Re-skinning game mechanics


3.5/d20/OGL


Flavor text and illustrations can go a long way in imprinting how certain game mechanics work. Lately, I've been playing with the ideas behind the mechanics and coming up with new ways to describe them. The normal way is to try and come up with new mechanics to work in new ideas for things, but I've found that a huge amount of the work has already been done for us. Sometimes, DM's get thrown for a loop and have to come up with something quick; maybe the players went a way you didn't plan for, or need an interesting encounter without starting completely from scratch, and risking balance issue with home-brewed monsters. As a DM, you can really throw your payers for a loop if you simply change the way something is described. This is a massively useful tool I use a lot. I'm still all for home-brewing ideas when it's most appropriate, but I like to have fun re-imagining mechanics that are already play-tested and work.

One example of "re-skinning" I'm working on is to take the Totemist class from Magic of Incarnum, and revisualize it as a symbiote-type creature class, similar to Venom and Carnage from the Spider-Man comics. Essentially, the character is covered in the symbiote "skin", and the soulmelds appear to grow directly out of the this skin, sort of like how Carnage has those blades come out of his fists, or Venom's webbing shoots from the backs of his hands. Instead of magically appearing like soul-powered enchantments, this makes the character that much more intimidating to the players; much more monstrous. But, as far as actual game mechanics go, it's simply a human with a few levels of Totemist.

Easier ones to I've messed with are just re-imagining the way certain spells go off. Taking inspiration from a myriad of 2-D fighting games(the ones where everyone and their brother has an energy projectile), a Magic Missile spell could easily materialize as a swarm of 5 energy-bats, or as one player I knew used once, 5 cartoon-style white-gloved hands that slap the enemy. I believe that last one was actually in a book somewhere...

So, what are some examples you might have done with simply re-skinning and changing descriptions? Were your players surprised?


I've done this numerous times when working with players to create characters. They frequently draw inspiration from a TV show, game, etc. I find the best way to make it work is not even consider coming up with new rules, but to fit it into the existing ones.

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

I reskinned the Forsaker to be more like Naruto - a beast placed in the character's belly. The beast had to mature in safety, so strong wards protected it (and the PC) from magic. As the beast grew, so did the strength of ward needed, and the protection it provided. Except, the character also discovered that he could not uses any magic items, and if they got to close to him the enchantment was sucked in.

It was fun :-)

Dark Archive

That Totemist idea is awesome. Very cool!

Flavoring the alignment-based Incarnum user as being able to access the 'armory of the gods' or invoke 'the ideal archetype of a helmet, or sword' could be fun, as well.

In 2nd edition, I played a 'clockwork mage' was just a standard wizard, but went through all sorts of RP nonsense to prepare his spells. His 'shocking grasp' spell was a metal glove that he wore, and to 'prepare' the spell he'd take out the glove and run or peddle an exercise bike-looking folding contraption to generate energy that would 'charge' the glove.

[That game was set on a spelljamming ship, so we had room for that sort of stuff. I would have come up with less cumbersome 'spell preparations' if necessary!]

Every spell he had used some gizmo, that would conveniently break and need to be 'repaired' after the spell was cast (unless he'd prepared it twice that day, in which case 'she's got one more shot in her, I think!'). We hand-waved the encumbrance value of the various prepared spell machines, since they were a 'special effect' and not intended to be a crippling restriction to the characters wizardry. Apparently, they all folded up really cleverly, like metal origami, or something...

The only spell that was consistently 'themed' was magic missile. Every wizard had a different magic missile, and the only time one's magic missile would look like someone elses magic missile is if you had studied it out of their book (if you started the game with the spell, it was part of your wizard's 'final exam' to customize the spell!), which could sometimes be used for deceptive purposes (pretending to be so-and-so, and casting his signature 'screaming imps' magic missile at the captain of the guard or something to get him in trouble, for instance). We had character's whose magic missiles resembled shadow-force ravens that trailed cold mist behind them, hissing golden-green snakes that writhed through the air like Chinese dragons and 'sank' into the bodies of those they 'hit,' like fish diving into water, spinning planetary bodies, mathematical abstractions of lines and figures, smoke-trailing cackling skulls, blue laser-like beams of light, differently colored basketball sized spheres in bright primary colors (that player would designate their targets by color, 'red hits this guy, blue and yellow team up on the other guy'), etc.

A different wizard based his characters spellcasting around summoning (elemental sorcerer in Al-Qadim), and his fireball spell would 'open a momentary gate to the plane of fire' and invoke some squatting fiery entity with 20 ft. long tentacles of fire that would appear at the center of the area of effect and lash out at everyone in 20 ft., like a fiery octopus mated with the inside of one of those static electricity globes. I think he had flaming sphere, as well, because I vaguely remember him yelling at a whirling fiery whirlwind that would chase people around, telling it 'no, chase that one!' (Pure RP, it did what he told it to do, but he'd often claim that his 'elementals' were dangerous and uncooperative and 'talking back.')

Some spells, like Evard's Black Tentacles, really lend themselves to this sort of concept, others, like Glitterdust, require only a tiny tweak (thousands of tiny dancing faeries, blinding anyone in the area with their glowing wands, instead of generic 'dust'), and stuff like Charm Person could be fluffed as calling up an incorporeal spirit to temporarily possess a person and make them more friendly, or Sleep could summon up a 'sandman' from the place between the elemental planes of Air and Earth, to spread his magic sleeping sand over the affected area.


Set wrote:

That Totemist idea is awesome. Very cool!

Flavoring the alignment-based Incarnum user as being able to access the 'armory of the gods' or invoke 'the ideal archetype of a helmet, or sword' could be fun, as well...

Thank you! :)

Honestly, it came from how I learned how Incarnum works in the first place. I was having trouble working out the kinks, and a good friend who had bought the book when it first came out explained it to me in comic-book physics, as opposed to magic items or spells. I took the notion and ran with it, statting up Marvel superheroes in my head with various Souldmelds(Wolverine has Sphinx Claws I would imagine).

The Armory of the Gods idea sounds really cool too, and actually fits the flavor of Incarnum a little closer. Sort of like idealizing Incarnum classes as a kind of Summoner, who invoke such items, instead of an Eidolon. A gear-Summoner. I like it!

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

Set, you've just blowed my mindpan. AGAIN! :-)

My DM is going to freak tomorrow when I start reskinning my spells! Should I warn him? =D

Dark Archive

carborundum wrote:
My DM is going to freak tomorrow when I start reskinning my spells! Should I warn him? =D

Well, he is the one who is going to decide if this is even an option for your character. It's possible that all spells are hand-me-downs from ancient 'tools of creation' left lying around, and cannot be so modified, since mortal casters don't actually know who made them (although several dieties lay conflicting claim to that feat...).

If that's the sort of 'flavor' he has in mind, then every fireball is going to look like every other fireball, and use the exact same words, the exact same measurements of ingredients, etc. with the exception of spellcasters who have trained specially to modify those casting requirements or the results of casting those particular spells (via Eschew Materials, Still Spell, Extend Spell, etc.)

Given my own preferred view of 'negative energy' as an absence of energy and not 'black positive energy,' I'd be cool with an arcanist defining his darkness, cold and certain abjuration spells (dispel magic, most obviously) as tapping into 'negative energy' to drain the light, warmth or magic out of something and having 'negative energy' side-effects, like howling winds, chilling temperature drops, spectral moaning, etc. A similar 'negative energy' version of hold person would cause the target's muscles to cramp up from intense cold, that passes almost as fast as it came (when the save is made), while a 'negative energy' version of sleep would cause the body and mind to be robbed of vital energy, instantly fatiguing the targets into unconsciousness, and fading as quickly when the spell ends (or they are awoken).

A different mage could explain many of his spells as being dependent upon the manipulation of time. He isn't 'summoning a monster,' he's altering the flow of time. On a great enough scale, the odds of any creature being in any given place approaches 1 to 1, and he cycles quickly through all of time, backwards and forwards, until, for whatever ridiculous reason, there happens to be a dire tiger here, now. He isn't 'holding person,' he's causing you to be trapped in time, like a fly in amber. He isn't 'casting sleep,' he's accelerating the flow of time within your brain, so that your body suddenly feels like it's been awake for *days,* and you collapse. He isn't using 'burning hands,' he's incredibly accelerating the oxidation of the matter in the affected area, causing it to 'burn' away, eaten away by entropy itself. It's all just flavored jibber-jabber, but can allow you to play a 'Chronomancer' despite not having any spells that could credibly be thought to be 'time' related until Haste or Slow.

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

He's pretty easy going aa long as the power level stays the same. I was thinking of how to reskin all my spells already...

Detect Magic: summon a little toad-imp that sits on my shoulder mumbling. "Sklub says there's magic here ... shhhh! I'm trying to concentrate, his mouth isn't made for mortal speech!"

Have you an idea for the Acid shooting reserve feat, one that involves summoning? Maybe a cloud of wasps, or a spitting cobra on his shoulder? It needs to have a hit and a miss to fit the ranged touch mechanic a little, though that could be reskinned too. (The wasps didn't find a chink in the armour...)

Dark Archive

carborundum wrote:
Have you an idea for the Acid shooting reserve feat, one that involves summoning? Maybe a cloud of wasps, or a spitting cobra on his shoulder?

The cobra thing sounds cool. It doesn't have to be a cobra, either, specifically, but could appear to be a combination of an ankheg and a viper, it's chitinous bug-head sticking out of your sleeve over your own hand and segmented legless centipede-like body wrapped around your wrist and forearm. It clacks it's complicated mouthparts (like the mouth of a Predator) and hisses out a spray of acid.

Or you could conjure up a liquid creature made out of greenish acid, that looks like a brightly colored
moray eel
and that coils in the air weaving around itself over your hand for a moment before 'swimming' in a shocking burst of speed through the air to strike at it's target. On a miss, the eel-like form splashes harmlessly against the targets shield or armor, or against the ground, or is hit mid-flight by a swinging weapon and splashes harmlessly around, as it has to strike true before it transforms from watery fluid to actual acid.

A crab-like critter, squatting on your shoulder and rocking back like a tiny organic rocket-launcher as it fires it's acid glob, like one of those shoulder-launcher things on anime mechs, could be funky as well.

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

Ohhh, I like that idea - chucking eels around! The other tricky bit about acid damage is reskinning the damage itself. I suppose a sort of burning poison might work too, though it sounds poison-y enough to warrant a Fortitude save, as opposed to being energy damage and all.

Maybe the throwing snake could be a green-glowing, incorporeal, one and slide into their skin before changing into acid...

Dark Archive

carborundum wrote:
The other tricky bit about acid damage is reskinning the damage itself.

I wouldn't change the mechanics at all. The 'eels' are just visible manifestations of whatever fluid-like force that becomes acid as it strikes. They wouldn't count as creatures for the purposes of anti-life spells or magic circles against summoned critters or any of that, and acid resistance would work against them like any other acid attack.

It's easiest all around to have no mechanical difference at all, even if the 'acid' damage appears to be inflicted by devouring insects or violet flames.

The only benefit / advantage to this sort of thing should be allowing the character's visible manifestations to follow a theme, for RP purposes. In a world where this sort of thing is commonplace, and many, if not most, spellcasters have thematic manifestations, there wouldn't even be a Spellcraft penalty, as anyone able to make the roll would be able to recognize a magic missile spell whether it was a multicolored ray of light or a cackling ball of blue fire.

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carborundum wrote:
The other tricky bit about acid damage is reskinning the damage itself.

Postmonster is eating posts today like mad. Grr.

Anywho, I wouldn't change the mechanics one little bit. The only advantage to this sort of thing should be RP / thematics.

An acid bolt that looks like a slithery eel of green energy/fluid should just roll the usual hit roll and do the usual acid damage, and not actually be treated as a living creature that could be affected by repulsion or anti-life shell or an extraplanar entity that can be held at bay by protection from evil or any of that stuff.

Even if the 'acid' attack looks like violet flames or a fast-devouring lichen or tiny flesh-eating beetles or a temporal distortion, the damage should remain acid damage and subject to acid resistance.

Indeed, in a setting where spellcasters are known for these sorts of thematic manifestations, there shouldn't even be a Spellcraft penalty to recognize these altered visuals, as any apprentice would have seen and had described many different versions of 'magic missile,' from black thunderbolts to cackling blue balls of witchfire.


Set wrote:
carborundum wrote:
The other tricky bit about acid damage is reskinning the damage itself.

Postmonster is eating posts today like mad. Grr.

Anywho, I wouldn't change the mechanics one little bit. The only advantage to this sort of thing should be RP / thematics.

An acid bolt that looks like a slithery eel of green energy/fluid should just roll the usual hit roll and do the usual acid damage, and not actually be treated as a living creature that could be affected by repulsion or anti-life shell or an extraplanar entity that can be held at bay by protection from evil or any of that stuff.

Even if the 'acid' attack looks like violet flames or a fast-devouring lichen or tiny flesh-eating beetles or a temporal distortion, the damage should remain acid damage and subject to acid resistance.

Indeed, in a setting where spellcasters are known for these sorts of thematic manifestations, there shouldn't even be a Spellcraft penalty to recognize these altered visuals, as any apprentice would have seen and had described many different versions of 'magic missile,' from black thunderbolts to cackling blue balls of witchfire.

Set's right on. We're not rebuilding any of the mechanics in any way, just the way they're described. This way, we can personalize and re-imagine things without worrying about balance and potentially breaking anything in the system.

In a slightly, related case, I've allowed for players to change energy/element descriptors of spells and abilities, so a Fireball becomes an Iceball, Shockball, etc. They don't get to switch energy type on the fly, it has to be done when the spell/ability is acquired initially and can't be changed, unless they use feats such as Energy Substitution, etc. I understand there may be some very slight issues with balance, seeing as how Fire spells are more readily available, and a lot of creatures in the game have Fires Resistance, but it's never really been a problem in our games. I enjoy energy-themed characters(again, back to comics) such as Iceman, Pyro, Elektro, etc.

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

No, I didn't mean change the mechanics of acid. Always saying that he "splashes acid in the orc's face" was getting tired fast, you see.

I was just thinking of other ways to describe it than smoking green slime.
Lots of bee-stings for example, or army ants, or that green snake-of-energy that disappears under the skin leaving chemical burns behind...

Mechanics are sacrosanct, I agree!

And the more I think about it, the more I like the crab-ankheg beastie on the shoulder... especially after watching Predator again recently!


Sounds cool, but it really isn't something that you can spring on your GM. For his sake you have to be clear on what is going on, and describing your spells without letting him know which one you are casting (mechanics wise) is not okay. On the other hand it is a great thing to talk over with the GM and then surprise the other players with.


Admiral Jose Monkamuck wrote:
Sounds cool, but it really isn't something that you can spring on your GM. For his sake you have to be clear on what is going on, and describing your spells without letting him know which one you are casting (mechanics wise) is not okay. On the other hand it is a great thing to talk over with the GM and then surprise the other players with.

^^This. I meant to touch on it and side-tracked myself with the energy swap thing. It all needs DM approval. There may be limitations given the setting, as to what way a spell or effect manifests. For example, in a setting like Ravenloft, where there are practically no dragons(one exists in only one domain, I believe), it wouldn't make sense to have a little dragon on your shoulder spitting flames as per a Burning Hands spell.

Also, if you DM is on board with your idea, he can help with describing your effect to the rest of the table and solidify it in-game. This may encourage other players to rethink some effects as well. Also makes you, as a player, seem less demanding of the spotlight if the DM helps in the descriptions.

The whole reskinning thing is honestly easier as a DM than as a player, for the most part.

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

Very true. My DM is quite happy as long as it doesn't touch the mechanics and looks like it still gives the same save. Swarm effects for Will saves will make for nice summoning style reskins.

As a DM I love players to get so involved in their characters. The wizard in my STAP game paralyzes his enemies by wrapping them in fly paper (hold monster) and his Sending is an imp with a scroll and quill.


That's pretty much the way I run it - if you don't change the stats, it can look however you want, nine times out of ten. The big one for my group has been Warlocks and their Eldritch Blast. I've had one that looked like roiling clouds of darkness, one that looked like the Warlock (who was a sailor) was hurling an anchor and chain Mortal Kombat Scorpion-style, one that looked like pulsing blasts of electricity, and one that looked like the Death Star's annihilation cannon concentrating off his fingers and firing off from a pulse in his palm.

I also had a Tiefling descended from the infernal Reth Dekala (Tome of Battle) with the Fiery Burst feat... every fire spell he cast was green. (Which, having four WoW players at my table, immediately led to "GIVE WARLOCKS GREEN FIRE" jokes :D).


I've reskinned several prestige classes as I adapt OD&D's Mystara setting to AD&D 3.5 mechanics. In Mystara, the ranger class is really tied to the elves of the world and unavailable to most non-elves. To give the elven ranger traditions a little individualization, I've re-skinned the Eldeen Ranger class from Eberron to make the elf rangers have some similar power levels but different abilities.

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