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Tag: ACKS (Page 5 of 7)

More from My Son

April 14, 2012 /

My son is a creative boy. In light of John Cleese's commentary on creativity, he has the lifestyle.

One of his favorite things to do is to ask what an object would be like in a magical 'land' where it could walk and talk. For example, he will ask things like, "what are dolphins like in Dolphin Land?"

Today's question was, "what are letters like in Letter Land?"

This got me to thinking about a place in the Astral Sea where everyone can cast 1e style cantrips with a simple sound. This would be little things like burp, hiccup, spice, clean, etc. However, more powerful magics require multiple individuals speaking their spell together. This is analogous to letters coming together to form words.

I don't want to do anything as complex as determining which individual cantrips come together to form more powerful spells. Most languages with an alphabet (as opposed to a syllabry) have individual sounds that form words together without assigning a meaning to the individual sound. For example, in the word "fun" in English, the letters by themselves have no meaning.

What this means is an entire culture where individual spellcasting is practically non-existent or somehow culturally abhorrent. There wouldn't be mages or clerics in an adventuring party, but the party as a collective whole could perform magic.

What this allows is a party that is connected together by their religion adventuring together. The collective whole functions like a cleric (heal spells, turn undead, etc.) but individually, the members have different functions. In a D&D sense, the party would basically be variations of fighters and thieves.

Thinking further, though, it may not make sense to have a dichotomy between divine and arcane magic at this point. Combining the spell lists, so to speak, leaves open the question of how the party could turn undead. As a tangent, being undead could come to mean in this culture, that the individual no longer has their cantrip and cannot contribute to a community casting a spell. Being undead means a loss of identity and a loss of community which is why undead are so feared.

As a tangent to the tangent, individuals that lust for power would work on a different kind of magic that the society would find abhorrent outside of necromancy. Necromancy is bad enough, animating bodies that have no identity or community. This new form of magic would seek to artificially create a community so that an individual, instead of a group, could cast more powerful spells. This could be something like a secret room in a stronghold that imprisons individuals or as odd as somehow combing individuals as an amalgam. The Amalgam would be abhorrent to the society because it is not willing community and because of the stripping of identity of many so that one can become its own community.

Back to adventuring parties, there are two ways to increase diversity in the spells that they can cast. One way is for individuals learn more cantrips. This would not be a frequent event. An individual may learn three or four cantrips in an entire lifetime. (No, they cannot combine them to cast spells for themselves.) The other way is to increase the size of the party over time. This would give new members of the party a meaningful way to contribute without functioning strictly as meatshields. (Meatshields aren't bad. I use them in other settings. In this society, though, I'm not sure the idea of meatshields would fit.)

Another thing this idea allows is for a village to be able to ward off a big bad monster without necessarily hiring some mercenaries to do it. The entire village can come together to cast one "big" spell to banish a demon or ward off an ancient dragon.

It occurs to me that there should be a class of individuals that study magic so that it is known who to put together in order to cast a spell. Individuals know their cantrip(s), but someone outside of the individual would need to know how to put them together. (This could be this society's idea of leadership.) Thinking of Fighters as people that solve problems with weapons and strength and Thieves as people that solve problems by using their skill, one of the skills a thief (or an LOTFP specialist) would be the study of magic. In essence, he or she would be like a sociologist.

This would also make certain monsters, like orcs, dangerous at all levels of play. Increasing the number of orcs increases their sword power *and* their magic power. Hmmm.

Passing thought - maybe dragons can still be individual spellcasters, one of the many reasons that they would be feared, but their power would come from the amalgam type of magic mentioned earlier. Dragons wouldn't eat people, but keep them for the ability to be a spellcaster.

For ACKS, the party may need to be able to gain proficiencies as a group. I need to think about that some more. What do you think?

Just some food for thought on a Saturday. Feel free to steal and use for your purposes if it spurs some ideas.

More Alternate Cleric Stuff

April 1, 2012 /

One of things about using clerics without Spell Lists is that it fits well with Scott Ludwig's Basic D&D Custom Class Template. Since the ACKS custom system is really similar, once I get the Player's Companion, I can make comparisons.

The system uses thirds and halves, so custom classes are easy. 1/3 Cleric gets two categories, 2/3 Cleric gets four, 150% gets 8 categories.

For the Human Template, anyone choosing 200% for Divine gets all 11. I would like to have 12, but even one of my five additional categories is a bit of a stretch.

Looking at the sample Paladin at the link: d6 Hit Dice,  three categories, melee weapons as "Monster" and missile weapons as a Magic-User. I like the idea that not all Paladins are the same.

Will a 1/2 Cleric get a category at half strength? That's up to you. It complicates the formulas used to determine success. Since it's a custom class, though, you can just make a table for success.

If you go the full strength route like me, I simply changed the XP values for Divine. Basically, it matches the Arcane table. This breaks the system for calculating a regular Cleric, but since I allow a spell at 1st level, I use a different chart for Clerics anyway.

One other route could be to have a Piety score. By default it could be Level/3 for non-Clerics and set a Hit Dice limit on using the categories. This means a Paladin with Healing is not healing 2d6 hit points until 6th level and reaches a ceiling of 5d6 at 15th level. The other advantage of going this route is that you don't have to say "no spells at 1st level", the only category that can be used at 1/3 power is healing and that only equates to 1 or 2 hit points.

Still some details to work out. The Paladin still feels too powerful even with my change to the XP Table. (Which is 2125 XP to advance to 2nd level on my adjusted charts instead of 1750 xp on the standard chart.) Also, changing the Divine chart has consequences for non-human clerics.

Postscript

Here is the conversion of the Turning Formula for ACKS:

1d20 + ( 3 * (level of cleric - hit dice of undead) )
Hit dice of undead is increased by one for every special ability (asterisk next to HD number)

Success is adjusted roll of 10 or better

For example, 1st level cleric turning skeletons:

1d20 + (3 * (1 - 1) ) or roll 1d20 with a 10 or better.

As Keith Davies mentioned in the original G+ post, there's a better way to state it:

d20 + 3*level >= 10 + 3* (undead HD + special)

More Thoughts On the New Setting

March 24, 2012 /

The language of magic is common enough that the upper middle class and idle rich like to impress each other at parties with their so-called knowledge of the secret tongue.

This cause mages to seek out areas of refuge away from anyone speaking magic. Otherwise, they could inadvertently begin casting spells and nobody wants to do that by accident!

In cities, mages organize network of so-called Quiet Areas. These quiet areas are areas safeguarded against anyone that would speak magic, even other mages. If a Quiet Area cannot be found, a good mage always has the ability to use two helpful and relatively inexpensive magic items. The first silences the area around where he is sleeping. The second locks the door. Wholesale manufacture of magical items is rare. These two items are a noted exception - they are created by mages for mages. They are not made available to anyone that does not practice magic.

As a mage increases in power, these magic trinkets and even the Queit Ares tend to become less effective. The growing need to avoid accidental spell casting drives a mage to build a stronghold away from other people.

This is the primary reason why mages, as they get more powerful, have less to do with people and the real world and seek refuge their stronghold. Many even escapes to the various planes that float along the Astral Sea.

Another effect of the common knowledge of the language of magic is that all magic items have a code word to activate. Weaker items usually have easy-to-guess code phrases. Any fighter with experience can usually guess the code phrase for weaker magic items.

In a d20 based system, determine the DC for a mage to get the code word, divide the cost of the item by 100. That provided the DC to beat on a d20. For those using ACKS, a limited ability to guess activation words is included in the Adventuring proficiency.

Since the knowledge of the language of magic does not grant the ability to use magic, a would-be magic user has two options. The most popular option is to join a temple and offer your services as an emissary. Emissaries, often called clerics, are given a measure of power by a deity in exchange for service. This arrangement usually works out well for both deity and cleric. However, due to a large number of potential applicants, clerics do not gain the ability to use divine power right away. A cleric must go through a time of testing to prove their devotion.

There are a number swordsmen and military men in urban areas that left the temple before gaining the ability to use divine power. Their lack of faith makes them a bit resistant to divine magic, including any healing magic.

For those using ACKS, this is a new proficiency called Lack of Faith. It provides a small bonus (+1 or +2) for saving throws against all divine magic. It also forces a character to make a saving throw against healing spells to be healed.

For those that want the ability to wield magic, but do not have the desire (or faith) to join a temple, there is only one option: psionics. The Science of the Mind holds the promise of allowing anyone to harness the power of magic that exists within themselves. In that sense, psionics are nondiscriminatory. The difficulty for the would-be psion is that not all teachers that claim to know the science actually do.

Finding a teacher that can actually imbue psionic power is difficult in urban areas. It is almost impossible in more remote areas. It takes a powerful psion to provide the training and the ability.

For those using ACKS, only a 9th level or greater psion can imbue power. Imbuing the ability is a power a high level psionicist must learn to use. The cost is great and can be done a limited number of times in a psionicist's life.

The drawback to being a psionicists is that it is a one way trip. Once a person becomes a psionicist, he or she can never become something else. No temple, even the most inclusive ones, will ever admit a psionicist as a cleric. Without the ability to use magic, there is no option to become a mage. Psionicists are not trusted by fighting men and will not be trained.

The other cost for learning psionics is tremendous difficulty with the language of magic. Whereas anyone else can learn and speak the language of magic with realtive ease, the act of gaining their power removes this ability. This also prevents them from using their Suggestion power and "placing" magic phrases into a mage's mind while he/she is asleep in order to trigger a spell.

Psionicists are not driven to seclusion by their power. Unlike mages that are born to their power, a psionicist chooses theirs. Their power is not bound to
a certain language or phrase. In fact, many psionicists tend to enjoy people and crowds as they gain power. Instead of building strongholds and castles, they build schools and train others.

The schools are not publicly advertised. Many temples actively seek to destroy such schools. These schools are seen as destroying the faith of the weak-minded. To a cleric, true power comes from a deity, not from within.

Mages tend to see psionicists as second-class spell casters. A common expression is "those that can't do, teach" often used as a pejorative. To a mage, the powers of a psionicist can be either duplicated by magic (ESP, Clairvoyance, Telekinesis) or are not very useful (Postcognition). There are limited battle powers available to a psionic. A mage can easily prevent their thoughts from being read by a psionicist without resorting to magic. (This last statement is often repeated, but not entirely true. The mage chooses to think in the language of magic thereby preventing a psionicist from understanding a mage's thoughts. However, thinking in the language of magic requires a lot of concentration to prevent a spell from being cast by accident.)

The rest of society does not see any difference between the three methods of using magic. To them, having the power is a price too high, even in a world with supernatural creatures.

Clerics always build strongholds near populated areas. More followers = more power.

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