Have a couple of questions for some things that could come up in our campaign.
1) A group of arcane casters specialize greatly in their spell casting. To the point that if they use something like Summon Monster, the fire mages can only use it to summon fire elementals. One of the players is actually considering joining their group. What kind of benefit would you suggest for summoned fire elementals since that is all they can use it for? I have some thoughts, but I wanted to see what you come up with.
2) A magic spear with an enhancement on the shaft, such that it lengthen or shorten at need. So it can be used as a stabbing dagger, javelin, short spear, spear, or longspear. I was thinking of making this either just a +1 enhancement or a flat 5k cost. Does this sound reasonable or would you suggest something different?
3) It isn't in any of the books I have. Is there any info for Aroden on domains, favored weapons, etc..
On 2) what you have is something like the transformative property (10K), but with a different and IMO more limited set of forms. 5K or a little more sounds right.
For 1) the upgrade that some specialised summoners get is standard action summoning for 1 minute/level rather than the usual 1 round to cast, 1 round/level duration.
Ha! I've had the UE for years and never noticed the Fighter's Fork in there. That more than close enough to just use that rather than make something new.
Looks like the wiki has you covered on Aroden's deity profile. It was written out only in a specific Adventure Path so no wonder you don't have it in your books!
As to your first question, I would ask what the in-game reason is for joining such a group, and adjust the mechanics to match that.
There are several possibilities. One is greater power by having a narrow focus (+1 to DC of fire spells maybe, that wouldn't help summon fire elemental of course, but the lack their would be made up by other things.) Another could be free knowledge, the limitation isn't imposed, rather more the nature of a vow but a wizard gets to add more spells to their spell book for free. Another option would be that whenever they cast a fire spell the get a free benefit, maybe a d4 temp hit points or something like that as a result of the limitation of only having fire spells.
Basically, I wouldn't tie anything to just summon monster, but hook it into the entire nature of the order and the spells they cast.
Sorry, the fire caster was just an example.
I'm going to have a city that has lots of medium to low level arcane casters. But each of them specializes to an absurd degree. One order might use only divination spells. Consultants for business decisions. Another group might only use charm/friendship type spells. Great for special events.
One of the things that occurred to me when describing it to the group is that Summon Monster would allow them to get around the specialization. I didn't want that. They should only be able to use the Summon Monster in some way that matched their specialization. But for that restriction, it should also have some benefit.
One of the guys is considering multiclassing into some sort of arcane caster (he hasn't decided yet). So he is planning to do some additional checking into the possibilities they offer.
You still haven't explained why they specialize.
Is it a law? A fire mage license allows only fire spells.
A property of magic? In this setting you have to choose a specialty and physically cant cast spells that aren't in that specialty.
A custom? Fire mages only cast fire spells (although they are perfectly capable of casting other spells and wouldn't suffer any penalty for doing so)
A Pact? Only cast fire spells and in exchange get more powerful fire spells
Clarify that, and I think the summon monster will sort itself out.
(in many cases, I don't think it needs special rules. Yes, you can only cast summon monster(fire elemental) as a fair mage, but that is balanced out in that you can cast summon monster as a fire mage. The fact that it is added to their list balances out that it is limited and if they don't like it, they don't have to take it.)
Well, I don't want to go into too much detail because I know a couple of my players frequent these forums. There are 13 magical academies in this city. The heads of the various academies are the ruling council.
The Air academy only teaches air/fly/cloud/windwall type spells (well a few other basics that everyone needs) because they are obviously the best spells. They are extremely good at Air because of that specialization. But they may not fare so well out in the rest of the world due to that same degree of specialization, if they don't have someone to take care of the things they can't handle.
So I want them to have advantages within their specialty. As well as, at least moderately severe penalties outside of their specialty. I think I have the penalties in hand, but I don't want to put it down here at this time.
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Honestly, I think restricting them further than RAW for the PCs is a bad idea.
Limiting the actual NPCs in this organization could make plenty of sense but I think locking a PC out of other non opposing schools is a bit harsh.
If you DO want to go through with making the PC conform to the 1 School-Only rule of these clubs I would do so in a social manner whereby the culture of their peers would simply not permit it out of the kind of offense they'd take should an Evoker from their School start... shudder... Summoning things.
As for benefits to the group I would say simply add +1/2 Class Level Bonus to the Caster Level of their School Spells to make up for the loss in diversity of casting. Perhaps that and a +2 DC to all their Spells.
I do suggest however NOT enforcing this on Cantrips for either PCs or NPC at all as they should be viewed as trivial forms of magic that shouldn't be looked down upon as being an kind of inherent distraction from their chosen "Focus School."
Custom arcane schools could be an option. There are already rules for elemental schools; making new ones and extending the existing ones shouldn't be too bad. You could make the specialization more "absurd" by basically making any, e.g., non-[fire] spell an opposition spell requiring two slots to prepare (or two spells per day to cast, for spontaneous casters) and making the school powers more interesting. In the case of summon monster, an X-per-day school power allowing it to be cast as a standard action when summoning a fire elemental?
It boils down to how important these thirteen academies are to your campaign. If they're only incidental, I wouldn't burn a lot of brainpower making special rules for it. There are plenty of benefits to joining a magical organization that don't require any new mechanics, such as discounted or free access to member spellbooks, access to hard-to-find spells/items/reagents, allies, favors, privileges, status, and so on. There might be obligations as well, of course, and being seen casting spells your organization frowns upon might be seen as offensive, demeaning, or just plain tacky. If, on the other hand, the academies are pivotal to the campaign, see what you can cover with existing rules, then handcraft some new ones.
Secrecy aside, since this involves special abilities for your players' characters, it might be worth discussing with them what they'd like to do. Getting players involved in custom mechanics can be a lot of fun.
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It boils down to how important these thirteen academies are to your campaign. If they're only incidental, I wouldn't burn a lot of brainpower making special rules for it.
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Secrecy aside, since this involves special abilities for your players' characters, it might be worth discussing with them what they'd like to do. Getting players involved in custom mechanics can be a lot of fun.
The 13 academies were not intended to be pivotal. Unless the PC's start making deals or enemies causing them to be pivotal of course. They have been known to do things like that.
I actually hadn't given them a whole lot of thought until one of the players got potentially interested in them for his PC.
I am almost certain to give him some choices in what it would mean for his PC. I was looking for some ideas beforehand, because both of us have a tendency when making archtypes or PrC's to give to much power for traded-away things. Not realizing the actual effects until well into play. I hate taking something away from a PC after I said he could have it.