ASH's
Magic System for Palladium
The Basic Idea
I've always had my disagreements over the Palladium Magic System, old (spells per day), and new (P.P.E. based). So here is where I present my own system built from my own opinions on the reality bending ways of magic.
For starters, throw out the idea of wizards, diabolists, circle mages, and warlocks as individual classes of magic users. All mortal arcanists are made from a singular O.C.C., the Sorcerer (apologies to The Slayers).
A Sorcerer is any mortal being who has learned the ways of magic, be they man, elf, gnome, but Sorcerer is the general term for all arcanists who are not themselves inherently supernatural, like daemons or faeries. By channeling the mystic energy of all existance, a sorcerer performs what're known as feats of magic. The Palladium idea of arcanists being magical "batteries", is faulty, in my opinion, to much like psionics. Magic is a mastery of what is around us. Psychics are masters of what is within.
As such, do not think of magic as drawing on what is inside, like a battery, but instead taking what is there and channeling it through oneself, like a transformer, changing the energy into something usuable. In this right, magic can be more powerful than psionics. The energy around us is virtually inexhaustible, except in certain cases (to cited later). However, this aspect can be dangerous aswell. Sometimes, a Sorcerer will draw on to much power in a certain ammount of time. A transformer that takes to much energy in or through, can flash fry itself from the inside, or explode. Just as a power surge can fry a transformer, to much energy can fry the Sorcerer. An inexperienced anarchist, with no formal teaching, might even find it dangerous to do something as simple as creating a ball of light. While even those formerly taught, with little real experience, cannot perform radical things like summoning ball lightning to strike down a massive area, or cause a town square to burst into flames. To attempt feats of that level would burn out any ability they had, if they did not die from the flood of energy that could very well strip their life away.
Of course, a person only performing safe tasks, can only draw so much energy before they become exhausted, with their ability to channel safely greatly (but only temporarily) dimished, while their body recuperates.
That is the short of the act and nature of magical feats, now into the science of magic.
Talents, Fields, and Knowledge
Magic has many facets, as many uses almost as there are stars in the sky. The uses any one arcanist can make are determined by two things, talent & knowledge. When talent & knowledge are combined in the same field, the result is a strong, but sometimes inflexible Sorcerer. While knowledge divided over several fields with the use of some talent, gives a variable, but less powerful wizard. There are extremes, and grey areas abound, as there are with all things in life.
The next focus is the different fields of magic.
Black - Magic which draws from a powerful supernaturally evil source. While experts in this field aren't necessarily evil themselves, their abilities lay in causing destruction or harm, and little else.
Circles - A melding of many different magics, using symbols charged with magic to create a desired effect.
Elemental - Based around the five elements of nature, Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Spirit. A person may have talent and knowledge in any, all, or few to no elements. Elements can often be combinded to create interesting effects.
Illusion- Manipulating light, shadow, and sound, to create images, or tricks of the senses, or the mind.
Wards - Much like circles, but on a smaller, and somewhat more flexible scale, using seals charged with magic to create a desired effect.
White - Magic which draws from a powerful supernaturally good source. Generally involves feats of aide, or abilities designed to hunt, or destroy evil. Closely linked with the Spirit Element.
"Wizard" Magic - Magic with no other discernable category, that manipulates aspects of the world not involving the elements, good, evil or trickery. Also includes scrying magic.
A Sorcerer is able to learn magic from any field, as long as they can find a suitable teacher, or texts of magic knowledge. Most humans only learn from two or three different ones in their lifetimes, while elves, and other demi-humans with unnaturally long lives, can become true masters of one or many fields.
Talent: See the Sorcerer O.C.C. for greater detail.
Game Mechanics
The ammount of energy required to cast a certain spell, is measured as Magic Points (MP, apologies to Squaresoft). A sorcerer can draw or hold a certain ammount of MP based on two values.
Every Sorcerer or magic user has these two
values for magic channeling, Channeling Ability (CA), and
Channeling Potential (CP). Channeling Ability is the Sorcerers
current value for measuring the maximum ammount of MP they can
channel at once, safely. Channeling Potential is the maximum
ammount of MP a person can channel at once, before they risk
killing themselves. With every new level of experience, a
Sorcerer gains a greater CA Value, and at certain levels, their
CP Value goes up aswell. CA can never exceed CP, but they may be
equal.
Now, drawing all the magic that one can
hold, takes times, also, some spells require 'power' or 'chaos
words' in order to give the energy drawn a more specific shaping.
We see this done most often in The Slayers and BASTARD!. A
Sorcerer can draw as much as 20% of their CA in one action. This
means in five actions a sorcerer can draw on their entire
reserves, and either hold onto it (holding magic energy takes
intense concentration, causing a penelty of -2 to all combat
actions), or use it immediatly.
When the ammount of energy drawn goes above
the CA value, risk grows greatly. When drawing that much energy,
the Sorcerer must make a saving throw versus magic the moment
they cross the threshold from CA to CP, and then make another one
every action that they still hold that many MP For every 10% of
MP that is over their CA, the Sorcerer's saving throw suffers a
-1 penalty. If the saving throw is failed, the Sorcerer takes 1d6
hit points damage. Now, if the ammount of M.P. held exceeds even
the CP value, then the Sorcerer must make a saving throw vs.
magic at the start of each of their actions,with a -10 penalty.
If they fail this, they then roll a percentile. Example: Scias Moren, Black Mage, has a CA & CP of 100 & 144 respectively. In five actions he has Channeled 100 MP and has reached his CA limit. However, he needs to cast a whopper spell outside of his School of knowledge, and therefore needs more energy. So he channels 20 more MP, bringing himself past his CA limit but well below his CP limit. However, he must make a save vs. magic -2, for being 20% over his CA. Lucky bastard that he is, he makes the save. However, he still needs more power, and in his next action channels another 20 MP, now at 140, and just skirting the edge of his CP limit, and making a save vs. magic this time at -4! He fails, and now must take the damage. If he dared to go any further than his CP, he might really find himself in trouble.
01-50: Magical energy scours the Sorcerer's life force, and takes 4d6 Hit Point and Spirit Damage
51-70: Magical energy has literally, driven the Sorcerer mad. Roll on the Random Insanity Table.
71-90: The character's ability to perform feats of magic is completely burned out. This character will never be able to use magic again, but they will still be able to sense it, this much can drive a Sorcerer insane.
91-00: The character dies, their life force completely snuffed out by the intense flood of magic that roars through them. Roll up a new character.
Fatigue
can also hamper a Sorcerer, or physical damage. If the body is
not at it's peak performance, the ability to draw on magic energy
is reduced, and therefore drawing on the same ammount as normal,
can become dangerous. After drawing up to three times (3x) their
CA value in MP, the character will start to become fatigued,
lowering both CA and CP by 25%, and also causing the character to
lose one attack per melee, and be -1 to all combat rolls until
they get a good nights sleep. If the character channels more than 1.5x their CA in MP after this point they will sustain a 10% reduction to CA & CP each time they do so. Example: Scias Moren, Black Mage and all around ass kicker has a CA of 100 and CP of 144. He has had a hard day fighting daemons, and pissed off Royal Guard Mages, and has channeled 300 MP, which is 3x his CA. This means his CA & CP are reduced to 75 and 108. However, since this hard day doesn't seem to end any time soon, he ends up channeling 115 MP later on, which is a bit more than 1.5x his current CA, reducing his CA to 68 and 98.
After taking Hit Point damage, the Sorcerer's ability is also
reduced, by the % of Hit Points they have remaining. (i.e., a
Sorcerer with only 50% of their hit points left will find their
CA & CP Values reduced to 50%). Only when Hit Points are
completely healed will the character be at full power again. Example: Scias Moren, Black Mage and Example Monkey has 26 HP, and the afforementioned CA of 100 and CP of 144. His day isn't getting any easier unfortunately and he has taken quite a fair amount of damage with little chance to find a friendly White Mage willing to heal his unruly self. He has taken a meager 3 HP damage, reducing him to 23 HP. However, with 3HP missing he is now missing a little over 10% of his HP, thus reducing his CA to 90 and his CP to 130. This may not seem like much at the moment, but then a bunch of zombies come and after dusting most of them, it seems like he's lost a much greater amount of HP, now down to 13 HP! At 50% HP his CA & CP are now at 50 and 72 respectively, not including any further modifiers he may have from being fatigued from Channeling. This day has just gone from bad to worse unless he can find a White Mage fast!
Ley Lines
As described in PFRPG, Ley Lines are rivers of magical energy, where in some cases (as it was during the Time of a Thousand Magiks, and is so on Rifts Earth), magic energy was so high that the Ley Lines became visible to all, and almost dense, tangible so to speak.
Being near a Ley Line allows a Sorcerer to draw on their energy more readily, or increase the effects of their spells. In some cases though, drawing from a Ley Line can be dangerous.
Magical Vacuums1. Close proximity to a ley line. Being near a ley line, within two miles (3.2km) increases the range and duration of all magic by 20%.
2. Being at/on a ley line or a half mile (0.8km) from a nexus point increases the range, duration, and damage of magic by 50%. Sorcerers can also draw up to 25% of their CA in MP per action instead of 20%, allowing them to draw their entire CA value in 4 actions.
3. Being within 200ft (61m)of a ley line nexus point or on it doubles the normal range, durationg, and damage of magic. The Sorcerer also enjoys a bonus of +2 to save vs. magic and horror factor, plus their spell strength is increased by +1.
4. Periods of Increased Energy: These can be both dangerous and advantageous times for a Sorcerer. Their are certain times of day, night, or year that the ley line energies surge and increase dramatically at ley line nexus points. These are the times when Sorcerers perform some of their greatest feats, either by ritual or common spell weaving. The following are additional ammounts of magic available at specific periods.
- Midday (noon) and midnight: The mage can draw an additional +5% of their CA in MP per action, in addition to any other %'s from being near or at a Nexus.
- Vernal (spring) and Autumnal Equinox: Energy runs high during the daylight hours of the vernal equinox and the nighttime hours of the autumnal equinox. During this time a Sorcerer may draw upon an additional +10% of the CA in MP per action, in addition to any other %'s from being near or at a Nexus. This number doubles to +20% for one minute at dawn, noon, sunset, and midnight. Note: However, that there is also a 1-15% chance that a Rift will open. Also note that when drawing above their normal CA limit, the character's save vs. magic is -1.
- Summer and Winter Solstice: Solstice occurs twice a year, when the sun is the farthest from and closest to the planets equator. These two days make the ley line nexus's boil with energy, causing them to be visible to all on Palladia. The energy available during the 24 hour period is the same as the equinox.
At the dawn of a solstice, the nexus erupts with energy for a five minute period. During this time, a mage can tap into 50% more of their CA & CP safely (so both values are increased). However, there is a 1-50% chance that a rift or terrible storm will occur. Roll once.
At sunset, another, although smaller, five minute energy flare erupts. The character can draw 25% more of their CA & CP safely (so both values are increased). This time there is a 1-25% chance that a supernatural even will occur; roll once.
Also note that when drawing above their normal CA or CP limit, the character's save vs. magic is an additional -3.- A Lunar Eclipse happens when a planet is in a straight line between the sun and any of it's satellites. A lunar eclipse occurs about once a year on Earth and Palladia, and lasts about an hour and a half. Throughout the 90 minute period, the character can draw on their entire CA value in one action, but for a one minute period, when the lunar eclipse is at it's zenith., an arcanist can draw into 75% more of their CA & CP safely (so both values are increased). Note that when drawing above their normal CA or CP limit, the character's save vs. magic is an additional -5.
- A Partial Solar Eclipse occurs when a satellite passes infront of the sun and a planet, but is close enough to planet that the sun is briefly blocked from sight. This rare solar event happens about once every ten years on Earth and Palladia, and lasts about two to eight minutes (roll 2d4). It has a profound effect on all magical energy. During the 2-8 minute eclipse, an arcanist can draw upon their entire CP value in one action (though this is not always advisable), and at the Zenith, the character can draw into 100% more of their CA & CP safely (so both values are increased). Note that when drawing above their normal CA or CP limit, the character's save vs. magic is an additional -7.
Furthermore, during this period of 'darkness', all Black Magic effects (damage, duration, range) are tripled.
All other magic is unaffected (no increase in power).
Also, there is a 1-70% likelihood that a garguantuan, dimensional Rift appear in the sky. This time is when it is said that the dark gods can enter the world of the mortal, and even the old ones or the Great Daemon Lords of the Four Worlds stir.
