Mage Class Characters and Magic rules

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Kinslayer
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Mage Class Characters and Magic rules

Post by Kinslayer »

Last year some members of the site joined me in playtesting new ideas for magic in the Druchii.net RPG. In the end we came up with a new character class and opened two temporary playtesting groups, in which the magic system we came up with proved itself quite balanced and entertaining.

I have now taken the next step and introduced a Mage class character into my actual RPG Group. As such I needed to summarize those magic rules in one place.

So here are the official Mage & Magic rules, should you wish to use them.


Mage Class Characters

Character Class: Rogue Mage
minimum intelligence: 3
starting equipment: staff, dagger, robes
starting skills: any one power of Magic skill.


Power of Magic

If you are playing your RPG group with these magic rules, there are 24 new Skills added to the list of abilities available to characters. These are the power of magic skills, and some strict rules apply to them. Firstly, there are 8 spell groups, with 3 advancements in each one. Similarly to how a lot of other skills and abilities work, this means you must meet the prerequisites for each advancement before you can learn it. I will explain those now.

Power of Magic(1)
prerequisites - Mage OR Intelligence: 4.
the character has a certain amount of magical affinity, finding himself capable of small arcane feats with the powers of a particular wind of magic.

Power of Magic(2)
prerequisites - level one and Intelligence 5. Mages only!
the mage has a very keen amount of magical affinity, finding himself capable of great arcane feats with the powers of a particular wind of magic.

Power of Magic(3)
prerequisites - level two and Intelligence 6. Mages only!
the character has a strong level of magical affinity, finding himself capable of very powerful arcane feats with the powers of a particular wind of magic.


Further to simply picking a Power of Magic skill, you have to also select one specific Lore of Magic for that skill to follow.
Eg. Power of Aqshy(1), Power of Ulgu(2), Power of Chamon(3) etc

The 8 lores of magic and their basic descriptions are as follows:

Power of Aqshy (fire) - the character has a basic grasp on the fire element.
Power of Chamon (metal) - the character has the power to affect metals.
Power of Ulgu (shadow) - the character can twist shadows with their mind.
Power of Ghur (beasts) - the character has an unnatural affect on beasts.
Power of Azyr (heavens) - the character can call to the skies for power.
Power of Hysh (light) - the character can conjure light to expel the darkness.
Power of Ghyran (life) - the character can manipulate wounds with the mind.
Power of Shyish (death) - the character can summon the energies of death.



Finally, to give you a good idea of what each skill level let's you acheive with that lore, here are a few examples.

A Shade with Power of Ulgu(1) could attempt to manipulate the shadows about himself to better hide from his enemies.

A Warrior with Power of Ghyran(1) could attempt to heal his minor injuries after a fight without having to buy potions.

A Mage with Power of Shyish(1) could attempt to draw on the energy of recently killed foes to strengthen his own attacks.

A Mage with Power of Shyish(2) could attempt to draw on the energy of recently killed foes to strengthen himself and his allies.

A Mage with Power of Shyish(2) could attempt to plant the fear of death into his foes' mind, distracting and weakening them.

A Mage with Power of Shyish(3) could attempt to tear the soul of his foe straight out of his body, killing him without a touch.


Thus, you are no where near on par with a Hero level wizard in the tabletop game. Only the most powerful rogue mages can use their spells to any great devastating effect, but all mages and even other characters with magic skills possess the abilities to change events in their favour in some way.


Casting, Failing, and Miscasting.

Deciding how to work out when a character successfully casts a spell or not is really down to each individual groups' moderator, just as how working out how combats play out etc is too. For me, however, good quality posting is the most deciding factor and thus a well written post is more likely to see a spell cast than a badly posted one is. Of course, there is still a degree of randomess about it. You could be in a magical hotspot, or could find yourself near an opponent with some sort of nullstone. It usually all boils down to a dice roll, and the easier the spell you're trying to cast and the higher your power of magic level is, the more chance you have of succeeding.

For example, a Mage with Power of Aqshy(1) could attempt to light a brazier with his mind and would probably succeed most of the time. A Mage with Power of Aqshy(3) would no doubt cast such a spell successfully almost all the time. However, if the Mage with Power of Aqshy(1) tried to engulf an enemy in flames he might have a much harder time pulling it off, whereas the Mage with Power of Aqshy(3) would again succeed more often. Even higher level Mages have their limits though, and you will quickly learn in game what you can and can not do.

Miscasting is just the icing on the Magic cake. If you're a lowly Shade with a slight nack for pulling off Azyr related spells like drawing strength from the weather, and you suddenly try blasting the enemy commander off his feet with a bolt of golden lightning, the chances are you're going to fail. Badly.

If you decide to channel too much Magic, the results can be catastrophic, harming you and those around you, or in really severe cases causing a fatality.

Don't be foolish with your new arcane gifts!


~ Kinslayer,
RPG Moderator
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