"Magic, do as you will. MAGIC, do as you WILL!"
He seems like a sorcerer, perhaps, or a wizard, but the difficulty is that he doesn't really KNOW a lot of what he's casting, or what effect it will have. He'd be similar to the 3.5 Wild Mage I guess, but without the strong basis in known magical abilities. How would you create him as, say, a level 6 character (though I think he's a lower level, despite being able to animate a plant and polymorph another creature)?
"Magic, do as you will. MAGIC, do as you WILL!"
He seems like a sorcerer, perhaps, or a wizard, but the difficulty is that he doesn't really KNOW a lot of what he's casting, or what effect it will have. He'd be similar to the 3.5 Wild Mage I guess, but without the strong basis in known magical abilities. How would you create him as, say, a level 6 character (though I think he's a lower level, despite being able to animate a plant and polymorph another creature)?
He reminded me of Presto, of Dungeons and Dragons fame.
.Have to say though I really, really love that movie. Schmendrick was a great character and Haggard perhaps one of the greatest in all of animation. Mommy Fortuna was pretty amazing to.
Anyone who hasn't seen this classic film, do yourself a favor and go out and get it today.
"Magic, do as you will. MAGIC, do as you WILL!"
He seems like a sorcerer, perhaps, or a wizard, but the difficulty is that he doesn't really KNOW a lot of what he's casting, or what effect it will have. He'd be similar to the 3.5 Wild Mage I guess, but without the strong basis in known magical abilities. How would you create him as, say, a level 6 character (though I think he's a lower level, despite being able to animate a plant and polymorph another creature)?
I would suggest making the character like a normal character. Schmendrick seemed to get it close everytime (at least from what I remember, it has been years since I have seen the movie.) The character comes out in RP. You can say you are casting open/close, but IC, have him act as he does and be surprised when it works. Every now and then use the wrong spell for RP reasons. Personally, limit them to level 0s but waste a higher level slot when the RP feels right.
Is there a "Red-Hot Swami" archetype?
I would suggest making the character like a normal character. Schmendrick seemed to get it close everytime (at least from what I remember, it has been years since I have seen the movie.) The character comes out in RP. You can say you are casting open/close, but IC, have him act as he does and be surprised when it works. Every now and then use the wrong spell for RP reasons. Personally, limit them to level 0s but waste a higher level slot when the RP feels right."Magic, do as you will. MAGIC, do as you WILL!"
He seems like a sorcerer, perhaps, or a wizard, but the difficulty is that he doesn't really KNOW a lot of what he's casting, or what effect it will have. He'd be similar to the 3.5 Wild Mage I guess, but without the strong basis in known magical abilities. How would you create him as, say, a level 6 character (though I think he's a lower level, despite being able to animate a plant and polymorph another creature)?
***SPOILERS!!***** The movie is REALLY worth watching, and the book is REALLY worth reading, so if you haven't, don't continue reading!
I dunno about that.
In the scene where he is trying to free Unicorn from her cage at the Midnight Carnival, one attempt causes the cage to start to shrink, one creates a brief illusion of being back in the unicorn's forest that dissipates (gets disbelieved?) quickly, and a third, which he intends to make the bars brittle and tries to break them by hand, does nothing (presumably they are enchanted and that's what burns his hands). When he tries to save Unicorn from the Red Bull, it's unclear what his intent is...he seems kind of surprised by transforming her into a human girl, and says that it was the logical choice, but it's hard to tell whether that was bravado covering his shock, or his actual intent.
When he's in the company of Captain Tully, it's not clear that he intended to call up an illusory procession of the characters of Robin Hood, nor whether he intends to animate the tree.
In the book, there's a scene where he scoops up some water at a feast and accidentally dumps it on someone.
I really think that at least SOME of what he does is totally random, and some certainly appears to be, by a D&D/Pathfinder definition, outside of his power level.
I would suggest making the character like a normal character. Schmendrick seemed to get it close everytime (at least from what I remember, it has been years since I have seen the movie.) The character comes out in RP. You can say you are casting open/close, but IC, have him act as he does and be surprised when it works. Every now and then use the wrong spell for RP reasons. Personally, limit them to level 0s but waste a higher level slot when the RP feels right."Magic, do as you will. MAGIC, do as you WILL!"
He seems like a sorcerer, perhaps, or a wizard, but the difficulty is that he doesn't really KNOW a lot of what he's casting, or what effect it will have. He'd be similar to the 3.5 Wild Mage I guess, but without the strong basis in known magical abilities. How would you create him as, say, a level 6 character (though I think he's a lower level, despite being able to animate a plant and polymorph another creature)?
You know what he reminds me of? An average intelligence, high wisdom Wizard... forever limited in the potency of the spells he'll be able to cast and wise enough to realize it.
.That brings a question to mind - you have to have Intelligence equal to 10+the level of spell you're trying to cast... but you still get the slots, don't you? In other words if I had a 9th level Wizard with a 14 Intelligence, couldn't I fill out those 5th level spell slots with 4th or lower level spells?
I would suggest go with either a wizard or a sage arcane blooded sorcerer and then use the wild magic chart from AD&D.
Is there a "Red-Hot Swami" archetype?
Would there be if he was the last?
With that being said, maybe talk to your DM about starting him as if he was 4th level for casting (so he could cast level 2 spells, but with the limitation that you roll a die to figure out what spell he casts. Or you could convert the 3.5 wild mage and add/subtract the stuff that does not suit the character. Since the only way to go about this is some sort of homebrew it seems, might as well go all out?
That brings a question to mind - you have to have Intelligence equal to 10+the level of spell you're trying to cast... but you still get the slots, don't you? In other words if I had a 9th level Wizard with a 14 Intelligence, couldn't I fill out those 5th level spell slots with 4th or lower level spells?
Yes you can. You can even fill the slots with 4th level spells modified with metamagic feats.
I'm thinking, generally, about something like this:
1. use spell points and vital magic systems from Unearthed Arcana (as you use of points, you become fatigued, then exhausted; restoring condition through rest or magic also restores a number of spell points).
2. use Rod of Wonder as a template
3. create magic "command words" that are tied to a subset of spell effects
4. all spells require command words, and each word has an associated spell effect chart similar to that of a Rod of Wonder
5. when using a command word, roll 2d%; first roll determines whether you get to select an effect from the table of the command word used, or a random one; second roll selects the spell on the appropriate list
6. can use spell points to roll extra dice, and you get to choose the best result (this plays nicely with becoming fatigued and exhausted, I should think)
As you gain levels, you gain more command words, spell points, a higher chance to get a desired result and some special actions (immediate and swift casts for defense/travel mostly I should think).
The power of the caster would come from the fact that you can access spells of a much higher level than you are.
That looks like an okay basis to start from, but looks like a mess for an end-product. Thoughts? Ideas?
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That's too much work.
He's actually a lot closer to being a bard than a wizard or sorcerer. I'd just make him a Magician with Perform Comedy and Oratory for his proficiency at clowning and storytelling and enough ranks in Sleight of Hand to make him a "second rate pickpocket." No need for special rules when you can just roleplay all that stuff about his arcane ineptitude.
Shrug.
Matter of opinion there. I like the idea of not always knowing what effect my magic will have. And I've always liked the idea of a caster getting worn out with more casting (Raistlin is a D&D staple for whom this is true), likely because I saw this movie when I was, maybe, 4, and have watched it a few times a year ever since.
Might be something in the new Mythic system to reflect him.
In any case, if you're a Peter Beagle and Last Unicorn fan, you might want to check out Lee Moyer's new fantasy pin-up calendar, which starts with The Last Unicorn as Miss January. I've got it up on my wall and it's gorgeous (and it's also a charity fundraiser for a good cause.)
I would think, class wise, he's secretly just a rogue with just enough ranks in UMD to get himself into trouble, a really good sleight of hand, and some wacky wondrous items.
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Just keeping it simple. If you're going for accuracy, here's a little quote from the book they skipped over in the movie...
"I will tell you a story,” Schmendrick said. “As a child I was apprenticed to the mightiest magician of all, the great Nikos, whom I have spoken of before. But even Nikos, who could turn cats into cattle, snowflakes into snowdrops, and unicorns into men, could not change me into so much as a carnival cardsharp. At last he said to me, ‘My son, your ineptitude is so vast, your incompetence so profound, that I am certain you are inhabited by greater power than I have ever known. Unfortunately, it seems to work backwards at the moment, and even I can find no way to set it right. It must be that you are meant to find your own way to reach your power in time; but frankly, you should live so long as that will take you. Therefore I grant it that you shall not age from this day forth, but will travel the world round and round, eternally inefficient, until at last you come to yourself and know what you are. Don’t thank me. I tremble at your doom."
In the movie, they left out the part where Schmendrick is virtually immortal as a result of Nikos' curse. Nikos figured it would take centuries of blundering for Schmendrick to master his gifts so he cursed his apprentice with eternal youth.
Don't be a Schmendrick, be a mensch. :P
5th level expert with lots of UMD
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I actually had a talk about this with the wifey and I think we came to the conclusion that he was a rogue that had a metric orcload of ranks in UMD and maybe the minor magic/major magic run, eventually? That only covers up to a certain level of spells, granted, but with UMD you can definitely fake it. I've a rogue that does similar (though not with the intent of faking it, he just uses wands suplementally)
I always thought of Schmedrik when I read the 2nd Ed. rules for Psionics. Painstaking effort to establish contact then a roll which, if fails wastes points for nothing. Not an easy roll either.
2nd.Ed. Psionics. Now THERE was a failure of design and implementation. After that mess i was so happy when the expanded stuff came out. But that's not for here.
However, the 2nd. ed. is a great model for schmedric type casting. Good luck getting anyone to play it though