Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd From: pound@ruf.rice.edu (Christopher Brian Pound) Subject: New Mage Stuff Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1993 02:38:54 GMT 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.