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Portals

Forbidden lore, as knowing about the easy ritual to break a lock, or The Old Rites, would make mundane people far more likely to enact them. In addition, several church practices (only approved songs, no dancing) are in place to prevent accidentally breaking a portal lock.

Items

Portal Key

Spells

Prehistory

  • Ritual magic
    • Invention: Int/Wis/Cha check DC 15+SL => invent 9th level from scratch DC 24 => Stat 18 (+4), ~13.5 tries @ 9 wk/mo per => ~2 1/3 to ~10 yrs, equal odds of crit failure => Stat 20 (+5), ~6.5 tries @ 9 wk/mo per => ~1 to ~5 yrs, ~30% odds of crit failure => Stat 22 (+6), ~4 tries @ 9 wk/mo per => ~3/4 to ~3 yrs, ~20% odds of crit failure
    • Learning: Int/Wis/Cha check DC 10+SL from willing teacher
    • Success: various, DC 28+SL+/-mods
  • Master Craftsman enchantment
    • Success: Craft/Profession, DC 15+SL => DC 24 @9th, correct CL gives +5, can use similar item for +5
    • Only Craft Arms and Armor, Craft Wondrous Item
  • Spellcraft skill
  • Spell-like Abilities
    • Enchanted via item creation feat (Wondrous or something new), using Profession: Farmer or Yenta for breeding
    • Permanently bound to self or animals as part of ritual mages attempts to have more immediate power
    • Bred true because D&D evolution is effectively Lamarkian
    • Evidence: hags (SLA, ritual, not caster), lamia (SLA and spells)
  • Spellcasting
    • Cha-based SLAs to rote performances imitating them (Bards)
    • Gods learn how to grant spells to charismatics (Oracles)
    • Gods learn how to grant spells to the wise (Clerics)
    • Patrons steal the trick from them for the smart (Witches)
    • Sorcerers learn how to access more magic than Bards without patron or Perform
    • Witches learn how to share spells (to make up for Sorcerer breadth issue)
    • Invention with K: Arcana/Nature/Planes/Religion and Spellcraft DC 20+2*SL
    • Learning: Spellcraft DC 15+SL, 1/week
    • Success: automatic unless interfered with (Concentration check => d20+CL+Stat)
  • Spellcaster enchantment
    • Success: Spellcraft, DC 15+SL => DC 24 @9th, correct CL gives +5, can use item/spell for +5
    • Brew Potion <- Cauldron hex (single use, shareable)
    • Craft Wondrous Item -> Forge Ring (two extra slots)
    • Craft Arms and Armor, Craft Wondrous Item -> Craft Rod (mixed use, caster tools)
    • Craft Wondrous Item -> Craft Staff (spell trigger, charges)
    • Craft Staff, Brew Potion -> Craft Scroll (better spell range for single use, spell trigger)
    • Craft Staff, Craft Scroll -> Craft Wand (cheaper per use, no recharge needed)
  • Memorization: Wizard, Heka, Living Grimoire Inquisitor, Archivist Cleric, Alchemist
    • Descended from Sorcerers (no patronage), Witches (Int-based, share spells) and Craft Scroll
    • Wizards learn how to record spells and work without patronage
    • Creeps out witch folk, because of its high mutability and lack of social controls

If spell-casting can be nerfed by the Codex, then everything past Spellcraft is constructed and destructable

  • Shades of Cixin Liu, huh? Also the Dr Who written canon, anchoring of the thread to hedge out magical precursors
  • Who built it?
    • The Towers is the obvious answer, though they hardly benefited alone
    • Many extraplanar entities had an interest in it happening, but that doesn't give a clear answer
    • Perhaps some trickster deity got it all lined up so that all three groups (towers, patrons, and deities) were pulling for it?
  • How deeply can the Codex freeze things?
    • In the triple-trick explanation: the three will never trust each other on that level again, and the hobgoblins would be on it like white on rice
    • Does it shatter it irrevocably? Are there fragments that survive in magic items, ley line nexuses, and so on?

History

  • Demihuman Kingdoms
    • Lots of small kingdoms like the Compoundia, slowly conquered by the witchlords
    • Some were able to hold out, the rest fell into the rule of the witchlords
    • Desperate demihumans turned to the younger human race, and their newly invented wizardry
  • The Hobgoblin Wars
    • Earliest of the wars to found and stabilize the current range of Mezovy
    • Wizards Guilds are recognized by The Crown, in exchange for their military service
    • The Church grudgingly accepts them, but politically undermines them
  • Today
    • No tower has produced an Ipsissimus (9th level caster) in more than three generations
    • Several pretenders to the title have happened both before and since, with their waning
    • War magic is poorly studied, since the last perfunctory war (Vogovo) was more than fifty years ago
    • Portal magic is lost to Mezovy, having been systematically destroyed by the witchlords over the centuries

Fun spells, etc

Intentionally cursed item

Helm of Reverse Alignment https://www.aonprd.com/MagicCursedDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Helm%20of%20Opposite%20Alignment https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/b/bestow-curse/ https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/m/magic-aura/ https://dnd.arkalseif.info/spells/oriental-adventures--96/compel--2055/index.html Ghadri's DC: 30 = 5+15 (CL) +5 (missing CL) +5 (missing spell) Cost: 62.6kgp, constant Greater Magic Aura (4th level, 56kgp = 4x7x2000) & single use Compel (8th level, 4.5kgp = 8x15x50x1.5x0.5) & single use Bestow Curse (4th level, 2.1kgp = 4x7x50x1.5)