Subject: New Mage Stuff
From: [email-masked] (Christopher Brian Pound)
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1993 02:38:54 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd

I only just bought AD&D2, but you might be able to tell that from what follows.
It ought to be clear, too, why I don't enjoy most AD&D stuff.  Nevertheless, I
hope these ideas will be useful or interesting to somebody out there; it may
duplicate information or ideas that somebody else has written -- I haven't
followed the AD&D scene for six years.  Please let me know if it breaks any
existing rules that it wasn't designed to break ... Also, I'd really like to
know if you think any part of it is especially keen ... Thanks!

===============================================================================

SPELLCASTING REQUIREMENTS -- Changes to Official Rules

   First off, I don't like material spell components or spell books at all.
They enforce a particular (cheesy Fantasy) vision of arcane interaction with
the natural world that I don't appreciate in the slightest.  However, if you
want to run a mage that has to use material spell components and lug around
some gigantic book of spells, you ought to get a break in terms of how much
your level advancement costs (though I'll try to talk you out of running such
a hideously boring character before you get the chance).  
   This said, I'd say give traditional mages an extra 5% bonus to their earned
experience if they rigorously stick to the spell books/components rules, using
them to provide campaign hooks or to make combat spell-casting a little more
difficult or whatever.   

SKIN MAGE -- a new Wizard kit

   The Skin Mage is my answer to the question "Without spell books and material
components, what do you do to help keep mages balanced?"  Maybe just having to
pay as much experience as an official mage is enough, but anyway, a Skin Mage
also has to store spells on his body, which is a restriction because people in
the know who see the character may also be able to figure out exactly what
spells the character is prepared to cast.  Skin mages already have all their
spells "memorized", but this doesn't allow them to cast those spells.  Whenever
a traditional mage would be memorizing his spells, the Skin Mage would instead
be investing his skin with the magical force necessary to actually cast those
spells.  This spell storage system has two visible manifestations.
   _Runic Skin Mages_ store their spells in the form of temporary runic tattoos
on their body.  The tattoos are rather large, and if the mage has all his 
spells available, at least some of them would be in places difficult to
conceal.  The spell stored in the tattoo is identifiable using _read magic_, or
will be immediately obvious to other runic mages who know the same spell.  The
spell may also become known with an _identify_ spell, but only if the tattoo
has been physically removed -- untorn -- from the mage's body.  Runic skin
mages are limited in the number of spells they may store by their physical
size; consult the following table:

	Size	Number of Spell Levels Storable
	----	-------------------------------
	 L		1-60
	 M		1-30
	 S		1-15

These limitations result from the fact that low level spells require smaller
runes, and high level spells are proportionally larger.  When a runic skin
mage casts a spell, the tattoo disappears from his body.
   _Chromatic Skin Mages_ store their spells in the form of spectral tints on
their skin.  These tints turn the entire surface of the mage's body to a color
determined largely by the spells' levels and the number of spells from each
level that the skin mage has stored.  Spells are color-coded by their level,
but all spells have a very particular spectral frequency; roughly, the color
codes go like this:

	Spell Level	Spectral Band
	-----------	-------------
	     1		Infrared (visible only with unspoiled infravision)
	     2		Red
	     3		Orange
	     4		Yellow
	     5 		Green
	     6		Blue
	     7		Indigo
	     8		Violet
	     9		Ultraviolet (visible only with unspoiled ultravision)

Thus, the magical potency of a given chromatic skin mage is apparent from the
color of his skin, which will appear to be the average color of all the spells
he has stored.  A mage that has stored 5 eighth-level spells and 5 second-level
spells will appear to be green; first and ninth-level spells are only visible
to characters with the ability to see in the infrared and ultraviolet ranges,
respectively, which means these spell levels are only visible in darkness (and
they give the character a very high profile in those spectra).
   The precise inventory of spells a chromatic skin mage has prepared is
readable only with the spell _Reveal Spectra_ (q.v.) or with some magical item
that serves as a sort of spectroscope (despite the fact that chromatic skin
mages don't actually glow).  However, the character who is reading the skin
mage's spectra must already know exactly what each spectral band means to get
information other than the exact number and levels of spells the skin mage has
prepared.  And, yes, chromatic skin mages that have prepared at least one
ninth-level spell are protected from sunburn; also, as chromatic skin mages
cast their spells, their skin color changes to show their new proportion of
spell levels (a highly visible tip-off to the mage's actions!).  Chromatic
skin mages may prepare as many spells as their intelligence allows.  Infra-
vision, Ultravision, Color Spray, Prismatic Sphere, etc., are popular spells
among chromatic skin mages; these spells do not count against the number of
spells the character can store, because they're very close to the mage's own
chromatically magical nature. 
   Any number of other types of spell storage along these lines is conceivable.
Possible examples include: worm mage (grows small tentacles from his head for
each spell he has stored; tentacles vary in length according to spell level);
scar skin mage (very similar to runic skin mage, but has scars instead of
tattoos); shimmer mage (very similar to chromatic skin mage, but character's
skin actually glows/shimmers a particular color instead of just being tinted
that color); bright-hair mage (very similar to chromatic skin mage, but only
affects the mage's hair); left-handed mage (also known as Mages of the Evil
Right Hand, these insidious wizards store spells in the fingernails of their
right hand, which grow 1/2" for every level of spell stored in them); fishhead
mages (found only in regions where fishing is common, these mages have as the
material spell components for ALL their spells: fishheads, of various sizes --
it's common for a weak fishhead mage to pretend to be powerful by carrying more
fishheads than he could possibly need); and so forth.  Of course, all these
mage variants' weird attributes (extra fingernail, extra fishheads, etc.) fade
evaporate or vanish once the spell they store is cast by the mage who prepared
them.  Generally speaking, only the mage who prepared the spell can cast it,
the exception being runic and scar skin mages, whose skin can serve as a scroll
if it is properly removed and cured.
   All these different wizard kits use the same basic requirements and
experience tables of the official mage class.  They may also become specialists
according to the same rules used for official mages.
 
REVEAL SPECTRA (Divination)
2nd level Wizard spell

Range: 10 yards
Components: V,S
Duration: 1 round/level
Casting Time: 1 round
Area of Effect: 1 chromatic mage (skin, shimmer, or bright-hair)
Saving Throw: Neg.

   This spell gives the caster complete knowledge of the target's skin spectra,
which the caster can communicate without error (via _telepathy_ or with some
visible illusion for a number of rounds following the casting equal to the
caster's intelligence).  The caster must remain stationary and concentrate on
the subject for a full two rounds in order to reveal each and every indivdual
spectral line; if the caster concentrates for only one round, he will learn
only the actual number of spells of each spell level that the target has
prepared.  The target is allowed a saving throw vs. spell, which, if 
successful hides all special spectral information from the caster.