battle and letting characters take it for spells, allowing them to use the spell once per encounter. It follows the rules for Martial Study, including the limited number you can take, and the level you have to be to access the spell levels. Does anyone have any idea for this? Please keep it mind that it is a high power, high magic campaign.
Spellskin 07-06-07, 12:01 PM	I wanted to say "Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem" at first but then my mind came in and started saying "No!!!!". Why? Spells can pack a lot more utility then martial manouvers can. Martial Manouvers are almost all only useful in combat situations but spells can be a lot more useful. Knock is a fairly innocent spell, but it could have a big impact on your game if your characters can just get in anywhere they want. Why would a rogue still invest in Open Lock skills if he could just take this spell? What are you going to do when one of your players is able to Scry anything or anyone they want all day long? How High Magic is your campaign if one of your characters can run around throwing Dispel Magic? Or worse: AMF!? Magic packs for more utility than Martial manouvers and "is" therefor more powerful, and potentially very destructive to your campaign in such gigh quantities. Then again, this is just my opinion...
Mindolin 07-06-07, 04:39 PM	That's a point. I'm thinking of doing it like the adaptation of the swordsage, letting them choose from spells from a select group, most likely the Evocation, Abjuration, and Transmutation schools. Does anyone have any idea on how to make it actually a playable idea?
Spellskin 07-08-07, 04:32 PM	Not really any ideas. Just another nitpick (I'm sorry!)... Evocation will mostly be fine as most spells from that school are very straightforward damagedealing spells. However there are some such as Forcecage and the various Wall spells wich could become problematic. Abjuration is also mostly straightforward because of its defensive nature but in a high magic campaign do you really want someone who can so easily dispel everything? Transmutation is the one school I'm most afraid of because of it's huge ammount of spells of which a lot is also very utilitarian. The ability to fly is pretty normal around level 5 where the Wizard in the party could cast it, but because it doesn't let you fly all day long it's ok. If I'm correct there is a stance in ToB from the Shadow Hand school which lets you walk on air. The difference in levels is huge although the difference in effect is very, very minor. If you're going to give characters additional spells through the Magical Study feat, just let them run the spell they want as an ability for it by you. Give them abilities which are cool and have potential but don't give them abilities which can easily make your job as a DM a lot harder. Letting them blast all day is easily solved as hitpoints are an abundant resource and most creatures of an equal CR to the party don't die of a single spell, but scrying tends to ruin the game for you. Of course, knowing they'd have these abilities would give you the ability to take precautions but you don't want to cripple your characters because they chose a good ability. If you give it to them, it's not fair if you don't let them use it. Hope that helps a bit. I'm just making sure your party is not going to have a hell of a lot of Wraithstriking to do!