Magic
Magic can be extremely dangerous and is viewed various degrees of mistrust, superstition and fear as result.
Mage craft, Wizardry etc is the study of how to use magic. It is as much as an intellectual pursuit as a craft and is respected as such by those who do not fear it. The caster needs to physically, mentally and perhaps even emotionally, form a link to the stuff of magic in order for it to do their bidding – something requiring many years of practice and study to form that link and learn it use it. It may require material items to drive the desired result and it requires the caster to study spells to lock their power away to be released later.
Sorcery is another matter entirely… It’s a direct line to the magic itself, no materials or study required. It can come about in two ways.
Bloodline, such as seen in the core rules – a very rare occurrence at best for humans. It generally manifests at puberty and the sorcerer making their own way via natural study of their abilities. Demi Humans have a natural affinity for magic and are considered to be automatically able to tap into one of the following bloodlines: Arcane and Fey as well as Deep Earth for Dwarves or Gnomes and Verdant for Elves and Halflings. Other bloodlines require either a start as a sorcerer or sponsorship (below).
The other is a sort of supernatural sponsorship – in short, the sorcerers link to magic is provided by a powerful 3rd party… Angels, Devils, major Fairie and the like, who can either weaken or remove that link at will. This pretty much means that a sorcerer isn’t a free agent but rather an agent of their sponsors agenda if they want to continue to be able to use magic. As sponsors are also very powerful creatures in their own right, they can do a lot more to punish delinquent servants than simply removing their link to use magic. On the other hand such sponsors do have some vested interest in the sorcerer and may help as long as it is in line with their interests.
Both types use exactly the same rules as the core rules, though Bloodline (or True Sorcerers) always start as level 1 if they are human. A sponsored sorcerer normally comes into their arrangement later in life, with the catch being they can have their caster abilities reduced or even eliminated (and any bloodline powers) by their sponsor. Such sorcerers still would retain skills, proficiencies, feats (incl. those from the bloodline) and hit dice. Though the link is removed, the caster retains their effective caster level - even though the link is provided by another, the ‘will’, skill or ability remains their own. Once the link is re-established, the sorcerers ability to use magic fully returns as well.
Because Sorcery is perceived as ‘Easy’ by Wizards, they tend to resent the hell out of it – That there can be a kid with as much power as a practitioner who has spend his youth in study tends to upset them, to say nothing of those who can use magic with no training at all simply because they non human or are in the service of an otherworldly power. Sorcery is perceived a ‘supernatural’ and feared as evil and manipulative – a view that Wizards go out of their way to promote. Witchcraft is often lumped in with Sorcery.
Bards are no exception, with bards starting at level 1 being naturally attuned to magic or by sponsorship if they wish to use magic after moving into the class after level 1. Some bards choose not (or are unable) to use spell magic. Any bard choosing this route gets bonus feats at the same rate a fighter would, with the decision needing to be made when the class is chosen. Bards will either hide any magical ability or attempt to disguise it as mage craft. Sponsorship provides access to spells as normal and none of the Sorcerer bloodline abilities, though the Sponsor of the Bard may influence what spells the Bard learns or has access to.
Finally, Channelling is used by those tapping into magic by the power of their faith and with the assistance of their God. Clerics, Druids, Rangers (casting is considered as per druid) and Paladins (casting is considered as per cleric) have their access to magic provided by their Gods in a partnership, rather than the servitude that tends to follow that of sponsored sorcery… though the results for severely displeasing their Gods can be much the same. It is viewed more positively than mage craft by those who follow the specific faith of the channeller, with a more negative view of the magics practiced by other faiths and even more so for the magics used by opposing faiths.
Overall Magic is seen as the stuff of the impossible, and knowledge of 'things that man should not have the knowing of'. A caster is able to provoke feelings of awe and reverance at best and bloody minded panic and irrational fear at worst. Using magics of any sort in public needs to be carefully considered, and should, if possible include an explaination of what is to happen and the relative risk of the spell if a negative reaction is to be avoided as much as possible.
The Bard option of bonus feats instead of spells creates an option for Non Magical Bards for a low magic world while still allowing the benefits of inspiring confidence etc. Such feats could be any feat instead of combat only, to reflect the ability of the bard to be a 'Jack of all Trades'.
I've been pondering a similar setup a while ago, for a setting where Wizards maintain the only functional state in a savage world, and thus all other forms of magic are considered "barbaric" and generally inferior.
Do your sorcerers' bloodlines effect their appearance as they grow in power? In a human-dominant campaign this would mean every non-human race could be viewed as a potential sorcerer and if wizards held any political power in the region, prejudices would sprout like weeds. Elves/half-elves often accused of fey-ancestry, orcs/half-orcs could be seen on the same level as tieflings, and so on.
If that level of suspicion and bias takes hold, it would not be improbable to associate shapechanging with sorcery as well; necromancy might be reviled, but polymorph (and related spells--even illusions) might enjoy a dark-arts reputation.
Some thoughts.
Thoughts in regards to your take on Magic.
Mage Craft - What is the general tech level for the rest of the world? Is civilization advanced enough in science for Mage Craft to be seen as an off-shoot of science, or is Wizardry seen as THE source of knowledge, with advancements in the field being the direction knowledge is heading? Do you see a difference between the two in your world? Wizards could have to take a feat in some Item creation type to gain money for their studies, with the number of feats taken in this regard as a symbol of how far they have taken their 'craft'. "I am Artasius Groeter, Craftmaster of the Third order, mastering Rods, Scrolls, and Arms and Armors." They become the Artisans and Craftmasters of the world, because they are the only ones who know how everything really works. Everything manufactured goes through a Wizards hands at some point.
Sorcery - Honestly, I can see why people might see them as evil. When you were a teenager, and you suddenly got a super-power what would you do with it? Make your life more comfortable, of course! Generally without some sort of outside influence, like a mentor, teenagers do what they want, and with a power that cannot be countered by the general populace, that can easily be a corrupting influence. Conversely, one outside influence might be Wizards, depending on a specific timeframe, seeing them as a 'natural resource' to be exploited, creating a kind of slave race. On the mentor idea, if you go with the sponsor idea, perhaps you have a war between sponsor ideologies, with Sorcerers fighting it out a-la Highlander, trying to gain 'converts', or outright killing opponents. The eventual goal for the sponsor is to achieve enough followers to attain godhood, while the Sorcerer would become a herald or something along those lines. Weird thought but hey, just where my mind is going.
Bards - Hmmmm. I dunno about them gaining all the feats that fighters get like that. You seem to be forgetting their rogue aspects. Alternate every other level with either sneak attack or Rogue talents? Thinking about just the fighter feats I know that the Bard would still be slightly 'weaker' than the fighter with lower hit points and different saving throws and a focus on Bardic Performances. Would this make him/her a herald? Possibly an interesting alternate class feature...
Channeling - Honestly I don't see a significant difference between this and the sponsor thing with Sorcerer. At this point you would probably have to make a concerted effort to explain the difference between arcane and divine magic, if there even is one. Perhaps it's only one of methodology, whereby the means you gain your power is the defining difference, or perhaps there is a physical difference, with the two being incompatible. This may lead to a further gap between arcane and divine spellcasters, with divine spellcasters needing a specific reason or quest to associate with an arcane spellcaster other than "I met him at a bar and we decided to become adventurers."
These are my initial thoughts. I put them down not to direct you towards a particular direction, but merely to get the creative juices flowing. If you think they have merit, great. If not, hopefully they helped you decide what direction you wanted to go. The more details you can decide on when you are creating a world, the more real it will seem to your players, and the more fun they'll have. Enjoy!
fopalup wrote: Bards - Hmmmm. I dunno about them gaining all the feats that fighters get like that. You seem to be forgetting their rogue aspects. Alternate every other level with either... I like the idea of Rogue trick as well... not a bad idea. I dont see sneak attack as Bard thing but the rogue trick adds a lot of versitility... Does it (or feats) compensate properly for the lack of magic is the thing I am pondering.
In an E6 game its 4 feats against 3 rogue tricks. A minor consideration is that while extra feats can be shoehorned into some electronic character sheets/xls, class features can't be.
And thanks to ALL for the idea's and feedback-keep it coming.
Here's a thought you may want to look into: the origin of magic. Where is your font of power; your power core, so to speak. Does anyone know, even the gods? Does it act like the sun, spreading its energy to all life and matter, energizing and even in some cases animating everything; or does it only search out specific objects and people, based off a pre-determined judgement made before even the beginning? Is there a Magic dimension, like there is a Positive and Negative dimension, or are they a part of it, perhaps even the Positive and Negative (a-la electricity) poles that generate the magical field within the spheres? Maybe it is generated by the planet, like the lifestream idea from Final Fantasy VII. Perhaps no one knows, even the gods, anymore than it is known where Gravity comes from; it just is.
Depending on the answers it may determine more on the interaction between the classes. Perhaps the Sorcerers see the Wizards as the usupers, delving into the natural magical field and disrupting it's flow, or even stealing it. Make the Wizards the underdogs in this fight, trying to find secure locations to continue their studies while the Sorcerers try to stop these unnatural experiments. You could go with the 'Mad Scientist' scenario, with the Sorcerers' seeing themselves as magics' guardian needing to stop these upstart Wizards from, one of these days, opening a portal to who knows what, and ending all of existance. Clerics would probably be tolerated, as their power would be given to them from a higher power, or as you put it channeling, and is not a direct disruption of the Magical Order of Things (TM). Druids could be seen as kindred spirits to Sorcerers, while all the other classes could be seen as oddities, especially bards who could have been sorcerers, but were too frivolous (in the sorcerers view at least).
Clerics and Paladins would see magical power in the hands of others as an untrustworthy persuit, as it would lead too easily to an abuse of power. Unsurprisingly, this reasoning is probably very close to the reasoning in our real world, and would probably be easiest to simulate. You could have your Divine classes act paranoid towards other classes, even the non-spellcasting type, because they believe in the direction of their god or cause and cannot allow their worldview to widen, for fear of losing their faith.
Back to your original idea about the sorcerer being the upstarts/new kids on the block, maybe they are, or at least originally were of an evil origin. I can easily see Devils or Demons starting the trend, and it just grew from there with Dragons and Angels and various other powerful entities joining the trend, but the initial stigma would still exist. Does society as a whole shun those who spontaneously display magic power? Do they revere those whose power is able to help the community now and not some indeterminate time in the future as the person has to study their buttinski off just to dust a room with magic? A lot of this would depend on what kind of setting you are planning on for the characters, and what kind of background the common folk are used to.
As far as sponsorship is concerned, what happens if you lose your sponsor? How do you gain another? Will that change your previous granted powers, or do you gain lower level powers of your new sponsor(ie. wings), or perhaps even a Sorcerer(bloodline)/Sorcerer(sponsor) multiclass? Would you start over at first level at gaining a new sponsor, or continue on from your old class level? What happens in-between sponsors to experience gained? I suppose you could do something like a level drain until a new sponsor is contracted with.
Anyways, have fun picking this apart.
All good questions - I thought I'd leave the source of magic to 'life' or 'unlife', 'ying and yang' that sort of thing... the force without midoclorians :) - ie it surrounds us, binds the universe together yadda yadda.
There will exist Ley Lines (natural junctions and channels that this enegery seems to fall into) and places of power (specialised areas such as major religious sites etc) that boost the effective caster levels for casting and ritual magic (still trying to find something that works the way I want it to)
The kick is the 'Link' (havent got a groovy name for it yet) between a beings soul/essence/will (what-have-you etc etc) to magic - and to use that link to manipulate the stuff of magic.
Creatures of the Farie world (including Demi Humans for this campaign world) have this link naturally as do Outsiders and certain beings like Dragons, powerful self willed elementals etc. Sorcery is generally THE flow they can go with - meaning that Demi Humans are more likely to be sorcerers... re-enforcing that sense of sorcery being 'other worldly'. In short, its in the blood (oh, no... I swear its not midiclorians).
Its a tap into magic directly without the need for lots of study (apart from possibly learning how to use their power to manifest new spells), material components etc.
Such a link can be forged by just about anyone with the right study and exercises... there may be those who are just better attunded and they make the connection earlier in their studies but as a rule just about anyone can create this link and strengthen it. Demi Humans can be wizards... it would be an unusual calling given that they can come into their power naturally but there are some who want the methodical approach.
Its possible that more than a few wizards actually started with this sorcerous potential but channelled, directed and disiplined this inclination with the study of mage craft/wizardry.
Then we get 'Sponsored' magicians - These are those who are 'Given' a link to magic. A "Very" powerful agent sets up the connection for the person... But at a cost - its not a free ride. Something is gonna be wanted in return, and its never just 'one' thing.
Magic is power (paricularly in this E6/E7 low magic game world setting I am making) - some people will 'sell their souls' for such power. Once the link is made, the person will need to take some time familiarising themselves with their new ability to manifest magic (and may be tutored or given knowledge of 1-2 spells and cantrips) - and then they begin to exercise that link and their connection to it, their ability to use it etc, just like any other sorcerer.
The catch being that the "link" is not theirs - its borrowed. If its removed, their connection to magic goes away... like a plug is pulled. If they get it back (restore favour of the entity, form a new alliance with another entity assuming the first one is destroyed or driven off etc) they have their powers back - though different powers may apply depending on the nature of the new sponsor.
Why would a PC want to do this? Well, its more for NPCs and Story purposes but in theory it opens the door for characters who want to multiclass into the more exotic bloodlines or creates an interesting 'motivation' for their character. Natural sorcerers wont be affected, or Demi-humans who follow the established pre-approved bloodlines. Its a way for me to manipulate the story of 'natural. vs unnatural' (but which is which is in the eye of the beholder)
How do Sorcerers see Wizards? They recognise they have the same powers that they do... some may find Wizardry praise worthy for what it is - creating and excelling at something that comes naturally to others, or they may hold them in contempt like a fish trying to fly... of course some of those 'fish' turn out to be 'Sharks'.
How do Wizards see Sorcerers? Can range from awe and respect for natural abilities, all the way to contempt and resentment - they can come into their power without years of study and mental exercises. As a lot of Wizards are human in this game world and humans tend to 'fear' what they can't control etc, the view tends to be be negative. When it comes to Sponsored sorcery the view is even more negative - the users have essentially become the servant of a supernatural entity, and aquired their power unnaturally.
There will be a Wizardly Cabal in the game world because realistically Sorcery can be a one man game but Wizardry works best when people learn from and study with others. This Cabal of Wizards will hunt sorcerers (or any other casters) who break their 'guidelines'... and Sorcerers will, being single agents or small groups do whatever their thing is. Not all wizards will be members of this Cabal but the Cabal will be working to show themselves as the only "honest" broker of Magic in the 'magical world' to various governments/leaders and so has a good deal of influence and a vested interest in maintaining the status quo and coming down hard on those who 'abuse magic'... something that will badly upset other orginsations/religions etc
Which brings us to Channellers - Divine Casters.
Just as there are people who have a natural inclination to magic (rasnging from 'not enough to become sorcerers' to 'wow, this Kid is a natural'), and there are people who can study magic to form a link with magic, the several magic using religions of the game world train its clergy to form this 'link' - generally using 'faith' as much as a little 'push' from their various Gods. Results vary. I will have some NPC clerics have NO casting ability at all, some who will have it at the same rate as the Inquisitor and others (like PC's) who will have it just like the core rules.
So how do Channellers view Arcane casters? All the way from respect to contempt that they 'manipulate' their way into power by going outside 'the faith'. As Fopalup put it, "Clerics and Paladins MAY see magical power in the hands of others as an untrustworthy persuit, as it would lead too easily to an abuse of power (or corruption due to 'unholy compacts' etc etc?" Druids will be just a subset of Clerics, albeit with more unique powers and will likely be more "Fey" orientated (ie The Old Ways).
I had a homebrew world once with just this sort of duality, though it was a world without Divine casters at all (the gods warred among themselves and their ichor rained from the heavens, ravaging the land).
Wizards maintained that magic uncontrolled (read: spontaneously cast) was dangerous and could not be allowed, so sorcerers (and warlocks, since this was 3.5) were hunted. There were even magic means of detecting spontaneous powers. Most cities had mages guarding their gates and everyone was tested for "unauthorized magic" prior to entrance- a sorcerer could defeat this by exhausting his spell slots, but warlocks had little recourse short of sneaking into a city.
I added a mechanic that replicated the effect of uncontrolled magic on spontaneous arcane casters- the "sorcerous mien." After casting a spell, a taint lingered around the sorcerer, giving him a penalty equal to his sorcerer level on all Charisma checks save Intimidate, to which the level was added instead. The duration was based on the spell slot used and it stacked with itself (the duration only).
Druids could use the Heal skill to effectively heal wounds, but there were no longer clerics. The only divine caster in the entire world was the sister of a PC, and the gods kept fighting over her, forcing her into 20 levels of Favored Soul off and on as the plot required it.
Hope this helps.
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