Difference between revisions of "OAAAA Magic"

Latest revision as of 15:39, 2 August 2008

Of Amor, Armor, and Alchemy

There are four types of magic: True Magic, Druidic, Divine and Hag.

True magic is taught in schools of magic. All spells for true magic must have the "requires a skill roll", gestures, and incantations disads. You must follow the school of the race/kingdom you pick, and your spells must fit this concept. In general, higher active points costs will be allowed for true magic than for the other two sets.

Druidic magic is based on calling on spirits of the world. Usually, what spells you can cast is largely dependent on what sorts of spirits are nearby, and your limitations on your spells should reflect this. In general, druidic spells ar the "weakest" and will be the most restricted in terms of active cost.

Hag magic, or witchery, is the magic of binding two things together: as such, it requires some token from each of the things being bound together. Example: A wants to curse B. for a witch to cast the hex, he/she would need something of value from A and from B. Hag magic can be very powerful, particularly alchemy, which has to a degree broken the traditional bounds of hag magic, but is limited by what was described above.

Divine Magic: Devout priests may be able to call on the aid of their god and his/her lesser avatars. All divine magic requires an activation roll, which may never exceed the "frequency roll" for the "code of conduct" psychological limitation that all priests must take. Divine magic can be powerful, but it is much less reliable than other types of magic.

Spell costs: spells cannot be purchased in frameworks. They must be bought with character points (full cost, NOT divided by 3): in the main fantasy book, it says that only if you want your characters to very easily have access to very powerful spells should you put a set cost divider in, and given how much XP y'all are getting, I don't want that. Spells other than divine spells must take the Skill roll limitation, battle magic must have the "spell" limitation: other limitations will likely be required (since all spells that are powers require GM approval, there will be a checkpoint for this). Divine spells must take the activation roll disad, with the max being their psych limitation for their faith.
Chances are very good that early in the game, high active point cost spells will not be allowed, or things that upset power balance too much. We've all played this system a lot, so I expect you all to have a sense for what might fall into that group.
Spells cost END. I will not allow an END reserve for spells at the beginning of the game. Characters may find unique magic items, such as staves or familiars, that grant such a benefit. Spells that do not cost END must initially be bought with the "costs END" disadvantage, though this may be bought off later.

Potions: I've read some of FH a bit more closely, and I will be using the following effects from the book. First, potion making rolls are made in secret by the GM. If you succeed, the GM will tell you, if you fail, the GM will tell you. If you roll an 18, the GM will tell you you have succeeded, when in fact you have failed. if you drink such a potion, you will suffer side effects to be determined by the GM: how severe they are will depend on the power of the potion. A character may burn a reroll to see the dice roll.
Additionally, drinking two different potions at the same time (or having two onboard simultaneously) can cause mixed effects: ie, there may be some undesired (but not necessarily useless) synergy between the potions.
Overall, I've made these decisions to keep spellcasters in line with other character types for power level: other characters get gearl, you get spells. Both things may be bought with boatloads of limitations to offset cost: gear is a little more functional in any situation, while spells have a wide range of powerful and flexible applications, so I think they are equal.

Notable Magical Ingredients of Power:

Black Lotus: arguably the most potent ingredient for druidic or alchemical uses, the Lotus is said to contain immense magical power. Unfortunately, it blooms only in the deepest, most dangerous swamps, and then only for a single night a year, in the new moon.
Diamond and other gemstones: Gemstones inherently channel and refract magical power; the purer the stone, the better they accomplish this. since they can filter magical energy, different stones are better for creating different magical effects. A highly unusual stone is the bloodstone, hematite, which is considered cursed: hematite is known to strongly interfere with healing magic of any kind. Obsidian is also considered a stone used primarily for dark magics.
Dragon Parts: Dragons are powerful magical creatures, and various parts of them are excellent for the creation of magical items, and for hag magic of all sorts.
Jungle Plants: The jungle to the east of Karthay is rumored to contain many magical plants found nowhere else in the world.