So my group has a tendency to use Wild Surge effects for failed spells (roll 1) or exceptionally successful spells (roll 20). After a Wild Surge roll we roll D100 to determine which Wild Surge effect happens, from the list of 10 000.
This was fun the first 50 times but when your character you've worked hard on gets his nose switched with his foot, it doesn't really inspire. In addition to that, as a way to get rid of wild surges, my GM thought that visiting a seer who removes random wild surges from you for a price of an ability score (or scores) was a good idea, being a caster is just constant punishment.
So we've been trying to think up another way to remove wild surges. Right now we roll d20 every day and on 20 all wild surge effects disappear, both positive and negative effects.
Another idea we had is XP cost; if you want to get rid of all wild surges effects, you pay 100XP per class level.
Obviously we want equality between positive (such as winning all initiative checks regardless of dice roll) and negative (having all your ability scores reduced your lowest).
So I ask you, Pathfinders, do you have ideas for wild surge effects? How do you keep the fun in the crazy of Wild Magic while not screwing up game balance?
Well seeing as how my quentissential character is my gnome sorcerer who is a wild mage I love this concept. But we don't use wild magic all the time. Its more of something someone has to take if they want the flavor, which I do! Most of our gamers like to power game so we don't see wild mages at all, cept for me, so without me trying I basically have a trademark on the subject.
For the upcoming pathfinder game I'm gonna play him in (by the way, his character name is my screenname) I'm going to homebrew a bloodline specifically for the wild mage, which will be called The Wild. I'm gonna put in chaos spells that are random all the time for his bloodline spells, don't know bout feats yet, and for bloodline abilities, I'm gonna put in like 4 to 6 for each level he gets one, but its rolled randomly and then your stuck with it. Maybe at every level when u get a new one you reroll all your previous bloodline abilities. Still tinkering with the concept.
I've played in games that had wild surges and equivalent effects. For the most part it was 'fun' but not actually enjoyable. You know, the kind of 'it'll be fun' that your parents tell you when they want you to do something you don't like. Fun in theory, not in practice.
I don't have them in any of my games anymore.
So I ask you, Pathfinders, do you have ideas for wild surge effects? How do you keep the fun in the crazy of Wild Magic while not screwing up game balance?
My favorite character was a gnome illusionist with some wild mage effects grafted on, trait style (his last name is my screename, of course!). That said, the randomness is probably not for everyone.
If you want a little variety in failure, consider the Critical Failure deck! It has a different option on each card for Magic, Melee, Ranged, and Natural--this could give you the weirdness you're looking for on a serious failure without turning the entirety of the magic-using populace into Zifnab/Fizban. There is also a critical success deck, but I haven't used it personally, and cannot vouch for it. The CritFail deck rocks, though!
Thanks for the answers but I just noticed I asked the wrong question. There is no lack of effects since we have a list of 10,000. I herped real hard there.
What I was supposed to ask, was do you have ideas for regulating Wild Surge? Such as, what would be a proper cost to remove the effects of wild surges? How should removing wild surges work? Should the triggers for when wild surges happen be adjusted?
We've considered the following...
- Once every in-game day the player whose character has wild surge effects rolls d20, and on 20 all effects are removed.
- Pay 100XP / lvl and visit a temple of your character's god(dess) to remove all wild surge effects. A variation of this is to pay 100XP per level per wild surge effect.
- Whenever a wild surge effect might happen, the player my choose to try and resist the effect. No idea what to use for this.
- I had a crazy nun-alchemist device potions for the group that removed all effects. I don't intend to do this every turn.
I've also devised a system to regulate how common wild surges are:
Green, where no effects emerge - ever.
Yellow, where with 1 the spell fails and a surge happens.
Red, where 1 and 20 cause wild surges and on 1 spell fails.
Black, a chaos magic area, where 1-5 and 15-20 cause wild surges and 1 causes spell failure. In addition, two wild magic effects are added to the character instead of one.
This allows me to have greater variation for wild surge effects and also lets me create areas where caster types don't have to fear every time they cast a sell.
So, any similar ideas?
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Ok, so I noticed this was an old post. However, as I'm currently implimenting my own wild surge stuff in my game, I figured it was relevant.
What I do is have certain effects be permanent, others temporary, like 2d4 days or something. Depends on the effect. If it's a particularly nasty game or class breaker, then I make it temporary depending on how bad it is. Dropping the caster's primary attribute to 3? Maybe 24 hours. Give them 3d10 temporary Hit Points? 24 hours or until they're used up, whichever happens first. Permanent 1d8 Hit Point loss, well, permanent.
In the event they get a permanent effect that they don't want, then they can get it/they removed with a Greater Restoration spell cast by a Cleric of at least 1 level higher than the character.
To help regulate them, and make them more even, I make it where whenever anyone uses a spell or magic item, and rolls a Critical Fumble then the surge happens (magic items include magic weapons). When in wild magic areas, I have them roll a d20 when they cast, and a result of 1 to 3 is a surge. And not all surges have to be devastating to the character. I have surges that make the spell automatically Maximized, as the Feat, and cast as if the caster was 5 levels higher. Or it affects everyone in a 100 fot radius except the caster and the potential target. This makes things like Mage Armor affect multiple targets. Other things, like encasing the target in chocolate shell are comical effects that happen instead of the spell being cast.
Getting a character's foot and nose switched doesn't have to be permanent. Something like that, I would make last for like 1d4 days before it's changed back. Though spending 100 XP per character level per surge is a bit much. Maybe 100 gp per character per surge? Makes them either choose to buy the new shiny magic sword, or get a surge effect removed. Like I said earlier, I use the Greater Restoration spell to get them removed. But with that, one casting removes only one effect, and it requires money to pay the cleric. Otherwise, don't make all the effects permanent. Just my two copper.
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Oh, and one other thing. Don't forget environmental effects, or random creatures and stuff. Like all food in a 100 mile radius turns to dust. Or the nearest Lich becomes Lawful Good in alignment. I have one that the tarrasque wakes up, then sets up a trade goods store outside a small village. With stuff like these, it prevents a bunch of stuff just happening to the players, and gives the game world a bunch of extra flavor.
You may want to see if you can find the Gamemastery critical fumble and critical hit decks. Both have entries for spells. As an example:
Critical Hit: Splash Spell
Normal Damage to target and half damage to all adjacent targets
Critical Fumble: Spell Rift
Your spell is converted to a Summon Monster spell of the same level. That monster attacks you.
--JD