So I am going to attempt to write out the abilities of my first true magic class (not a partial caster like the Trickster), so this might be a bit messy but I'm sure we can hammer out any kinks I make in this.
Let's take a look at the magic user, or at least, the one that I think we should have if we want to get over a lot of the older cliches that plague the genre. First of all, the elderly man who sits in his study and reads book after book after book and never gets out, yeah, we're not going to do that. If the player wants to be an elderly nerd, let him. But I don't think we should force that on them at all.
The main stat for arcane users is going to be Ambition. These are the kind of people who will do nearly anything for more power. These people are clever, maybe almost as much as a rogue, but perhaps they don't use their cleverness in the same way. Every day they deal with magic, this powerful mystical energy that no one completely understands, and they bend it to their will. Magic is power hard won through questing, through research, through making shady deals with powerful creatures, it is not easily shared or replicated. Each wizard has his own touch, his own way of working with magic, no two wizards will cast the same spell exactly the same way (just watch how different players describe the same spell).
Essentially, the thing that makes them different is something that is not easily understood, it's powerful and it is frightening. I read somewhere that low-level wizards constantly fear for their lives, whereas high level wizards fear for their souls. I kind of like that romance of that statement, and I would like to include it here.
So let's see what we can do:
- Use of light melee weapons, no armor
- +3 to Linguistics, Magic, Perception, and History
- Ability to use Arcane Magic
- Take half Ambition stat, that determines how many schools and focuses they know (probably 4-5)
- Take double Ambition stat, that's what their mana pool equals
I did a post on magic in our game, I'll link it or port it over to this post in good time. Here it is:
- Destruction (School) - When cast, a generic Destruction spell deals 1d6 touch damage
- Electricity ( Destruction Focus) - When cast, a generic Electric spell deals 1d6 touch damage and stuns the opponent for the following turn
- Fire (Destruction Focus) - When cast, a generic Fire spell deals 2d6 touch damage
- Ice (Destruction Focus) - When cast, a generic Ice spell deals 1d6 touch damage and slows the opponent for 2 turns
- Acid (Destruction Focus) - When cast a generic Acid spell deals 1d6 touch damage and 2 armor damage
- Force/Wind (Destruction Focus) - When cast, a generic Force/Wind spell deals 1d6 damage (up to 10 feet away) and pushes the opponent back 20 feet.
- Divination (School) - When cast, allows a player to do one of two things: detect a magical presence within 20 feet, send a message to someone within 30 feet.
- Detection (Focus) - ???
- Communication (Focus) - ???
- Illusion (School) - When cast, a generic Illusion spell allows the caster to make an immobile silent image that occupies up to 10 feet of space, up to 10 feet away from him that lasts for 3 rounds.
- Summoning (School) - When cast, a generic Summoning spell allows the caster to summon 1 common monster within 10 feet of himself, he lasts for 3 rounds.
- Demonic (Focus) - When cast, a generic Demonic spell allows the caster to summon 1 common monster with the Demonic characteristic within 10 feet of himself. This also causes all opponents within 20 feet of the demon to feel fear. He lasts for 3 rounds.
- Fey (Focus) - When cast, a generic Fey spell allows the caster to summon 1 common with the Fey characteristic within 10 feet of himself. This also causes 2 opponents within 30 feet of the fey to be charmed. He lasts for 3 rounds.
- Enchantment (School) - Used to apply fear/charms/mind magic, etc. - ???
- Forbidden (School) - Anything extra that Divine users don't have?
Now is there anything else we can give to the wizards? Or, rather, is there anything I need to give to wizards? I don't know, magic is pretty powerful in its own right. But let's see:
- Maybe if they take a focus, they get 1 free point that doesn't count against their mana pool or their power threshold (the 5 point per spell maximum0?
- A familiar?
- Ability to record spells to scrolls or items for later use?
- Ability to make focusing items (Give a +1 to hit with magical attacks)?
- A patron? I know that we talked about this and it was said that this is more of a Warlocky thing to have, but I sort of like the idea of having one's soul tied to some big nasty thing. Nevertheless, we'll see what happens.
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