After reading through my previous postings, I'm certain most can figure out my thoughts regarding Alignment restrictions on classes. And trying to convince me that you can never gain another level in a certain class because you took one level of something else? No thanks.
The system I grew up on, which had been based out of AD&D, had no multiclassing or alignment restrictions. This worked out just fine for many years, until we ended up with players who started taking four or more classes in order to gain various 1st level benefits and abilities.
Yeah, like that. Only not 1/11th of a class each level, but 11 first level classes all at once.
Our DM decided this was just silly, and so it was ruled that the total number of classes you could have was limited by your character's intelligence. This made sense. Certain classes were considered to be "worth more" than others, like Paladin (because it combined both Fighter and Cleric) and Ranger (Fighter, Druid, and Mage - AD&D, remember). Overall, the system seemed logical and also helped prevent any more Multiclassing Minmaxing. The biggest problem I had with it was the feeling of obligation to "fill up" with the maximum number of classes that the character's Intelligence could support, so as not to waste it.
So over the past few days, I've put together a ruleset on multiclassing for my own system. In this system, your total number of "effective classes" is what determines your experience needed per level. No more taking a class just for one level.
Taking more classes than your Intelligence would allow can be done. Doing so, however, increases the experience needed for each level based upon how many beyond the "maximum" you took, even above what would normally be required just by having the additional classes. As any college student knows, it's much harder to remember everything when you're taking too many classes.
On the other side of the coin, if you take fewer classes than your Intelligence can support, you gain a discount on the experience needed each level, based upon the difference between the number you were allowed and how many you took. You can learn faster, because you're capable of learning more than what is being presented.
On a previous topic, I asked my wife how she viewed magic users in D&D - whether the power was coming from within, being channeled, or simply using ambient energy, or even something completely different. She reminded me of how Steven Brust has things set up in his Jhereg series: Dragaeran sorcery is more or less grabbing available energy and tossing it, while Eastern witchcraft is mentally and physically taxing on the practitioner. And then there's Pre-Empire sorcery. Let's not get into that.
Taking that into consideration, I see a correlation between Brust's witchcraft and Druids, so I would most likely leave Constitution as the power source for them. Equating Dragaeran sorcerers with Mages, however, still doesn't give me a well-defined source of power. The Dragaerans pull energy through their link with an artifact-level magic item, which basically gives them an inexhaustible supply of mana. I can't really have that.
I've tinkered with a number of options: Base mana off of Cunning, to represent craftiness through the handling and redistribution of ambient mana. Base it off of Perception, to represent the ability to see or notice the surrounding power in order to use it. Base it off of Luck, to represent the idea that ambient power levels can vary from location to location. I've even considered the option of reworking Shadowrun's system of magic, where spells don't take mana, but instead have a chance of draining you when you cast one. Fail too many "Drain" checks, and you're unconscious. Trying to balance that in a d20 system, though, would take a great deal more work than I'm willing to expend on just this one aspect right now, and still leaves Mages with a potentially inexhaustible supply of power.
I briefly considered making each Mage subclass (Illusionist, Transmuter, Evoker, etc.) have a different stat that it uses for power, but I think that would just make things far too complicated and confusing. And it still wouldn't answer what stat to have Mages use. At this point, I'm tempted to either stick with Constitution, or assign it to Perception, the latter mainly because I don't have a lot tied to that stat yet.
Suggestions?
5 comments:
Do you still have intelligence determining the number of spells learned?
What about combining two and using an average of the two stats for their mana?
The number of known spells is still determined by Intelligence for Mages, yes.
As for averaging - I do something similar for psionic characters, but this would make Mages the only spellcasting class that would rely on three stats for their abilities.
I suppose I could make individual to each character: Ask the player how the character views and uses magic, and then assign the most relevant stat.
I've heard it rationalized that Constitution can still be the limiter, because there is only a certain amount of any magical energy you can channel in a given time.
The goal, I think, is to have no dump stats. If players can just unload all their low numbers in one place, then you have to question why that stat exists at all.
The "channeling" concept is why I originally decided on Constitution, but there are also concepts that don't rely on the idea that the power passes through the caster's body.
On second thought, though... Even if it doesn't pass through the body, what about the mind? I suppose that would put it back towards being based on Intelligence, or Wisdom, as those represent the strength and durability of the brain.
Considering mages from other sources: The Istari from Middle Earth seem to incorporate both Mage and Druid, as we know them. It would not be too large a stretch, then, to have Intelligence determine the number of spells known, with the amount of mana determined by Wisdom.
The Istari, in Tolkien lore, were exceptional wizards, however. There were also, supposedly, a greater number of lesser wizards. These could be represented by the subclasses, in which case I could still consider the possibility that the subclasses use different stats for mana. Illusionists could use Cunning, for example, and Diviners could use Perception, and so on.
I like the idea of using Perception, as the higher the perception, the more aware the mage is of the things they can channel their energy from. And it's true- not a lot is tied to perception except for the occassional in-game check. I'm very interested in trying your system when you think you've got the kinks worked out. ;-)
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