Wheel of Time Spellcasting: The One Power

[kyrt-ryder]

Hey guys, Kyrt here.

I've seen a fair bit of buzz around the forums lately regarding the wheel of time the fantasy novel series, and the d20 game it spawned.

I've got a few ideas on how to make the spellcasting work better and more true to the series, but I'm only one man.

If anybody here is interested in helping out, reply here. At some point soon I'll be posting the actual analasys and development thread in the homebrew section.

[Set]

I've got the book and very much like systems like that, with different levels of effect and abilities that can be modified / expanded by level, instead of many discrete spells.

I'd be interested in seeing what you've got in mind. From my cursory glance at the material, it almost seems like the power usage (away from books atm) that uses Air to lift people up and hold them helpless is a bit 'too good,' while the strictly damaging stuff is a bit limp. (Making it, amusingly, much like normal 3.5 D&D spellcasting, where control beats out direct damage.)

I am notorious for missing stuff, so feel free to shoot me an email reminder when you get around to this. You can find that tucked away in my profile.

[Luna eladrin]

I have DM-ed a Wheel of Time campaign until level 13 and then gave up in despair. The problem with the channeling system is that all combats end in a tie. Either the channelers have the enemies in a harden air or arms of air, or the enemies cannot reach the group because the channelers have used a ward. I tried to make exciting combats for this game, but practically the only way to do this is using monsters immune to the one power, and this trick gets lame soon, and is also not fair to the channelers.

Especially the fact that weaves can be tied off causes problems. If you lock up someone in a cave with a tied-off harden air in the entrance, the adventure is practically over.

Another problem is that with weavesight channelers can learn practically any weave. So you can never give something unique to enemies without running the risk that the PCs get it too.

Another problem in this game was that the channelers had too much to do and the other characters too little. The channelers literally outshone the rest.

A problem at high levels were the travelling weaves. The group never stayed anywhere long enough for me to develop some plots, e.g. in cities or villages. When the NPCs arrived, the PCs were already gone. Of course this works in the novels. However, it does not work in a game.

I would be interested to see what you make of it, and to give my comments from experience with this game.