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This is a subject I've tried to tackle many times before using various game systems. What I tried doing was adapting Magic cards into spells usable in the game (thus, giving creatures stat blocks and spells read outs). As there are thousands upon thousands of cards available, I chose to use only one set (either core set or block, depending of the flavor of the game).
The one problem I come across was mana. I tried various methods for converting it (assigning levels, spell points, etc.), but none seemed to have the right feel to me.
So, what I decided to do was to adapt the mana system of the Magic game into Pathfinder. Here's how:
In order to cast a spell, a spellcaster needs to gather mana. Once per turn, as a free action, a spellcaster can manifest a land. The first land manifested by a spellcaster appears in a 5-foot space adjacent to the spellcaster's initial position. All subsequent lands manifest in a 5-foot space adjacent to another manifested land he or she controls.
A manifested land appears as a illusory of that type of land. The manifested land is a mental projection, a visible representation of a memory within the spellcaster: it does not hamper movement, does it block line of sight or line of effect, nor can it be physically manipulated or disturbed (though magically, it can be).
When a spellcaster casts a spell, he taps lands he controls for mana. When a land becomes tapped, the colors of the land begins to fade, leaving a gray-scale silhouette of the land, the energies held within drained. At the beginning of the spellcaster's turn, all lands tapped during the previous turn recharge: they regain their colors as the energy returns to be used again.
This system allowed for a few things:
- It represents the increasing rate of Magic gameplay (i.e. playing one land per turn, casting more spells as time goes on).
- It adds flavor. In the original Magic rulebook, your play area was called your territory. Here, the more lands you manifest, the more your territory grows, eventually conflicting with your opponent's territory if both manifest many lands.
- Easier to keep track of than a pool of points. Plus, colored tiles can be used to represent manifested lands (assuming play occurs on a 1-inch grid mat).
I decided not to have a class that uses this system. If one could gain the ability to cast spells, let them. Instead, I devised another system of gaining spells. I did have an idea for a class, the spellshaper: it has a system similar to the core wizard's arcane school, instead focusing on a color. The planeswalker mantle would have been either the 20th-level "capstone" ability or a prestige class of some kind.