Everyone is an Adventurer, if you wanted to be a wizard or specialist you should have stayed in school.Characters:
All saving throws start at 16
Level gain works off the XP needed for a fighter
Each level you can pick either fighting, learning, or cunning
If you pick fighting you get +1 attack modifier, D8 HP and -1 Poison & Breath saves with an additional point anywhere you like (this could be used to double up poison or breath)
If you pick learning you get 2 skill points, D6 HP, and 4 points deducted from saves of your choice
If you pick cunning you get D6 HP, -2 to saves of your choice and 3 random spells from any level
Casting spells:
No more memorisation, you know all the spells you know.
To cast a spell, lose maximum HP equal to the spell's level. Maximum as in off the top, not the total. You total HP will reduce if you max HP drops below it. (this prevents just healing yourself to ignore the difficulty of magic and also allows magic users to not stop casting spell from fear of killing themselves)
If a spell would be unavailable to a magic user of your level (according to default Lamentations rules) it costs double. Example: A level 4 character casting a level 3 spell (not normally available until level 5) would lose 6 max HP when casting it
You max HP recover after 8 hours rest
Learning spells:
The only way to learn a spell is to level up. However if you have found a spell book or scroll of a particular spell then you may pick that one instead of a single random choice. This represents you having spent time learning it.
In the meantime you are still able to duplicate it and do everything except cast it off the cuff.
I really dig this.
ReplyDeleteSeriously loving this. The more I reread it, the more I love it.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOh, daaaaaamn. You just reduced the multi-class equation to its lowest integers. Well played, sir.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteThe spell stuff doesn't work so great, max HP is a pain in the arse to deal with and killing yourself to make magic isn't very exciting.
If I were to do it again I'd just give people magic points equal to their highest+lowest stat.
I like the idea of a "highest + lowest" procedure in general. Interesting way to summarize in abstract a character's innate power.
DeleteHmm. I might mod this to something like "INT + CHA" and call it good. Keeping the double cost of spells above your characters level, though. That's super simple and seems to make some intuitive sense. Besides, I like CHA (aka strength of personality) as a measure of one's "chutzpa", and isn't magic, at least in the old pulp literature, all about the caster's chutzpa?
DeleteHonestly being able to go overboard and tap into HP for magic (after spending magic points) would also be cool.
DeleteThis is fantastic! Do you let the characters wear armor when they cast? Looks like you did away with clerics as well, how is that working out?
ReplyDeleteIn this system I assume they're not very good or serious wizards, so armour is thematically fine. You could just double the cost while wearing armour or somesuch solution if you wanted something more traditional.
DeleteClerics were never particularly missed. Their spells get folded into the mix, so wizards can potentially heal and bless and all that stuff.