On the Nature of Magic in Athanor

At first, I had thought there would be no magic in Athanor, at least not at first. One version of Athanor used the magic system from Grim Tales, while another used the D&D 3.5 version of rituals as presented in Unearthed Arcana. Another version used powers from True20, and still another tried to use psionics or psychic powers.

I have had trouble with magic and Athanor.

Part of me wants to dismiss with magic entirely, and be purely Sword and Planet. Another part of me wants difficult and grim rituals, and be heavily Sword and Sorcery, but in the end I decided to go with something that makes for easier game play and sacrifice a little flavor.

So what is magic on Athanor? Here are three options for why it exists in game:

1. Athanoran magic was purely psychic in nature. Thus magic-users have developed and trained psychic ability, rogues have a wild latent talent, and fighters have no psychic talent.
2. Athanoran magic involves binding spirits in service to the caster, which is why limited numbers of spells can be prepared. Casting spells involves commanding spirits to do a task. Failure to control a spirit means that it is freed from its bonds and obligation.
3. Athanoran magic is achieved by creating matrices of magical energy in the mid of the caster which allow direct, specific manipulation of matter and energy. The matrices are fragile, and failure to maintain proper control and guidance will cause the matrix to collapse.

Why it exists in metagame reasons, however, is to maintain a certain level of chaotic possiblity in the game, and to keep things just a little more interesting in play.

Back to thinking about a Chainmail-style Magic Table

Here I am resurrecting an old idea of using rules based on Chainmail to add a spellcasting roll to S&W magic. In the past, I had only gone as far as coming up with the casting table. But here is my rule set with some thought to how rogues fit into the big picture as well as spell failure and fumbles.

Note that using INT to modify the table results only works in the low-bonus world of Swords and Wizardry. Other forms of xD&D may not fare as well. Also, I'm thinking I may need to tweak the Spell Advancement tables to give more spells to prepare for it to work to my happiness.

---

PREPARING SPELLS
Each morning, magic-users and rogues may prepare spells as listed on the Spell Advancement table for their classes.

Casting from Scrolls and Spellbooks
Spells on scrolls are treated as prepared spells in this system. A failed casting erases the spell from the scroll, as does copying the spell into a spellbook. Spellbooks may also be used as scrolls in a pinch (if the caster can find the spell in time), though this is best left for very dire circumstances, since it may cause a character to lose his only copy of a spell if he fails in a spell roll.

CASTING SPELLS
To cast a spell, Magic-users and Rogues use the Spellcasting Success table. Magic-users use their character level as their caster level. Rogues use their level/2 (rounded down), which means that level 1 rogues have no ability to cast spells. Characters may add their Intelligence ability bonus to the spellcasting roll.

Spellcasting may have one of three results: Immediate (I) spellcasting allows the spell to take effect right away. Delayed (D) spellcasting means that the spell is delayed until next turn and may be subject to disruption if the spell-caster is struck before the spell takes effect. Negated (N) spellcasting means that the spell fails. If it does, the spell-caster loses the spell and cannot use it again until it is prepared once more the next morning. In addition, the character must make a save or roll on the magical mishap table.

If a spell is disrupted in the middle of casting, save or the spell is negated. If it is negated, save once more or you must roll on the magical mishap table.

TABLE: SPELLCASTING SUCCESS

Spell   Spell               Caster Level
Level   Effect   1-2    3-4     5-6     7-8     9+
-----   ------   ---    ---     ---     ---     ----
1       I        16+    14+     12+     10+     8+
-       D        12+    10+     8+      6+      4+
-       N        11-    9-      7-      5-      3-

2       I        18+    16+     14+     12+     10+
-       D        14+    12+     10+     8+      6+
-       N        13-    11-     9-      7-      5-

3       I        20     18+     16+     14+     12+
-       D        16+    14+     12+     10+     8+
-       N        15-    13-     11-     9-      7-

4       I        n/a    20+     18+     16+     14+
-       D        18+    16+     14+     12+     10+
-       N        17-    15-     13-     11-     9-

5       I        n/a    n/a     20+     18+     16+
-       D        20     18+     16+     14+     12+
-       N        19-    17-     15-     13-     11-

6       I        n/a    n/a     n/a     20+     18+
-       D        n/a    20      18+     16+     14+
-       N        n/a    19-     17-     15-     13-

TABLE: MAGICAL MISHAPS

Roll 1d20 + level of the spell.

d20+LVL     RESULT
-------     -------------------------------
01 - 07     Roll on the minor chaos table.
08 - 10     You are dazed but able to move and defend yourself for one round.
11 - 12     You are stunned and unable to do anything for the next round.
13 - 14     Spell goes wild and strikes random target.
15 - 16     Spell effect is reversed.
17 - 18     You are struck mute for 1d6 rounds.
19 - 20     Your strength is reduced by half for 1d6 hours.
21 - 22     Magical explosion does 1d6 damage to everyone and everything in
           a 30 foot radius.
23 - 24     You take 1d6 damage for every level of the spell.
25+         A dimensional vortex opens to the primal chaos. Save vs. magic or be
           sucked in. Even if you save, take 3d6 damage.

TABLE: MINOR CHAOS

d20 Result
--- -------------------------------
1  The temperature in a 30ft radius becomes unnaturally cold.
2  A wind blows through the area, smelling of sulphur.
3  Plants wilt and milk curdles in a 30ft radius.
4  Ghostly whispering fills the area for 3d6 rounds.
5  Caster's hair turns white for 3d6 days.
6  Animals in a 30ft. radius are spooked, fleeing the area.
7  Caster's eyes glow red (1-3) or lambent green (4-5) for a day.
8  Caster's nose bleeds for 1d6 x 10 minutes.
9  Caster's body covered with sores that go away in 1d3 days.
10  Caster smells of the grave for 1d3 days.
11  Caster takes on pallor of a corpse for 1d3 days.
12  Caster's voice becomes raspy for 1d3 days.
13  Caster's nails turn black for 1d3 days.
14  Caster's hair grows wildly long.
15  Caster's hair falls out.
16  Caster's nails double in length.
17  Caster's veins become visbly dark under his skin.
18  Caster speaks in unfamiliar language for 1d6 rounds.
19  Caster emits slight, unnatural green glow for 2d6 rounds.
20  Referee chooses any effect or makes up his own.

Back to thinking about skills and magic

The past week I have been immersed in my life as an student -- my three-week summer "vacation" for the last three weeks have involved a few days settling into a new apartment, a few days of down-time for the San Diego Comic-Con and the visitors who came to our house as a result, and the rest of my time has been filled by intensive reading in psychology, sociology, and educational theory. I'm about 80 pages into a journal of notes on the stuff after about 2 weeks, but this is what's going to keep me on track to finish what I need to finish by the end of next year so that I can advance to candidacy for my Ed.D. But enough of the personal griping. The point is, my academic life has put the gaming blog life on the back burner again, but as always, stuff is brewing back there.

As I was thinking about my problems with skills and magic, my mind seized upon the old Different Worlds reprint of the first edition of Empire of the Petal Throne that I had sold ten years ago before moving from Santa Cruz to San Diego. In EPT, Dr. Barker included, I remembered in a moment of procrastination, a set of skills and magic rules that, while inspired by D&D, had some key differences.

On top of this, I started looking at Gygax's AD&D 1st edition "secondary skills" list. There may be some sort of solution in that, I thought to myself.

Normally, this is where I would post some draft rules I had cobbled together, but frankly, I'm not there yet. But maybe after I finish the chapter of Sociology of Education I'm reading, I'll start on something.

Back to the traditional "Vancian" spellcasting issue...

Back to the traditional "Vancian" spellcasting issue...

As I noted in some previous, I have struggled with the traditional D&D magic system. On the one hand, it's a simple, elegant subsystem that's easy to teach a new player. On the other hand, aside from Vance and the second Amber series, the magic system doesn't really seem to reflect much in the source literature. No magical mishaps, no dark rituals for the heroes to disrupt, and no fear of corruption to the spellcaster. The only danger in magic is having the wrong spells memorized.

Option 1: A Variant Magic System.
In his comments on my last post, Matthew Slepin, the fiendish Dr. Samsara, pointed out that Spellcraft and Swordplay had used a system based on the old Chainmail spell-casting charts. As I posted a while back, I have already thought about those very charts and even come up with a nifty chart of my own:

To use a spell, roll a d20 against the target number listed below:

Spell   Spell               Caster Level
Level   Effect   1-2    3-4     5-6     7-8     9-10    11+
-----   ------   ---    ---     ---     ---     ----    ---
1       I        16+    14+     12+     10+     8+      6+
       D        12+    10+     8+      6+      4+      2+
       N        11-    9-      7-      5-      3-      1

2       I        18+    16+     14+     12+     10+     8+
       D        14+    12+     10+     8+      6+      4+
       N        13-    11-     9-      7-      5-      3-

3       I        20     18+     16+     14+     12+     10+
       D        16+    14+     12+     10+     8+      6+
       N        15-    13-     11-     9-      7-      5-

4       I        n/a    20+     18+     16+     14+     12+
       D        18+    16+     14+     12+     10+     8+
       N        17-    15-     13-     11-     9-      7-

5       I        n/a    n/a     20+     18+     16+     14+
       D        20     18+     16+     14+     12+     10+
       N        19-    17-     15-     13-     11-     9-

6       I        n/a    n/a     n/a     20+     18+     16+
       D        n/a    20      18+     16+     14+     12+
       N        n/a    19-     17-     15-     13-     11-


Spell Effect:
I = Immediate -- spell takes immediate effect.
D = Delayed -- spell delayed to next turn
N = Negated -- spell does not work. Prepared spell is lost.

Now, this chart needs some thought to work, particularly in terms of how I'm going to handle spell preparation. I'm likely to just use the standard magic-user charts and go from there. The down side of this rule is that magic-users will get off more spells per day, particularly utility spells where having a delayed effect will not be a problem. The plus side is that there is a good chance that combat spells will be delayed, which is a big issue to push flavor and the danger of spellcasting in combat. This also gives magic-users a little boost in power, with some danger to balance.

I would add the chance of a severe mishap any time a player rolls a 1, even if the spell would normally work automatically. Also, since delayed spellcasting will be common, I would add that anyone damaged while still spellcasting would need to roll a save with a penalty equal to the damage taken to avoid a mishap. A failure would result in a roll of 1d20 + spell level + damage taken on the Spell Mishap Table:

Spell Mishap Table:

Roll    Result
------  ------
1 -  3  Spell misfires. It takes effect as usual, but strikes a random target.
4 -  6  Spell backfires and strikes caster.
7 -  9  Spell backfires and has opposite normal effect.
10 - 12  Spell fizzles and is lost from memory
13 - 16  Spell fails as above. Caster cursed per Bless (Curse) spell description.
17 - 19  Spell fails as above. Caster disoriented, cannot cast spells 1d3 rounds.
20 - 22  Spell fails as above. Caster disoriented, cannot cast or attack 1d3 rounds.
23 - 25  Spell fails as above. Caster stunned 1d3 rounds.
26 - 27  Spell fails as above. Caster stunned as above, take 1d6+spell level damage.
    28  Spell fails as above. Caster struck by Hold Person spell.
    29  Spell fails as above. Caster struck by Confusion spell.
    30  Spell fails as above. Caster struck by Feeblemind spell.
    31  Spell fails as above. Caster struck by Death Spell.
    32  Spell fails as above.
        Opens dimensional gate 1d6 rounds, releases horrors chosen by GM.
    33+ Spell fails as above. Opens dimensional gate 1d6 rounds,
        caster is sucked in.

With this system, I would discard the idea of the rogue class, and keep just the fighter and the magic-user.

Option 2: It's all about flavor.
Another option is just to go with the flow and accept the weirdness of "Vancian" fire and forget spells as they are and add some flavor to the actual role-playing part of the game. That would take re-imagining what is going on in-game when describing actions, even if the rules don't change. Both Samsara and p_armstrong make strong points in their comments for the flavor aspect of the rules. For instance, abandoning the terminology of memorizing spells and describing the process as something like binding spirits or demons (as Samsara notes) or taking a cue from Zelazny and saying that spells are hung on a matrix in the caster's mind with a few "lynchpins" unspecified goes a long way to changing things. Adding some customized names for spells as they are learned is a nice touch, as is describing the danger of the process (stealing from Vance, as Anonymous laments about the use of "Vancian" as a term.)

But I think there might still be a need for a mishap table. When is there a magical mishap? When a target saves with a natural 20 or when a character is damaged while casting a spell or otherwise disrupted. Those both seem like good reasons to make the danger of magic seem more real. And that takes less rules-mucking-about.

I'll have to cogitate on this, though I often tend to reduced rules-muckery.

My struggles with Vancian magic and S&W

Traditional D&D style "Vancian" fire-and-forget magic is useful because it's easy to master mechanically, but difficult to master in play. You don't really need to learn a significant new mechanic to use magic, and though there is a high level of learning for spellcasters, it is a manageable sort of just-in-time learning as the magic-user player doesn't need to master all spells, just the ones in his or her character's spell book.

However, the drawbacks to me are a sense of danger and risk in using spells that seems to match the Sword and Sorcery genre (after all, spells incur no inherent risk to the caster such as failure or magical mishap), and a need for different types of characters to use very different mechanics in play, making it harder to teach new players how to play since learning to play one kind of character does not necessarily teach transferable skills to learn how to play another.

I have certainly thought about some tinkering with the standard Swords and Wizardry magic system. But at this point, I'm leaving the rules be since I think too much fiddling with the magic rules can upset the applecart, and at that point I might as well be re-tooling the system from scratch. In the end, I don't love Vancian spellcasting, but I think it's a tool that does get the job done with a minimum of new design and without needing to worry about the difficulty of teaching the system to new players.

So what is my problem? Fluff. Vibe. Feel. Mojo. The sense that this doesn't feel right. The solution? I have to be better as a DM of talking about the fluff side of magic, making it feel more dangerous, powerful, and eerie. Then get over the tinkering desire to make it "just right" for my tastes rather than workable for the game and the players.

4 Spirits to Bind

Belmarath the Shielder
Belmarath's ritual of summoning is found in a large iron tablet engraved with red runes. It takes a week to master and bind the spirit, which can manifest itself as a dog-sized, four-legged creature with a body make of woven wire and burning red eyes. Belmarath's master gains a metallic smell and silver eyes. Int: 11, Ego 17; Element: Metal; Languages: Metal, Common, Alemanian; Lesser Powers: take physical form 1 hour/day (AC 7 [12], HD 2, Move 6); Greater Powers: Protection from Normal Missiles 1/day

Marukai the Flamewarden
Marukai's ritual of summoning is found on a leather scroll with black metal fittings. It takes a week to master and bind the spirit, which can manifest itself as a towering giant made of flames weilding a flaming sword. Marukai's master gains red eyes and smells vaguely of smoke. Int: 10, Ego 16; Element: Fire; Languages: Fire, Common; Lesser Powers: Light I 1/day; Greater Powers: Take physical form 1 hour/day (AC 5 [14], HD 5+2, Move 6)

Uzuz the Lurker
Uzuz's ritual fo summoning is found in a book made of black vellum scribed in silver. It takes a week to master and bind the spirit, which does not manifest itself physically, but turns its user's eyes black and makes his or her skin cold.. Int: 13, Ego: 15; Element: Darkness; Languages: Darkness, Common, Alemanian, Mal'Akkan, Zamoran; Lesser Powers: Dark I 1/day, Cause Wounds I 3/day.

Zurrgash the Fungal Guardian
Zurrgash is a sullen, surly and willful spirit. Its binding is scribed with flames into a wooden tablet. Zurrgash markes its master with green hair and eyes and a vague musty smell. Int 8, Ego 18; Element: Plant/Fungus; Languages: Plant, Common; Greater Powers: Cure Wounds II 2/day, Hold Monster (binding in rhizomes) 1/day.