Thoughts on a new magic system based on the four humours

[Chris Mortika]

The old FGU game "Swordbearer" had the outlines of a magic system based on the four humours, which captured my attention. A lot of the details of that system didn't work very well.(There were only 24 spells, entire, and about a third of them were nasty NPC_only spells, like "make yourself a lich".)

So, what am I imagining?

A d20 magic system in which people have "nodes" in their bodies that allow them to fuel spells. Some simple ideas:

Choleric nodes encourage people to be enthusiastic, intuitive, ethical, spiritual. A character could tap a Choleric node for spells such as:

• Preserve the Soul, which would bind soul to body, allowing healing magic to work for several minutes after a mortal wound.
  
• Rage

Melancholic nodes influence people to be somber, sensible, materialistic, historical. A character could tap a Melancholic node for spells such as:

• a vampiric form of healing
  
• Fox's Cunning

Phlegmatic nodes encourage people to be calm, reasoning, logical, scholarly. A character could tap a Phlegmatic node for spells such as:

• Magic Resistance
  
• Bear's Endurance

Sanguine, or vitriolic, nodes encourage people to be cheerful, artistic, sensual, spontaneous. A character could tap a Vitriolic node for spells such as:

• Vigor, similar to Infernal Healing
  
• Cat's Grace

Some design features of the magic system: low-level spells, such as those above, might be available to anyone who wants to use them.

Skilled users can cast spells more reliably, and are less prone to burning out a node (causing spiritual damage).

Pearls provide "colorless" nodes, but burn out. A rare form of snail shells also provides power, but as living creatures, snails are aligned to a humor, usually Phlegmatic.

Powerful, evil wizards might be able to use other people's nodes to fuel spells. These are People You Don't Want to Mess With.
--

What sort of spells might require two nodes, either two of the same humour, or two different humours?

[Ciaran Barnes]

I have some familiarity with the four humors and the attributes you put to them. Sound interesting. I suppose you would need to create four giant lists of spells. Some overlap would be fine. The next thing would be to create some classes that use the lists and that work a little differently from the existing ones. A daunting task.

[JosMartigan]

Now I'm dying to see spells based on phlegm

[Ciaran Barnes]

And melons.

[Chris Mortika]

Ciaran Barnes wrote:

I have some familiarity with the four humors and the attributes you put to them. Sound interesting. I suppose you would need to create four giant lists of spells. Some overlap would be fine. The next thing would be to create some classes that use the lists and that work a little differently from the existing ones. A daunting task.

The system is simpler than Pathfinder, and I'm planning something like an E8 campaign, so I don't need to develop spells beyond 4th-level. There are other magic systems in the campaign based around shamans (speaking to nature spirits), summoners, binders, and artificers, so this doesn't have to carry the whole supernatural load of the game world, either.

So, not giant lists. I'm imagining about a dozen spells per pure humor, using one, two, or three nodes, maybe a capstone spell requiring four. Somewhere around 4 spells that use each pair of humors, three spells each that require three different humors. Something like Raise Dead is the only spell I can think of which would require all four.

Not so much phlegm (or the equally-charming yellow vomit) so much as the metaphysical aspects of body and personality associated with those fluids.