Applying the ideas on increasing magic to a specific setting - Elsewhere

This is a long developing article and will be updated as I get more ideas

A bit of background

Elsewhere started off because I rather fell in love with the pathfinder adventure path wrath of the righteous and am quite fond of the game itself firmly believing that it’s the best 3.5 spin off, yes better than HM4 for whilst I like the richness of the background for HM4 & the same can be said for Forgotten realms for that matter hence my Runequest Forgotten Realms game of a few years back I don’t think a 3.5 based AD&D derived rules system is a good set of mechanics to try to build game in it on. Pathfinder is a fine system for modeling a high fantasy game and fits in its own world very well but I am not a fan of all the elements of its game world so I decided if I ran the adventure path I would strip back the elements I did not like. I did a lot of preparation for this and booked Spirit Games to run the adventure path with every expectation of having a group do it as a stand alone adventure and no one turned up to the session. I was a bit miffed as I had done quite a bit of preparation so when it became necessary to give Aeltred’s player something to worry about in the HackMaster game I did what any good Games master would do and dragged the idea out, hastily filed off the serial numbers and re used the material. Thus was born the world of Elsewhere the origin of the strangers including the Halfling mage who merged with Aeltred on the platform of the king’s road in the ancient dwarven hold.

I rolled up the two strangers using the Herolab character builder for Pathfinder and then manually converted them across to HackMaster however it got me thinking hence this and the previous article giving some general thoughts. However let’s get down to the specifics.

Races

I decided when adapting the player races to divide them into a number of categories depending on how magical I felt they where in this setting.

Extremely magical – High Elves, God Kin, Devil Kin, Demon Kin,
Highly magical – Common Elves, Gnomes,
Magical – Half elves
Normal – Humans, Dragon folk, Halflings, Common Dwarves
Weekly magical – Half Orks and other bestial races
Non magical – The Vat born

What are these races

High Elves – until the rise of man and of the eternal empire in particular the lords of creation evil to the core and utterly self serving the only thing these creatures will generally agree about is their superiority to all the other races. They repelled at great cost the first Gabasi invasion. However they where decimated in the process and this allowed the rise of man and the first great human civilizations

Gnomes – small sneaky spiteful creatures with a gift for combining an advanced grasp of technology with their natural magic believed by the elves at least to have aided the Gabasi in the first instance before turning their coats when the Elves looked like they could win. They are notorious for their sadistic sense of humor. Their abiding vice is that they are even worse than the elves for not being able to set aside their petty rivalries when the need arises.

Halflings – small gnome sized creatures closely resembling the humans of the central north clannish fiercely independent and excellent irregular fighters but not aggressively warlike they are often valued allies of the northern humans amongst whom their small clan holds dwell. However for some reason numbers of them where enslaved by humans further to the south and they bear a grudge against those peoples to this day.

Humans – since the decline of the Elves by far the most numerous of the civilized folk and quite able to hold their own despite being riven into several major and even more minor ethic groupings. The common ones of the northern hemisphere being

Asercri – prominent in the west and central regions of the northern continent, resemble northern Europeans in skin tone hair and eye colours tend to be shorter and some what more stocky than other humans. They have a number of cultures which get larger and more complex to the north and to the south west of their range as they contact more sophisticated peoples.
Vapraki – prominent on the northwest coast and mountains of the northern continent not that dissimilar from the Asercri in skin tone hair and eye colours they however tend to be taller on average nearly two inches and more graceful. They speak a unique language and use a unique script and live amongst the ruins of one of the most advanced civilizations of the north about which they will not talk and seem happy to pretend does not exist.
Telvar– prominent in the sub arctic tundra regions of the north a short stocky dark haired people with universally black eyes. They have a lot of physical adaptations to the cold clannish and fiercely independent they herd the mega fauna of this region and are often known as the peoples of the mammoth, aurochs, elk and bison.
Saerci – prominent just to the south and east of the Telvar’s range and sharing the same sort of lifestyle to the Telvar even if appearing much more like the Asercri with whom they share some linguistic traits they have the unfortunate honour of having been the dominant ethnic group in the region of the blight scar. Many of the Demon kin in that area are from this group.
Renari – Prominent around both sides of the inner sea between the north and southern continent, are the majority population in the costal nations on both sides of that sea they are small olive skinned and dark haired with brown eyes for the most part. In the north of their range they largely blend with the Asercri and become to the outside observer indistinguishable from them, however never say that to a Renari as they would consider it a slight on their honour, the Asercri are seen by their culture as primitive rustics and the Renari take their honour very seriously indeed.
Arathi – prominent in the central northern and central southern parts of the south and north continents respectively. They are the majority people of the Eternal Empire of average build olive skinned, hazel eyed and dark haired for the most part they especially inside the boundaries of the Empire are possibly the most arrogant folk alive. They see themselves the chosen people of a god and it as their destiny to rule all others. This is despite the recent ascent of the Eternal King to the heavens and their manifestly losing the last war they started with the great kingdom to the south. Outside the boundaries Eternal Empire they are more realistic and circumspect in expressing their opinions at least.
Talric – prominent in the mountains of the North West corner of the southern continent they are a unique human culture as they are entirely integrated with the dwarven society which lives beneath their feet. To the point where the men are universally bearded and their women will wear veils in the form of false beards. Other than that they seem to be physically similar to the Renari who dwell to the north of them. They are mostly farmers and herders who are responsible for feeding the great citadels of the dwarven kingdom.
Orasani – prominent around the great river, represent the remnants of a great and ancient civilization almost certainly the oldest on the southern continent north of the burning desert. They where doomed first by there ancestor worshiping culture becoming obsessed about death and falling into the hands of necromancers and then by ruinous wars with the surrounding desert tribes and finally the devil kin Assuri form their north east They are a handsome people with olive to dark skin dark haired with brown or black eyes being common amongst them. They are culturally some what insular and given to keeping secrets and pointless plotting and scheming and never forget that they where a great civilization when all about them where as the Orasani would put it naked savages.
Velazi & Narmari – prominent in the deserts around the Orasani lands a tall slender dark skinned people who are adapted to go as the Orasani say naked under the sun, as they typically only wear loin cloths for the men and short toga like garments for the women. The great amongst them wear feathered head dresses and drape themselves in looted Orasani jewelry. The Velazi live to the north and the Narmari to the south, but they are very similar in culture life style and language. In modern times they have been conquered by the Kelarashi and the free tribes of the Narmari into the deep edges of the burning desert where the mounted armoured warriors of the King of Kings can not reach.
Kelarashi – Prominent across the northern part of the southern continent they are the rulers of a great empire and are the proud people from whom the stranger Americ hails. They where forged into a great nation by wars with the Devil kin Assuri and now rule vast swathes of the continent and hold many other peoples in chains according to the celestial court of the Eternal Empire with whom they war quite frequently. They are olive skinned and dark haired for the most part a very few who are ginger and this is seen as a mark of great good fortune, it is said that the first Kink of Kings had ginger hair and was a Kelarashi chieftain.
Harenashi – prominent in the central highlands of the southern continent and culturally related to the Kelarashi commonly called the hill people as against the Kelarashi who are the plains people very much a stanch part of the King of Kings Empire and the King of Kings capital is on traditional Harenashi lands. They are broader than the Kelarashi and like them olive skinned and dark haired and eyed for the most part a very few are strikingly blue eyed and having blue eyes is seen as a mark of great fortune it is said that the first King of Kings had blue eyes and was a Harenashi chieftain.
Vart – Prominent along the north east cost of the southern continent particularly in the area held by the Eternal Empire, but with a few independent kingdoms and city states further east, are a strange but apparently entirely human folk resembling the Renari in some ways especilay sharing their maritime culture but being universally blue skinned and blue haired which is something which scares the superstitious but the Vart a practical and very pragmatic people just shrug of
Chelgarthi – prominent along the south coast of the inner sea and just south of the great Elven lands are a people who greatly resemble the Asercri but speak an entirely non related tongue and have considerable cultural differences not least of which is that they are an urban culture and builders of great stone cities. They however despite appearing totally human are unable to produce viable of spring with any other human ethnicity or other race
Havateni – prominent in the great plans north of the Elven lands are a people who resemble in culture and appearance the ancient peoples of central Asia, they are pastoralists who do not settle and value only the cattle and horses they own. Almost alone of all the ethnic groups listed they are entirely a matriarchy with men being relegated to secondly roles at all levels of society.
Estrabani – prominent on the plains of the north east culturally apparently almost identical to the Havatani to their south are more warlike and more Matriarchal then them in that men are almost less valuable than the tribe’s horses and cattle. They are fair almost white skinned and ginger haired with grey ice cold eyes. They are as fine horsemen as the Kelarashi and are notorious for wearing their hair long and lose weighting the tresses with the finger and toe bones of their enemies.

Common elves – A lesser form of elf which now dominates in numbers terms at least the Elven lands believed to be the result of some subtle attack during the Gabasi invasion which the high elves where unaware of for several generations of increasing births of weaker elves and which they have been unable to reverse even when aware.

Half Elves – created as part of a deliberate attempt on the part of some High Elven factions to bolster their numbers against expanding human cultures by forcing mating between enslaved common elves of different, enemy, factions and human captives.

The Vat born - are the True Orks or Gabasi as The Conquer of universes originally conceived them. They are bred for his conquest in a wide variety of types. They are very rare but some of the original breeding facilities still exist in working order and both the Gnomes and the Elves have produced more as warrior slaves.

The Bestial races - Orks Goblins and the like are degenerate Gabasi who have gone native locally after an earlier attempt to conquer this part of this universe.

Dragon Folk - also called derogatorily Lizard men are the attempt of The Dragon to make a race to rival humanity and help protect his draconic children from the ravages of an increasingly powerful set of rivals. This was not entirely successful as large numbers of them rose up against the dragons themselves not liking the dragon’s evil and tyrannical ways, those who served the few good dragons did not do this but The Dragon cursed them all not realizing that it was a flaw in its own creation caused by its evil nature which caused the problem.

God Kin, Devil Kin & Demon Kin – Largely of human stock but closely related to a powerful being makes them distinct. Usually present in very small numbers but in some areas much more common particularly the Assuri who are almost entirely Devil kin and the tribes of the Blight scar who are often Demon Kin. The God kin trace their lineage back to mostly good or neutral deities particularly to The Eternal king who dwelt for nearly a thousand years in the courts of perfection ruling the kingdom his faithful had built for it.

Classes

Unmodified classes

Fighters, Knights, Fighter Thieves and Barbarians are unaltered except for the ability of the first three to purchase spell like powers as special traits effectively making them sorcerers of the weakest kind, barbarians can’t as their immense superstition and hatred with regard to all things magical apart from the spells of their shamans, who they still greatly fear, cause them to kill anyone expressing them before they can develop.

Modified classes

Clerics, Mages Mage Thieves, Fighter Mages, Rangers, Paladins, and Rogues are all altered to some extent or another but I will dwell on what has changed here not on what has not.

Clerics

Clerics now gain one spell per level for high wisdoms and spell uses per day according to the following formula, when ever a cleric gains a new spell of their level they also gain an additional one of the lowest level that they have less than four of. the table below gives the pattern up to level twenty.

Spell level
Character level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
1^st	1
2^nd	2	1
3^rd	3	1	1
4^th	4	1	1	1
5^th	4	2	1	1	1
6^th	4	3	1	1	1	1
7^th	4	4	2	1	1	1	1
8^th	4	4	3	1	1	1	1	1
9^th	4	4	4	1	1	1	1	1	1
10^th	4	4	4	2	1	1	1	1	1	1
11^th	4	4	4	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
12^th	4	4	4	4	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
13^th	4	4	4	4	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
14^th	4	4	4	4	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
15^th	4	4	4	4	4	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
16^th	4	4	4	4	4	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
17^th	4	4	4	4	4	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
18^th	4	4	4	4	4	4	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
19^th	4	4	4	4	4	4	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
20th	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1

Clerics also gain two granted powers at first level the first is unique to their chosen religion but the second is more generic and depends on the alignment of the god on the good evil access for good gods it is usually convert chosen spell to a healing spell of a lesser level for evil gods it is usually convert chosen spell to a harming ling spell of a lesser level to neutral gods it is either of the two chosen at the time of casting. Though there are others and an additional granted power is obtained at tenth and then at twentieth level

Mages

Gain extra spell memorizations depending on their intelligence in the same way clerics do based on wisdom they also gain an additional memorization slot for apprentice and journeyman spells at first level, tenth level and twentieth level. The maximum number of spells a mage may know is twice that listed for their intelligence under the standard rules. The number of spell points is increased according to the mages race and how magical it is as a creature, spell Volatility and the cap on the mishap Tier are also influenced by this.

Extremely magical	Armour – 4	+200%	Vol -12	Tier -2
Highly magical	Armour – 2	+150%	Vol -9	Tier -1
Magical	Armour – 1	+125%	Vol -6	Tier +0
Normal	Armour +0	+100%	Vol -3	Tier +0
Weekly magical	Armour +1	+50%	Vol -0	Tier +1
Non magical	Armour +2	+25%	Vol +3	Tier +2

Hybrid mages

Gain extra spell memorizations depending on their intelligence in the same way clerics do based on wisdom they also gain an additional memorization slot for apprentice spells at third, and thirteenth level and extra memorization slots for Journeyman spells at sixth and sixteenth level. The maximum number of spells a mage may know is one an a half that listed for their intelligence under the standard rules. The number of spell points is increased according to the mages race and how magical it is as a creature, spell Volatility and the cap on the mishap Tier are also influenced by this, see the table under Mages for details.

Rogues

Now gain spell points as if they where standard hybrid mages of a level to be able to cast that spell they may learn a number of spells per level as if they where a mage with half their intelligence, as ever round down. They gain one memorization slot every time they gain the ability to cast a new level of spell they don’t gain bonus spells as this is based on half their intelligence rather than its full value. There intelligence is also counted as half for the purposes of spell mishaps and failure with the volatility and tier caps modified according to the magicalness of their race, see the table under mages.

Rangers

Paladins

New Classes

Sorcerers, Sorcerer Thief, Fighter Sorcerer and Sorcerer Cleric are all new character classes and are detailed fully

Sorcerers

In many ways they resemble mages but there is one significant difference, Mages are trained in the intricacies of spell casting and this takes years Sorcerers develop the ability with no training at all it just happens to them, not uncommonly in a rather uncontrolled manner. Those that make it do learn to control the power but they do so by trial and error rather than training indeed training a sorcerer in the manner of a mage tends to train out their ability to cast all but the most simple of spells spontaneously. Sorcerers tend to know a smaller repertoire of spells than a mage of similar level and are less likely to have a mishap however when they do they lack the control so the resultant mishap is often worse especially if the Sorcerer is speed casting.

Sorcerers are also caped at sixth level as the maximum level of spells they can learn without entering into pacts with powerful beings who may grant them further power but at a price as most of these entities are at the very least not good if not downright evil or chaotic and the price of power is often honour and some times more than that. If the sorcerer runs out of Honour they will experience alignment change in the direction of the alignment of their patron As a result most sorcerers will drift towards evil alignments especially if they get greedy for power. A sorcerer may maintain a number of active patrons equal to the number of protégés they have based on their charisma if they drop a Patron for another they may lose some or all of the power the one dropped gave them. This is subject to negotiation if the Sorcerer thinks to do it and further payment may help. It also helps if the Patrons share addenda such as Demon lords or the like. Once evil the sorcerer may still change alignments if they approach Patrons of markedly different alignments.

It is intended that the GM detail a sorcerers patrons as the relationship is quite personal & defiantly more so than a cleric with their god

At first level a sorcerer will have three rolls on the spell table entirely at random thought Build points may be used to buy rerolls in the normal way. Roll to determine level first then the spell itself.

Apprentice level	Journeyman level	First level	Second level
1-3	4-5	6-7	8

When they level up and gain a new spell level the roll is again random but a bit less so 1-3 current level-1 4-5 spell level 6 spell level +1 but remember the caps mentioned above. It should also be noted that should a first level sorcerer roll a second level spell or any other level sorcerer gain one of a higher level than they are they can cast it they just can’t memorize it and so it costs more spell points than base and will count as over amped as a result.

Spell memorization slots a sorcerer can memorize at most two spells per day per level. This is one spell of their maximum spell casting level and two spells of each level below that any thing further is granted by making pacts. This does mean that a sorcerer of seventh level with out a pact would still be able to memorize two sixth level spells as in theory if not practice their maximum spell level is seven.

Thought there is nothing to stop a sorcerer buying the spell like ability talent they still get the spell but since it is not an actual spell it can’t be amped with spell points and the uses per day are very limited.

All sorcerers can choose to cast any spell they know a second faster than they would normally but at the cost of a risk which is +1 to the tier of any mishap rolled note this does raise any caps by an equivalent amount.

Sorcerers may buy any weapon or armour proficiently as if they where thieves

Hybrid Sorcerers

Are quite similar to sorcerers expert they are caped at third level as the maximum level of spells they can learn without entering into pacts with powerful beings

New Traits and Proficiencies

Spell like ability

You gain one use of a spell per day of apprentice to first level this ability costs 20 build points x the level with apprentice counting as one for this calculation additional uses may be purchased at 10 Build points per level per use added note this is not limited to Arcane spells but clerical spells can only be purchased if you are an anointed member of a religion and are granted by that religion at first level. They still take the normal casting time to cast and will fail and the use be loss if the user is injured whilst casting

Fast casting

Reduces the casting time of an arcane spell by a second but increase the base tier and the cap of any mishap by +1 will work on a Spell like ability but will cause then to risk a mishap if they fail which they normally don’t do this is cumulative with the Sorcerers fast casting ability in all ways this costs 20 build points

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Friday, 2 May 2014

Applying the ideas on increasing magic in a specific setting