Class Struggles: The Wizard, Part 2 The Wizard Class

Last week we discussed the Magic-User and his cousin the Wizard.  One thing seems certain, the Magic-User is a bit overpriced in terms of XP.  Also, and I am not the only one as we will see, the wizard lacks some powers he really should have.

One of the things I liked (back then) when 2nd Edition came out was that the Magic-User was now properly called a Wizard.  Again, the nuance of magic-user was lost on me but obviously it was also lost on the design team.
The wizard, as he for evermore will be known, is really not that different from the magic-user mechanically speaking.  Some spells are rearranged but that is about it.  The true difference comes when you choose a speciality school or apply a kit, like the many found in The Complete Wizard's Handbook.  Here the wizard gets a few more spells at starting level from their speciality school and the kit can provide them with some powers.   Though the cantrips as 0-level spells that the Unearthed Arcan gave us are now gone.

Yesterday I reviewed The Principalities of Glantri book and it's school of magic. What stood out for me was things that your wizards can now do if they go to a premier school like Hogwarts The Great School of Magic.  The Seven Crafts provide a bit of extra kick for magic-user characters.  Personally I think they could use something at 1st level as well.

Since I covered the basic (and really Basic) Magic-User last week, I want to jump into some of the clones and near clones now.

Spellcraft & Swordplay is a near clone that models Original D&D and it's Chainmail roots much closer than Swords & Wizardry does.  It does take some liberties though.   One is the Wizard and the wizard class elite paths, Warlocks and Necromancers.  In S&S wizards can Read Magic at 1st level.  We are also given more detail on how to create magic items.  An Elite Path like the Necromancer or Warlock also get other powers.

Fantastic Heroes & Witchery also has a wizard class, as well as a wise man and a warlock.  Additionally, it also has 666 spells split up into gray, white and black magic.  The wizard here does not differ much from the standard magic-user, but the number of spells included is not insignificant.

Adventurer Conqueror King System gives us a similar looking Wizard, the advantage here are the skills/proficiencies that all classes get.  Going back to last week this is similar to the skill checks I give wizards when identifying magic.

Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts also has a wizard class. Many in fact.  The wizard is still a Magic-User clone, but there are plenty of other wizard types in this book that the case for experimentation is made here.

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. Ah now this is what I was looking for.  Each of the books so far has done a little here and little there, but the Magician in AS&SH is waht I have really been looking for.  Right away he gets a familiar, the ability to read magic and scribe a scroll. At 7th level he learns som alchemy.  The subclasses, Illusionist, Necromancer, Pyromancer and Witch all get similar powers.

Moving out from clone-land and into old-school land proper there is The Arcanum.  I keep coming back to this book because it keeps on delivering.  There are a lot of magic-user like classes, Alchemist, Astrologer, Charlatan (more of a thief), Enchanter, Mage, Magician, Necromancer, Savant, Sorcerer, Thaumaturge, and Witch.   There is, of course, a Wizard as well.  What they all have in common and share with some other books is the ability to read magic at first level.
These classes all also get new powers at every odd level.  Some are just redefining things the wizard could always do; write scrolls, make potions and magic items.  This just defines them a little better.  Interestingly this book also allows the wizard to choose a weapon.  The book also has plenty of spells to choose from.

It should be noted that these problems are solved by 3rd Edition and beyond.  Both the shared XP values across all classes and more features for the Wizards has made all the above points moot really.

My recommendations for the wizard are:

• Cantrips
• Read Magic/Identify magic as a skill at 1st level.  Can be a simple Int check.  A bonus equal to level with a penalty equal to spell level.
• Find Familiar as a ritual, but not a spell.
• Signature Spells. A spell that can be cast twice or three times per day with one memorization.
• Some powers at 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th level.  Signature Spell can be one of these.

I would group powers along something like Arcane Traditions like I do for the Witch and like D&D5 does, save I would call them something else.  Schools maybe.  I already use "Philosophies" in Ghosts of Albion so I would not want to use that here.  Schools are good since I can go beyond "enchantment" or "necromancy" and into things like "Miskatonic Grad" or "Apprenticed under Mordenkainen", that sort of thing.

I would run this wizard through the various class creation kits I mentioned last week, but especially the one out of the ACKS Player's Companion to check the numbers.  Might be worth looking into deeper.

Why Are my Magic-Users not like Mages?
Spend any time in any other game but D&D, especially one that uses a lot of magic, and somethings just don't make sense.  Except as that special branch of logic known as D&D logic.  Being first D&D gets away with a lot. Invariably someone will ask though why can't D&D magic be more like the magic in World of Darkness, namely Mage.

The difference, of course, is one of scope. While the D&D wizard might become a "master of reality" the Awakened of Mage are of a different sort. The assumptions of the worlds are too different.   Maybe a WoD style Mage could be something the D&D Wizard could aspire to be, I still would not take a Mage with me into a dungeon or try to identify a scroll or potentially magic sword.
So I don't try to make my Wizards into Mages.  I keep the Vancian magic intact.  If I want to play a Mage, I will pick up Mage.   But really, playing both games will give you a better understanding of things your wizard/mage can do in either game.

Hopefully your wizards are more like this:




Than this:



Though that Keep at 3:30 looks familiar.

Review: GAZ3 The Principalities of Glantri

Still spending a lot of time thinking about witches, wizards, schools of magic and witch queens.  So naturally my thoughts turn to +Bruce Heard's masterpiece, GAZ3 The Principalities of Glantri.
I have mentioned Glantri here a few times. It was the homeland for my characters back in my D&D/AD&D days.  I built up the country from the small bits of information from D&D Expert Set, Isle of Dread and Castle Amber.  It was not till much later I discovered the Gazetteer series and picked up Glantri that I discovered how really interesting and fun the place was.

GAZ3 The Principalities of Glantri
The pdf is 102 pages (the original book was 96 pages, a detached cover and large map of the country and Glantri City).  The PDF is a good quality scan and retains all the information found in the print book.   The cover art was done by the fantastic Clyde Caldwell.  While this book is a D&D "Basic" book, there is so much here of use that it can really be used with any D&D system.  This book really set the stage for all the other Gazetteers to follow.
The first part, Welcome to Glantri, gives a very brief overview of what the country is and what this book sets out to do.
Up next is the History of Glantri. I spent hours and hours reading this over and over.   I won't go into great detail, but linking Glantri to ancient Blackmoor was wonderful in my mind. Mostly because I loved the link but also I had done something similar for my own games.  What follows next is a time line from 3000 BC, The Rain of Fire* (Before Crowning of the first Emperor of Thyatis)  to 1000 AC (today) and even on to 1200 AC.  *I always wondered if the Rain of Fire that destroyed Blackmoor was related or even just the same spell that destroyed the Suel in the Greyhawk world.
Geography of Glantri is next.  Like much of Mystara, Glantri is a mix of all sorts of races and people, but Glantri also has it's fair share of "monsters" those will be detailed later.  Glantri's climate is also touched upon, making it one of the colder lands.
The is followed by The Glantrian Economy. I really enjoyed this section because it really breathes life into the people that live here.  Each of the Principalities is detailed here for the first time.  A quick read and one immediately recognizes analogues to Scotland, Italy, France, and even Transylvania. Glantri is very cosmopolitan.  We move into the Grand Army of Glantri and Politics and Rivalries of Glantri.  Glantri is the place to play out political intrigue where everyone is mage of some sort or has one on retainer.  Like the Economy section, this section breathes more life into the people of the land, in this case all the great houses.   I will admit once again that the interior art by Stephan Fabian links this to Ravenloft in my mind.  Not only are there humans here, but vampires, werewolves and liches ruling.  We will get to witches in a bit.
Guilds and Brotherhoods are also one of the more important features of this book and life in Glantri.  There are so many here that characters could each belong to many and none overlap.  Some are complimentary to each other and others at cross purposes.  Really good fodder for role-playing.
Glantri City by Night details what happens to the 39,000+ residents when the sun goes down. The book is like a what we now call Modern Supernatural.  So all sorts of "monsters" come out and mingle with everyday people.  It says "by Night" but really this an overview of the city itself and all it's sections.  It reminds me of a travel guide to London I once read, so I am rather fond of this section.
Living in Glantri City details life in the city including the laws, who is in charge, magic use and various holy/high days. There is no religion in Glantri, but there is a state philosophy. Of course it is tied in with magic.
The Great School of Magic.  Outside of Hogwarts or Professor Xavier's school has a school been so rich detailed. Though there is enough here to make me want more, a lot more.  This is followed by Creating Spells and Magical Items and The Secret of the Radiance. The source of Glantri's magical power.
Nest we get into The Seven Secret Crafts of Glantri.   If you only buy this book for this section then you will be well rewarded.  Think of these as schools or even colleges of magic. Each one ads something special to the Magic-User class, almost like a Prestige Class or Paragon class feature.  They include, Alchemy, Dragon magic, Elemental magic, Illusion, Necromancy, Rune magic, and of course, Witchcraft.
We wrap up with Adventures in Glantri.

The Gazetteer series were works of art and none more so than the Glantri book.

I mentioned before that this book would work fine with other versions of D&D.  Looking deeper into the Seven Secret Crafts of Glantri, one could EASILY replace the Arcane Tradition feature of the 5th Edition Wizard and replace those powers with the craft powers.  The 5e wizard gets 4 Arcane tradition powers/features and the Basic craft wizards get 5. They work out to about the same levels too.

So if you have not picked this up, do so. I highly recommend it.

I also recommend Bruce Heard's latest Calidar kickstarter Beyond the Skies.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ambreville/calidar-beyond-the-skies

Calidar is a load of fun and this promises to be great.

Class Struggles: The Wizard, Part 1 Customizing Options

Posting about the Dresden Files yesterday and talking about psychics, witches and other classes has got me thinking about Wizards and Magic Users today. In truth you can't read, write and think about witches as much as do and not have wizards come up every so often.

In many fantasy genres wizards and witches are very nearly the same thing (and let's not get into what is a warlock today). While I can see the subtle differences as huge gaps I do appreciate that this might really just be my own biases.

When I first began to play D&D (Holmes and then Moldvay/Cook/Marsh B/X) I saw the "Magic-User" class. I always wondered about that. Why was it called "Magic User" and not "Magician" or "Wizard"? I will be honest and say it was not till years later that I fully appreciated what Gary was doing with the "Magic User". It really was meant to be ANY type of magic user. While I can really see the utility of this sort of class it still doesn't give me the customization that I really wanted in a magic-user/wizard class. For starters the biggest and best means of customization for any magic using class is the spell list. Build a magic user, take a bunch of necromantic spells and bingo you have a necromancer, take illusions and you have an illusionist. This is certainly implicit in the rules, if not explicit in some older Dragon magazine articles.

During the work on my witch class I began creating a lot of custom classes. These include some I have mentioned before: The Necromancer/Mara, the Sun Priest, and the Healer. These all kind of rotate around an axis related to the cleric. While working on them I really could not help but notice what powers and spells I was giving them vs. what the magic-user already had. Also I could not help but recognize the disparity in XP per level. It takes a lot to be a magic-user. The argument has always been that it pays off in then end, if you survive.
This disparity was also noticed by others.

Dragon Magazine #109 from May 1986 gave us Paul Montgomery Crabaugh's "Customized Classes" article for the D&D (not AD&D) game. The idea was that the D&D game supported this sort of flexibility. I used this for the first set of XP values per level for my witch, but altered them to something I liked better for the publication of The Witch. Others have picked up on this article as well.

The Dragon article goes into a lot of great detail and my hat is off to Paul Crabaugh for going through all this effort. He made it really easy to add everything to a spreadsheet and auto calculate XP values.
His analysis of the magic-user is quite telling.

Magic User XP per level, per Dragon Magazine #109

Current Level	XP Points needed	Next Level
1	1,840	2
2	3,680	3
3	7,360	4
4	14,720	5
5	29,440	6
6	58,880	7
7	115,000	8
8	230,000	9
9	345,000	10
10	485,000	11
11	606,250	12
12	727,500	13
13	848,750	14
14+	+121,250	per level

Magic-users, when analyzed come up really short.

Erin Smale over at Breeyark.org took the original Dragon values and worked out a spreadsheet of his own in Building the Perfect Class. His numbers track a lot better than Crabaugh's do, but the magic-user still comes up very short. He provides both a PDF and an Excel file to help in building. My biggest peeve though he no where acknowledges the work done by Crabaugh in this even though there are distinct parallels. He does address this though in his update, Building a More Perfect Class.

A while back Perdustin over at Thoul's Paradise posted a reflection on the Crabaugh article and got me thinking about the custom classes I had made then. Later he posted a little on his analysis of the classes with his tweaks. Here are his posts:
Customized Classes (part I) and
Customized Classes (part II)

He challenged me to look at my witch class as well.

In this case as the previous ones, the Magic-User comes up a little short.

Thoul's Paradise analysis

For me the solution is obvious since it also addresses the issue I have with magic-users in classic D&D games. It's not that their XP is too high, it's that there is so little for them to do in the beginning.

Think about every wizard stereotype; an old man, with white hair, beard, pointy hat and robes. Just page through any pre-1985 D&D book and see if you can find something different. Ok. Now what can these old guys do? Cast magic missile once per day. Honestly that doesn't make much sense to me. If these guys have been training at wizard school since they were young they should have learned more magic by now. Hell, Hermione knew more magic on the train to Hogwarts before school ever started than what your average 1st level magic-user knows.

I know classic D&D is about "resource management" and that struggle upwards. I am not suggesting that we play O/B/AD&D magic-users like D&D4 wizards (but I am going to talk about them next week). I do think the wizard needs a little more punch.

Using the same rules in my Witch book I give Wizards (a sub-class or type of Magic User) the ability to cast cantrips (up to 6 at 1st level, 3 + Int mod), the ability to cast Read Magic once per day, that ability to identify magic items (only that they are magic, not what they do). They may also cast a Find Familiar spell. Remember, in 3rd Edition D&D wizards got a familiar for free at 1st level and no reduction in spells.

Find Familiar (Spell)
Level: Wizard (Magic-user) 1
Range: 1-mile radius per caster level
Duration: See below
Magic-users of higher level often summon familiars to assist them with various tasks. Indeed, a familiar can also be of considerable benefit to a lower level magic-user (even increasing others’ estimation of his or her power), but the risks inherent in losing a familiar can be daunting to a weaker spell caster. To summon a familiar, the magic-user must intone the words of the spell over a well-stocked fire source, sprinkling the flames with expensive incense and powders (100 gp in total value). The caster must maintain his or her casting for as long as necessary (2d12 hours) until a familiar arrives (or the casting time expires without success).
The spell may be attempted only once per year, and the caster has no control over the type of animal that will respond. When it arrives, the familiar is a faithful servant and ally to the caster.
Normal familiars have 1d3+1 hit points, AC 7, and are as intelligent as a lower-than-average human. When the familiar is within 120 feet of the magic-user, the magic-user gains additional hit points equal to the familiar’s. However, if the familiar is ever killed, the magic-user permanently loses twice the familiar’s hit points.

For me the Read Magic and the identifying of magic items (based on an Int + Level check) sets the magic-user apart from not only other classes, but the witch as well. I decided that this was part of their training and experiences in school. I should also detail some of my ideas for a magic school but that would have to be for another time.

Next week a deep look at wizards and magic users with these customizations and XP values in mind.

RPG a Day 2015, Day 28

Day 28: Favorite Game You No Longer Play

There are actually a few.

I would have to say Mage: The Ascension.

I didn't play a lot of it, but what I did I really enjoyed.  Have not had the chance to play it the last 10 or so years.

Zatannurday: Constantine is Back!

Sort of.

Here is Constantine star actor Matt Ryan explaining.

The Trench Coat is being dusted off. #Constantine #Arrow @CW_Arrow @amellywood looking forward to it. #thisfall pic.twitter.com/fROWx4RJ9o

— Matt Ryan (@mattryanreal) August 11, 2015

Constantine is coming to the CW's Arrow, which for season 4 I have heard will be called "Green Arrow".

Here is another link, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/matt-ryan-constantine-arrow-814661

I am mostly avoiding spoilers, but this looks like it will be awesome and it is something that Stephen Amell, Oliver Queen himself, has wanted for a while now.   Adding John to the mix, even for one episode, changes or rather broadens Arrow's world.  We got super-science in season 2 and some magic in season 3.  Looks like season 4 might embrace the wakiness that is the DC Universe's magical realms.

Of course I have to ask...When will Zatanna be on?

Magic Schools in your Games

I was thinking a bit about Schools of Magic today.  Not the schools in the D&D sense, but more in the classical sense of a place to go and learn magic.

Have any of you detailed magic schools in your games?

There are plenty of examples in history, folklore and media.  I have used the Scholomance in my games for many years, but it is a small, elite school taking only 13 students at a time (and keeping one of them!).  On the other end of the equation I have also used the magic school from Glantri as a model.

For many of my witch characters or NPCs I have usually backgrounded something like a home school environment.  But I never have really built anything formal.

I like the idea of a game with younger heroes.  I already mentioned I'd love to do a Harry Potter game, or even a Charmed game (which also had a magic school).  You can have your normal high school drama complicated by everyone also having magic.

The problem with this is that D&D wizards (and all spell casters really) start out as really weak.  In most versions of D&D they only know one spell at first level.  So what did they learn in school?  
The old 2nd Edition Wizard's Handbook covers some of this, but copying your master's scrolls is not really fertile ground for role-playing.

There are cantrips that kind of get around this, but even knowing 6 cantrips is not much to do anything with.   But personally I have often thought that magic-users should be starting the game with more than one spell.

Maybe Magic School is something they do between adventures, not just something they start when young and then go out and adventure, but something they do and then adventure in between terms.
Then characters keep going back till something like 6th level.   I'll have to think about it.

What are your thoughts?

Magic Girls Monday

A couple of products came up on my radar. Since I had some credits burning a hole in my pocket over at RPGNow I figured I'd pick them up.

These games are all of the "magical girl" type in one way or another. So if you like stories like W.I.T.C.H., Sailor Moon, or even Steven Universe then these are good choices.  The systems under the hood is different in each case, but there are some familiar names here.

Star Sailors: The Magical Girl Supplement for White Star RPG

Oh, this one is a fun.  This little book (11 pages, including cover and OGL) is packed full of great material.  Basically this presents a Magical Girl class, the Star Sailors.  Each level the Star Sailor gains a "Heart Power" of a different color. Very cool.  They also get a "Starlight Blast" that is blasted out of her "Star Sailor Starlight Wand".  I know this all sounds silly, but trust me, this is exactly the sort of thing you would see in a Magical Girl show or book.  I also love how each power has a catchphrase.  I would totally make my players say these to activate each attack.
The powers are described, with effects. Also some background on the Starlight Entity.  The sailors also can have mascots, aka pets.
There is also a great monster/big bad for the sailors to fight, the appropriately named "Gloom".
While the book is overtly for White Star it includes some ideas for Modern Times and S&W.
Really, really fun.  The art also really fun and appropriate.
Don't like Magical Girls?  You could, with minor tweaking, turn this into a Green Lantern like organization.

Witch Girls Magical Minutia: Crossover
This book for Witch Girls Adventures previews a bit of the rules we will see in WGA 2.0 and the upcoming super hero games from Channel M. WE are introduced to Nemsis Earth, an Earth populated by superheroes and some differences in history.  Chapter 1 covers the details of this new Earth and it's features, both magical and tech.
The book is presented from the point of view of a Witch Girl travelling across the dimensions.
There are plenty of new equipment for Witch Girl stars and even a new heritage (Half-Metahuman).
Chapter 3 covers Channel M's new "Youthquake" team of superpowered teens.
The general feel of this "Crisis on Two Earths" and honestly I really like that. I wish I had had this back when I was working on Season 3 of my Willow & Tara game where I crossed over to a super powered Earth that resembled the Earth int he DC universe.  While reading this I was also wishing I had an Icons version of this.  Same ideas, characters and text, but Icons as the rules.  They would mesh together rather nice I think.
If you are a fan of supers and Witch Girls Adventures then this is a good buy.
One issue. I hate to bring this up, really. I love Malcolm's work but he should really hire a good proofreader and editor to help clean up his work.  That leaves him to focus on the big ideas and let others do the editorial work.

Sparks of Light
At 110 pages this is the largest of the books I have picked today. No surprise, this is a complete system-sort of.
Sparks is a light hearted game of Magical Girls. I uses the Fate system, but it can be used as a guide for any magical girl game regardless of system.
I think the most important thing about this book is how do the characters relate to each other and too the NPCs.  This is the key feature of any magical girl story whether or not it is Sailor Moon, W.I.T.C.H., Cardcaptor Sakura or even Charmed.  It is the relationships that define the character.  Take someone like Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon, he is (let's be honest) useless. But he does have relationships to the rest of the cast and that makes for drama.  Would it make for a good game? No, maybe not, but consider Angel in the first season of Buffy. He was basically Tuxedo Mask.
I also really liked the Hope Points mechanic.  Magic Girls rarely see last death or injury (Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune not withstanding), so hit points don't really make a lot of sense.  Plus the Darkness is not about killing really. It's about snuffing out the light or hope of the heroes.
In this respect it might make it a better game for little kids.  Don't get me wrong, I have played D&D with grade-schoolers and they are a vicious, blood thirsty lot. But they don't have to be.
If you like Fate then is a good game to try out, especially given the price.
If you like Magical Girls then this is a must buy (even if some of this is covered in other books as well).

Personally I think Sparks of Life makes for a great addition to Star Sailors.  Get both books and use them together. Star Sailors for the basic game and ideas and then Sparks of Life to expand on them.

Review: Theorems & Thaumaturgy

I was combing through some old posts this morning looking for some ideas for my "Second Campaign" (to be renamed soon) and I noticed that I have never really talked about +Gavin Norman's Theorems & Thaumaturgy on it's own.

Honestly that is criminal.

Let me start off with what I have said before. I have compared it to his other book, the Complete Vivimancer and I have compared it to The Basic Illusionist.  But never on it's own merits.

To start with Theorems & Thaumaturgy is a "Pay What You Want" product.  Yes you could pay $0.00, but I hope this review convinces you to pay more.  The book itself is 66 pages (standard letter) with text and art that reminds you immediately of the old Moldvay Basic books.  If you have The Complete Vivimancer then you have an idea  of the how the text and art looks.   To me the art is like psychadelic art-nouveau meets Elric.  In other words, perfect for a magic book in my mind.

There are three large sections (Classes, Variant Classes, and Magical Tomes) and an Appendix with nine sub-sections. Like old-school Basic the new spells are all listed with the classes.  The book is designed for use with Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Characters, but really it can be used with any sort of "old-school" game.

The new Classes are the Elementalist, Necromancer and Vivimancer.  The Vivimancer is of course detailed in a later book, but he gets his start here.  The classes do pretty much what you would suspect they would do.  The Elementalist uses elemental forces, the Necromancer deals with the dead and undead and the Vivimancer.  Each class has a good number of new spells (250 in all!) to make using them feel different than your normal "magic-user". Each has spells from 1st to 9th level.  All the classes use the Magic-User XP, to hit and saving throw tables, so whatever system you use, you can just use that to put them on the same footing as the Magic-User.  While I like the simplicity of this and it helps make the "subclasses" feel like a part of the same Magic-user family. I would have liked to have seen some powers or something for each class.  After-all they are sacrificing spell flexibility for what?  Power? More variety of spells in their chosen field?  I think I would have given them a couple of bonuses at least.  But that is fine, these rules are flexible enough to allow all sorts of edits.

For the variant classes there is the new Fey Elf race.  This elf is closer to the faerie origins of the elf.  The class taken by these elves is the Sorcerer.  This class is similar in idea to the D&D 3.0 version; a spontaneous spell caster with magic in their blood.  The sorcerer has a couple of new spells and a modified list of spells they can cast.  There is an alternate version of the Illusionist as well. This version has a few more spells and has 8th and 9th level spells.

The final section is all about magical tomes.  It includes a bunch of unique magical tomes with new spells. The books' histories are also told and which classes are most likely to get use out of it.

The Appendices are a small treasure trove of great ideas and useful material.
Appendix 1 has new optional rules for Magic-Users.  A number of these are very similar to house rules I (and many others I am sure) used back in the day.
This is followed by new monsters, new magic items, and some examples of memorized spells by class (all classes presented here and MU).  We end with an alphabetical list of all spells included here and in the Advanced Edition Characters book.

All of this for whatever you want to pay for it.
Personally I think anything less than $5 is an insult.  There is a lot of great material in this book and all of it can be used right away.

I should have more to say on this one later on.

You can also find print copies here: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/necroticgnome

Zatannurday: Zatanna at Hogwarts!

You might have noticed from my post yesterday that I have been rereading all the Harry Potter books.

Yeah they are for kids, but damn are they good.

This of course got me thinking about Zatanna and what she would have been like at Hogwarts.  Would she have been admired as a student? John Zatarra was well known and certainly his daughter would have been accepted even if she wasn't British.  Or maybe she would have been a guest Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

Here are some images of people who have wondered the same thing.

Kick Start Your weekend!

End of Quarter, new one start on Monday.  Busy as hell today.

Here is a Kickstarter you should check out.

Of Dreams and Magic
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/887885342/of-dreams-and-magic

I think they have something cool here and worth checking out.

#RPGaDAY Day 7, Most “intellectual” RPG owned

#RPGaDAY Day 7, Most “intellectual” RPG owned

Not sure what this actually means.

The one that makes me think the most is Mage: The Ascension and Mage The Sorcerers crusade.
It is a great game to think about what our perceptions of reality and morality actually mean.
I guess a lot of the World of Darkness games though are like that.  Vampire makes you think about what it takes to make you a monster.  Are you going to drink that blood and take a life or are you going to hold onto your humanity a little bit longer.

Zatannurday: Helm of Fate/Nabu on Constantine?

Some more images coming from the new Constantine TV show including more glimpses into the DCU.
First up the Helm of Nabu as worn by Doctor Fate.

The image, as scooped by my good friends at the Tower of Fate  Blog.

Could a Zatanna guest shot be in store as well?
Keep an eye here for any Zatanna related Constantine news and over at Tower of Fate for any Doctor Fate news.

PWWO: The Basic Illusionist

Time for another edition of Plays Well With Others.

The one thing you can say about the entire OSR Gestalt that despite it all there is still a sense of community and of giving back.  Case in point, The Basic Illusionist.

The Basic Illusionist is the brain-child of +Nathan Irving and was first seen during the S&W Appreciation Day Blog Hop.

Go to his blog now and grab a copy.  Oh. Did I mention it was 100% free?
http://secretsoftheshadowend.blogspot.com/

Before I delve into the book itself. Lets take a moment to look at this cover.
Seriously. That is a cool ass cover. I am not sure what made Nathan Irving choose this piece ("Beauty and the Beast" by Edmund Dulac) but I love it.  The title works in seemlessly, like they were meant for each other.  The woman in foreground is no longer the "beauty" but she is now an Illusionist.

Ok.  So the book is overtly for Swords & Wizardry, but there isn't anything here keeping you from using any Original of Basic inspired system.  I know it works out well in Labyrinth Lord and Basic D&D and it really should work well in ACKS, Spellcraft & Swordplay or any other system.  Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea might be a trick, but they have an Illusionist class already (more on that later).

Getting into the book now we have 34 pages (with cover) on the Illusionist class. The book starts off with a helpful FAQ.  Personally I think Nathan should also put that FAQ on his blog as a page so every knows why they should get this.  The Illusionist class itself is in S&W format, but the only thing keeping you from using this in any other Basic or Advanced Era game is a table of Saving Throws.  Copy over what ever the Wizard or Magic-user is using in your game of choice and give them -1 bonus to saves when it comes to illusions.
The Illusionist gets a power or feature every odd level, but nothing that is game breaking when compared to the wizard.  The Illusionist trades flexibility for focus in their magical arsenal. There is even an Illusionist variant class called the Mountebank.  Which is more of a con-artist.  Not sure how it compares to other classes of the same name.

One of the best features of the book is a guideline on illusionist magic and how to play with illusions.  Great even if you never play the class.

What follows next is over 150 Illusionist spells.  Many we have seen before and come from the SRD.  That is not a bad thing. Having all these spells in one place and edited to work with the class is a major undertaking.  I for one am glad to see them here.  Spells are alphabetical instead of sorted by level.
A list of conditions ported over from the SRD is also included. I like that personally.  We all love how the older games and the clones play, but in our zeal we tend to forget that 3.x and later games did in fact have some good innovations and ideas; this is one of them.

We end with a couple of monsters and a two page OGL statement.

Really, this is a fantastic piece of work and really should be the "go to" document if you ever want to play an illusionist.

Playing Well With Others
The design of the Illusionist class (and the book) is such that adding it to any game should really be a breeze.  Adventurers enter a new land and discover a new brand of wizard.  Compared to other custom wizards out there the illusionist is more powerful than his counterpart in 1st Ed. AD&D.  This is not power creep in my opinion, I think Nathan has has actually fixed the classic Illusionist and brought it more in line with the Wizard.

Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts
+Dyson Logos' Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts is an excellent book for playing all sorts of wizard types.  That is oddly enough except Illusionists.  This however is not issue; The Basic Illusionist fits in quite nicely here.  The Enchanter from MT&DP would have some spells that might be good for the Illusionist as well.

Theorems & Thaumaturgy
Another great free product. Theorems & Thaumaturgy comes to us from +Gavin Norman and introduced his Vivmancer class.  Vivimancers and Illusionists are about as different as one can get really.  But Theorems & Thaumaturgy does have some things that the Basic Illusionist can use.  For starters there some more Illusionist spells in T&T that the Basic Illusionist could use.  Both books make the assumption that Illusionists should have access to 8th and 9th level spells.  If you are going to play a Basic Illusionist then it is worth your time and effort to get a copy of Theorem & Thaumaturgy.
Nathan, I would talk to Gavin and see if you can use his spells if you ever expand your Illusionist book. Maybe toss over some elementalist spells his way if you have them.

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea
+Jeff Talanian's fantastic Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea also has an Illusionist class. Like all the classes in the book it is limited to 12th level.  I had a quick glance over the spell lists last night and there wasn't anything that jumped out at me; the spells are drawn from similar sources.  There is is information though that owners of either could use. Obviously the Basic Illusionist cover many more spells but more importantly it has the guidelines for covering how illusions in the game work.

The Witch
Of course I want to mention my own book. Witches and Illusionists share the ability to cast various figments and charms/mind affecting spells.  I would say that in any game that has both classes that Illusionists should be limited to charm spells up to 5th level and witches any type of figments up to 5th level.  Illusionists then get all (or most) of the Illusion spells and witches get all the curses.

What I Would Want Next
I know. I sound greedy.  Nathan Irving works his butt off on this, puts it together and gives it away for free and I am over here saying "yeah, but do you have any more?"
But my motives are pure.

I would love a print version of this. It would really be awesome.  At 34 pages it is a bit smallish for print, but that is easily fixed.  Add a few more spells (plenty of OGC), some illusion based magic items, a couple more monsters (not a lot) an appendix for using this class in different retro-clones (LL, OSRIC, ACKS) and maybe even stats on adding gnomes as player characters.  Call it "The Complete Illusionist" sell it for a couple of bucks on DriveThru and get a print copy made.  OR Keep it free as a PDF and have print copies up on Lulu.  In any case it would look good on my "OSR" shelf. There is enough OGC out there now to do all of this in fact.  There is enough OGC in the 4 books mentioned above!

Bottom Line:  This is a great book. I loved the awesome art and the fact that it is free. Though I would have gladly paid for it.

Zatannurday: Constantine on NBC

This week we were treated to the new trailer for the upcoming NBC series Constantine based on the Hellblazer comics (not the Justice League Dark ones).

I have to admit it looks rather cool.  To say it is better than the Keanu Reeves movie is an understatement.



Welsh actor Matt Ryan really looks and sounds the part.

How long will it be before we see his on again, off again girl-friend Zatanna?  Hopefully soon.




[Zatanna] You taste like cigarettes, Constantine by JamesLeung on deviantART


Everything she does is magic by gabbie on deviantART


Smallville: Harbinger by gattadonna on deviantART


JLAD by CookieMonster-Of-WAR on deviantART

Review and PWWO: The Complete Vivimancer

I recently downloaded The Complete Vivimancer the new book from Necrotic Gnome Productions, the same folks that gave us Theorems & Thaumaturgy.

+Gavin Norman, of the City of Iron blog, gives us a new(ish) class, the Vivimancer.  The book is 88 pages and advertised as Labyrinth Lord compatible with both Basic and Advanced stats (more on that in a bit).
The class was introduced in Theorems & Thaumaturgy.  The basic class is a type of Wizard/Magic-User and detailed on two pages.  The experience per level, saves, spells, and attacks are not too different from the Magic-user normal.
For the Advanced option elves and half-elves can also be vivimancers.  Interestingly enough elves can advance to 11th level and half-elves to 10th.  I would have expected it to be the other way around.

The next substantial chapter is on Spells and Laboratory procedures.
The biggest expense in gold and time for the vivimancer is his laboratory.  The vivimancer according to the rules needs to spend 6 hours per day in his lab.  I wonder how much time this leaves for adventuring, eating and sleeping. Update:  This is only when a magical procedure is underway, so not something the vivimancer does everyday. Upkeep costs is 10 gp per spell level, so about 1980gp per month at 20th level. Not unreasonable really.

The next 65 pages detail spells levels 1 to 9.  Like most Labyrinth Lord compatible products the spells are compatible across a wide variety of products.  You could use these with any old school product wizard, magic-user and yes witch.  Though to do so I think robs the class of some it's charm and power.
The spells are a varied sort.  There are some very useful, some are variations on a theme and others will have limited utility to the adventuring vivimancer.  But all have a lot of style.  If you prefer your games a little more G-rated then this isn't a book for you.  While not as over the top as Carcosa or Lamentations of the Flame Princess, there are a lot of cutting things up and putting them back together.

The chapter on magic items is nice varied lot as well, with attention paid to things the vivimancer needs to perform his craft.

We also get Appendices on Psionic Powers and Mutations.  Both are fine and work but in use I might swap out the same rules in the Labyrinth Lord compatible Mutant Future.

Overall I really liked it.  Like the book said why let Necromancers have all the fun.  There is a lot here that can be used in any game really even if you never use them as a class.  Personally I wonder what a bad guy team of a Vivimancer and Necromancer might produce.   Heck with the Advanced rules, a Vivimancer/Cleric.

There are couple of places where Insanity is mentioned but not a lot of details on how insanity would work in a game.

The art is somewhat sparse, but it is all original and unique to this book (ok maybe 1 or 2 are in T&T).  So that gives it a sum positive in my mind.

The book is 88 pages, as mentioned above, and lists at $10.00 for the PDFs.  Maybe a bit higher $/page ratio, but I'll be honest I am not sure where to price these things. I think $7.50 would have been best, but I am not judging.

I have to admit I was set to like this book.  "The Complete Vivimancer" reminds me of the old Bard Games "The Compleat Spellcaster" and "The Compleat Alchemist".  Not just in terms of title and feel, but in terms of content.  This is the sort of thing I enjoy from the OSR/Old School publishing realms.  I like something I can drop into my games with no issues.  Plug and Play gaming.

I would like to recommend this book.  I particularly recommend it as a change of pace from the evil Necromancer NPC.

There is a lot to love about this book.

Plays Well With Others: The Witch and The Vivimancer

Since The Complete Vivimancer is designed for Labyrinth Lord overtly and Basic Era game in general it should theoretically drop into any Old-School D&D game.  Well as it turns out, it does and it does so rather nicely.  Limit the spell levels to a max of 6 and you have a great new class for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea and one that fits right in really.  It is also a nice compliment to Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts.   It also plays really nice with my own Witch class.

There are several spells that both Witches & Vivimancers can use from their respective books.  These are just my ideas, your GM would have to choose their own and it is possible that Vivimancer author +Gavin Norman might have some different ideas.

Vivimancer Spells for the Witch
First Level: Entangle, Hormone Control
Second Level: Arcane Sight, Insect Messenger, Pair Bonding, Bleeding Wounds (reverse of Staunch Blood Flow)
Third Level: Accelerated Reproduction, Anthropomorphism (perfect witch spell), Paralysis
Fourth Level: Immunity to Disease, Insanity
Fifth Level: Nature's Secrets, Psionic Awakening (for Aquarians only), Transfer Pregnancy (as a Witch Ritual)
Sixth Level: Impregnate
Seventh Level: none
Eighth Level: none
Ninth Level: witches can't cast ninth level spells.

Witch Spells for the Vivimancer
*Cantrips: Analyze Fertility, Daze, Detect Curse, Detect Poison, Detect Pregnancy, Flavor, Freshen, Inflict Minor Wounds, Irritate, Quick Sleeping, Sobriety, Summon Vermin
First Level: Analgesia, Bless Growth, Blight Growth, Block the Seed, Drowsy, Endure Elements, Far Sight, Fey Sight, Sickly, Silver Tongue, Sour Stomach, Vertigo
Second Level: Agony, Broca's Curse of Babel, Delay Poison, Fever, Mind Obscure, Weaken Poison, Youthful
Third Level: Aphasia, Body of Eyes, Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Lesser Strengthening Rite, Remove Blindness/Deafness, Toad Mind
Fourth Level: Abomination, Confusion, Elemental Armor, Narcolepsy, Neutralize Poison, Polymorph, Vomit, Bount/Strength to the Unborn (Ritual)*
Fifth Level: Baleful Polymorph, Dreadful Bloodletting, Gnawing Pain, Steal Youth, Control Outcome of Birth (Ritual)*
Sixth Level: Evaporate Fluids, False Memory, Mass Agony, Repulsion, Crossbreed (Ritual)
Seventh Level: Insanity**, Magickal Conception (Parthenogenesis),  Wave of Mutilation
Eighth Level: Mind Blank
Ninth Level: There are no 9th level witch spells.

*Ritual spells should be cast by a lone Vivimancer at one level higher.
**(Called Greater Insanity to differentiate it from the 3rd level Vivimancer spell)

In both cases I am just listing the level of the spell as it appears in it's respective book.  Some spells might need to be shifted up or down a level depending on the GM.  Also there is some overlap in the spell effects but the casting and mechanics might be different

New Spell: Magickal Creation (Thaumatogenesis)

This new spell is usuable by either Witches or Vivimancers.

Magickal Creation 
Latin: Thaumatogenesis
Level: Vivimancer 9, Witch 8
Casting Time: 2 hours
Range: Touch

By means of this spell a new life form can be created purely from magic.  Unlike Magickal Conception, which takes exsiting life force and shapes into a new life, Magickal Creation uses only magic.
This spell maybe used to impregnate a female or even a male subject. Typically a female subject is used since is most cases (95% of the time) the impregnated male dies in the birth process.

The casting of this spell takes two hours, during which time the caster must be not interrupted. The casting witch must be able to see the target of the spell, either directly or by scrying.  The target, if willing, gains no saving throw, but an unwilling target if aware of the spell can make a save vs. Spells.  A target unaware of the casting must become aware of the situation before they can save.  Many charlatans play on the paranoid nature of many and sell talismans that protect against this spell.

Since this is using the stuff of magic to produce a life, the spell always works and produces a living life form.  What sort of life form produced is indicated by the table below.

d20	Outcome of birth
1-5	The child is born with only the mother’s traits.
6-10	The child is born with both the traits of the mother and the caster
11-12	The child is born a Chaotic outsider, with both the mothers and casters traits.
13-14	The child is born a Chaotic outsider, with only the mothers traits.
15-16	The child is born a Lawful outsider, with both the mother and casters traits.
17-18	The child is born a Lawful outsider, with only the mothers traits.
19	The child is born as a half fiend, with only the mothers traits.
20	The child is born as a half-celestial, with only the mothers traits.

Gestation depends on the species of the mother, but time in months is often reduced to time in hours.  So if the mother is human then nine months of pregnancy is reduced to nine hours.  The minimum gestation time in any case is two hours. The Caster may also impregnate themselves in this manner producing a clone.

Material Components
Vivimancer: A tissue sample from either the gestating mother or the caster. The tissue is placed in a vat where it is boiled with Agaric, Basil, Figs and Mandrake root till forming a loose, liquid ooze. This ooze is placed onto the gestating mother (or caster).
Witch: Root Agaric, Basil, Figs and Mandrake root (harvested only by the new moon) are combined into a paste, dried and burned.  An athame and a cup, symbolizing male and female powers to direct the spell are required as the focuses. 

Section 15: Magickal Creation (Thaumatogenesis) Copyright 2014 Timothy S. Brannan.
All text of this spell is considered Open for terms of the OGL.

A to Z of Witches. E

E is for Enchantment

An enchantment is a type of spell.  Defined as something to charm or bewitch.
In this context it sounds custom made for witches.

Enchantment is also in the D&D family of RPGs a School of Magic.
According to Wikipedia:

Enchantment or Enchantment/Charm
This school, known as Enchantment/Charm prior to 3rd edition and Enchantment in 3rd and 3.5 editions, changed dramatically in 3rd edition, when all non-mind-affecting spells were removed from the school and many were moved to Transmutation. In 3rd and 3.5 editions, all Enchantment spells are mind-affecting and Enchantment is divided into two subschools: compulsion and charm. Charm spells, such as Charm Person or Symbol of Persuasion, affect the targets' attitudes, usually making them act more favorably toward the caster. Compulsion spells such as Confusion, Dominate Monster, Feeblemind, Sleep, Suggestion or Zone of Truth, can force the targets' to act in a certain way or avoid certain actions, affect the targets' emotions or affect the targets' minds in other ways. The Compulsion subschool also includes buffs, such as Aid and Heroism. Wizards who specialize in this school are known as Enchanters.

When I was first working on my witch class I went through the books and thought about which spells would be good for the witch.  Enchantment spells came over whole cloth.
Later when I updated it for my 3.0 book Liber Mysterium and my Basic Era The Witch I focused solely on spells from the d20 SRD.

I added all the spells to a giant Excel worksheet and then went down the list and compared it to a list I had created over the years of spells I felt were ones good for witches.  Where they intersected was my list of spells.

This served me well since these were spells that people knew and they were also ones I felt were good for a witch to use.

I like the idea that witches have a wide choice of spells within the confines of specialties.   They might not have the flexibility of a wizard for example, but within their own specialties they have a large number of choices.




Supernatural AtoZ

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 11

Day 11: First splatbook you begged your DM to approve.

Hmm.  Not so sure.  There were not a lot of splats available then.

I think the first one had to be the Book of Marvelous Magic for D&D.

There were a lot of really cool magic items and I wanted my assassin (AD&D) to get some of them.

We used a few, but never all. It was one of the books I lost when all my AD&D hardcovers went missing in the early 90s.  Since then I was able to get a hold of another copy.  It is still a fun little book.

Psionics?

So old schoolers (and people with opinions).  Do you use Psionics/Pychic powers in your game?

We used to use the quite a bit in the 1st Ed days then I pretty much dropped them till I started playing WitchCraft in the late 90s.

Call me strange, but I never really liked to mix my magic and psionics.  When I did I made them very, very different things.

What about you? What did your all like to do or still do?

Mage: The Ascension (Revised) FREE

DriveThruRPG has the PDF of Mage: The Ascension (Revised) free today.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/199/Mage-The-Ascension-%28Revised%29?affiliate_id=10748

I always rather enjoyed Mage. I thought it was a great idea and a lot of fun to play as characters with world-breaking powers.   I just hated players getting so caught up in all the stereotypes and not trying anything new with their characters.  Plus some of the Technocracy stuff didn't really make much sense.

In the end I preferred WitchCraft and Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade. But I still enjoy this game a lot.

Well...

Yesterday's planned "Keep on the Borderlands" under 1st ed didn't happen.
I ended up with a migraine.  First real bad one since my MRI back in April.  Took my medicine for it and the next thing I knew it was about 8 hours later and I was watching Harry Potter with my kids.

So much for that.  But I did come up with some new ideas for magical backlash.

I'll try to get those written up today.