A True Wizard kit or class idea
chimeric
Member Posts: 1,163
This may have been done already, or not. I can't know about all the kits people have put out.
What I would want to play myself, when it comes to magic-users, is a spellcaster who can use any spell he knows, at any time, without having to memorize them beforehand. But, unlike the sorcerer, I also want learning and knowledge to be important. Dragon blood is for losers. Wizards are self-made, they all about going to secret tombs, conversing with demons and digging into libraries. So I want the magician to be able to learn spells from scrolls as well.
So - a combination of sorcerer and wizard, with all schools available but probably without the extra spells for specialization.
I would also want the body, fatigue to factor into it somehow. Gandalf and Ged were exhausted from magic. Raistlin was a D&D character but he kept pulling off that last spell on the end of the blood-coughing fit. Thoth Amon could work great magic, but he was still depleted for it. Koura from "The Golden Voyage of Sindbad" lost strength and aged. The 2nd edition Spells&Magic supplement had a system for fatigue I always liked. Infinity Engine games are simpler, so I'm thinking of a temporary Constitution loss for every spell cast: 1 point for every 2 spell levels, rounded up. So 1 point for spell levels 1-2, 2 points for levels 3-4, 3 points for levels 4- 6 and so on. (There is a fatigue mechanic already in the game, but it matters not at all if you keep the wizard out of the front lines, so it's no good).
Going with the Con drain idea, if you run a typical Con 16 magic-user, he will lose his hit-point bonus, representing, we can decide, vigor, after two Magic Missiles or one Magic Missile and a Fireball - which, to my mind, is a reasonable level of exhaustion for those feats. Most hedge wizards never rise above a Glittergold or Charm Person, shooting a ball of flame is a serious step up. And high-level magic is draining and should be reserved for special occasions. A Wish would drain 5 Con points. (Incidentally, in pen-and-paper AD&D Wish ages the caster five years.) Considering that a character gets a penalty to hit points at very low Con, severe strain makes the wizard just more likely to die from the next arrow. So the gradation of strength loss would be as follows: after the first easy magic - lose the vigor; then for a while nothing, as you do what you can and stay even; and finally, when all resources are gone, a decline to near-death. This would require a different approach to playing, as the wizard stops being a walking cannon and becomes a problem-solver. He can pull off a few spells easily enough, but after that every use of magic comes with more and more danger.
The level of the magic-user should factor into the formula too, though, to some extent. An archmage should not only have access to greater energies but also pull off simpler tricks without much effort - but not completely without effort. I don't know about the formula, maybe something like 1 point for every 7 caster levels deducted from the Con drain, to the minimum of 1. So when a wizard learns Fireball at level 5, it costs him 2 Con points for every fireball thrown. At level 7 it gets it a little easier, down to 1 Con point, and stays that way. To take a higher-level spell, say Flesh to Stone (6th level): when it becomes available at 11th level, it should cost 3-1=2 Con points. When the wizard reaches level 14 himself, the Con cost will be down to 1 point. But I don't have a good equation worked out.
As for how to implement it without changing all the spells in the game, the spell scrolls would have to be edited for memorization by this magic-user. But the Con drain could be applied by an invisible creature the wizard receives at the game start, which follows him around. It sees the spell just cast and "punishes" the wizard accordingly.
Punishes? Come to think of it, the creature doesn't have to be invisible. I mean, it does just to implement my take on the wizard, or it could just be the familiar. And then the wizard be called Witch. After all, actual familiars were witches' links to the Devil and egged them on to evil deeds. Witches had to feed them a little blood every now and then. For AD&D they don't have to be evil, but the familiar could still be there to exact the price. So in the beginning the Witch starts out with nothing but the Find Familiar spell, and the familiar must be around, on the same map, or she can't cast any spells (put constant checks in the AI script). So perhaps no Con drain for the Witch but direct damage from the familiar?
This is obviously a divergent idea from the wizard concept. The wizard doesn't need any imps, he is the proud miracle man, going out and learning secrets of the universe. There may be some damning after-effects - in the hereafter, but while he is alive, he is above all men and the costs should just reflect the drain of power on his organism.
Speaking of being above all men, here is Koura making Kali dance in the "Golden Voyage."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsZzfQNzKMk
He is already old at this point from his earlier magic. In that movie, by the way, Koura has a couple of flying familiars or maybe homunculi, and it's hard on him when they die.
What I would want to play myself, when it comes to magic-users, is a spellcaster who can use any spell he knows, at any time, without having to memorize them beforehand. But, unlike the sorcerer, I also want learning and knowledge to be important. Dragon blood is for losers. Wizards are self-made, they all about going to secret tombs, conversing with demons and digging into libraries. So I want the magician to be able to learn spells from scrolls as well.
So - a combination of sorcerer and wizard, with all schools available but probably without the extra spells for specialization.
I would also want the body, fatigue to factor into it somehow. Gandalf and Ged were exhausted from magic. Raistlin was a D&D character but he kept pulling off that last spell on the end of the blood-coughing fit. Thoth Amon could work great magic, but he was still depleted for it. Koura from "The Golden Voyage of Sindbad" lost strength and aged. The 2nd edition Spells&Magic supplement had a system for fatigue I always liked. Infinity Engine games are simpler, so I'm thinking of a temporary Constitution loss for every spell cast: 1 point for every 2 spell levels, rounded up. So 1 point for spell levels 1-2, 2 points for levels 3-4, 3 points for levels 4- 6 and so on. (There is a fatigue mechanic already in the game, but it matters not at all if you keep the wizard out of the front lines, so it's no good).
Going with the Con drain idea, if you run a typical Con 16 magic-user, he will lose his hit-point bonus, representing, we can decide, vigor, after two Magic Missiles or one Magic Missile and a Fireball - which, to my mind, is a reasonable level of exhaustion for those feats. Most hedge wizards never rise above a Glittergold or Charm Person, shooting a ball of flame is a serious step up. And high-level magic is draining and should be reserved for special occasions. A Wish would drain 5 Con points. (Incidentally, in pen-and-paper AD&D Wish ages the caster five years.) Considering that a character gets a penalty to hit points at very low Con, severe strain makes the wizard just more likely to die from the next arrow. So the gradation of strength loss would be as follows: after the first easy magic - lose the vigor; then for a while nothing, as you do what you can and stay even; and finally, when all resources are gone, a decline to near-death. This would require a different approach to playing, as the wizard stops being a walking cannon and becomes a problem-solver. He can pull off a few spells easily enough, but after that every use of magic comes with more and more danger.
The level of the magic-user should factor into the formula too, though, to some extent. An archmage should not only have access to greater energies but also pull off simpler tricks without much effort - but not completely without effort. I don't know about the formula, maybe something like 1 point for every 7 caster levels deducted from the Con drain, to the minimum of 1. So when a wizard learns Fireball at level 5, it costs him 2 Con points for every fireball thrown. At level 7 it gets it a little easier, down to 1 Con point, and stays that way. To take a higher-level spell, say Flesh to Stone (6th level): when it becomes available at 11th level, it should cost 3-1=2 Con points. When the wizard reaches level 14 himself, the Con cost will be down to 1 point. But I don't have a good equation worked out.
As for how to implement it without changing all the spells in the game, the spell scrolls would have to be edited for memorization by this magic-user. But the Con drain could be applied by an invisible creature the wizard receives at the game start, which follows him around. It sees the spell just cast and "punishes" the wizard accordingly.
Punishes? Come to think of it, the creature doesn't have to be invisible. I mean, it does just to implement my take on the wizard, or it could just be the familiar. And then the wizard be called Witch. After all, actual familiars were witches' links to the Devil and egged them on to evil deeds. Witches had to feed them a little blood every now and then. For AD&D they don't have to be evil, but the familiar could still be there to exact the price. So in the beginning the Witch starts out with nothing but the Find Familiar spell, and the familiar must be around, on the same map, or she can't cast any spells (put constant checks in the AI script). So perhaps no Con drain for the Witch but direct damage from the familiar?
This is obviously a divergent idea from the wizard concept. The wizard doesn't need any imps, he is the proud miracle man, going out and learning secrets of the universe. There may be some damning after-effects - in the hereafter, but while he is alive, he is above all men and the costs should just reflect the drain of power on his organism.
Speaking of being above all men, here is Koura making Kali dance in the "Golden Voyage."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsZzfQNzKMkHe is already old at this point from his earlier magic. In that movie, by the way, Koura has a couple of flying familiars or maybe homunculi, and it's hard on him when they die.
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