This week, I thought I'd talk more about the new magic system in Arcana Unearthed.

Casting Spells
It's simple, really. Like I said last week, each class has access to either simple or both simple and complex spells. You have a set number of spells that you can "ready" on a given day, based on your level and an ability score. "Ready" simply means that you've got the spell all set to go when you need it. (You don't lose the readied status of a spell if you cast it. It's more like how a sorcerer knows certain spells, except that your chosen readied spells can change each day if you wish.) If you can ready four 1st-level spells per day, they can be four different 1st-level spells from day to day. No spellbooks involved. No memorization and forgetting*. And the numbers of spells you can ready isn't so small that it forces repetition (and you can change them every day).

You also have a set number of "slots" each day to cast your spells with. So, if you've got three 1st-level slots, you can cast any three of the four 1st-level spells you have prepared. In any combination. So you can cast one spell three times, three different spells, one spell twice along with another, or whatever.

So far, it sounds like it's just a combination of the way sorcerers and wizards work, right? Well, that's intentional. I wanted to keep it both simple and not drastically different than what people are used to (and I wanted to keep the spells themselves pretty compatible with regular spells).

But I didn't stop there. The two really different aspects are:

1. Casters can "weave" multiple lower-level slots to cast higher-level spells, or a single higher-level slot to cast multiple lower-level spells. This adds a great deal of flexibility.

2. Spells have prescribed diminished and heightened effects in their descriptions to tell you what happens if you cast the spell using a slot one level lower or one level higher than the spell itself. This effectively makes every spell into three similar but different spells. For example, there's a spell that animates a melee weapon to go attack for you. It attacks as if you're wielding it. The diminished version suffers a -2 penalty to attack rolls and can take only partial actions. The heightened version allows you to use your spellcasting ability score modifier rather than your Strength to use to determine attack bonus and damage. I'm proud of this innovation, because it adds a great deal of flavor to each spell and allows casters a lot more choices. You don't have to take a feat to use these diminished or heightened versions. If you've got the spell readied, you've automatically got all three versions readied.

It's All in the Categorization
So all spells are categorized as simple, complex or exotic. I also took a concept that worked great in 3E and expounded upon it -- the idea of spell descriptors. You know, the bit after the school that tells you it's a [fire] spell. That's great, because it lumps spells together in meaningful ways. You can say, "He adds +2 to the DC of all fire spells he casts," and the statement has clear meaning.

So I've added more to that. For example, I've discovered that most players were surprised to learn that there was a [fire] descriptor and a [cold] descriptor but not an [air] descriptor or one for earth or water. So I've added them, and made it really mean something for a spell to be an air spell. So if your character concept is that you want to be a wind mage, it's easy to pick your spells appropriately. You can even take a special feat that will make your [air] spells all have some new and funky qualities, thus giving you good incentive to be a wind mage. Or a fire mage. And so on.

One of the new descriptors is [psionic]. Now, for those of you who are hard-core psionic separatists (championing the cause that psionics are completely different than magic) this might be an innovation you don't like. But for those who want to see psionics integrated into the core of the game system, I think you'll be happy. Psionic "spells" affect minds, telekinetically move objects, and do all the other things you expect from psionics. Psionic mages, however, can use them with purely mental actions-no somatic or verbal components (you pay a feat to be a psionic mage). The mind witch class (a subtype of the witch class, which I'll explain more about in a future diary entry) gets the psionic mage feat for free at mid levels and has access to all spells with psionic descriptor, whether they are simple or complex. That's pretty close to a psionic-flavored class right there in the core of the system. You'll really have to see the mind witch write-up and the psionic "spells" to know what I mean, but I think I've given you an idea of where I'm going. (I even put the word "spells" in quotes when it comes to psionic "spells" in this diary entry, because the actual text of the book provides for simply calling them powers, to help keep the flavor of the two separate.)

* Although I have to be fair: there's no memorization and forgetting in 3E, either. That's a 1st Edition and 2nd Edition concept. Although I noticed that memorization of spells crept into the SRD even though it's not in the actual core rulebooks. 3rd Edition wizards prepare and lose their spells, they don't memorize and forget them.

 

DESIGN DIARY PAST ENTRIES

* Magic -- January 17, 2003
"As a designer, magic in Arcana Unearthed posed a huge challenge. I knew that I wanted to ditch the Vancian system...."

* Design Decisions, Part Two -- December 24, 2002
"Here's a bit more discussion of some of the general issues I faced as I began designing Arcana Unearthed...."

* Design Decisions, Part One -- December 19, 2002
"Before jumping into another big area of Arcana Unearthed's design, like classes or the magic system, I thought I'd discuss some of the general issues I faced as a designer starting the book...."

* Arcana Unearthed Races -- December 5, 2002
"I started with the races. While I knew that the game needed humans as a basis, I wanted all the other races to be new. I didn't want to just create dwarf and elf analogs with different names...."