76 replies to this topic

[NiGHTMARE]

I like the idea of mana for spellcasting, but I also feel it would be interesting if the different races were to access magic in different ways.

Dwarves: spells cast from runes
Elves: spells don't need any material components, rather they summon the energy from the surrounding land
Gnomes: don't cast spells, as they much prefer using various gadgets
Humans: spells cast from spell books

Of course these are all generalizations. There could, for example, be a tribe of northern humans who have adopted the dwarven runes as their own, an "anti-technology" gnomish faction, etc.

If there are priests included in the setting, perhaps make them capable of chanelling awesome amounts of power from their gods, but restrict them to NPCs only (i.e. people can't actually play them). Of course, there could be PCs who are working to become a priest.

Edited by NiGHTMARE, 24 June 2004 - 09:42 AM.

[raptor]

Take a look at Psionist handbook, they have a working "manapoint" system for psionics, easilly ported over to the arcane/divine system already in use in D&D. All the Psionic spells7powers have static "point" cost dependentupon level so just use same numbers for same level of spells on arcane/divine

[Schatten]

never played ultima games?
its like that:
you have a rune for the power of the spell.
less powerfull is like em, then de, then wo, then sat, then gae and the most powerfull rune only a handfull of mages can master is um for example.
then you have a rune for element
mau for cold, ige for fire, quas for time, ful for air, nog for negative element.....

then you have runes to put the spell in forms and shape
li is to make a person or object invis
seg is for clouds
heto is death

then you have runes to put the spell in a certain way
okur to do good things
tom the light
ku for summoning things to fight


then you use these runes to cast spells

like vi bro neta for first aid. the very first rune is the rune to adjust the power. with em its weak and with gae its powerfull. the total power of the spell depends also of the other runes. powerfull runes use much energy and are hard to master.
this way you can create lots of spells and even players can do on their own with the dm.
its basically based on ultima and dungeon master if you know those games.
i have dozens of different runes (with description, lots of self made ones) so you can create lots of spells.

Edited by Schatten, 24 June 2004 - 10:11 AM.

[Cryomancer]

My idea of a new race (I guess you could consider them as a subrace of elves)
Aunedhel: Celestial elf-like beings, who have a direct spiritual link to the divine power(s). Not as powerful as angels, aunedhel can be killed by any normal means, but unless you somehow destroy their remains, by fire, disintegration, whatever, they will be resurrected within 3 days. Aunedhel live in floating cities high above the clouds. Before they can achieve adulthood, every aunedhel must make a journey to the skies below the clouds. They travel on the backs of various good and neutral aligned flying creatures, like sphinxes, griffins, pegasi, and giant eagles. Each aunedhel is born at the same time as their steed animal, which is also the aunedhel's closest friend and companion. An aunedhel and his steed are telepathically and spiritually linked, i.e., only a certain aunedhel can talk to his steed, and vice versa. If a steed should die of any unnatural causes, the aunedhel goes into shock and then a coma, and has a chance of dying. When they come out of the coma, they are drained physically, mentally, and spiritually. An aunedhel CANNOT have any other steeds. However, if the aunedhel were to die, his/her steed would instantly die. Every aunedhel eventually receives incredibly spiritual abilities granted by the powers, such as creating spears and blades of pure light, and the more wizardly gifted aunedhel are able to manipulate pure light for destructive and helpful purposes. Their priests are capable of summoning creatures of pure fire and light, and use the power of their patron deity to perform miraculous healing feats. Also, due to their great agility, Aunedhel are capable of performing incredible feats with time. These feats include but are not limited to:
riding on their steed with no form of saddle or control, being able to stand up on their steed during flight, and even being able to fight an enemy from the back of his steed while his steed is fighting also. When aunedhel reach the extremes of their abilities, they can leap from their steed in midflight onto the steed of an enemy, or onto an enemy. When they go into battle, they don crystal chain mail, and use bows and arrows of diamond with rubies, emeralds, and sapphires encrusting their beautiful weapons. For the steedless aunedhel, they use gigantic wooden ships held aloft by as many as 100 giant eagles. They are aligned with all good flying creatures, especially gold and silver dragons. They slay any evil creatures where they can find them, such as evil dragons, harpies, manticores and other evil beings. Aunedhel are most often of a lawful good alignment, but only pertaining to their own laws. When dealing with outsiders, they are usually chaotic good. There have been rare cases when a house of aunedhel would be corrupted by an evil deity, turning their alignment to evil of any type. Very rarely are any of them neutral. Due to many of them not even realizing the existence of the ground, they suffer severe penalties to dexterity if they're on the ground. If any aunedhel happens to fall beneath the clouds after their journey to adulthood, they are presumed dead and lose their divine abilities.

Sorry it's so long...I just love the aunedhel, I'm really proud of myself for coming up with them...

[Mongoose87]

I liek the idea of the mana point system. in the past I've found that I end up with the least amount of frustration with such a system.

[Xaositect_Crayon]

Why not instead of splitting the mage classes by schools we split it by casting methods

Like this (for example)

Book Mage (typical DnD style)

Symbolist (uses blank scrolls and writes sets of symbols to focus his magic)

ect....


Race:
Ta Sai
Four armed humanoids of incredible speed and percision.
Stats:
+2 to dex
-2 to str.
they gain half the hp bonuses for constitution however they do get extra saving throws vs. poison/death and breath attacks in place of it.

Can wield 4 weapons or 2 main weapons and a shield.

what if we take and scrap spells for the bard class and replace them with the ability to select your own bard songs.
You learn them just like spells (memorise them and put them in your song book) and use them like bard songs (you can use them as many times as you want but you cant do anything while you are singing them)

Does everyone like the idea of the exotic jungle world? I guess the best way to describe what I meen is in those sci fi movies they have the jungle planets that have huge maneating plants and whatnot. Like that except without weird alien technoledgy...

[Cryomancer]

I was also thinking about having elementalists. They're not mages, or druids, or clerics, they're just elementalists. They are like a mage in that they can cast spells, but they can't cast spells of their opposite element. Pyromancer, Cryomancer, Electromancer, Hydromancer, etc.

[Shadow Angel]

Another race: the Lilarium
Most members of this race appear to be inhumanly beautiful women with feathered wings in the darker shades of gray with many unuasual shades of hair colors. The few males of the species commune with whatever dark powers they worship. Though mortal, these exiles from the unseelie court still wield great powers in the areas of illusion, air and weather magic.

Their strongholds appear to be crafted of multicolored glass and are found amid the lower layers of clouds and the tops of the few mountains that rise above the jungle. Amonst themselves, they are honorable and caring(LG) but to any outsiders, espcially those weaker, they are cruel(LE). Prone to enslave the unflighted races to work in their mines, their greatest pleasure is on those rare occasions when they can capture and sacrifice one of the Aunedhel in unholy rituals.

Their weapons and armour are crafted from a type of glass that is just as strong as steel but with half the weight. These items compromise most of their trade goods to others in exchange for food and slaves.

The Lilarium are an agile race but lacking in physical strenght. Their eyesight is exceptianally good, both day and night. Due to their airborn lifestyle, they exibite some minor resistance to both cold and electrical damage.

Their prerfered means of combat is swift ranged strikes interspaced with equally quick withdrawals.

One thing that stands out is that none of these beings is found with red hair. This is due to an ancient prophcy that a Lilarium born with hair of flame will destroy them. Any born with such hair is sacrificed.

The average lifespan is about eight centuries with the oldest living to near a thousand.

[Cryomancer]

Oooh, I foresee some interesting battles between the Aunedhel and Lilarium...

New Exotic Weapon: Tejota (made-up name) In essense it's a double flail katana. There is a 3 foot long wooden pole that you hold with both hands. From both ends 4 foot long chains extend, ending in 3 foot long katana blades. It does 1d12+2/1s12+2 damage. If someone tries to wield this weapon with no proficiency, they will never hit anything no matter what, have a 75% chance of hitting an ally, a 50% chance to hit themselves, and a 25% chance to kill themselves by accident. When a person gets Grand Mastery (or the equivalent of it in this setting) with the Tejota, theyare able to try to disarm an opponent 3 times a day by wrapping one of the chains around the weapon and yanking it out of the enemies hands. The person can choose to get a spin ability usable once per day. Spins the tejota around in a 360 degree arc,knocking small creatures back and dealing out damage. WHen the user reaches level 18, they can choose to get a Bind move, where he/she throws the Tejota at an enemy, and the chains wrap around, preventing further movement from the enemy. There is a 5% chance that the victim is decapitated by the blades. There is always a 1% chance of decapitating an enemy regardless of race, resistances, or size.

Seemingly overpowered, I know, but if we make it really hard to find one of these and by the time we find it we'll need it, it won't be so overpowered.

[Mongoose87]

And if it's rare no one will take proficincy in it, so when they find it, they're dieing to gain a level so they can use it.

[Ziggy]

I think there should be a species that can't use magic, instead they get bonuses for clericle spells or weapon profincencies and gain high magic resistances. Also if orc or half orcs are used they should hav minor magic abilities but make very weak mages.

Edited by Ziggy, 27 June 2004 - 01:20 PM.

[Cryomancer]

Are you thinking of a race that actually cannot use magic, whether because of physical/mental limitations or are prevented doing so by someone/something else, or a race that CAN cast magic, but prefers not to? I think it would be neat to make an anti-magic race.

[Mongoose87]

Mantorelles
Not a true race, but rather a split off group of humans who seprated themselves from the mainstream of society for ethical reasons. Highly fanatical worshippers of Obliv God of Ignorance, they felt that society's vast libraries of knowledge were a blight on the world and there was only one way to elimnate them. The Mantorelles are now rarely seen in public and are biding their time while they plot to elimate knowledge.
Mantorelles recieve 10% magic resistance and a 100% spell casting failure for any who attempt to cast spells, as a "gift" from their god. They are however, highly gifted at the use of clerical spells, but may cast none that increase their knowledge of anything. Thus they recieve a -2 penalty to intelligence and a +2 bonus to wisdom.

Edited by Mongoose87, 27 June 2004 - 02:54 PM.

[Cryomancer]

If they hated knowledge doesn't that mean that they themselves woudldn't know anything? Like knowing they hate knowledge.

[Xaositect_Crayon]

what about have tribes for human subraces
like bone tribe
City Dwellers (most men)
ect....

[Mongoose87]

I think most human subraces SHOULd originate fro mthe climate in which their more ancient ancestors lived.

[kirkjobsluder]

Well hrm. I've been thinking about this while reading the Glasswright series (really nice fantasy with no stupid talking critters) and a caste system would be really interesting with NPC reactions being determined by your caste and within your caste, your guild.

Re-working the magic system to be more practical would also be an interesting idea. Some of the sub-classes of mages might include:

Player: A mage that performs or assists performing arts with bonuses to charm and illusion spells.

Smith: A mage that assists in the crafting of objects with bonuses for enchantment and alteration.

Trader: Divination and charm?

Elementalist mages would be good also.

[Xaositect_Crayon]

I think most human subraces SHOULd originate fro mthe climate in which their more ancient ancestors lived.

maybe.... but I like the idea of primitive worlds.... like early darkage celtic stuff (as an example)

[kirkjobsluder]

I think most human subraces SHOULd originate fro mthe climate in which their more ancient ancestors lived.

maybe.... but I like the idea of primitive worlds.... like early darkage celtic stuff (as an example)

I think that in many ways we underestimate the technical sophistocation of the celts and other Northern European cultural groups primarily because they worked in wood rather than mud brick.

[Xaositect_Crayon]

hmmmm I guess what I meen is that I prefer the worlds were we ARE the ancient civilizations you stem from