Shanta's Tome of Magic
Shanta's Tome of Magic
Shanta's Tome of Magic
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER I Magic Lore ............................................................................................ 1
Components ............................................................................................................ 3
Rituals .................................................................................................................... 8
Learning Magic...................................................................................................... 15
2
Anyone can do the movements and speak the incantation words. It
takes more than that. It takes mental strength to manipulate magic and the
higher the spell level, the more exhausting it is. So, for someone to cast
spells they need to understand how it works. Weather it is through learning
at the magic academy, connection to the nature, granted from a deity
through prayers, granted by a being of great power through a pact or by
natural talent hidden in the very essence of the ancestral blood, the caster
needs to understand the very essence of how magic works in order to
manipulate it.
The spellcaster needs to "see" the flow of magic within his mind's eye
in order to focus on it and bend it to their will. If you would want to visualize
this, I would say that it is the same as reaching with your hand into the river
and by moving your hand in the specific patterns you are affecting it's flow
by creating flow of your own that produces effects. Of course the flow of
magic is a bit more slow or sluggish. Bigger or longer effects require the
caster to manipulate greater part of the magic flow or to "hold it in bent" for
longer. Since the flow resists, this requires more of the focus and mental
strength.
Components
In order for caster to focus their mind towards a specific effect, they
use what we call spell components. These are: gestures, incantations and
materials. All of these are used in order for caster to focus their mind to
better manipulate the flow of magic.
3
visualize this and connect it to something familiar, think of someone lifting
something very heavy. Ever noticed how, when they are lifting they have
their eyes closed while they are slowly lifting, as if it helps them to focus
their mind? Noticed anything else, like maybe how at the very end when they
are trying to pull the last ounce of their strength to finish the lifting they
sometimes yell or grunt? Why do you think this is? Well, some researchers
suggest that improvement in vocal control and strength may be due to the
enhanced mind-muscle connection that occurs when yelling. So, to go back
to our topic of magic, I would suggest that, just as the yelling helps mind to
enhance the muscle, so does the specific incantation help mind to enhance
control of the flow. With this example I just wanted to show that even in the
very basic physical movements vocal components help to focus and enhance
so it makes sense that it would help in the completely mind related
performance. So, while incantations usually come at the end of the short
casting to "seal the deal" focus wise, rituals are a bit different. Rituals have
more layers or steps and incantations are more of a chant to keep the
casters mind focused but can also be the "finish" of each step as well.
4
So, if the materials are used to help caster focus on essence of the spell to
direct the flow of magic in order to achieve effects that are similar to the
material essences, spell focus item has to have same purpose. But how can
one item replace every single essence that are represented by so many
materials? Magic. We already said magic is in everything and in everything.
That it is in us and around is. So, this item helps caster to focus this magic
from within him and around him into the focus item and makes that focus
item charged with magical energy that imitates the essence that is needed to
cast the spell. So, it is kind of like a double lens that focuses light twice, or
magical energy in this case. First to imitate the essence through magical
means and then to use that as focus to manipulate the flow of magic.
We could say that, in TTRPGs, the moment when you gain a level, and
with it new spells, is the moment when you have finally understood enough
about few new spells in order to be able to cast them. This would mostly
likely happen through using spells so much in so many different situations,
meditation or prayers.
5
Spell Preparations
Wizards and some other spellcasters need to prepare spells. What does
this mean? Well, due to the fact that these spellcasters know lots of spells
and since those spells have vocal, somatic and material components that
spellcasters need to remember to do precisely in the right way, in a very
short time, while all hell is breaking loose you need to do some prep time.
Just like when you are in a school and you go over the lectures or lessons in
the book before a test even though you already heard that or even did some
studying on the subject before, the wizard refreshes his knowledge by going
through his spellbook (cleric does his prayers or a druid meditates and
connects with nature) in order to refresh their memory on what materials,
gestures and incantations need to be used in order to successfully cast
certain spell. Hell, maybe they will even practice a bit, or arrange their
material components so they can access them faster.
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that it is even harder to manipulate that magic and that there is a chance for
the spell to fail due to the resistance the flow. This is something that always
happens on its own but those that are more in sync with the flow of magic
can learn how to manipulate it even further and increase their chance to
avoid the effects.
Dispel Magic
To dispel magical effects means to help the flow of magic to return to
its natural state. It is like untying a knot. It would be logical to assume that
if one does not recognize the spell (or the knot) one has more trouble when
trying to undo it. Or you can use more magical energy (higher level dispel) to
overwhelm it and dispel it easier (why try to disarm a bomb when you can
use controlled explosion to destroy it).
Countering Spells
Ah the battle of the wits, duel of mages. While dispel is trying to undo
magic that already took place (knot already tied) counterspell is trying to
stop the flow from being manipulated by manipulating it back at almost the
same time (untying the knot while someone is tying it). For this to happen
the one countering the spell being cast should recognize what spell is being
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cast in order to successfully undo it. It can still be undone even if the spell
cast is not recognized but it is mostly guess work at that point and thus not
so easy. Just like dispel, if the spell being cast is not recognized you can try
to turn the odds by using more magical energies (cast at higher level) to
increase your chance that it will interrupt the caster.
Rituals
Some spells can be cast as rituals. So what is ritual casting? Think of
rituals as a tradeoff between time and effort. Usually spells require the caster
to use their mind to focus and manipulate magic flow in a very short period
of time. Rituals let you take your time and, in case of the wizards, to use
your spellbook. This means caster can stretch out the hard work of casting a
spell over longer period of time and that saves them their effort. Think of it
as if you were carrying something heavy. It is not the same if you had to
cross that distance in 10 seconds or 10 minutes. If you had 10 minutes you
could slowly progress, take some short breaks and even alternate between
methods and muscles of carrying it. All this would let you save your energy
and you could carry more items later on. This is only comparison for time
and not the tools.
Some rituals even use tools (ritual circles and rare items) that help
caster to channel magical energies as focus items would but in this case they
can make it even easier for the caster because the better the focus item the
easier for caster to focus. To go back to the previous example of carrying
some heavy load, we can compare this to the usage of a cart. Regarding the
comparison of tools that help focus magical energies think of magical
energies as dirt and the caster as someone that needs to dig a hole. So, if
you have no tools but only your hands (equivalent to material components) it
is the hardest solution. Next would be using some small tool like a shovel to
dig the hole (equivalent to staff or some other spell focus) it gets a bit easier.
Lastly, if you have a machine that will dig the hole (equivalent to specific
ritual tools) which takes all the hard effort off your hands and leaves you
only to control it gets way easier. This is only comparison for tools and not
time. This is how focus items take the magical energy pressure of the caster.
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CHAPTER II
Alternative Rules
In This Chapter
In this chapter I will try to give options and ideas for alternative rules
that you can implement or change and then use in your games. Balance
might be a bit sacrificed to achieve a level of realism, but at the end it is up
to the Dungeon Master (or Game Master) to see if and how they will
implement it. The following are just ideas to give you some food for thought.
Casting Times
As I see casting times, from the longest towards the shortest is: ritual,
action, cantrip as an action, bonus action, reaction. In case you were
wondering why cantrip action and action, it is because cantrip is a very
short spell so in my opinion it takes more than bonus action but less than a
full action which is kind of in line with the original rules that state if you
casted a bonus action spell you can still cast a cantrip as an action. My rule
is that if every other condition is met you can cast spells that require shorter
action as longer action. This means you can cast bonus action spell as an
action or reaction spell as a bonus action IF other conditions are met.
Why is this important? According to the rules in one round you can
cast a bonus action spell, cantrip spell and a reaction spell. Remember that
one round lasts six seconds and everyone is doing all of their stuff
simultaneously (just those with higher initiative are a bit faster at doing their
stuff). Anyway, this means that you are basically casting a cantrip, bonus
action spell and a reaction spell within six seconds (I would still say that one
round should be around 10 seconds). Have in mind that adventurers are a
bit more adept at this than common people and their movements and
actions would be faster. Also do not forget that with the adrenaline rush of
the combat comes the feeling of time slowing down, so you can do more in
less time.
When we add materials to the equation above, things get a bit more
complicated. For this we can assume that (if using materials) you have them
neatly sorted and prepared, so that you can quickly access them in combat.
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Spell Focus Items
There is a lot of talk about material components are pointless because
you can replace them with spellcasting focus or people not using them at all
just because they make the game harder. I believe that material components
make sense, even to the point of having to have them when using the
spellcasting focus, but I don't want to make your life harder and it is up to
you on how to run your game. So, let's explore some options for spell casting
focuses.
Spell focus items are used to help caster focus their mental ability in
order to easier manipulate flow of magic. One way of representing this can be
so that the caster gains some bonuses to certain checks which involve
casting magic. So in this case, we could have spell focus items give bonus to
attack rolls with magic or on spellcasting checks or on both. These bonuses
can be in a form of adding certain numbers to the check (+1, +2, +3, etc.) or
in a form of advantage, your choice. This would make these items more
powerful which should make them rarer to come by.
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Learning Magic
Learning magic is simplified so that is quick and easy and that is
alright because nobody wants to make a game hard work or boring.
However, there is a option to let players train in game and when they achieve
some results, to give them a reward. Wielding magic is like, well, wielding
anything else. It takes time and effort to get better at it. In games this is
represented through gaining experience and leveling up where then you gain
new abilities and spells. This can be interpreted in the following way: in the
time between levels spellcaster character has been slowly learning and
practicing with magic of the next level and when they finally gained that
level, it means that they have practiced enough to be able to cast the spells
(they gain with that new level) without failing to achieve their effects.
While the last paragraph explain how spellcasters learn new spells
when they gain a level and are immediately able to successfully cast them, it
does not help to explain how wizards are immediately proficient with new
spells they copy in their spellbooks. Now this might sound a bit harsh, but
having someone wield new spells or even new weapons can be a bit penalized
until they train enough to get good with them. This is not intended to punish
anyone but to give more options to roleplay or have some minigames. How?
Well, players can have training sessions alone or together which you can use
to make minigames. With this they have open options to roleplay failures in
a safe area where there can be a lot of funny accidents and failures. There
can be milestones that need to be achieved (like in video games) in order to
say that they have gotten better with that certain spell or weapon. Whole
sidequests can be added in order to support these minigames.
Some other ways of learning spells, skills, feats or whatever you think
can be learned, can be from a mentor. This can also be a fun little sidequest
or a minigame, having a mentor that gives out tasks and short quests where
the student needs to utilize some aspects of what they are trying to learn.
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Higher Level Magic and Scrolls
To use scrolls or better yet to cast spells, one should need to have
minimum spellcasting ability required. In older versions the rule was you
needed spellcasting ability to be (10 + level of spell in question) to cast said
spell. This should apply to using scrolls.
Using scrolls is basically same as casting spells from your mind but it
takes way less effort having everything pretty much written. Having said this
it still requires some basic knowledge of magic manipulation and therefore
scrolls should be usable even if the spell level is higher than a spellcaster
can cast, or if it the spell from a scroll is not on a spellcasters list, or if it's
level is higher than the spellcasting ability score, or even by those that are
not spellcasters at all.
As rules already state, for the situation when spell is on your class’s
spell list but of a higher level than you can normally cast, you must make an
ability check using your spellcasting ability to determine whether you cast it
successfully. The DC equals 10 + the spell’s level. On a failed check, the spell
disappears from the scroll with no other effect.
13
In case of spell level being higher than the caster's spellcasting ability
score you could allow it to be cast under condition that caster succeeds a
spellcasting check using their spellcasting ability (DC 15 + the spell's level).
If the spell level is greater than the spellcasting ability by 2 or more (adjust
however you see fit) than the check is at disadvantage. All of this can be
applied to using scrolls. On a failed check, the spell disappears from the
scroll with no other effect. This applies both to known spells and scrolls. In
case of the situation where previous examples apply there would be two
rolls, this one and one of the previous.
Lastly, if you want to allow everyone to use spell scrolls then for
someone, who is not a dedicated spellcaster, trying to use spell scroll you
could have them roll spellcasting checks using only their intelligence
modifier. All the rules mentioned before would still apply since they do not
have class spell list, spell is definitely higher level than they can cast
(because they do not have spells to cast so for this purpose their spell
casting level is -1 since 0 is for cantrips) and unless they ahve high
intelligence that applies too.
Dispel Magic
So in order to end magical effect or in other words to untangle the flow
of magic it is easier if one is familiar with how it is entangled. To this caster
needs to do Arcana check in order to recognize the effect and spell or gain
disadvantage on a roll to dispel the effect.
Bonus option: If the caster knows the spell (no need to be memorized)
Arcana skill check is at advantage.
HARD CORE option: If the caster does not know the spell Arcana skill
check is at disadvantage.
14
Countering Spells
To make countering spells
more interesting and to make it
feel more like a contest of the
spellcasters as well as more
realistic, the suggestion is to have
a small contest of rolls that will
determine who ends up being
better at manipulating the flow.
Bonus option: If the caster knows the spell (no need to be memorized)
Arcana skill check is at advantage. This would replace the following rule: " If
the spell is cast as a class spell and the character is a member of that class,
the check is made with advantage.".
HARD CORE option: If the caster does not know the spell Arcana skill
check is at disadvantage.
15
If you want to replace spell save DC with caster rolls, I would suggest
to have spell target roll the saving throw as usual (d20 + ability modifier) and
have the caster roll spell check (d10 + spellcasting ability modifier +
proficiency). As you might have noticed this is not much different but it gives
players a feeling of participation and contest as well as realism. Caster can
have a bad day and fumble his spell or he can roll well, but since it is left to
chance I suggested a d10 die in order to compensate (you can change this of
course). If you think there is a spell that does not have a save and you think
it should, feel free to add it. It is your game and you change it the way you
want.
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Magic Points - Alternative to Spell Slots
If we are talking magic casting resources we are talking about mental
endurance. Then why are you not able to use all your mental strength to
cast higher level spells until you are so tired you cannot cast anything more
than mere cantrips? How come you are rested enough to cast all the spells
but that one high level one you already casted once? Following suggestions
are changing very little in regard to the original spellcasting rules so it is
easy to implement it.
With this system it will feel a bit more realistic but might affect the
balance of the game a bit. It will affect the game in sense that caster will be
able to cast more high level spells but also in a way that if not careful the
caster will run out of spells very quickly. So how does it work? Simple, we
just take all the spell slots and turn them into magic points where level of
the spell slot equals the number of magic points.
Example: Instead of having 4 level 1 spell slots, 3 level 2
spell slots and 2 level 3 spell slots, you would add them all
together and have 16 magic points (4*1 + 3*2 + 2*3).
This means, that you could cast 5 level 3 spells and 1 level 1
spell or 16 level 1 spells (or any other combination), before
you run out of magic points.
You will still be able to cast lower level spells at higher levels, to gain
the improved effects described in the spells, by spending magic points that a
spell of that level would require. Meaning, you can cast level 1 spell at level 3
by spending 3 magic points instead of 1.
Warning to DMs. This is a tradeoff between realism and balance so, as
a DM, you have to be aware that with this rules, spell casters can be very
strong for short periods of time and then very weak for prolong periods of
time if they do not manage their resources. This will make players want to
rest more to try to avoid this, so I suggest to use random encounters rules
for resting, where if resting outside of safe area (like a town) there is a good
chance to have their rest interrupted by and encounter (usually at the end of
the rest).
With the 10 point exhaustion system in place, DM can allow the player
to use exhaustion points as missing magic points to go beyond the safe
limits. How does this affect other rules? Well, so far I came up with 2 things.
First, if exhausted up to and including level 3 on a long rest (considering it is
8h rest once per day rule) you restore only half magic points. If exhaustion
points are 5-7, only third of points are restored, and 8+ no points are
restored.
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ENHANCE YOUR GAME
Here are some tools that you might find useful in order to enhance the
roleplaying of spellcasters or the game in general.
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Spell Cards
Tired of looking for spell descriptions in the manual? With these
illustrated cards you can have your spells sorted out and ready to go in no
time. More card customization is planned for the future.
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