Core15; Core24; Core40; Req96; Bloat35; Bloat97; Bloat134; Bloat147; Bloat238; Bloat330; PowerGoal29; PowerGoal58; PowerGoal60; PowerGoal64; PowerGoal65; PowerGoal68; PowerGoal70; PowerGoal75; PowerGoal83; PowerGoal84; PowerGoal89; PowerGoal92; PowerGoal101; PowerGoal107; PowerGoal108; PowerGoal128
I also tried to take some of Toady’s ideas and implementations from Armok I, and I tried to make it as flexible as possible, and tried to make the components separate, so that people could disable individual parts if wanted, or even disable it all.
My main inspiration came from Edding’s the Belgariad and the Iron Kingdoms (they have the most awesome dragons ever. They made them epic, unlike what DnD has done to them).
People who can use magic:
Magic is a raw force of power that can be accessed by different means, and at different strengths. While very few creatures can directly access this power, there are many different ways of indirectly accessing magic, and with the help of various items, nearly anyone can access it.
Pretty much any creature can access magic to some degree, and the soul is the place that can access it. Some rare people have the type of soul that can directly tap into the power; these are the types of wizards that can alter the entire course of history, and can take entire coalitions of nations to take on and kill. Thankfully, these people are rare, there is perhaps one born in several generations. These people are generally blessed with a great intelligence and a long lifespan, outliving their more mundane cousins. They spend their time studying the world, as their knowledge can help improve their magic, and perhaps they could discover new things about the world.
A wizard is treated as their own civilization, owing allegiance to no individual country, and having the power to back that up. As such, they could raise their own army of mercenaries, or even some people who swear their allegiance to them. Wizards hardly ever take apprentices, but sometimes they do, and sometimes there are even groups of Wizards working on some task or another, perhaps compelled by some greater force. However, their most loyal followers are the golems that they create to so tasks for them, and even do war with them. Golems are more durable than a fleshy meatbag, but learn more slowly, and have to be “programmed” to do specific tasks, so you can’t change their jobs as easily.
For those who were not born with such luck, there are many other ways to access magic. By using various materials, a few specific gestures, and some powerful words, they can lead magic into their soul for a short period of time, and release it. This magic does not come as naturally, but it still gets the job done. Sometimes they apprentice themselves to a wizard, as while the wizard may not cast the same way, their knowledge of the inner workings of magic is unparalleled. Magical research is interesting to some in this field. Do not underestimate what these learned mages can accomplish, as the greatest amongst them can rival the might of a natural wizard. Large nations employ magical colleges, where research and training for mages-to-be is unparalleled. Mages can also put a bit of magic into an item, imbuing it with magical qualities, or perhaps having it conjure a certain kind of magic at a later date. While creating a magic item is a hard task, it is well worth being able to use magic in an instant, instead of needing to spend time casting.
Some mages aren’t educated, they are a result of an affinity with magic, but much less than a wizard. They experiment with material components, stumble through gestures, and choke through words to come into their magical prowess. As a result, their magic can be more chaotic, and have a style distinctly their own.
Elementalists are mages who specialize in a particular element. They are more often people who aren’t formally educated, and either were taught be a spirit of an element or felt a strong tie with that element. They can take the traits of the element that they affiliate with. The elements include: Earth; Fire; Wind (includes Sonic and Sound); Water; Lightning; Metal ; and Cosmos. (Note: there are also elemental states, such as holy/unholy, good/evil, mundane/fantastic, light/dark, etc. etc.)
In addition to mages, rune-crafters and other such professions exist, people who have found magic in words and shapes. These people do not refer to themselves as a mage, but instead as a craftsman, and take pride in their lack of waving their arms around and chanting silly words. These runes channel magic into them, and imbue it into the stone. These stones or gems could be embedded into objects, giving them supernatural powers, or they could be one-use items, such as gems that explode with magical cold when thrown against something.
While some creatures may not be able to access magic, every soul has some magical capability. This is generally exploited in one of two ways. The first way in a magical ritual, which gathers anywhere from a few to hundreds or people to join in. A trained mage or wizard (or priest) can then harness the magical energy created by each person, and use that energy to do things otherwise beyond his capabilities. However, the people in the ritual have some say in what they will do, and the magic they supply is directly related to their personal beliefs and values, a.k.a., if an evil wizard tricked an entire village to chanting to rain fire from the sky, the villagers must know what they are doing on some level to cause the ritual to succeed.
The second use for souls is a lot darker. This use actually extracts a soul from a person, generally from someone who recently died, in the gap of time where their soul is still in the world and yet hasn’t moved on. Souls can then be used to power vile machines, or empower gems in a similar way that rune-crafters will. The inherent magic in souls can act as a power source, and entire cities could be run on the vile acts. However, most souls don’t have an unlimited source of magic, and once the soul is run dry, it is utterly annihilated, removed from the cosmos forever.
Souls can also be used to fuel the life of the undead, changing mindless zombies and skeletons to dark vampires and ghouls, or even creating specters and ghosts. The power of the soul is largely not understood, as only the most depraved would be willing to utterly destroy people to figure it out.
A soul can also be extracted from a non-humanoid, and this is not considered nearly as vile an act, as the other creatures are stupid and not as important as humanoids. It is not uncommon to find a fire-imp-soul powered sword or something like that in the right type of shop.
Priests are another type of magic users entirely. Their powers are not tied to their personal capabilities (though they may have a talent for it, and may even be priest/mages), but to the capabilities of their God. Their God blesses them with divine strength, and they can use that strength to perform miracles, such as baptisms and ceremonies, or even healings. The Gods do not grant equal power to every priest; it is instead based on a hierarchy, either determined by the religion, or the God. The most powerful of priests can even return the dead to life, though the process is so taxing to the God and the priest that it is rarely done.
Magic is versatile, and the uses I’ve described here are by no means the only ways to use it. There are evil witches that make pacts with spirits in the area, and exploit the inherent magic of various plants and other things, and the workings of fey magic all but unknown to most practitioners of magic. There could even be liches, who exploit the undeath to unnaturally prolong their life.
How to use magic:
Usage of magic varies depending on the user. However, there are many characteristics of it that are universal amongst those who use it. Magic is fatigue-based. Doing a basic task, such as digging a hole, takes an equivalent amount of energy as physically digging the hole, but it is all focused in one action. For the unprepared, it initially seems to be a lot more trouble than it’s worth, but while there is a strict limit on physical tasks, the mind can be trained to have almost no limit.
Like I said earlier, very few have direct access to magic. What that actually means is that most people cannot call magic to them whenever they want, they need some sort of focus for their abilities. That is what material components, gestures, incantations, runes, and other things do: they provide a method for people to access magic. For some, this skill comes a lot easier to, and for others it’s nearly impossible. While it is highly difficult, theoretically anybody could become a mage.
When trying to do something with magic, knowledge of what one is trying to do is crucial. For instance, in order to heal someone of a sickness, knowledge of the human body is a must, as is what the sickness is, and knowledge of other cures helps out as well. When trying to transform into an animal, the form, movement, and structure of the animal is required, else you become some sort of twisted mockery of it. Summoning requires some knowledge of the creature summoned, as well as placing mental bounds on what the creature can do, else it turn on you. Use of material components can lessen this need, as the components can provide a substitute for knowledge. For instance, using a twig as a component to create fire can lessen the knowledge needed because of the way it interacts with fire.
The material component needed is highly dependent on what one is trying to do. For instance, trying to conjure a fireball could perhaps use a small piece of wood, saltpeter, or the traditional bat guano. While larger material components could be used, they are much more impractical, as carrying around a twig is much easier than carrying an entire tree.
Souls are used in a similar matter, but there is a key difference. Souls are used as a kind of magnet to attract magic, but at great suffering to the soul. The raw currents of the magic flow through the soul, tearing it apart from the inside and eventually destroying it over the course of weeks f agony. That means that someone who is interested in souls needs a constant supply of them. If the soul of a mage or (Gods forbid) a wizard, then the soul is much more durable, and can last for years, or, in the case of the wizard, decades, as they are much more used to magic flowing through them.
More about Wizards (and golems):
Wizards are users of magic who capabilities are far above most other users of magic. These mighty men and women can change the entire course of history, and can fight toe to toe with entire civilizations. They are unrivaled sources of knowledge about the world, as knowledge is essential to gaining more power. However, they generally are aloof, and seldom care about furthering the knowledge of others. That being said, there are records of wizards who spent a great deal of time spreading their knowledge and using their power to help others, so there are indeed exceptions.
Because of the large amount of time they spend studying and experimenting, very few wizards will go without their golem servants. Golems are created to do tasks for the wizards, and can range from miners and wood cutters to brewers and farmers to military golems. The time it takes to create a golem makes them a chore to make, but the payoffs are vast. With an army of golems, a wizard doesn’t have to make his own food (they could conjure it, but few wizards learn enough about food to make it taste any good, much less make it entirely edible), build their own towers, fight off the goblins, or do anything but further their magical abilities.
Golems are made up of several components. By far the most important is the core. This is generally a glass sphere imbued with a large amount of magical energy. This energy acts kind of as the brain and the soul of the golem mixed into one source, and it powers the whole creation. When a wizard creates a core, it tells the core what tasks it wants it to do, and how to do them. Also, as a side effect of pouring so much magical energy into the core, the core gains a slight personality, though much more primitive than a humanoids. After that, the golem can perform that task, and even learn how to do it better than it as told to (though it learns at a much slower rate that a humanoid). If the wizard wants it do a different task, it has to directly access the core, and tell it to do something else. A wizard will typically inscribe a name onto the core, and will call the golem by that name. The core is the sole determiner of the capabilities of the golem, so if the wizard switches the cores of two golems, the capabilities and personalities of the two golems will switch as well. Finally, if a golem is destroyed, but the core maintains intact, if the core is placed in a new golem, the core will perform perfectly. If the core is damaged, the golem will perform tasks slower, will learn slower, and it may eventually shut down completely.
The rest of golems are composed of a torso, a head, and various appendages, not necessarily four, and not necessarily arms and legs. A golem could consist of four legs and a crossbow mounted on its head. Its four legs would provide additional mobility and stability, and the crossbow being mounted in its head would provide even more stability. Most wizards will choose to create a humanoid golem, as it is the most versatile of the forms.
Golems can last for years, but eventually their bodies will break down. However, the cores will not generally die off, and by switching out cores, golems can last forever, or al least until their core becomes damaged.
A wizard will come to a place that he wants to make his fort with a few golems, and during this time, he will be highly active in creating his fortress by conjuring various materials needed, and by overseeing the workings of his golems. Once things have more or less settled down, the wizard will then lets his golems do his work for him.
That is not to say that golems are his only servants. A wizard will attract individuals from all races that want to work for him, and wizards will generally pay well. It is not uncommon to see elves, dwarves, humans, and even the occasional goblin or kobold all living in houses (or underground) next to a wizard’s tower. Not that every wizard wants to deal with these interlopers, some wizards will completely shut themselves off from everyone else, a kill those who try and disturb his peace.
The magic itself:
Magic is life. Magic is energy, flowing all around us at all times. However, magic is much easier to manipulate than other energy, prefers certain areas to others.
(Honestly, I haven’t put a lot of thought into this. I think that magic have a fair distribution all over the world, perhaps a little stronger in some places than others, but I don’t think it should have streams. However, streams would fit the setting of this world better, and would be interesting.
One idea involving streams that I had was that there are two kinds of magic flows in the world, good flows and evil flows. Evil areas are where there are no good flows, and good areas have no evil flows. There are perhaps some naturally created areas, but more common is that evil flows would not enter areas where the land has been blessed, and good flows will not enter areas that have been defiled. These could occur thanks to certain events, or even due to individual’s efforts.)
To wrap it all up:
I created a (I hope) large diversity of different kinds of wizards in this write up. I tried to think of ways that each one of them could be interesting.
I wanted to create a system that could have both all-powerful wizards, and your typical adventuring wizard. I hope I created a system that was worth reading about, as it is admittedly very long, and perhaps tedious. Thank you for reading this.
[EDIT: cleaned it up a bit]
[ February 26, 2008: Message edited by: mutant mell ]
Maybe have dwarves favor runes (for artifact empowering), goblins favor curses and the like, elves the nature magics, humans and kobolds are generalists.
Being attacked by an angered wizards battle golems sounds like fun, like a small army of bronze collosi. With the harvistable cores you could make all kinds of interesting things, like golen powered magma pumps... that could turn on you.
It makes sense too, I mean, why would a mega-wizard sully his hands and waste his time adventuring for some petty Elven druid? Especially when he could send a team of golems.
EDIT: I had a couple things I forgot to say about magic, and I didn't want to make the mmain post even longer, so I put them here.
What you can do with magic:
You can do nearly anything with magic, but figuring out the best way to accomplish something is hard at times. For instance, in conjuring a ray of heat, that involve conjuring heat from either some nearby source, such as a fire, or even yourself, or it would involve conjuring heat from a far-away source, even another plane.
I said that the physical has limits; the mind seems to be limitless. So, you can do most anything with the mind, some things just require more time and research. You can attempt to do anything from moving objects to placing a fiery tongue on a sword, to conjuring a sword made out of some ancient material, to finding a loved-one long ago captured. You just have to puzzle your way through how to do it.
A note about Cosmos:
I said that cosmos was an element earlier; I included it for a very specific reason. It is the “force” element, so things that have a magical energy, but seem to have no particular elemental affinity, they are the element of cosmos.
[ February 26, 2008: Message edited by: mutant mell ]
If only one wizard exists every generation, what happens when the player abandons their wizard fort? Would they be allowed to advance one year and generate a new wizard? Or does the game need to generate 100+ years of history until the next wizard shows up?
The part about summoning seems to contradict with the souls part. It seems to imply that a wizard or mage with significant power and knowledge could over time create an infinite supply of any creature of their choosing, and since all creature have souls they would have an infinite supply of souls. And since they created these souls, there would be no ethical dilemma in chopping out their soul for the soul powered magics.
I think summoning would work better as a type of teleportation spell, but the party being teleported did not necessarily give their permission to be teleported. I think this would also add a fun feature to wizard mode: if you want to summon a powerful demon, go ahead! But you'll need to best it in combat before it will swear loyalty to you.
The part about magic being equally taxing as actually doing the task without magic doesn't make sense to me. Sure it makes sense for digging a hole, but what about shooting a lightning bolt with enough energy to kill a human? Wouldn't you need to experience the same amount of energy as the target, possibly killing yourself? And exactly how would this transfer into a mana type system for the in game adventurer?
The part you added in your last post about magic being able to do nearly anything... Obviously that would be awesome, but I don't think its feasible to have such a robust system in a game.
Overall though, your ideas could make magic a lot of fun in DF.
quote:
Originally posted by Speeeedy:
<STRONG>I've read through your post and I can tell you put a lot of thought into it. I especially like the wizard idea, it has a lot of potential for being a fun new game mode. However, some parts of your theory need to be fleshed out more to be usable in a game:If only one wizard exists every generation, what happens when the player abandons their wizard fort? Would they be allowed to advance one year and generate a new wizard? Or does the game need to generate 100+ years of history until the next wizard shows up?</STRONG>
I was thinking when I made this that the game would assume that in 1051, there was a single wizard in the game that had yet to make a tower, and that ~2 other wizards had established towers somewhere else in the world. You could make peaceful contact with them, or declare war on them, or something else. If he died, then you wouldn’t be able to create a new wizard tower for a while, until a couple years later.
Obviously, this puts a lot of pressure on the player to keep the wizard alive, more so than a regular fortress has, so there’s a couple ways around it. The first is to skip ahead ~60 years, like you said, for another wizard to generate, or the game could create a new wizard when the old one dies, and then you could start over again. Perhaps the game wouldn't even allow the player to create a new Tower for a while.
quote:
<STRONG>The part about summoning seems to contradict with the souls part. It seems to imply that a wizard or mage with significant power and knowledge could over time create an infinite supply of any creature of their choosing, and since all creature have souls they would have an infinite supply of souls. And since they created these souls, there would be no ethical dilemma in chopping out their soul for the soul powered magics.I think summoning would work better as a type of teleportation spell, but the party being teleported did not necessarily give their permission to be teleported. I think this would also add a fun feature to wizard mode: if you want to summon a powerful demon, go ahead! But you'll need to best it in combat before it will swear loyalty to you.</STRONG>
Whenever I saw summoning, I mean for it to be a teleportation-type of spell. Sorry about that, it’s a house-rule whenever I play PnP RPGs (summoned creatures actually exist somewhere, they aren't spontaneously created), and I assume that that is the way most people think of summoning spells. Bad habit of mine.
quote:
<STRONG>The part about magic being equally taxing as actually doing the task without magic doesn't make sense to me. Sure it makes sense for digging a hole, but what about shooting a lightning bolt with enough energy to kill a human? Wouldn't you need to experience the same amount of energy as the target, possibly killing yourself? And exactly how would this transfer into a mana type system for the in game adventurer?</STRONG>
A few things about this: I meant it to be a baseline for basic tasks, and for it to be a stricter on people who are playing new wizards or mages. When just trying out magic for the first time, a mage will find it perhaps more challenging than physically digging the hole. As he mentally digs more and more holes, he will be able to tolerate it more. Also, whenever I said that it takes an equal amount of energy, I really meant an equal amount of fatigue. The way I thought of it, the mind is much better at handling fatigue than the body is. Because of this, the mind can handle a lot more than the rest of the body could, and could handle doing the impossible. Once you start doing the impossible, you have to start the process over again. So, just think of it like this: a mental task requires a similar amount of fatigue of the similar mental task. Once you start doing the impossible, it takes more mental strength, but the mind is now more capable of handling it.
And as for how it would work into a mana-type system, I was hoping to do away with mana entirely. I hate mana-based systems, about as much as I hate HP is computer games. If you wanted, you could think of the character having a “fatigue-meter,” and when the meter is low, you cannot cast your spells properly. Only in addition to that, you couldn’t hold a sword as well, you couldn’t dodge as well, and you’d get more and more exhausted. And you could still cast your spells when your meter is too “low,” at that point, you’d collapse from exhaustion as your body tries to recuperate, and perhaps you’d use so much of your bodies energy that you’d die. It’d make a valiant last stand effect, casting fireballs at a swarm of goblins, and when you kill the last archer, you collapse from the combination of physical and mental bruising, and die. Bards would sing about your last-stand for ages to come.
quote:
<STRONG>The part you added in your last post about magic being able to do nearly anything... Obviously that would be awesome, but I don't think its feasible to have such a robust system in a game.</STRONG>
I said that mostly to try and set a mood. A mage can accomplish a lot more than a “normal” person could, but they cannot actually do everything.
quote:
<STRONG>Overall though, your ideas could make magic a lot of fun in DF.</STRONG>
Thanks, it was a lot of fun writing it. I don’t have anyone around here to bounce ideas off of for a magic system, so I don’t generally have people look at my ideas and whatnot. Any other criticism or comments anyone could add would be helpful. I just hope this helps out Toady when he starts magic.
EDIT 2: I don't want to bump this, but I have some more things to say about this.
My ideas would go well with two other ideas: Splitting up skills into the core components (work, material, etc), and allowing the user to go back to world generation whenever they want to, advancing the world several years. The skills part would allow wizards that have spent a lot of time doing, say woodworking, to have greater affinity with wood, and be able to have greater magical prowess with wood. Allowing world generation to happen after the player has played in a world.
[ March 05, 2008: Message edited by: mutant mell ]
An except from a lecture on runic magic:
"There is magic in words, shapes, symbols, and forms. These symbols can trap magic, and make the object display supernatural phenomena, such as combustion without fuel or heat, can spontaneously make water, make the hardest steel soft as silk, can prolong life in those near death, and suck the life out of someone, leaving them a mere shell of their former self.
Dwarfs are good at this. They can feel the power behind shapes and forms, and can feel their way through the creation of such items. We humans have no such luck. We have to reference books, and we have to get down the symbols perfectly, for even a small change in the symbol can leave it powerless, or worse, give it an unintended effect. The best runemasters amongst us studied with the dwarfs, and even they make constant mistakes. The dwarfs have us beaten in that aspect, for sure.
But while they may be good with symbols, we are not entirely behind them, for we are good with casting. It makes sense, as we a flighty beings, wanting to have flash and fame while we live; the dwarfs want to make things that last ages. However, that is not true of all dwarfs. There are a few dwarf wizards, some sitting in on this very lecture. Like how we send them humans, they send us dwarfs to learn our craft. And the best dwarf wizard has enough power to rival any one of us, I'll tell you this."
"While the runes themselves draw magic to them, that does little good if the rune cannot hold onto the magic for any period of time. For instance, if one merely carves a rune into a tree, for instance, the tree will be slightly magical, but the magic will not do anything. However, if I took a small amount of gold leaf, and put it inside the carvings, the magic would be able to gather and stay in the rune, and magically enhance the tree.
Gold is a common material to use in runes; magic seems to be magnetically attracted to it. However, that is a topic for another day. Other materials work, but some only have limited uses, or are also expensive. For instance, the mythical Adamantine is said to not only draw upon magic, but also seems to create it. Among the more mundane materials include gypsum, which is used in fireproofing, liquefied plant material, and even blood. While the material may seem like it would rub off or disappear, the magic inherent in the material and the shape will cause it to, shall we say, stick around. Iron is a material that does not seem to work well at attracting magic, but iron weapons and other things will still accept magic from a rune inscribed on them.
There are mainly two different kinds of runes: inscribed and attached. Inscribed runes are ones that are etched directly onto the object; these runes tend to be more powerful, but cannot be easily removed, as we will get to in a minute. Attacked runes are generally etched on a plate of some sort, which is then attached to an object in a manner that is called a "conduit." Like water flowing through a canal, magic flows out of the plate and into the object. While this may seem superior, the magic is not as inherent in the attached object, and the magic tends to be weaker and shorter-lived. So, while both have their advantages, you need to think carefully.
As I mentioned earlier, there are limits to runic magic. For one, inscribed runes can not be easily removed. Removing magic from a source so suddenly spells (pardon the pun) disaster. It requires more magic to remove it, but again thats a subject for later. Also, while an object could theoretically have as many runes as there is surface area for it, there is indeed an upper limit. Objects can only take so much magical abuse before they disintegrate into nothingness. While some objects may take magic readily, it is still foreign to them, and like a body with leprosy, will die off. One exception to this rule is dwarf artifacts. While taken by a "mood," a dwarf can force a seemingly infinite amount of runes onto an object. There is no explanation as to why this is by the dwarfs, and they don't even seem to understand it.
So, in the little time we have left, I have a task for you. On the table behind me in sheep leather and powdered gypsum, as well as inked copies of the rune of "fireproofing." For this task, you will take one of the provided knives, and will very shallowly cut out the rune onto the leather. Then, you will take the powdered gypsum and lightly dust the inside of the cuts. If you did it right, then the leather will not burn when exposed to a flame. Small variations in the pattern will result in nothing happening, but I must warn against experimenting with your own designs. People have been known to destroy entire villages by experimenting like that."
Also a bump in disguise.
make sure that those who wish are not technically obligated to conform to D&D stereotypes of club-wielding, undead-turning, robed HP-restorers
I wasn't sure as to whether I wanted to resurrect this post or whether I should start another one. In the end I chose to resurrect.
"Divine magic is all about healing and protective spells"
And who said thing about dwarves having magic? I'd figure them more Siege engining, skull-stomping, hammer-wielding, axe-tossing manic lunatics then magic users. You don't need magic to freeze someone solid when you're a dwarf. You use SCIENCE. Perhaps mixed with a teeny bit of applied magic, like alchemy, bastard child of chemistry and wizards.
Dwarven magic is better known as short bearded guys kicking physics in the nuts.
Why would divine magic be about healing and protection if the deity involved has jack to do with those concepts? Just saying.
To summarize and expand upon the original suggestion and several others that have come up (note, this contains a lot of my own interpretation):Focus and ControlMagic is a form of energy that can be accessed by anyone, assuming that person has the right qualities. Two main characteristics are related to this: focus and control. Focus indicates how much magical power a being can actually call upon, and control determines it's ability to shape this raw power into something useful.
Both focus and control have a natural component, but they can be amplified in various ways, depending on the characteristics of the creature. This means that someone who has little natural focus could in theory become very powerful when given the right kind of stimulant. However, someone who's focus has been boosted strongly might not have enough control to actually shape it to their will, possibly resulting in a lot of fun.
The stimulants that can amplify control and focus depend highly on personal and racial characteristics and affinity for stimulants might develop over time. Here's a proposal of how this could be divided, though it's by no means complete:
In general, elves are more susceptible to natural substances, poetry and fine gestures.
Humans use many gestures, combined with words or sentences with mystical meaning. In general they are also more susceptible to gems and precious metal.
Dwarves are most susceptible to runes as well as different metal and stone types.
Goblins draw a lot of power from bones and meat and are also very susceptible to shiny objects.
Which stimulants a person is susceptible to is also very dependent upon their surroundings when they learn magic and what they come into contact with under pressure, though this may also affect it in a bad way.The actual process of magicMagic involves calling upon the free magical energy that is available and in general using one's body as a cataclyst. This means that someone with a high focus must also be able to contain and channel the energy and that the use of magic puts a big strain on the body and soul. As said, the use of magic costs as much constitution as actually doing it, though the drain is spread in another way and the mind is more capable of handling the strain.
Calling upon a God is a good way to ensure that you can channel the energy in a safe way. A god can either directly grant the request (which happens rarely) or aid the user by giving them the means to channel and contain magic needed to generate a similar effect. This means that priests relying on their gods must still be skilled in the way of magic to maximize this potential, and they need to have a very strong bond with their god, or else he might not help ;)
Using magic in this way also means that the body itself must be able to contain the magic. Magic users drawing upon the plane of fire to create a gout of fire will generally burn themselves, though the damage can be limited by feeding the magic through the fingertips or using other objects as focal points, even though it's not possible to completely eradicate the problem.
These focal points are usually light objects that can be pointed and held far from the body (for safety measures), meaning most magic users use a staff or wand (usually containing or made of a stimulant), even though a spear would also do. Pretty much any object could be used when it's in a good position or the magic user is skilled enough to channel the energy in the right way. Casters can of course aid each other by focusing their energy into the same focal points to generate effects a single magic user could not create, but this means that each of the casters must be trying to achieve the exact same effect, or else the spells will interfere.
As said, when creating a magical effect in any way, the caster must be able to imagine the process and the effect. Usually this requires a lot of knowledge, though many things can be learned through trail and error, especially when it comes to destructive effects and effects that change the properties of objects.
One last interesting thing about focal points is that it is possible to partially focus an effect into it. The spell has been evoked but not yet completed. This means that anyone who is capable of focusing enough energy into the focal point can unleash the spell. The amount of energy a magic user can focus before a spell actually "goes off" depends largely on their skill level. A champion magic user can imbue items in such a way that even someone who's completely oblivious about the ways of magic can use it.
Potions work in a similar way. They are a combination of stimulants that are known to generate specific effects in most and they are imbued with additional spells. The net effect of this combination is that the consumption of a potion will directly unleash the spells inside, at least in most cases. This also means that many potions are race specific and some are gender specific.
Alright Ive seen this a lot... why do people sometimes make their whole post a quote of what was already said in the same topic? is it a way of agreeing?
HEY! I didn't quote myself, now did I ???
All I did was try to modify my original post, so that might be the problem...
Any comments on my idea?
The machines you mean? There just for if u dont have mages. My idea of the casting system is so theres not a preset set of spells, u cud have spells, and the player shud be able to make them.
Personally I feel that most of the ideas here are too formulaic and fundamentally much closer to scientific systems than occult magicks.
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1) Magic is fundamentally about dealing with things unknown or alien. If the in and out are utterly controllable and calculatable then you haven't got a system of magic per-say, rather odd science.
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3) Magic is dangerous. A wizard maintains control through skill and knowledge - but her knowledge is never truly complete. Ultimately mages will become over confident and meddle with something outside their knowledge. Power should rarely be personal, but rather come from discovery, deals with powerful otherworldly entities and ancient fundamental knowledge of existance.
3) Magic is not God. ... I think it is important that any existing physical powers remain disconnected from any theological being.
When thinking magic think old-school. Think Merlin, Sauron, the Faerie (and their fucked up lands); think deep powers, demons, hell - Cthulu!
If magic isn't inheriantly dangerous and/or difficult you run the gauntlet of making it everyday. That WILL kill it, as will making it too weak or too flashy and obvious. I support folklore, druids and spiritual leaders of all kinds in communities. I am totally against a Gandalf in every Human town and a Legendary Runemaster in every Dwarven fort.
There exist beings beyond the capacity of the minds of humans (and demihumans) to comprehend. Dwelling beyond the Outer Planes that define the human concept of the afterlife, these creatures are ancient, inscrutable, tremendously powerful and unbelievably alien. ... The Alienist is a spellcaster who has devoted herself wholly to the intensely esoteric practice of summoning and dealing with these beings. Most would call her a madwoman, a crazed and irresponsible cultist that endangers the safety of all of Theyra. For some Alienists this accusation is true, while others are more responsible — but no less feared or hated. The most common motive among alienists is knowledge — knowledge of concepts and ideas that cannot exist in a stable manner in our reality and thus must be experienced firsthand in order to be understood, since human languages lack the terms to express them. This search for ultimate knowledge drives many alienists to enlightenment, damnation or both.
Alienists are not, by their nature, stable beings. They are driven by inhuman desire and exposed to unknowable secrets and eldritch beings, and as a result their minds are often deeply fractured and the majority of them are no longer able to relate to their original race in any normal way.
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* Surreal Presence — The sense that there is something faintly off, something wrong about the alienist crystalizes to a razor-sharp clarity at 3rd level, and she gains the benefit (or curse) of a constantly active spook spell as an innate supernatural ability.
* Mad Certainty — At 4th level, the alienist's fanatical devotion gives her a kind of ability to ignore physical harm and pursue her obsession with an utterly inhuman resilience even in the face of crippling wounds. She gains Toughness as a bonus feat and a +10 bonus to the Concentration skill.
* Visitation — At 5th level, the alienist may use contact other plane at will as an innate spell-like ability.
* Inhuman Allies — At 6th level, the alienist gains the ability to invoke ancient pacts between the harbringers of the Outer Rim and their Outer Ones' more modern spawn. Aberrations are neutral to her unless she breaks the pact by taking some hostile action against them.
* Feverish Obsession — Upon reaching 7th level, the alienist becomes so driven and devoted that she develops an inhuman kind of vigor, working beyond the established limits of the human body. She thus regenerates fatigue points just as dwarves do.
* Psychic Mortification — At 8th level, the alienist's mind has become so scorched by outer horrors that mortal traumas no longer have the ability to damage it — her Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma are sustained at 5 points each.
* Sanity-Blasting Spellcasting — At 9th level, the alienist's methods of spellcasting are so otherworldly and alien that any creature of CR 7 or lower who sees her cast a spell takes 1d2 points of Wisdom damage.
* Distant Apotheosis — At 10th level, the alienist becomes a fundamentally alien creature herself, developing trememdously increased physical resistance. She gains immunity to critical hits, no longer needs to breathe or eat and does not age.