Anyway, unlike the (skill-based) Dark Fantasy Basic, it will rely a lot more on ability socres. Classes are almost optional.
And I'm making things a lot more flexible than I initially expected. For example, you can attack with Dexterity with any melee weapon, basically, but the damage still relies on Strength. I'm trying to balance "making each ability point matter" with "do what you will": you can make a magic-user with high Intelligence, high Charisma... or, ideally, both will be useful. I want all these concepts to be viable.
Of course, this is easier said than done. But here is what I've got so far...
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(Notice that ALL spells require dice rolling. And yes, there will be spell failures... something I'll tackle next)
There are a couple reasons behind this decision. First, Wisdom is a powerful "defensive" stat, so it is unlikely to be dumped. Making it a little less powerful "offensively" makes sense and avoids encouraging every single character to pick Wisdom.
But there are some "flavor" reasons as well. In 5e, Wisdom is associated with Clerics, but also Monks, Druids... characters that are better at healing/boosting more than attacking (fireballing) their enemies. And Wisdom seems like a good ability for both empathy and finding stuff. Of course, you can make an "evil cleric" or "firebender monk", but that would take a feat.
Charisma and Intelligence are a bit harder to distinguish. Remember, I WANT there to be a huge overlap between these two, to maximize the number os choices available... But SOME distinction would be nice.
Right now, I'm leaning towards:
- "Charm" spells and other mind-controlling effects rely exclusively on Charisma.
- Illusion spells and the like rely exclusively on Intelligence.
Not sure about the last one. I guess I could imagine an illusionist sorcerer. But anyway, feels like a good start.
One last thing... I wrote a few names form spell-casting "classes". They use Int or Cha. I've got Wizard, Sorcerer, Witch and... having a hard time with the last one. Illusionist, Necromancer, Pyromancer, are all very cool, but too specialized. Maybe Summoner is better. I want something that sounds instantly recognizable, and that relies on very high Int, high Cha, and low Wis.
Any ideas on the matter would be appreciated!
Any ideas on the matter would be appreciated!
A thought on Spellcaster Names: Seer, Empath, or Magus. Hard to think of any that really is low Wisdom though.
ReplyDeleteThoughts on general theme of different spell casting stats, example of capabilities for method is water breathing.
- Intelligence - strong on picking up patterns in systems and behaviour. Works really well on inanimate objects/forces, so/so on beasts/outsiders (animals are driven by natural urges, outsiders are similarly compelled), terrible at dealing with people, emotions. Could heal perhaps, but either minor injuries (Cure Wounds) or crafting replacements for prosthetics for example. This style approaches water breathing as filtering oxygen from the water until the spell filter fails.
- Wisdom - Sort of the Jack of all Trade stat. Can use insight to determine patterns in things, but not enough to do illusions or manipulate forces very delicately. However, it is very good at studying people, but doesn't inherently provide the drive for direct offensive abilities. So you have your discerning spells and insight on the best course of action. Healing arts primarily fall under this domain because fixing living creature with magic requires high intuition. Perhaps all shapeshifting abilities fall under this as well. So Wisdom casters would shapeshift into a salmon to swim in the water. The danger is forgetting that you are in fact not a fish.
- Charisma - spell casting driven by passion/manipulating passion. Very good at manipulating people, or just blowing things up (think Fireball with no "anti friendly fire features"). Charisma driven solutions to things is very dramatic. Water breathing is just a bubble of air driven into the water that has a limited air supply.
I really like your approach!
DeleteI'm glad you like it! Perhaps there are ways to have a standard "build a spell from base cantrips" as a base system with casting style (as represented by the casting stat) granting specific modifiers (think of the effects of wizard specialisation or cleric domains in 5e).
DeleteThoughts on implementation:
- Int casters are more efficient in their spell casting. This includes reducing mana costs with certain base cantrips. I would group cantrips by theme (so "elementalist" would mean you are more efficient with elemental based spells, "warder" means all spells with the warding cantrip spell, etc.). You can reach similar ends through different means (Absorb X damage to be able to redirect would be a warder approach, while a elementalist would give you X dice of damage resistance to specific elements. The warder is more overall effective, but the elementalist may be more versatile)
- Wis casters can just do something different with chosen elements which are always prepared, but can swap out other cantrips. An example being taking a positive energy cantrip (base is something like Spare the Dying + aid on medicine checks) to have a Lay on Hand ability. This is what allows for the greater healing capability or shapeshifting (Polymorph changed to a Wildshape ability). Elemental abilities could give one ability to speak to related elementals and resistant to negative status effects (fire adepts don't suffer from hypothermia, ice adepts don't suffer from heat stroke, air adepts cannot suffocate, water adepts cannot be dehydrated, thunder cannot be silenced, lightning cannot be stunned, no idea for acid and poison (perhaps acid/poison are a singular element that protects against itself).
- Charisma casters only have a set number of cantrips, but they are all chosen elements like the Wisdom caster. Instead of being more efficent like Int casters, they have more spell points to spend.
How multiclassing would work is that chosen cantrips always counts towards cantrips known, but you can stack the casting style bonuses. For example if a Cha/Int caster has 3 cantrips under Cha, and 5 available cnatrips as an Int caster, they can only swap around 2 cantrips, but can sacrifice 1 of the free cantrips to apply both effects to a single cantrip. This means a Cha fire caster that also takes an int caster "elementalist approach" on fire is both efficent with fire and has a lot of spell points to put into fire manipulation. I don't know how Wis/Cha would interact. Perhaps the Wis and Cha caster get different passive bonuses from chosen cantrips that means there are no overlap to worry about.
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Hope this potentially provides some interesting ideas for you.