Hey all,
I know that this is long, and verbose. But the concept I think is
pretty simple. And I’m looking for some feedback as to if you think
its REALMS or not.
So I’ve been thinking about different ways to structure spells (aka
classes) in Realms. And one of the things that occurred to me a while
back was that there is rarely ever a benefit for being a specific
class of healer beyond the “You don’t have to pay buy down costs for
these spells”. Why is that exactly? I don’t really have an answer for
that beyond because that’s the way the system was written. Can we
change that with out drastically revamping the system? Yes I think
that we can.
If we add 0 cost buy down (pool proposal) to the game I still think
that we should have some sort of path or class system.
Each path has an ability that makes it fundamentally different from
other paths. Healers can heal, Channelers can ward, Alchemists can
make potions, Sorcerers can throw around magic, Necromancers animate,
Seer’s divine the future/past, Blacksmiths repair things, Abjurer get
rid of things, Assassins kill things, Shaman are in touch with their
inner selves and nature, Protectionists protect themselves against
everything.
So lets make them better at what they do or reward them for being that
Class or Archetype. (Oops I said Archetype again! /looks both ways)
First off lets change progression to be 1-6, 1-6, 1-6. You gain the
Class Archetype ability for the first path that you choose. If you
unlearn your entire first path you may re-declare a first path.
Changes:
Remove 7th Circle spells from the spell table lists, some will go
away. Most will live on in some form as an Archetype ability..
Change Heal Limb to only work on Other Characters.
Reduce castings of some 3rd and 5th circle spells by 1. (aka all
spells mentioned below that now scale)
Add the following:
Archetypes:
Healer:
Caster may cast Heal Limb on themselves.
Caster may prepare Raise Dead as a heal over time spell, doing so
doubles the number of castings. (see Seed of Life)
Both Raise Dead and Combat Raise dead have a number of castings equal
to their base castings +1 for each two healing path spells in the path
it was learned in.
Channeler:
May once per event combine a casting of Circle of Protection and
Divine Aid to attempt an power request for help. (See intervention)
Divine Aid and Call the Soul have a number of castings equal to their
base castings +1 for each two Channeler path spells in the path it was
learned in.
Alchemist:
May once per event combine a casting of Create Poison and Create
Potion to create a poisonous but potent draught which restores some
spell casting ability. (See Power Potion)
Create Poison and Create Potion have a number of castings equal to
their base castings +1 for each two Alchemist path spells in the path
it was learned in.
Sorcerer:
May designate one of their magic missile props as a lightning bolt.
(See Lightning Bolt)
Cantrip has a number of castings equal to the base castings +1 for
each two Sorcerer path spells in the path it was earned in.
Magic Missile has a number of props equal to the base +1 for every 5
Sorcerer path spells in the path it was learned in.
Necromancer:
May cast Create Undead on themselves when they are animated or alive,
so that whey they die they regenerate to Undeath once. Preparing this
spell does not consume a casting, but does require the spellcaster to
have the spell and a casting available. (See Embrace Death)
Create Zombie and Create Undead -OR- Disease Weapon and Death Wish
have a number of castings equal to their base castings +1 for each two
Necromancer path spells in the path it was learned in.
Seer:
May once per event combine a Precognition and Vision in an attempt to
tell a Prophecy or Provide a Second Chance. Casting these two spells
in this way does not consume a casting, but does require the
spellcaster to have the spell and a casting available. (See Prophecy
and Second Chance)
Fortune Tell and Find the Path have a number of castings equal to
their base castings +1 for each two Seer path spells in the path it
was learned in.
Blacksmith:
May repair any item if they are “stationary” [cannot move feet] and
have both hand on the item for 5 minutes. [note: magic items are not
re-enchanted]
Mystic Forge and Repair Magic Item have a number of castings equal to
the base +1 for every 5 Blacksmith path spells in the path it was
learned in.
Abjurer:
May prepare Enfeeble Being and Disrupt into a ritual that may “Banish”
conjured or extra planar creatures. (see Ritual of Banishment)
Disenchant and Disrupt have a number of castings equal to their base
castings +1 for each two Seer path spells in the path it was learned in.
Assassin:
May prepare one specific weapon with one of the following spells:
Poison Weapon, Armor Piercing Weapon. Preparing this weapon does not
consume a casting, but does require the spellcaster to have the spell
and a casting available.
Soul Bane and Shapeshifting have a number of castings equal to their
base castings +1 for each two Assassin path spells in the path it was
learned in.
Shaman:
May once per event combine a casting of Commune with Spirit and
Transmute Self to release their inner nature. Casting these two spells
in this way does not consume a casting, but does require the
spellcaster to have the spell and a casting available. (See
Transformation)
Commune with Spirit has a number of castings equal to the base
castings +1 for each two Shaman path spells in the path it was earned in.
Regeneration has a number of castings equal to the base +1 for every 5
Shaman path spells in the path it was learned in.
Protection:
Caster may cast Protection from Melee Weapon and Protection from Magic
an additional time on themselves. These two spells do not stack with
other castings, however do enable the caster to Resist Death once.
Casting these two spells in this way does not consume a casting, but
does require the spellcaster to have the spell and a casting
available. (see Resist Death)
Protection from Missile Weapon and Protection from Melee Weapon have a
number of castings equal to the base +1 for every 5 Protection path
spells in the path it was learned in.
Note that this would change some of the formerly 7th Circle spells to
ONCE PER EVENT.
Examples:
Raise Dead would drop to 4 castings.
Comcast Raise Dead would drop to 2 castings.
A Healer with the following build:
P: Cure Disease
2: Heal Limb
3: Raise Dead
4: Call the Soul
5: Combat Raise Dead
6: Circle of Healing
Would have 6 castings of Raise Dead, and 4 Castings of Combat Raise
Dead. Stacking more spells like
P: Cure Disease
2: Heal Limb
3: Raise Dead
4: Raise Dead
5: Combat Raise Dead
6: Combat Raise Dead
Would result in 12 castings of Raise Dead, and 8 Castings of Combat
Raise Dead. Having only 1 Buy down would not be penalized…. (see
below)
P: Cure Disease
2: Heal Limb
3: Raise Dead
4: Enchant Armor
5: Combat Raise Dead
6: Combat Raise Dead
Would have 6 castings of Raise Dead, and 8 Castings of Combat Raise
Dead. Two buy downs would be penalized however.
P: Cure Disease
2: Heal Limb
3: Raise Dead
4: Enchant Armor
5: Combat Raise Dead
6: Armor Option (or any other buy down)
Would have 5 Castings of Raise Dead, and 3 castings of Combat Raise Dead.
Additional changes that this would be require [to make this a legal
proposal]:
1. Each spell would either have to stay in the spell diagram table, or
add a descriptor to each spell “Path: pathname”. [If we keep the
spell table then the following spells need to be removed or moved
within the table:
2. Archetype descriptions (above) would need to be added to the omnibus.
3. Under “Spellbooks” change:
“The beginning of each spellbook must have the spellcaster’s
in-character and out-of-character name; their current weapon
restriction; whether the spellcaster wears armor or not and whether
the spellbook is IC or OOC (see below).”
to:
The beginning of each spellbook must have the spellcaster’s
in-character and out-of-character name; their
archetype; their current weapon restriction; whether the
spellcaster wears armor or not and whether the spellbook is IC or OOC
(see below).
4. Move the following spells:
Create Magic Weapon to Blacksmith 6.
Remove Enchant Bracer from the game or move to Blacksmith 6.
Remove Assassin’s Blade from the game.
Question: “I am assuming you only get the “perks” if you take all the
spells within a path without getting “buydowns” to another path…or
do you get the perks simply by declaring a path even if you then take
no spells from that path?”
Answer: “You get the perks for your first spell path. It’s irrelevant
as to if a person actually takes any of that paths spells in said
actual path, because the perks all enhance spells in X path. If a
person doesn’t have the spells … then their perks are useless since
they cannot power them [except for Blacksmith].
example:
I declare myself a [evil evil] Necro!
My spell build is:
P: Repair Armor
2: Repair Armor
3: Heal Limb
4: Raise Dead
5: Raise Dead
6: Combat Raise Dead
My perks are:
May cast Create Undead on themselves when they are animated or alive,
so that whey they die they regenerate to Undeath once. Preparing this
spell does not consume a casting, but does require the spellcaster to
have the spell and a casting available. (See Embrace Death)
Create Zombie and Create Undead -OR- Disease Weapon and Death Wish
have a number of castings equal to their base castings +1 for each two
Necromancer path spells in the path it was learned in.
I don’t have Create Undead so I cannot empower my Embrace Death
effect. I do not have the other spells so I still have 0 castings of
said spells. The perks only increase the castings of spells you have.
[perhaps that was a little unclear]
If however I later take a second path….
P: Speak with Dead
2: Heal Undead Limb
3: Create Zombie
4: Beckon Corpse
5: Create Undead
6: Create Undead
Not only would I suddenly be able to empower my Embrace Death effect,
but my Create Undeads would have 3 castings each, and my Create Zombie
would have 4 castings.
What might be broken about this would be with out paths… the
declaration could make for uber specialized builds. Here is a healer
example:
HEALER
P1 (5 healer spells)
P: Cure Disease
2: Heal Limb
3: Raise Dead
4: Raise Dead
5: Combat Raise Dead
6: Combat Raise Dead
p2 (4 healer spells)
P: Identify
2: Disrupt Light
3: Raise Dead
4: Raise Dead
5: Combat Raise Dead
6: Combat Raise Dead
P3 (4 healer spells)
P: Light
2: Group Healing
3: Raise Dead
4: Raise Dead
5: Combat Raise Dead
6: Combat Raise Dead
Raise Dead castings
p1: 4+2 = 6 x2 = 12
p2: 4+2 = 6 x2 = 12
p3: 4+2 = 6 x2 = 12
——————-
36 castings [vs 30 they would have now]
Additionally if they really wanted to they could turn their 36
castings of Raise Dead in 72 Seeds of Life.
Combat Raise Dead castings
p1: 2+2 = 4 x2 = 8
p2: 2+2 = 4 x2 = 8
p3: 2+2 = 4 x2 = 8
——————-
24 castings [vs 18 they would have now]
Some healers would drop one learning of Combat Raise Dead for Circle
of Healing. They would still have 20 castings if they did this.”
p.s. Please blame Dave Hayden for this proposal… he wrote “I dislike
this in principle because it makes raises available to all
casters at the same cost – healers should be better able to heal than
everyone else.” on another proposal and it spawned this whole thing. 🙂