Reagent Spells
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This all sounds great. I've apparently got some back-reading to do. Has this all been made possible with the 1.69 patch?
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These things are in the works. A DM suggested them years and years ago, but never bothered to script any of it. So I started it all last night.
Barbarian totems are nearly finished, they're so awesome I want to drop my current PC and make a barbarian and pray I roll a 100 on my special "rage chance" ability I'll have when I find a totem.
That's pretty good news!
Would that be me? I think I suggested the bard, barbarian and ranger (dual wielding in chain shirt) changes in the past.
I actually scripted the barbarian and ranger in a local module, but we never got into a consensus if the change was how we wanted it to be, so it never got out of the ground! :wink:
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This all sounds great. I've apparently got some back-reading to do. Has this all been made possible with the 1.69 patch?
Its been possible, just no one with the ability to script it had the drive to do it until now.
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Bards could have different bard song's effects based on different tomes, lyrics, score or instruments that could allow different effects like sleep, fear, confusion, stun, deafness, sonic damage and so on.
You could have the same with barbarian rage and different totems, or any other kind of focus item, for different boosts.
These things are in the works. A DM suggested them years and years ago, but never bothered to script any of it. So I started it all last night.
Barbarian totems are nearly finished, they're so awesome I want to drop my current PC and make a barbarian and pray I roll a 100 on my special "rage chance" ability I'll have when I find a totem.
YES!!!
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One thing that I always thought about was the number of wizards you usually see. Magic is way beyond the simplicity of what see by clicking a button or a few magic words. Even a level 1 spell is a complete full page of words triggered by 1 or a few action words. However wizards grow in numbers like its rabbits.
Like when I see a thread complaining about wizards and only casting a few spells on an adventure, on a true RP sense, I think that should be more than adequate, unless you've travelled with the most powerful wizards ever. It should be more along t he lines of "We are lucky to have such an intelligent creature that is capable of wielding magic with us" Whether he slings 1 spell or 20.
But to the main topic, I would like to see reagents involved to even be able to cast spells period, for a wizard that is. Maybe something simple, but still nonetheless required. Especially for once you do get into more powerful spells such as a fireball, maybe you should have to have some sort of regeant to be able to sling a fireball such as an alchemists fire. But thats just an example. A skeletons knuckle to be able to summon an undead. Just along the lines of realism and actual DnD where a wizard needed his spell component pouch to cast spells that required components. I forget what it was but one spell even requires bat shit to cast.
I believe it would also really help to make a wizard more of a thoughtful choice than. "Ooooh eventually i can cast powerful spells and do pretty magic" To the ever faithful "I must think about the choices of my spells. My Components may require me to think otherwise about my choices"
I dunno just a thought.
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Druids could be required to obtain some natural items: Berries, bones and hair of animals, bark for barkskin etc.
Perhaps various kinds of spider glands enabling more powerful versions of "Poison" spell. Perhaps increasing the Fortitude Save requirement of the recipient rather than increasing the impact of the spell.
Perhaps if a druid gathers certain herbs, these components could be combined with the Healing Kit to speed it up slightly or increase the effacacy of the healing kit whilst slowing the healing?
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One thing that I always thought about was the number of wizards you usually see. Magic is way beyond the simplicity of what see by clicking a button or a few magic words. Even a level 1 spell is a complete full page of words triggered by 1 or a few action words. However wizards grow in numbers like its rabbits.
I always have to smile when I see a post stating this to be a low-magic server. Potions are sold in about every corner shop for a apple and an egg (and you're more or less expected to carry lots of them), the place is literally swarming with wizards and other casters, and most people will have one or more magical items on them. Maybe it's just my perspective, but that's not what I call low-magic.
I forget what it was but one spell even requires bat shit to cast.
That's actually Fireball. As far as I understand the thread, the reagents/material components here about 'customizing' or 'tuning' spells, and your character is assumed to have the more mundane reagents on them.
P.
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bone fragments make fireballs made of negative energy! how neat would that bE!
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I always have to smile when I see a post stating this to be a low-magic server. Potions are sold in about every corner shop for a apple and an egg (and you're more or less expected to carry lots of them), the place is literally swarming with wizards and other casters, and most people will have one or more magical items on them. Maybe it's just my perspective, but that's not what I call low-magic.
There's far worse.
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Reagents should be used by arcanists. I can see how rangers and druids might be able to be called casters…but largely a druid is simply a nature cleric to me and so should be just like a cleric.
Clerics pray. This idea that there is no fundamental difference between the two types of magic is really troubling to me.
Do mages lose their spellcasting ability if they decide they want to worship a different god on a whim? No. But priests that decide to worship Garagos instead of Lathander are going to discover that their prayers aren't being answered and nothing happens when they ask for a party member to be healed. This is absolute proof that the priest has NO control over 'spells'. They aren't spells. Its a god's whim to answer the prayer of the faithful, and the gods' whims to answer that prayer the way they see fit.
Praying for a heal spell? Tempus would rather see his faithful out on the line, with a huge mace in hand, striking fear into the hearts of the enemy? Suddenly the priest grows stronger and has an aura of fear surrounding him...so has his god commanded, so it shall be.
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Making the carrying around of reagents to even cast a spell is ridiculous. In PnP they are required, yes, but most are simple, and it is assumed that your wizard has simple reagents for common spells; i.e., you tell the DM 'collecting reagents,' and it's assumed you have them, especially free crap like bat droppings, spider webs, etc.
As far as being able to change the elemental form as we can here, that's already massively powerful, and in PnP, you have to be an archmage prestige class or similar to alter the elemental damage type, so this is pretty good for a 'low magic' server already, imo.
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well if its so simple than maybe it would be fun. It would give wizards something further to do.
A Day out gathering regeants for spells..maybe even give people another something to market.
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well if its so simple than maybe it would be fun. It would give wizards something further to do.
A Day out gathering regeants for spells..maybe even give people another something to market.
Then maybe they can voluntarily do just that - it's called roleplaying. You'll find that it gets ridiculously boring and tedious to go around gathering up reagents for every single spell; most will rapidly tire of it. The server will also lag to death storing bits of dropping from bats, feathers from ravens, bits of web from spiders, as non-wizards won't pick them up. You can try to claim they will sell, but the fact is that they leave pixie dust and ichor all over, even though it can already be sold.
It's livable at present, since it's for a few useful spells: requiring it to even cast, as has been suggested, despite your comments, is simply asinine, and not in line with PnP, which seems to be venerated here, as many spells have been altered 'to be more in line with PnP.'
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As far as being able to change the elemental form as we can here, that's already massively powerful, and in PnP, you have to be an archmage prestige class or similar to alter the elemental damage type, so this is pretty good for a 'low magic' server already, imo.
In PnP you also have a far, far wider selection of spells to choose from.
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The thread is going away from the discussion topic. We're not going to make every spell require reagents to even cast.
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I like Salynda's suggestion about the infernal bloodlines thing perhaps like certain languages they could be applied for which would grant the player special spells? Anyways its a cool idea and i hope it develops into something more.
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What about necromantic reagents?
The system of augmenting summoning spells to bring forth different creatures has proven pretty sweet. It'd be nice to have a similar system for Animate Dead. Perhaps certain (extremely illegal) reagents could be used to bring forth different kinds of undead via this spell. One of the greatest flaws of animate dead mechanically is that it always brings forth the same crummy undead whether you're level 5 or 15. This could go a long way to making it a more balanced ability.
Certain charms or other items could be used to animate more powerful skeleton warriors, for instance. Others for mummies or ghouls.
Perhaps even some rare, powerful and/or expensive reagents could be used to call forth even more powerful undead. Doom Knights, Bodaks, Vampires, etc.
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Certain charms or other items could be used to animate more powerful skeleton warriors, for instance. Others for mummies or ghouls.
That'd be pretty sweet.
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One of the greatest flaws of animate dead mechanically is that it always brings forth the same crummy undead whether you're level 5 or 15.
Unless you use the player corpse reagent, then the summoned undead's power is reliant on the level and class of the corpse animated.
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Needing to go out and butcher another player character whenever you want to cast animate dead is obviously quite inconvenient however.