Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Telathidar_Mhaelin 12-02-05, 11:42 AM	any thoughts on the viability of using the Mage magic system in D&D. how would you convert it to D20?
Millennium 12-02-05, 02:50 PM	any thoughts on the viability of using the Mage magic system in D&D. how would you convert it to D20? With great difficulty. They don't mesh very well. Most D&D-type spells would be so vulgar that your average White Wolf mage would faint just hearing about them. For the process of building and casting spells, you might be able to do something with the spell seeds in the Epic rules. You'd have to tone back the DCs significantly, of course, as well as tweak the "default" effects of each seed, but it would give you something to start with. Mage's spheres don't translate directly across, but you might be able to map them somewhat. I'm not sure what the best way would be to deal with Paradox and Quintessence, though you might be able to just map them onto stats and use the Mage rules for them, more or less unmodified. But how are you going to deal with the vulgarity issue?
Gailbraithe 12-02-05, 04:45 PM	I don't know if Vulgarity works as an inhibiting factor in a fantasy setting where wizards and other magic users are an assumed fact of nature. I would think the opposite would be in effect, magic would be more powerful simply because of the power people believe it to have. If I were to do a conversion, I would probably drop the Vulgarity and Quintessence parts of the system. I'm not sure how you would adopt a free-form system like Mage to D&D. I'd love to see it done, as I much prefer Mage's system. Off the top of my head (and having not cracked a copy of Mage in years), I'd consider creating a level based system by which a character gained expanded access to spheres, expanded capacity (more dots) in those spheres, and an increasing number of uses per day as they rose in level. For example, a first level Awakened One might have 2 dots spread over two spheres, gaining a third dot at second level, and a fourth dot and third sphere at 3rd. If characters have a limit to the number of dots they can have in any sphere (let's say 0+CHA bonus), then you could prevent anyone from gaining more than 4 or 5 dots in a sphere. I'm not sure how you'd prevent a munchkin for uber-specializing on one sphere.
Millennium 12-03-05, 09:23 AM	One of the reasons that I suggested basing the idea off of epic spell seeds is that it leverages an existing mechanic: Spellcraft checks. Rather than using dots in spheres, spells have a certain Spellcraft DC to cast, and more powerful effects are more difficult to cast; that's all. You could break seeds/spheres down so that only certain classes had access to certain spheres, or you could even get rid of the spellcasting classes completely, change spellcasting to an "Awakened" feat, and proceed forward from there. The result would feel very different from Mage, because it uses the mechanics of D&D and doesn't take much if any flavor from Mage, but it uses enough of the same concepts that it should achieve what you're going for.
Jerks 12-03-05, 01:29 PM	The spell seeds are a good ideal. Another resource to look at is the D20 Modern expansion Urban Aracana uses a seed system for writing up Incantations. You could conceivably make a magic system based solely off of these magic seeds. Another idea you might persue is making spell seeds skills in and off themselves. Then have them make skill checks based off the general DC of the spell using that respective skill. You would off course have to give caster's better skill points...or maybe dedicated skill points for magic.