In my world magic is divided into 7 schools, called the 7 Folds, which are tied to the 7 chakras of the human body and associated with the 7 colors of the prismatic spectrum. I realize there were more than 7 schools of magic in the previous edition, but it didn't matter.
What did matter is that only evocation magic, the Red Fold, called Godsfire, was sanctioned by the church and allowed for practice by law. All other schools of magic were deemed corrupted by daemonology and that the Red Fold had been cleansed by God alone so that men could defend themselves. All other schools were forbidden.
So wizards practicing Evocation magic could practice freely, while those caught, or even suspected of, practicing say Divination or Conjuration could expect to be declared a Heretic and a Devil worshiper and be burned at the stake.
But this isn't 3.5. It's 4th. And try as I might I just can't think of a way to stratify arcane magic in this world to make some portion of it illegal.
Any suggestions.
On the other hand sorcery was considered abominable. State propaganda claimed that sorcery stemmed from impure blood lines and consorting with evil entities. Of course the real reason is sorcerers don't require education to nurture their abilities and that made it extremely difficult for a government to control.
Beyond that, there were war Mage colleges that trained people to wield magic and weapons together (obviously 4e has no war Mage class so sword Mage has replaced it). These graduates of the colleges were used as special agents of the empire, to hunt down all enemies of the emperor including anyone practicing sorcery illegally.
I've added warlocks to the list of banned magic and bards tread the line but have yet to cross the line over to either side. Hopefully this might give you some ideas for your own campaign.
P.S. I did not base this country on Nazi Germany but in fact the human empire from Warhammer. For those who think they are seeing blatantly obvious similarities
Well, this thread didn't produce near as many responses as my other threads have. Is this Forum just inactive or is the topic that hard to puzzle out?
Oh well.FWIW, I think I've figured out how to make it work.
Anyone wishing to practice either Wizardry or Sorcery must be a licensed initiate in the Red College, aka the Academy. Anyone practicing magic unlicensed will be prosecuted. The Red College offers many RP advantages in terms of access to things non-initiates wouldn't get, but also comes witht he burden of following orders.
In addition to unlicensed magic use, any character of the Warlock class, or any class using the Primal power source, are illegal as well. Anyone caught, or even suspected of, practicing magic in any of these ways will be tried as a heretic and devil worshiper and burned at the stake.
Warlocks, since they use the arcane power source, can become initiates in the Red College, but must be exceptional at bluffing. Anyone observing a Warlock using his powers, his Warlock's curse ore reciveing the Dark One's Blessing, will become suspicious, and the Warlock will have to pass a bluff check to avoid being exposed.
What do you guys think?
The Holy Roman Empire is the quintessential dark age/medievial centralized European power heavily entrenched in Religious Dogma. Can you blame me for drawing on it as an influence, regardless of how much GW has ripped it off already. ;)
I also cringe at the thought of all those French chivalrous knights and Italian mercenaries running around my world as well. Throw in a Daemon incursion and shotgun toting Dwarfs and I'm a IP lawsuite waiting to happen.
I feel like there are enough differences between my world and their's to satisfy my sense of originality. The Warhammer world is so full of blatant cut-and-paste that it's hard not to create a world that mirrors European history without overlapping it.
And I don't even get close to Chaos, not with a ten foot pole.
Someday soon I'm going to go into more detail about the nature of Elves and Orcs and Goblins in my world and maybe then I'll feel like my case for originality can rest. The Wastelands of Old Ghione and the Wardens of the Bahal-Colta are firmly authentic, and the Sun-God Maejhis is my ace in the hole.
I forget what exactly Evocation is intended to cover, but being "Godsfire" maybe Arcane Fire would be fitting (it has an Int prereq too, which both fits with a school and also makes it slightly harder for Warlocks and Sorcerers to qualify).
On the other hand, how does one identify the school of magic an arcane spellcaster ascribes to? Is it the spells she actually uses? Or the fundamental manner in which she casts it? That is, can I, as a student of the arcane or any authority capable of persecuting unauthorized magic use, identify a fireball cast by a Diviner as compared to one cast by an Evoker?
If magic is deemed authorized/unauthorized by the spell in question (i.e. the cops pick up an Evoker for casting an illusion spell), then maybe just narrow down the list of power keywords that are allowed/disallowed. Maybe an evocation spell is simply one that has an elemental keyword: Cold, Fire, Lightning, Radiant, Thunder. Alternatively, arcane spells with other keywords are forbidden: Illusion, Psychic, Acid (being Conjuration), Fear, Necrotic, etc.
Just some thoughts!
Evocation magic was direct damage magic, energy based magic in 3e. The idea is that in time of crisis God Cleansed the Red Fold so man could defend himself against his enemies. The condition was that he forsake the other Folds which were deemed pathways to Daemonology.
So Things like Divination, Enchantment, Illusion were deemed corrupted because they can be used to manipulate the world through lies, spying and glamour, which were the sins that Daemons used to manipulate man, while the Godsfire was direct, almost honest if that makes sense. Pure.
I thought about restricting the spell choices based on Keywords, but unlike the almost limitless spell list in 3e, the new class powers would be way too limited if I started picking and choosing which ones were legal and which ones weren't.
That being said, I do have to do something about Keywords like Illusion or Conjuration. In the end I think these will have to be outlawed as well.
The idea is that in the past magic was freely practiced by everyone. But free practice ultimately led to the discovery of the Planes, which led to contact with Extra-Planer Beings like Devils and Daemons. Beings that, once invited into the world, reeked havoc and ultimately brought down the ancient Empire.
Man-kind was saved by what became known as the Judgement, in which God cleansed the Red Fold and Forsook the others.
Does that help.
The problem with Games Workshop is that they rip off cultural, fictional and mythological archetypes with such impunity and wreckless abandon that it's hard to find a niche in Fantasy without looking like them.
The Holy Roman Empire is the quintessential dark age/medievial centralized European power heavily entrenched in Religious Dogma. Can you blame me for drawing on it as an influence, regardless of how much GW has ripped it off already. ;)
I also cringe at the thought of all those French chivalrous knights and Italian mercenaries running around my world as well. Throw in a Daemon incursion and shotgun toting Dwarfs and I'm a IP lawsuite waiting to happen.
I feel like there are enough differences between my world and their's to satisfy my sense of originality. The Warhammer world is so full of blatant cut-and-paste that it's hard not to create a world that mirrors European history without overlapping it.
And I don't even get close to Chaos, not with a ten foot pole.
Someday soon I'm going to go into more detail about the nature of Elves and Orcs and Goblins in my world and maybe then I'll feel like my case for originality can rest. The Wastelands of Old Ghione and the Wardens of the Bahal-Colta are firmly authentic, and the Sun-God Maejhis is my ace in the hole.
I use the chaos portion of Warhammer as enemies in my world. that's about it though. I'm a big fan of Warhammer period. I'd play the RPG if I coudl find players. But no one wants to play that.
I thought about restricting the spell choices based on Keywords, but unlike the almost limitless spell list in 3e, the new class powers would be way too limited if I started picking and choosing which ones were legal and which ones weren't.
I assumed you meant the players weren't actually restricted, but rather the characters were "unauthorized." That said, limiting Wizards and Sorcerers to typical elemental keywords actually does very little to limit their spell choice in 4e. (Notably, those two classes have the widest array of powers available to them of any of the classes by a large margin.)
Similarly, the PC Evoker could have learned some conjuration spell through their own experimentation, like Summon Fire Warrior. Even though it is derivative of their Fold, they know that using it risks serious consequences if used in the wrong company, so he keeps that spell tucked away in his book for only the most dire of situations. The temptation to wield it against his foes nags at him constantly.
So a Wizard who knows a summon spell is a lot different than one who uses it around the authorities. That's a lot of wiggle room.
My aim with it is to make any PC with magic to wield it carefully. Out of sight is best, or explainable by some other means would work too. Eventually, I'm hoping to work into the story that the PCs, in building a repuation as heroes of the realm, can possible change the attitudes towards magic by swaying the people- I mean, Robin Hood was nominally an outlaw, but the people loved him, right?
Going back to being careful with magic, my best suggestion is to take hints from the current British tv series, Merlin. In Camelot, King Uther has outlawed all magic of any forms. But Merlin often finds ways to use his magic secretly to help Arthur.
As for the schools of magic, I'd suggest going through the powers that your players have selected, and assign each one to a particular school, or Fold. You could do this on your own, or involve the player, asking them to describe where they pull the power from for each spell or ability- they could inadvertently help you fill out the descriptions of each Fold by doing so. Every time they gain a new power, in between sessions you revisit their character to assign the new power to a Fold.
Lastly, the idea of a Feat requirement is a nice idea, but I'd be against it. Player's aren't usually fans of using Feat slots for background related stuff, especially when they could be using it to gain some cool new ability or whatnot. I'd steer clear of it myself, and work more into the world and character backgrounds.
All of a sudden, your fighter needs to choose carefully if he's going to use his daily power....after all, no natural human could possible accomplish something like that. He must be in league with the devil...
Lastly, the idea of a Feat requirement is a nice idea, but I'd be against it. Player's aren't usually fans of using Feat slots for background related stuff, especially when they could be using it to gain some cool new ability or whatnot. I'd steer clear of it myself, and work more into the world and character backgrounds.
To be fair, as a part-time CharOp resident, the example selection I made was actually a small array of feats that are all "cool new abilities." I personally like very much for a characters story and mechanics to mesh in a meaningful way. If "divine fire" magic is the only acceptable magic, and they have to have gone to a "divine fire" magic school, then it makes a lot of sense that "authorized" wizards would have a bonus to that sort of magic, in the form of a feat.
An actual Background would work too, though.
When I began dreaming up my campaign world I was still heavily entrenched in the old school of magic system from 3.5. With 4e doing away with the school specialization, my vision of the world suddenly has a huge hole in it.
In my world magic is divided into 7 schools, called the 7 Folds, which are tied to the 7 chakras of the human body and associated with the 7 colors of the prismatic spectrum. I realize there were more than 7 schools of magic in the previous edition, but it didn't matter.
What did matter is that only evocation magic, the Red Fold, called Godsfire, was sanctioned by the church and allowed for practice by law. All other schools of magic were deemed corrupted by daemonology and that the Red Fold had been cleansed by God alone so that men could defend themselves. All other schools were forbidden.
So wizards practicing Evocation magic could practice freely, while those caught, or even suspected of, practicing say Divination or Conjuration could expect to be declared a Heretic and a Devil worshiper and be burned at the stake.
But this isn't 3.5. It's 4th. And try as I might I just can't think of a way to stratify arcane magic in this world to make some portion of it illegal.
Any suggestions.
you could go with the dragonlance style of wizardry being recognised as pure and sorcery seen as uncontrolled and dangerous
It also means that those trained know exactly how their magic system works - so anything that doesn't "work" as predicted must be one of the other forbidden spells (unless of course the school is oblivious to it - for example a charm spell may not be obvious even after it has worn off.)
Of course the other magics are still around - outlawed does not mean unavailable -and it is possible other races may not have outlawed them which might cause some interesting conflict - what if the elves still use the whole magic system? It could make diplomacy difficult. You could use feats for each school or require those wishing to learn outlawed spells to find a trainer and spend lots of money.
You could also make them harder to obtain by imposing some form of level penalty so that "official" wizards can only use other spells one or two levels below their curent level.