Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Levism84 10-18-04, 03:30 AM	Here is a little idea I was messing with. Feedback required. Invocation Invocations are like spells, but they can be cast by characters who are not spellcasters. Invocations don’t use spell slots, you don’t have to prepare them ahead of time, and you can use an invocation an unlimited number of times per day. Invocations have drawbacks: They’re time-consuming to cast, and success isn’t assured. They are often costly, and some invocations work only under certain specific conditions, such as during a full moon. Most important among the drawbacks, an incantation rarely fades away quietly if the caster fails to perform the ritual correctly. Instead it reverses itself on the caster, explodes with a cascade of magical energy, or weakens the barrier between worlds, enabling hostile outsiders to emerge onto the Material Plane. This variant gives a measure of magical power to nonspellcasters, but the invocations themselves are usually too specific in effect to increase a character’s powering the general sense. Because many invocations require academic skills such as Knowledge, the characters best equipped to cast them are often spellcasters anyway. Invocations provide a useful way to introduce low to moderate effects in a lower-level game under controlled conditions. PCs will still use spells rather than expensive, risky incantations whenever they can. Incantations are also more specific than spells, so the DM can introduce them into the game without worrying that they’ll spread beyond most situations. If you want characters in your low-level game to exercise an intelligent or normal undead from an area, you can introduce the invocation Final Rest. Because it requires the meticulous drawing of specific runes and the use of expensive materials, you don’t have to worry about the characters going willy-nilly all over the countryside blessing graves so they can never be used to create undead. DISCOVERING AN INVOCATION Many temples and holy sites may give reference to special ceremonies or prayers to be said and performed to invoke magical effects or unlock the hidden spiritual power of an individual. If the characters have access to a well-stocked library of magical information, finding a set of instructions for a particular invocation requires a successful Knowledge (arcana) check with a DC 5 lower than the DC for casting the invocation. Just being aware of the existence of a particular invocation requires a Knowledge (arcana) check with a DC 10 lower than the invocation’s casting DC. CASTING AN INVOCATION At its simplest, casting an invocation is akin to preparing and cooking something according to a recipe. You must have the ingredients in hand, and then use your skill in cooking to perform each step in order. In game terms, this means having the required invocation components, then succeeding on a number of skill checks—often Knowledge (arcana) checks—during the invocation’s casting time. Each invocation description tells how many successful skill checks are required to cast the invocation. Unless otherwise specified, the caster makes a skill check every minute. If checks involving more than one skill are required, the checks may be made in any order, as desired by the caster. Failing one skill check means that 1 minute has gone by, and the invocation is in danger of failing. If two skill checks in a row are failed, the invocation fails. Each invocation has a consequence associated with failure. Even if the invocation fails, the casting skill consumes all the components (including expensive material components and experience points). Because of the unusual outcomes possible on a failure, the DM may choose to make these skill checks in secret. Doing this prevents the player of the caster from knowing whether an invocation has succeeded or failed. If the consequence of failure is immediate and severe, the effect is obvious, and concealing serves no purpose. Many invocations have a backlash component, which is an ill effect suffered by the caster at the conclusion of the casting or upon failure of the invocation (see Backlash, below). Saves and Spell Resistance If an invocation allows a save, the formula to calculate the save is included in the invocation’s description. For checks to overcome spell resistance, divide the invocation’s skill check DC by 2 to get the effective caster level for the spell resistance check. Interrupting Invocations Invocations take a longer time to cast than standard spells, but they aren’t delicate and exacting as traditional spells. Casting an invocation does not provoke an attack of opportunity, and a caster can even pause the ritual for a short time in order to fight, cast a spell, or take some other action. For each round the invocation is interrupted, the DC of all subsequent skill checks to complete the casting increases by 1. Time spent during the interruption of an invocation does not count towards the invocation’s casting time. Taking 10 As long as the caster of an incantation is not threatened or distracted, he may take 10. Invocations with backlash components or similarly harmful aspects count as threats that prevent the caster from taking 10. A caster may never take 20 when attempting to complete an invocation. INVOCATION COMPONENTS Most invocations require components not unlike those of spells, including verbal, somatic, focus, and material components. In addition, some require secondary casters (abbreviated SC I the Components line of a description), or cause some sort of backlash (abbreviated B), or cost the caster some amount of experience points (abbreviated XP). Secondary Casters Some invocations require multiple participants to have any hope of succeeding. These secondary casters are indispensable to the success of the invocation. However, no matter how many people are gathered in the dark room, chanting with candle, only one character—most commonly the one with the highest modifier in the relevant skill—is the primary caster who makes the relevant checks. Secondary casters can’t help the primary caster succeed by means of the aid another action, but their presence is required for certain aspects of the ritual nonetheless. Often, an invocation is hosted with more than the minimum number of casters. If the primary caster or a secondary caster is killed or disabled, one of these bystanders can step into the role. If an invocation requires a check involving a skill other than Knowledge (arcana), any secondary caster can make that check if he or she has a higher skill modifier than the primary caster. Backlash Some invocations damage or drain the caster in some way when they are cast. They have a backlash component: damage, negative levels, or some other effect. The caster experiences the backlash effect regardless of the success or failure of the invocation. FAILED INVOCATIONS When two skill checks in a row result in failure (whether or not they’re made by the same character), the invocation as a whole fails. The character who failed the second check experiences the effect indicated in the invocation’s description. In general, the consequence of failure can be divided into the following categories. (Many of these effects are not mentioned in the sample invocations that follow; they are provided here for use in invocations that could be developed for a campaign.) Attack: A creature is called from elsewhere to battle the caster (and often any bystanders and secondary casters). The invocation’s description tells the DM what Challenge Rating the creature should have, how it behaves, and how long it persists. Augment: The invocation was supposed to weaken or destroy its target, but it makes the target more powerful instead. An invocation that deals damage might heal its target or cause it to grow in power, for example. Betrayal: The invocation seemingly succeeds, but the subject of the invocation (or, in rare cases, the caster) undergoes a dramatic alignment change. Over the never 1d6 minutes, the subject’s alignment becomes the extreme opposite of what it was previously (for instance, lawful good becomes chaotic evil, or chaotic neutral becomes lawful neutral; a neutral subject randomly becomes lawful good, lawful evil, chaotic good, or chaotic evil). The subject generally tries keeping its new outlook secret. Damage: Either the caster or the target takes damage as the consequence of failure. Death: Someone—usually the caster or the target—dies. Some invocation allow saving throws to avoid this consequences of failure. Delusion: The caster believes the invocation had the desired effect, but in fact it had no effect or a very different one. Falsehood: The invocation (typically a divination) delivers false results to the caster, but the caster believes the results are true. Hostile Spell: The caster of the invocation is targeted by a harmful spell. The invocation description gives the specific spell, save DC, and other particulars. Mirrorcast: The invocation has the opposite effect of what was intended. Reversal: The invocation affects the caster rather than the intended target. SAMPLE INVOCATIONS The following invocations are among the better-known invocations in existence—which means that no more than a few temple priests know about them. Characters can learn of their existence during the course of an adventure by making a Knowledge (arcana) check (see Discovering invocations, above). Final Rest Necromancy (Good) Effective Level: 3rd Skill Check: Knowledge (religion) DC 14, 2 successes, Knowledge (history) DC 14, 1 success. Failure: Components: V, S, M, F, XP, SC, and B Casting Time: 3 minutes + preparations (see text) Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./ 2 levels) Target: One corpse Duration: Instantaneous Saving Throw: None Spell Resistance: No This invocation is commonly used as a final closing to the life of an individual so as to prevent their transformation into an undead. Most temple priests without access to direct divine magic know of this invocation, and use it in the case of a death in a small community, as it is too costly to use on a massive scale. To cast final rest, the caster must prepare the body for burial, placing in its mouth a small piece of bread and a silver coin. The body must than be wrapped in linen and placed in a grave 6 feet deep (freshly dug by two or three secondary casters while the body is being prepared). Additionally, the body and grave must be prepared within the presence of a divine artifact or token of at least 5,000 gp in value (usually an ornamental holy symbol kept by the church of a particular deity). At dusk, the body is than placed into the grave and a short prayer is uttered recounting the journey through life the person being warded took. This is where the Knowledge (religion) checks take place. If the invocation succeeds, the linens take on a light glow, symbolizing its eternal divine protection. The body is than covered with earth and marked with a stone or other symbolic marker to represent the burial sight of the subject. The ground directly surrounding the body cannot be touched by undead or evil creatures (otherwise they take 2d6 points of damage per round), and the symbol marking the grave acts as a ward to keep mindless undead and intelligent undead at bay for 10 feet around the grave (Will save negates the effect). The piece of bread, silver coin, and linens are consumed in the process of the invocation, as their divinely charged energies seep outwards into the ground around the corpse. If the symbol is removed the warding effect ends, but the divine ground around the area continues to protect the body from being raised as an undead, even if it is later removed. Failure: Falsehood. If the invocation fails, the corpse instead raises from the dead during the night as a zombie. However, a failure appears to be a success to the caster, so all rolls are done in secret. Material Components: A small piece of bread, a silver coin, linens and alchemical substances used in the preparation of the body totaling 500 gp. Focus: A symbol to mark the grave site, as well as a divine artifact or token of a particular church (usually an ornamental holy symbol) worth at least 5,000 gp. XP Component: 100 XP. Backlash: After performing the invocation, the caster is exhausted. Extra Casters: 2-3 required; they dig the grave in the presence of the divine artifact or token right before the ceremony is to commence and act as witnesses to the divine power which watches over the departed soul’s body. Campaign Use: This invocation is commonly used to prevent the rise of undead in an area with a high probability or susceptibility to necromancy or the dark arts. While not as effective as burial blessing (a 1st level cleric spell) it does provide other benefits, as it slowly turns a graveyard into consecrated ground where no undead would willingly tread. This may allow a party to help create a safety zone in a campaign where undead loom in the shadows and safety is not always assured. CREATING NEW INVOCATIONS Making unique invocations for your campaign is a tricky balancing act. Invocations are intentionally constructed to be much more idiosyncratic than spells are. And because invocations hinge on skill checks, it’s possible for a character to get access to powerful magic before he—or the campaign—is ready for it. The following guidelines will help you balance the benefit of an invocation with its negative aspects, and also determine how difficult the invocation is to cast. 1. Determine School: When you design an invocation, first decide which school or schools the invocation would fit into if it were a spell. Each school has a specific DC, which serves as the base skill check DC for the invocation you’re designing. Consult the descriptions of the schools of magic in Chapter 10 of the Player’s Handbook if you aren’t sure which school an invocation should belong to. If you’re designing an invocation that could qualify for more than one school, choose the most important one to provide the base DC. Other schools add one-third their DC to the total. Each summary below specifies the range, target, duration, and other aspects of an invocation associated with a particular school. Abjuration: DC 29; Range: Close; Target: One or more creatures, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart; Duration: Minutes; Saving Throw: Will negates; Spell Resistance: Yes. Conjuration: DC 27; Range: Close; Target: One creature; Duration: Hours (Instantaneous for teleportation subschool); Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless). Divination: DC 27; Range: Long; Target: Personal; Duration: Minutes; Saving Throw: None; Spell Resistance: No. Enchantment: DC 29; Range: Close; Target: One living creature; Duration: Minutes; Saving Throw: Will negates; Spell Resistance: Yes. Evocation: DC 31; Range: Medium; Area: 5-ft.-wide bolt or 20-ft.-radius burst; Duration: Instantaneous; Saving Throw: Reflex half; Spell Resistance: Yes. Illusion: 29; Range: Touch; Target: One living creature or 20 cu.ft. of matter; Duration: Minutes; Saving Throw: Will disbelief; Spell Resistance: No. Necromancy: DC 31; Range: Close; Target: One or more creatures or corpses; Duration: Instantaneous; Saving Throw: None; Spell Resistance: No. Transmutation: DC 29; Range: Medium; Target: One creature or 20 cu.ft. of matter; Duration: Rounds; Saving Throw: Fortitude half (often harmless); Spell Resistance: Yes. 2. Modify DC: Next, determine modifications to the base DC based on the specifics of your ritual; see the table below for a list of general factors and how they change the skill check DC. Increasing the base range of an invocation, for example, is a factor that increases the DC. Reducing the duration of an invocation, on the other hand, is a factor that reduces the DC. 3. Set Level: Finally, se the effective level of the invocation. Invocations are like 1- through 5th-level spells, so you can set the effective level of the invocation by comparing what the invocation does to what spells of that level can accomplish. The effective level determines a number of aspects of the invocation: how many total successes are required, the exact save DC of the invocation, and sometimes the invocation’s precise range and duration. Total Successes: Equal to the invocation’s effective level. Save DC: 10 + invocation’s effective level + caster’s Cha modifier. Duration and Range: Assuming a caster level of twice the invocation’s level, using the same formula a spell would. For example, an invocation with a duration of “minutes” would last 10 minutes if it’s effectively a 5th-level spell. The same invocation with a range of medium can affect a target up to 200 feet away. GENERAL FACTORS FOR INVOCATIONS Factor Check DC Modifier Skill Checks Requires checks involving more than one skill -1 Requires a skill not on wizard class skill list -1 Casting Time 1 minute between checks -1 Casting time restricted (only during full moon) -4 Casting time is severely restricted (only during lunar eclipse) -8 Range Touch to close/close to touch +2/-2 Close to medium/medium to close +2/-2 Medium to long/long to medium +2/-2 Area Doubling area/halving area +3/-3 Target Unwilling target must be helpless -2 Limited targets (by HD, creature Type, and so on) -3 Single target to multiple targets +4 Duration Rounds to minutes/minutes to rounds +2/-2 Minutes to hours/hours to minutes +4/-2 Hours to days/days to hours +6/-2 Days to permanent or instantaneous/ Permanent or instantaneous to days +10/-4 Focus and Material Components Expensive material component (500 gp) -1 Expensive material component (5,000 gp) -2 Expensive material component (25,000 gp) -4 Expensive focus (5,000 gp) -1 Expensive focus (25,000 gp) -2 XP Component Per 100 XP (max 1,000 XP) -1 Extra Casters 10 or fewer secondary casters -2 11-100 secondary casters -6 101 or more secondary casters -10 Backlash Per 2d6 points of damage -1 Caster is exhausted -2 Per negative level caster gains -2 Caster is reduced to –1 hp -3 Caster infected with disease -4 Backlash affects secondary casters Too -1 Possible use of a feat to limit the use of invocations: Feat Invocator [General] Through focus and practice you have found means of gaining magical effects without having direct access to magic spells. Prerequisites: Knowledge (arcana) 6 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 6 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 6 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 6 ranks. Benefit: You gain the ability to use invocations (spells usable by nonspellcasters) as well as the ability to design new ones. Invocations are usually much more dangerous than actual spells and can have nasty effects if the Knowledge checks used to invoke their power fail. Special: You should consult with your DM when designing new invocations to use in a campaign, as well as regulating access to existing invocations. Feedback? ~Rain~
DragonWorldOrder 03-03-05, 07:26 PM	Maybe you can help me with something, I was looking for a way to emulat the magic used in the show Full Metal Alchemist and incantaions seamed to be right up the ally. But even as I made my own incantaion to mirror the power from the show I worryed about the casting time. So then after looking over all the other variables avalible to change the DC of the incantation I surmised that one could just as easly reduce the time by increasing the DC. But I wondered if my incantaion came even close, how ever I have found both core class and PrC Alchemist (state), though I just wanted simplistic. I made my incantaion easly modifiable though you have to make and check DC equal to the new DC to make the incantaion. So you see for anyone else its not so easy, but for the parson I made this incantaion for can use it easly. To give you an idea the DC 37 at its simplist unmodifed, and her modifer with a full round before to prepare is +47 to the D20 roll, or 37 without the full round before hand to prepare. As you can see for her its vary easy to use this transmutation incantation, all in all I'd like your idea's or opions on my incantation and its casting time. Alchemy (fabricat,[Major/Minor Creation]) Incantation (Transmutation [creation]) Spell Level: 6th level spell equivelint Componients: Samatic, Materail [Focus] Casting Time: 1 full round/10' sq of materail Range: Medium (100' +10'/per caster level) Target: 20' sq of matter or raw materials Duration: up to 12 rounds before revarting Saving Throw: None (item; Fort 1/2 damage) Spell Resistance: Yes (if worn or held) Base DC to Cast: 37 (see text for modifacations) Skill Check; Cast: Craft (Alchemy) Skill Check; Creat: Craft (Alchemy) [items, objects] [Re-]Creat Incantation: Knowledge (Arcana); Skill Check: DC 37 (same to alter spell) Backlash: Lose 6 spell levels (-1 spell level needed for every point succesful on check) Failure: -6 spell levels, -1 more every point failed on check [-minus hit points equal to same as above for non-spellcasters] Notes; Save DC: incantation lev +cha mod, Caster lev equal to 1/2 character lev or x2 incatation lev (which ever is higher), Medium to Close range (-2 DC to cast), Close to Touch range (-2 DC to cast, comunitive [-4 DC to cast total]), Medium to Long range (+2 DC to cast), Halving Area (-3 DC to cast, comunitive [-6 DC to cast for 20' to 10' and 10' to 5' casting area], revarsable doubling area [+3 DC to cast for 20' to 40' and so on), Rounds to Minutes Duration (+2 DC to cast)and Minutes to Hours (+2 DC to cast total +4 DC) and Hours to Days (+2 DC to cast total +6 DC) and days to perment or instaneous (+4 DC to cast total +10 DC), Caster Exhasted (-2 DC to cast) or caster Fatiged (-1 DC to cast), Full round to standerd action Casting Time (+1 DC), Complex or Big transmutation circle [expensive focus 5,000gp] (-1 DC to cast), Transmutation pendet/pendulem [expensive focus 25,000gp] (-2 DC to cast), Without basic transmutation circle (+1 DC to cast), Spell Focus [transmutation] (-2 DC to cast) and Greater Spell Focus [transmutation] (-4 DC to cast, replaces lesser), Sinagy; (+2 to Craft [Alchemy] checks for 5 or more ranks in each skill comunitive Knowledge [Arcana], Spellcraft, Profession [Herbilist],and Knowledge [Nature] total +8 to Craft [Alchemy] checks to cast Alchemy incantation, ((modifcations to incantaion for results; +1 DC to cast minus 10 min from casting; 60 min = +6 DC to cast)), Functions just like fabercat, only when expensive focus (5,000gp) is used in the minor creation tired with the first spell with a limited duration of the secondary effect. And only when the expensive focus (25,000gp) is used can the major creation be used with the same limited duration as per under both spell description unless other wise modified. It takes a standerd action to scribe a basic transmutation circle on to a surface cappable of receving it.