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Emphases for Spell Casters

October 7, 2013 /

I mentioned in a Google plus post that I was working on a conversion of a magic system from USR to Swords & Wizardry. Herein lies that conversion:

The study of magic is covers a vast and largely unmapped scope of knowledge. No individual mage can hope to master it all. Mages, however, have found that highlighted a limited number of areas of study helps them to use the forces of magic in many different ways. By focusing on three or four broad themes of magic, a mage can often successfully research spells that cover a wide range of effects.

These broad themes are called emphases. Throughout a mage's lifetime study of magic, he or she will choose a handful of emphases to guide their study allowing them to create wondrous and powerful magics. These emphases will also make one mage distinct from another. In battle, one mage may hurl small bolts of fire while another uses spears of ices to smite their targets. They may be equally powerful effects, but each mage adds their own signature style.

Mechanics of Emphases

The mechanics of using the emphasis system in magical research are pretty straightforward. A 1st level mage chooses any noun to be their first emphasis. Examples include Fire, Healing, Walls, Blades, Ice, Illusion, Mind, and Acid. The player may also use labels associated with schools of magic used in various forms of the world's oldest RPG. These include Evocation, Summoning, Geometry (2e), Enchantment and many, many more. This first emphasis will be rated as a +2. At each new level a mage gains, he or she gain another emphasis rated as +1 or they may increase an existing emphasis by 1. The limits of increasing an emphasis is determined by the number of emphases a mage already has. An emphasis cannot be raised to +3 until the mage has three emphases. An emphasis cannot be raised to +4 until the mage has four emphases and so on.

To learn a new spell, a mage must research that spell. Successful magic research is determined by rolling higher than the mage's Saving Throw + the level of the spell. So if a 7th level mage wishes to research a third level spell, the mage must roll 12 or above to be successful. The Saving Throw of a 7th level mage is a 9 and the spell is determined to be a 3rd level spell, thus 9 (ST) + 3 (level of spell) = 12.

If the spell attempted incorporates one or more mage's emphases, he or she can use them to increase the roll. In our example, let's say that our 7th level mage has the following emphases: Fire +3, Blades +2, Mind +2, Acid +1. The mage wishes to research a spell that will immobilize 1d4 bipeds of up to human size or one target of up to Hill Giant size. The effect will be that the target will be immobilized because they will see themselves surrounded by a tight wall of swirling flaming swords. The GM notes that this is essentially a Hold Person spell, so he rates it as a third level spell. The mage must roll a 12 or better to successfully research the spell. The mage also gets to add 7 to the roll (Fire +3, Blades +2 and Mind +2 as the fiery swords are perceived only by the targets.)

Implications

Since gaining new spells relies on spell research, the ability to research spells is available to mages at 1st level. The cost of such research is level of spell * 300 gp. Researching a new spell requires a number of weeks equal to the spell level to complete. For example, researching a 3rd level spell costs 900gp in materials and will require three weeks to complete research. At the end of this time period, the success roll is made. If the mage succeeds, the spell is added to his or her spellbook.

The other, much larger implication, is that the spell list in S&W serves as a guideline for spells a mage can research. Many spells that will be researched will be very similar to those listed, but with certain tweaks to maximize the mages' emphases. The example noted earlier is, in fact, a Hold Person spell, but a mage with different emphases will display that spell with completely different effects. A Mage with an Acid emphasis may immobilize a target by surrounding it with very real acid. A Mage with an Undead emphasis may immobilize a target by employing a huge bony fist that emerges from the ground. The possibilities are endless.

Scrolls found in adventures can be the generic versions of the spells as listed in S&W. This makes work relatively easy on the GM. But an adventurous GM may decide to randomly determine the emphases of the wizard that created the spell thereby giving it a unique twist.

For the record, adding a spell to the spellbook requires the level of the spell in days to transcribe to the spell book.

Characters can also make scrolls at any level as well as engage in magical research. Making scrolls requires the mage to spend 100gp per level of the spell. It will take one week + the level of the spell in days to create a scroll. For example, creating a scroll of a third level spell would require 10 days.

How This Plays Out

This rule applies to all spell casters in my house rules, even Clerics. Cleric do not require spell research, but their spell exhibit themselves according the emphases determined by their specific deity. Clerics can make scrolls using the same rules as mages. Sorcerers also use their emphases for spontaneous casting of spells - the more emphases included, the greater the chance that the spell will work. (Sorcerers, however, cannot create magic items.) Even Alchemists and Hermetic Magicians gain benefits from emphases. Details will come when those types of magic-users are covered.

Creation Spell System

June 12, 2013 /

This post is designed to better explain the Create and Object family of spells as well as provide some of the ways this family of spells is affected by spell research. Spontaneously generating an object is supposed to be a quick, but risky process whereas the prepared magic-user can reliably generate specific objects in the same way he or she can cast any other spell. Researching specific Create an Object spells are much cheaper and faster than researching other spells. The rationale is that the fundamentals of the spell are exactly the same, but the specific execution is different. The foundation of the spell is already there, what is left is the part of the spell that sits on this foundation.

One thing that I left out of my previous post was that spontaneous Create an Object spells have a set duration and range, regardless of the object created. The only way to alter the range and duration is through spell research. In other words, no one will be able to spontaneously generate a suit of armor and it last for several days. The default range is ten feet and the default duration is 6 minutes. Unlike the Monster Summoning spells, there is no 1 Turn delay in the object appearing.

I have a pretty extensive equipment list that I use. It includes types of wood, metal, textiles, bulk food items and various pieces of random equipment. Extensive equipment lists are not to everyone's liking, so I also included guildelines for creating objects that do not appear in the standard equipment list. The guildelines do not exactly corresponded with standard equipment lists. In other words, if an item is on an equipment list, it is always better to use the price from the equipment list. This is especially true for arrows. The standard S&W Equipment list has 20 arrows for 2 gp. Using the Create an Object guidelines, a powerful archmage might only be able to create ten arrows at the most.

So here are the revised and condensed rules for Create and Object spells. Note: I made one change. I found that there are a lot of items priced between six and twenty-five gold pieces and I didn't want many of those items to require a 3rd Level Spell to create them.

Creating Items with a Known Price

Cost (GP) Adjustment
0 1
up to 1 2
1 – 25 3
26 – 100 4
101 – 500 5
501 – 2,500 6
2,501 – 10,000 7
10,001 – 50,000 8
50,001 – 200,000 9
200,001 - 1,000,000 10
Anything over 1,000,000 11

Creating Items without a Price

Start with a +2 adjustment for most things, +3 for items made of stone and a +4 adjustment for anything made of metal. If your campaign makes use of mithril or other fantastic metals, start with +6. After that, based on the dimensions of the object, use the table below, courtesy of the d20srd. Use either Height/Length or Weight, but not both.

Height/Length Weight Volume (cu. ft.) Modifier
6 in. or less 1/8 lb. or less n/a -2
6 in. to 1 ft. 1/8 lb. to 1 lb. n/a -1
1 ft. to 2 ft. 1 lb. to 8 lb. Less than 1 0
2 ft. to 4 ft. 8 lb. to 60 lb. 1 to 8 1
4 ft. to 8 ft. 60 lb. to 500 lb. 8 to 64 2
8 ft. to 16 ft. 500 lb. to 2 tons 64 to 500 3
16 ft. to 32 ft. 2 tons to 16 tons 500 to 4000 4
32 ft. to 64 ft. 16 tons to 125 tons 4000 to 32000 6
64 ft. or more 125 tons or more over 32000 cu. ft. 8

It is important that only *one* column is used in calculating modifiers. Some things are easier to measure by Height or Length (whichever is larger), Weight or Volume. The Volume column is useful for summoning novel objects like metal spheres or stone walls.

What about elemental materials like fire, air, sound and other things? I start with an adjustment of +1 for those types of things. If the element is created as part of an attack, the spell will do 1d6 points of damage. For an additional +1 adjustment, it will do 1d6/level points of damage.

Converting Saving Throw Adjustments to Leveled Spells

Calculate the Saving Throw Adjustment per the rules above and multiply the result by 2/3. Round the result.

With all of that said, here are some practical examples of the Create and Object spell. The spell will be given in a one line format similar to spell listings in the S&W Complete Rules book. The only addition will be the ST Adj: field that appears before the description.

Summon Shield
Level: 2, Range: 10', Duration: 6 minutes, ST Adj: +3, Description: This spell creates a normal shield for the purposes of AC adjustment and Shields Shall Be Splintered rules. Although the shield is detected as a magic shield by a Detect Magic spell, it does not function any differently from a normal shield.

A shield is listed as 15gp in S&W, so looking at the Creating Items with a Known Price table, the ST. Adjustment would by +3.

Summon Sword
Level: 2, Range 10', Duration: 6 minutes, ST Adj: +3, Description: This spell creates any type human-sized sword or smaller. Although the sword is considered magical for the purposes of the Detect Magic spell, it does not offer any to hit or damage bonuses. A sword created in this way does not have the ability to hit creatures that can only be hit by magical weapons.

This is just like the Summon Shield spell. Any sword listed in the Equipment list is between 6 and 25 gp.

Summon Fire
Level: 1, Range: 10', Duration: 6 minutes, ST Adj: +1, Description: This spells creates a normal fire useful for lighting a torch or campfire. It acts as normal fire for all purposes. Anyone touching the flames suffers 1d6 damage. If the fire is cast on a target, it will suffer 1d6 points of damage per round until it is extinguished.

Summon Stone Cage (Take that Rust Monsters!)
Level: 3, Range 10', Duration: 6 minutes, ST Adj: +5, Description: This spell creates a stone cage that measures just large enough to imprison one rust monster (6 ft x 4 ft x 4 ft). Although a Detect Magic spell will register the cage as magical, its only magical power is giving you enough time to safely run away from a rust monster.

A stone cage starts with a +3 modifier because it is made out of stone. The cage measures 6 ft by 4 ft by 4 ft. The longest measurement is 6 ft, which adds a +2 modifier. (A stone cage is not going to weigh less than 60 lbs.)

Summon Siege Engine
Level: 4, Range 10', Duration: 6 minutes, ST Adj: +6, Description: This spell creates an onager.

I have an equipment list with the price of an onager, trebuchet and other siege enginers included. For the purposes of this spell, however, I am assuming that there is no handy listing. It is made out of wood and metal, so there is a +4 modifier to start. (You may decide to handle mixed materials differently.) The longest part of an onager is the arm which measures anywhere between 6 and 8 feet long. This adds a +2 modifier providing a total modifer of +6.

Summon Small Galley
Level: 5, Range 10', Duration: 6 minutes, ST Adj: +8, Description: This spell creates a small galley that can hold up to 20 people including the 15 sailors required to operate the ship.

You never know when you will need a ship for only six minutes when you just so happen to have 15 sailors handy while standing at the edge of a dock, but it is important to be prepared. In all seriousness, this is the type of spell that can be improved by Spell Research. Through research, the duration could be extended to a few days or a month, depending on the length of the journey. In the next section, I'll deal with customizing the spell.

Customization

Range Duration Adj.
up to 10 ft. up to 6 min 0
30 ft. 1 hour 1
60 ft. 12 hours 2
240 ft. 1 day 3
½ mile 1 week 4
2 miles (LOS) 2 weeks 5
1 month 6
2 months 7
4 months 8
1 year 9

Looking at the Summon Small Gallery spell again, let's say that we need a boat for a short journey, maybe a week with extra time in case of bad weather. The magic-user successfully researches the spell to create a small galley for two weeks. The standard spell had a ST Adj of +8. Looking at the customization chart, a duration of 2 weeks adds an additional +5 to the adjustment for a total of +13 ST Adj. This would translate to an 8th level spell.

FWIW, it would be an eighth level regardless of the size of the ship. Also note that this creates the ship with sails and rigging, but it does not include cannon, ammunition, or provisions.

Summon Small Galley (Improved)
Level: 8, Range 10', Duration: 2 weeks, ST Adj: +13, Description: This spell creates a small galley that can hold up to 20 people, including the 15 required to operate the ship. This spell does not create balista or other weapons on the ship. It also does not create any provisions. The ship last for two weeks after which time it will dissipate into the nothingness from whence it came.

Here's another spell based on Summon Fire:

Summon Fireball
Level: 3, Range: 240', Duration: 6 minutes, ST Adj: +4, Description: This spell creates a ball of fire about the size of a small campfire at a selected target. Anyone hit by the fire suffers 1d6 damage/level of the magic-user. A Saving Throw negates all damage. Any other object hit by the fireball will be set on fire until extinguished or the spell expires.

It's just GM Fiat that says that anyone hit by the fireball doesn't take 1d6/level damage per round. Notice that this is not as powerful as the Fireball spell. It doesn't fill an area of 33000 cubic feet and there is no explosion. The ball is fairly small in size and can be entirely avoided. Being normal fire, however, it will ignite any combustible materials for the duration of the spell. What follows is a more typical use of summoning fire.

Summon Firewall
Level: 4, Range 30', Duration: 6 minutes, ST Adj: +6, Description: This spell creates a wall of fire 10' high and 30' wide. Any creature attempting to pass through the fire will suffer 1d6 damage and may ignite flammable items that they are carrying. At the end of the spell, the fire will immediately go out.

Building this one was Fire +1, 30' longest dimension +4, Range 30' +1 for a total of +6.

Limitations of Create an Object

Even though livestock have a price, Create and Object cannot be create or summon living creatures. I allow this system to create rations, but that is up to the individual GM.

An item created by a Create an Object spell cannot be made permanent by the Permanence spell. The only way to make an item created by this spell into a permanent item is my performing rituals usually associated with the traditional method of making magic items.

It cannot be used to create magic items, with a few specific exceptions. Those exceptions are unintelligent magic weapons that do nothing more than offer a simple bonus on attack rolls and damage. I also allow normal weapons created by the Create and Object spell to be turned into any type of magic weapon, even those with intelligence and other powers. The rationale is that a wizards, especially enemies of the party, may not always have access to a blacksmith to make a sword. Despite bypassing the need for a blacksmith, there is extra cost associated with making the weapon a permanent item.

When the magic-user that casts the Create an Object spell dies, any object he or she created with the Create an Object spell at any point in his or her life will immediately dissipate.

For the next post, I'll talk about the Summoner Class that uses this magic system.

Magic Monday: Using the Turn Undead Table

March 18, 2013 /

Below is the thinking behind creating this system and a class to go along with it. Here is the link to the OGL stuff featured the spell casting table based on the Turn Undead mechanic.

I've always been a sucker for alternate abilities for Turn Undead. I absolutely love the Priests of Different Mythoi in the 2e rules. So when I read this post from +Nathan Irving, I left behind yet another spell point system to study and opted for something different.

The main idea is: How can the Turning Undead mechanic be used for spellcasting?

Here's the mechanic for Banishing Undead as it appears in S&W Complete:

When a Cleric attempts to turn undead, the player should roll 2d10 and consult the following table for the result.

  • If the number on the dice is equal to or greater than the number shown on the table, 2d6 creatures of the targeted type are turned and will depart, not returning for 3d6 rounds.
  • If the table indicates “T,” 2d6 undead creatures of the targeted type are automatically turned and will depart for 3d6 rounds.
  • If the table indicates “D,” 2d6 of the undead creatures are automatically destroyed and will crumble to dust.

TurnUndead

 

Looking at the table to be able to hack the mechanic, I converted it into percentages. In other words, I wanted to see the percentage chance of success a Cleric has to turn undead. Knowing the odds helps to make the mechanic work for other things. So, here is exactly the same table redone as percentage chance of success:

TurnPercent

 

Rolling 2d10 for success, there is going to be a big, noticeable curve in success rates. See how the numbers go down quickly for a 4th level Cleric? 100 percent for Undead with a Challenge Level of 1 (Skeletons). 97 percent for Challenge Level 2, but the 85 percent for level 3, only 64 percent for Challenge Level 3, and then a dive to 36 percent for Challenge Level 4.

You get the sense that there's a definitely sweet spot for success, depending on the Cleric's Level.

One other thing to keep in mind is that there is no penalty for an unsuccessful attempt. Sure a 4th level Cleric has only a 1 percent chance to turn an undead creature with a Challenge Level of 8 (typically a Mummy), but you have nothing to lose for the attempt.

Spellcasting works the same way. In the rules as written, there's no chance to cast a spell incorrectly, so casting a spell, as long as you have it in your spell book, has no risk. Fire and forget, as many others have said.

So I took the Turn Undead table and I mapped out the level of the spell caster where the Cleric Level appears. I mapped out the level of the Spell being cast where the Challenge Level appears. The result was pretty shocking:

A 1st Level spellcaster could attempt a 4th level spell. Without a risk to attempt it, there's no reason any self-respecting player wouldn't attempt to hurl an Ice Storm or use Charm Monster. This works in certain campaigns and I'd have fun with it, but I want something closer to the standard Magic-User.

Turn Undead can be used as often as you like. When using it for spellcasting, that would mean at certain levels, a spellcaster could fire off spells at-will without limit, so I wanted to think of ways to limit the number of spell that could be cast. Using a spell point system felt like it was moving away from the original goal of just using the Turn Undead mechanic. I'd be using the Turn Undead mechanic to track whether or not a spell was successfully, but then adding a brand new mechanic to track the number of spells being cast. I determined that this was unacceptable.

I found that with a little tweak to the Turn Undead mechanic, there could be a simple way to accomplish this. First, I made the Turn Undead table into a Roll-Under mechanic. In others words, roll 2d10 and compare the result, rolling equal to or less than the number on the table would mean success. For the curious, here is the Turn Undead table restated with a Roll-Under mechanic. Yes, the math is exactly the same, check here:

TurnRollUnder

 

Why a roll-under? I could add a +1 to the roll after every attempt. After casting a few spells, it would become impossible to successfully cast a spell. I'll explain this more later.

After converting the Turn Undead mechanic to be a roll-under mechanism, I put the spellcaster level and Spell levels back in as I had before. I have a simple way to manage the number of spells cast, but there's still the problem of that 1st level character launching an Ice Storm. To mitigate that, I'll have to cut off the spell level that can be attempted. So, looking at the Magic-User tables, I cut off higher spell level that could be attempted. In other words, a 2nd level spell could not be attempted until the spellcaster reached 3rd level.

I was happy with the result. Here it is:

ImpromptuMagic

 

Again, why are there numbers larger than 20 for a roll-under system? Because after every attempt, the spell caster adds +1 to the roll. Here's an example:

Mert the Magnificent is a 7th level spell caster. He attempts to cast a 1st level spell. Rolling 2d10 is pointless as he has to roll under a 21. It is an automatic success. Later, however, he wants to cast Magic Missile, another 1st level spell. Since he has cast one spell before, he adds +1 to the roll. It is still automatic, but with the +1, it is possible to roll a 21. Each successive spell attempt adds +1 to the roll.

Now lets look at what happens when he wants to attempt to cast a spell one more time. Since he has already cast two spells, so +2 is added to the roll. Regardless of level, he no longer has automatic success. Here's another thing, the +2 applies to any spell attempted, regardless of level. Casting spells this way makes all attempts more difficult.

With tweaks applied, I was happy with the system. Lower level spellcasters using this system are more powerful early on, but they become much weaker at higher levels. For example, a 20th level Magic-User can hurl a total of 50 spells ranging in level from 1 to 9. At the absolute maximum and with some incredible dice rolling, a 20th level spellcaster using this system can throw 39 spells.

So, I wanted a spell failure table. There has to be a reason to prevent spell casters using this system to avoid hurling spells until the run out. After all, if a spell caster can throw up to eight spells at first level, it doesn't fit well with existing classes. I didn't have time to generate one. I'll add that in a later post.

With consequences for failure in place, the resulting spellcaster is now weaker on average after 4th level. At higher level, the difference is stark. A 20th level spell caster using this system may go quite a long time without casting a 9th level spell because if he cast a few 1st level spells earlier in the day, it becomes too risky to hurl an 8th or 9th level spell. As much as I love how that works, it makes the spell caster much weaker than a standard Magic-User.

So I decided to create a class that uses this system, but also has some "guaranteed spells" to use. I call this class a Sorcerer. Looking at the Magic-User spell table, I basically divided it in half, rounding down.

I'm out of time, but I will say that I am very happy with the result. At 1st level, a Sorcerer doesn't have a guaranteed spell, but he has a chance to cast a 1st level spell. At 3rd level, he doesn't have a guaranteed 2nd level spell he can cast, but he can attempt to cast it using the table above.

Let me know how it works for you.

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