User:Average/Mage
The defining feature of the wizard (or "witch", if female) is spell-casting. Mages typically rely on their greater dexterity and intelligence to avoid getting damage in a weapons fight (and spells typically have effect over distance). They are at their best when they rely on cloaks and other non-metallic armors to stay free from damage as it allow them to be more sensitive to the forces of magic in or from others. But you won't find the best of them sporting studded leathers as an alternative, as that would imply that they lack sufficient ability to avoid damage (i.e. the shame!).
Mana is a mages bread and butter. Mages gather power from the aether -- the resource used by the gods. Because of this, mages typically do not bow to any gods, though they may fraternize to utilize their special abilities to enchant weapons or armor and such (the god's ability to enchant/curse weapons is perhaps 100x as powerful as a LVL30 mage). Mages develop a personal sigil which they mark on their spellbook as a concealed identity and type of "brand".
Mages require INT to understand/create spells, DEX helps you write it effectively on a scroll or in your grimoire, PER helps them know which spell to cast, ASM helps you gather the forces quickly.
Mages get special ability when reading items of their own language, see arcana.
(Note: Elves relate to magic differently than other races, and don't need to write spells with words, instead they use symbols or pictograms. Further, they don't incant spells, they invoke them somatically.)
In order for a Mage to graduate past the second tier, they should create their spellbook or write scrolls. They can sell these latter to magic shops or gift it to a friend. Druids are often consumers of scrolls to augment their abilities. For their spellbook, a guild member can review and grade it. Third tier mages can craft wands for their guilds and lower-level counterparts.
STUB Mages can unconsciously sacrifice HP to give spells more power. These HP transform into mana. Once they sacrifice 5 HP, they lose 1 -CON. These can be gained back with rest, although a big battle that depletes a mage to low CON levels may have a hard time recovering and can lose connections to the world s/he needs to get what's needed.
Mages find spellbooks or create a grimoire. Spellbooks have a LEVEL associated with them. If you aren't at a high enough level, the handwriting and/or the words may not be understandable to you. Or if you DO understand the words, your lack of understanding of their purpose could backfire on you and cause damage. They can be affiliated with a magical guild, this should be clear to higher-level mages, as there aren't many that make any spellbooks worth having. Different guilds can gather different spells for certain kinds of spell-craft. For example, one guild may specialize in evocation spells, another in divination.
For spells, see AD&D Player's Handbook from 1978, by Gary Gygax (minus the "Rope trick", also "Blink" is not recommended as the caster may wind up in a different, random part of the world with some chance close to 50%). There are other, minor fixes to this set of spells, but otherwise these are trusted.
Spellcasting abilities depend on whether you're ronin or not. Ronin have only their own mana to draw from, while those in guilds have the guild. Ronin have to write in their spellbook, others simply need the blessing of a higher-level mage to give the spell the power of the guild.
Spell availability shall not be advertised, but only sufficient intrigue of basic utility spells published. The rest kept in the grimoirs of the WotC. Some basic spells expected at an apprentice`s respective tier of development:
- Underling: light (lvl 1), levitation (lvl 5), trips (lvl 5).
- Hero: fire or ice hands (lvl 10) (casts from a wand if they fashion one: wood for fire, metal for cold), +/- aligned mage, respectively;
- Paragon: pass door (35), pass wall (45), manifest object (30), create food (30).
- Legendary: fly (lvl 50), others by the guilds that make them
Consider mages leveling not by XP, but by the spells they learn, and then write, then enchant into wands, and then create ex nihilo. Written spells (scrolls) can be sold to other players, out-of-game. Wands can be sold in magic shops, but users must incant the special language for them to work correctly. Created spells must be approved by the guild and higher-level mages.
Skill in spells in proportionate to # of times used. This probably won't effect their power, but defines a mage's fab. Depending on the spells they use make a very different type of mage. Expertise in inter-personal divination can discover this arcane information on fellow magic-users, as it effects thier appearance (large eyebrows, moles/warts, hair type, skin tones, etc.).
Identify: there should be no spell of identify. Mages with sufficient knowledge of arcana (level 50), can write scrolls of identify which connect the reciter temporarily to the mind of the mage and the knowledge therein. Cost is signficant for this reason: about 1pp per level of knowledge accessed (guild leader if you are an apprentice), but the knowledge gained should be significant and nearly irreproducable. Scrolls have the mages (or guilds) sigil -- branding isn't completely unknown to them.
XP is accumulated by effective mana utilization (EMU) -- the amount of mana used that actually provided useful utility. Mana that was effective counts as equivalent eXPerience for the player. So that, for example, levitating something just for showing off your magic skillz confers about 1/2 the XP, while levitating someone so they can reach atop the cupboards counts completely. The DM must be judicious in assessing what %age of mana was actually useful towards it`s purpose. The player can counter-argue for their part if there is disagreement. This is to encourage useful spell creation, interesting spell utilization and to create the "wizarding life", rather than relying on conventional human solutions. Should create some very novel ideas for magic use. Spells must have a NAME. Without a name, they do not count as effective mana utilization in whatever manner they are invoked.
Level boundaries are calculated by 2level-1. The amount of XP for the first few levels, then, are: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384, 32768, 65536, etc.
