Spellcrafters Supplement

Creating game materials? Monsters, spells, classes, adventures? This is the place!
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Solomoriah
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Spellcrafters Supplement

Post by Solomoriah »

Post your comments here for Luigi Castellani's Spellcrafters supplement.

https://www.basicfantasy.org/downloads. ... llcrafters
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Joe the Rat
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Re: Spellcrafters Supplement

Post by Joe the Rat »

This is nice - Enchanter specialist as an Artificer type that isn't entirely about being a Mechanic.

I do have a quick question on the Channel Blast and Retrieve Energy spells, in regard to scrolls and potions. Would a Spellcrafter be able to 'drain' a Cursed scroll without ill effect?

Also, would a poison potion count for magic? I suppose that's more a question of whether the 'poison' factor is a magical element, or being naturally toxic.
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artikid
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Re: Spellcrafters Supplement

Post by artikid »

Joe the Rat wrote:This is nice - Enchanter specialist as an Artificer type that isn't entirely about being a Mechanic.

I do have a quick question on the Channel Blast and Retrieve Energy spells, in regard to scrolls and potions. Would a Spellcrafter be able to 'drain' a Cursed scroll without ill effect?

Also, would a poison potion count for magic? I suppose that's more a question of whether the 'poison' factor is a magical element, or being naturally toxic.
Sorry for the late answer, I've been out of touch for a while.

My answer to both questions would be yes, the spellcrafter does not need be able to use, or actually use the item, to drain it and poison should be considered magic.
It should be sufficent for the spells to work that the item is held by the spellcrafter at the time he is casting the spell.

My reasoning for this is simple: a cursed scroll only enacts its curse when read, otherwise its just a reserve of static magical energy waiting to be triggered (just like any other magic item with charges).
The above mentioned spells simply take that stored energy and redeploy it for a different purpose.
Following your train of thought you could ask me why draining a cure light wounds potion does not heal the spellcrafter.

Poisons: In the original rules only a magic-user could create a poison potion, or an alchemist. Since alchemists can also create other potions which create magical effects (Flying...) their ability is, someway, magical too.
The extraction of poison from a monster's poisonous glands is an action that tries to create a poison potion, thus I would allow magic -users (of a level high enough to create magical potions) or an alchemist to do it.

In short any kind of chemical concoction is, by definition, a magical operation IMHO. Thus Poison is magical or at least that is how I would explain it.

Thanks for the criticism
Artikid

BTW: I saw the files, on my pc (Ubuntu 10.4 with Libreoffice 3.3) the paragraph styles look OK and I don't understand why the layout went to hell. I'll try to work it out and send a new file asap.
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Joe the Rat
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Re: Spellcrafters Supplement

Post by Joe the Rat »

No worries. I was mainly curious (and cautious) as this would let the Spellcrafter act as a Cursed Scroll Disposal System. Of course, you generally don't know a scroll is Cursed until it's read, so I suppose the point is a bit moot. The non-GM-being-evil-while-claiming-game-balance train of thought here is based on seeing the curse scroll as a sort of magic trap. A particularly prepared and paranoid scroll scribe might have the curse trigger from any sort of magical manipulation.

I suppose when it is a poison potion, it is pretty explicitly Alchemical. Requiring the processing (mechanical extraction from glands included?) would keep someone from going off the deep end and try to use naturally occurring poison sources directly.

Taking the Chemistry -> Alchemy -> Magic chain, a Spellcrafter should be able to Channel from explosives as well - assuming they exist in the setting. But I suppose that is a matter for the GM to decide.
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artikid
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Re: Spellcrafters Supplement

Post by artikid »

I submitted the revised document!
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Solomoriah
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Re: Spellcrafters Supplement

Post by Solomoriah »

I have it. A bit busy now, but I'll get on it soon.
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Joe the Rat
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Re: Spellcrafters Supplement

Post by Joe the Rat »

Looking good. I don't remember if bold for Spellcrafter spells was in the last version or not, but it's a good, visually easy way to identify them.

I did find a glitch, and a possible problem.
- The description for Neutralize Poison is in the middle of the Ms
- The Greater Warding spell description refers to Minor Warding - which I eventually found in the Spells Supplement. For the non core spells, it might be helpful to reproduce the text here, or note to readers where they can find the descriptions.
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artikid
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Re: Spellcrafters Supplement

Post by artikid »

Joe the Rat wrote:Looking good. I don't remember if bold for Spellcrafter spells was in the last version or not, but it's a good, visually easy way to identify them.
Thanks
Joe the Rat wrote:I did find a glitch,
As Stuart Marshal of OSRIC fame once put it:
Damn! ;P
Joe the Rat wrote: and a possible problem.
Good suggestion, don't know why I didn't think about it myself

I'll fix those ASAP.
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Joe the Rat
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Re: Spellcrafters Supplement

Post by Joe the Rat »

artikid wrote:Good suggestion, don't know why I didn't think about it myself
When you're working with specialist information for a while, it's easy to forget that not everyone knows this stuff. I get that all the time at work in regard to statistics.
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SmootRK
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Re: Spellcrafters Supplement

Post by SmootRK »

I only recently came to notice this. I like a lot of it, although in my particular view, I think it would perhaps work better as a sort of specialty or add-on to a Magic User (or appropriate sub-class) rather than something separate... sorta like one of the quasi-classes except specific to MU.

Anyhow, it is nice. I don't know how it got by me without a good look at it.
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