Ok, maybe that's too much. I have, as a player, loved looking through spell lists to find the weird and wonderful things that I can do. However, in attempting to write a super simple dungeoncrawl style game I have run into the problem of spells. It suddenly balloons the rule document, and makes it look large and intimidating. I already think five pages of rules is too many, so adding a detailed spell list is beyond the pale.
So, here is my idea for a magic system that works with my simple rules and the two magic classes I have: Wizards and Bards.
WIZARD MAGIC
Wizard magic is about manipulating the fabric of nature, reshaping thigs at a fundamental level. Of course many wizards say that they are merely speaking to the elements in the language that they understand, but they are probably just trying to make it seem like they have better interpersonal skills than they really do.
At every level you pick a new element to cast spells over. To cast a spell you roll a twenty sided dice and as many six sided dice as you are putting magic points into it, plus your intelligence bonus, plus your level. The number to hit is up to the GM, and dependent on the rules system you are using. In my system a first level wizard using one die and having no smarts at all would average about 15, and the highest possible number a maximum level and big brained character could get would be 95.
Every element has a thing it wants to do: water wants to flow, fire wants to burn fuel, and rocks want to fall towards earth's core. Anything you want to command an element to do becomes harder to achieve the further away it gets from an element's nature. So, starting a fire going with dry tinder, wood, and a spark from flint and steel requires no magic as really, anyone who knows how to make fire can do it. Diverting water to flow uphill would be more difficult, but possible with the right engineering or a bit of a magical boost. Causing a rock to levitate is right against its nature, and so would require a massive amount of magic... however it would require less magic to ask the winds to lift a rock for you (still a lot, as powerful winds generally don't come from nowhere localized entirely around one rock.
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| Unrelated note: How Great Is Heroquest |
Elemental Effects
1. Natural, but convenient. A fire grows rapidly
2. Unlikely, but still within the realms of possibility. An unstable hillside collaspses just when needed, and a bouncing rock sails away conveniently striking your foe.
3. Improbable! A once in a lifetime fluke. A small whirlwind appears from nowhere powerful enough to floor a single target then vanishes.
4. Impossible. A fire starts underwater.
5. Allegorical. An aspect of the element is infused into something else, and you can begin to levitate as the wind, or your skin becomes stone, or any other number of improbable things.
If what you are trying to do is cause damage it's an easier metric. A higher number hits harder. Increase dice type and number with the difficulty.
Distances
Distance also factors into things, the further away you want to affect, the more power you will have to push into the thing.
1. Touch: Yourself or right next to you. Magic's like electricity in that regard and it is easier to move it with a conducting connection
2. Near: In the room with you, or as far as you could throw a rock
3. Far: Within the same level of the dungeon, or if outside as far a distance as you could yell and still be understood. Maybe as far as a trebuchet could hurl a stone
4. Wherever You Are: Does what it says on the tin, inside a dungeon can affect anything within the complex. As far as you could see outside. Requires precise knowledge of the target, so somewhere you have been and know is easy to teleport to but launching a fireball anywhere on the planet might require "scry and die" tactics. This might be a bit more of a exponential increase in required power based on what sort of thing you're trying to do over a great distance.
Types of Element
So there are prescribed element types which you can hold mastery over, with some restrictions on the complexity of what you can manage.
Basic Elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water classical elements can be learned in any order
Advanced Elements need two other elements to be known already: Ice (Water, Earth), Metal (Earth, Fire), Sound (Air, Water), Lightning (Fire, Air)
Final Elements only can be learned when all other elements are mastered: Gravity (Earth, Air) Light (Fire, Water)
Scrolls, Books, and other Magic Spells
So, part of the fun of being a Wizard is to be able to find magic spells, look around in old tomes and find a thing to do. Now, I like these. It is pretty cool, and it's on to the aspects about Spell Lists I actually do like. So my answer is: don't list them. If you have a spell in your spell book it takes a certain number of dice (aka spell level) to cast. You load a spell up in the morning and go. This way if you want to use spells from some standard spell list for another game you just have to determine how powerful it is. Since these are ritualized and formalized and always do pretty much the same thing, they're more energy efficient (in a magical way), and so knowing the spell "fireball" is always going to cost less magical energy than creating the same effect but with mastery over the element (ie: Wait, you know how to create water by summoning it from an elemental plane? That's so much easier than individually combining ambient hydrogen and oxygen!).
As far as conflicting spell flavour to elemental mastery goes I think it's more fun (and easier) not to worry about it. You don't need to say "You can't cast breathe water! You only have earth and fire as elements you know!" It's easier to think of the elemental mastery as being fluent in the language of that element, whereas a spell is wrote learning a single phrase in a language you have otherwise now clue about. Allons y! Je ne parle pas Français!
BARD MAGIC
Bard magic is more about secret knowledge and techniques. It's about rumours, and knacks, and secrets picked up on travel. It's why part of the Bard's magic is healing (as many healing points as level plus charm bonus every day). In addition to this, Bards have one point of magic per level every day to spend on their more weird and wonderful things, although each magic point can be converted into their charm bonus in healing points at a pinch.
There are two broad effects of Bard magic: Talking and Enchanting. Every time you take a level, including at first level, you get to learn a new knack of Talking or Enchanting. If you know how to talk to something it confers no further benefit other than understanding it; it doesn't make the creature your friend, or even make it interested in talking to you, or guarantee that it has anything interesting to say (most non sentient animals aren't interested in much beyond food, mating, and avoiding being eaten) however it is a first step.
If you can talk to a type of creature, you can track and heal them too. Healing points are spent as normal from your pool, although tracking takes a magic point, and you must roll a twenty sided dice, plus your charm bonus, plus a six sided dice for every magic point spent on tracking.
Once you know how to talk to an order of creatures you will be able to learn how to enchant them, so to learn to enchant beasts you would need to be at level 2. It takes a magic point to cast an enchantment on a creature, and it can take two forms. The first is that the creature is immediately friendly towards you. This isn't mind control and will end if you ask the creature to do something really stupid ("Jump into the fire", "Stand perfectly still while these guys hit you with swords") but will be willing to do favours for you within reason. This enchantment will last for a few minutes if the creature has reason to dislike you (a hungry tiger might remember that it wants to eat you, or an enemy guard might remember that you are a hated outsider), but otherwise the impression will continue indefinitely if you continue to act in a cordial way to the creature (ie if you don't take advantage, you just made a new friend by magic/being charming). To enchant a creature in this fashion roll bard level and charm modifier, plus a six sided dice for every magic point spent on enchanting them, things which are aggressive, or even actively attacking you will be more resistant (although things that are scared of you may be less so).
You can also use your skill of enchantment to add a six sided dice to their roll to attack or attempt a skill. This simply requires the Bard to declare it and can be done after the roll is made (this could represent the Bard remembering a neat little trick they once learned and yelling the advice, or even performing a full NFL style cheer routine to inspire them to greater heights). However, if this is attempted in combat it will also rob the bard of their next action as they spend it concentrating on the enchantment instead.
All Bards automatically already know Talking and Enchanting of humans at first level.
What can you talk to?
The basic set of talk-toable things can be learned in any order. A slight caveat in that some things cannot communicate, as they do not communicate within their own kind. So you cannot communicate with an amoeba (even if you could see it) but you can talk with a whole mess of bees or ants. Trees and plants are the exception, as it is just cool to talk to plants. All of the examples listed here are mundane type animals.
1 Beasts (Bears, Cats, Dogs, Horses, things that walk around on land)
2 Birds (Eagles, Chickens, Ducks, Bats, Dinosaurs, things that go in the sky or in the water)
3 Bushes (Plants, trees, large banks of seaweed)
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| This, but like...good |
Advanced Talking Skills
In order to learn to talk to other orders of creature, you must first master all the arts of enchanting the other forms of life. So the earliest one could learn to talk to Bugbears would be at level seven.
4 Bugbears
This doesn't mean just this kind of bugbear (I just wanted to stick with the "B" theme I had going) it means anything which is a magical or fantastical monster, but which is essentially a physical thing. This means manticores, chimerae, krakens, giant ants, all sorts of things within the realm of the physically monstrous.
5 Boogums
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| Precautions recommended |
Boogums are outsider things: angels, demons, elder gods, spirits, ghosts, undead, and anything far too powerful to otherwise be enchanted. Talking to Boogums can only be learned after learning to enchant Bugbears.
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