Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

One more effort, again based on going through all of these other classes.

While it is not based in BD&D, I have always liked the Sorcerer class. It gets rid of a bunch of the fiddly bits of the Magic-User at the expense of flexibility, but it can still learn enough to stay useful. When looking for that in BFRPG, I found Smoot's Fey-Mage. It was *so* close to what I was looking for, but didn't quite strike what I was looking for. The mechanics were perfect, but I felt it was focusing on a side part while hand-waving away the real core. So, I rebuilt it by taking the optional rules and building them out with a full design. This does include the Fey-Mage, but I felt it was different enough that posting this as an update of Fey-Mage would be unfair to that effort, so I am making this a separate file and thread. I wanted to just use the name of "Sorcerer" (which I do inside the file), but there is already another Sorcerer, so I have called this a "Blood Sorcerer".

When making a Sorcerer, the player must choose what powers their Sorcerer. This is called their Blood Heritage. (I wanted to call it "bloodline", but that is used in Pathfinder, and I though it would be too close.) The Blood Heritage then informs the full picture of the Sorcerer. All Sorcerers have a common set of spells numbering 8-8-8-8-6-6. All of these spells are taken exclusively from the Core Rulebook for Magic-Users. When the Blood Heritage is chosen, each spell level gets four more spells per level that are tied to that Blood Heritage. The Blood Heritages that are included are Arcane, Celestial, Fey, Fiendish, Natural, and Undeath. I wanted to include Draconic and Elemental, but those will take a LOT of new spells, so I skipped them in this preliminary version. The sources for the spells are:
- Arcane "gives back" the missing Magic-User's spells. The spell lists are identical.
- Celestial and Fiendish pull purely from the Cleric's spell list. Different spells for each, though.
- Fey is drawn directly from the Fey-Mage list. Not a perfect match, but very close. It includes all three new spells from Fey-Mage. It has the widest range of sources.
- Nature is drawn from the Druid's spell list.
- Undeath is drawn from the Necromancer's spell list.
(Note that all spells that exist in the Druid, Illusionist, or Necromancer Supplement are left there. No spells are duplicated or taken from any source other than those three, the Core Rules, and the original Fey-Mage.)

I do plan on expanding this out (for example with the Draconic and Elemental Blood Heritages), and whatever is decided on how to do spells will probably cause changes. But, I think there is enough here to be able to share this now and hopefully get some input on it.

Created a Showcase entry for the supplement: Blood Heritage Sorcerer

The Spell section mentions "memorization", it should be preparation, memorization its not part of BFRPG magic. Does this means that its capable of spontaneous casting? I know its severely hindered in learned spells, but casting one extra spell + spontaneous casting is a really powerful thing.

OK, I double-checked. There are only two references to "memorize" and in both cases they explicitly state that Sorcerers do NOT memorize spells. They have a repertoire and any in that repertoire are available to use. The wording should be good because I literally copied this straight out of the Fey-Mage Supplement.

They simply cast any of the limited number of spells they know subject the the number of spells they can cast per day.

If Fey Mage says memorization, it's wrong too. Take cues from the core rules first.

The Fae Mage is also wrong then BFRPG does not use the concept of memorization, its uses preparation.

Then so yes, they have one extra spell per level plus spontaneous casting, even with their diminished repertoire spontaneous casting is a powerful thing

I'll go find it and fix it, then. The point is they just get their repertoire, whatever it says.

I think this could be fused with the Fey Mage as they are only differentiated by their spell list

In the main body of the Fey-Mage it says that they "do not have to prepare spells",
however in the Spell Section later it says "Because a Fey-Mage does not have to memorize spells, they do not need to worry about dismissing spells in order to prepare for more."... so yes, that one mention of 'not having to memorize' needs to be modified in future edits.

Dimirag wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 5:31 pm I think this could be fused with the Fey Mage as they are only differentiated by their spell list

Obviously, this could be merged with Fey-Mage. However, that is not my decision to make. I am taking someone else's work and recasting in a way that I prefer. I felt that the only right way to do that was to make a parallel effort instead of literally overwriting what Smoot did. But, make no mistake: this would not exist without Smoot's Fey-Mage existing first.

The approach I am taking imposes some restrictions on how the spell lists can be constructed. But, within those limits, yes, I made sure to make the Fey-Blooded Sorcerer as close as possible to the Fey-Mage. That is intended.

I am not going to post an update unless bigger issues are found until after I figure out the Draconic and Elemental Blood Heritages.

However, this is how I deleted the "memorize" sections

In the general description, I changed that paragraph like this:

Except for the manner in which a Sorcerer acquires spells, they produce magic much like other types of Magic-Users. Sorcerers have different spell choices, sometimes utilizing spells that traditional Magic-Users cannot normally cast. Sorcerers do not need to prepare spells like a Magic-User, rather they simply choose among any of their known spells at the time of casting. Rest is necessary to renew their available spell slots, just as other spell casting classes require. ...

And I changed the description for the Sorcerer Spells section like this:

Unlike other Magic-Users, a first level Sorcerer begins play knowing only two first level spells. The GM may roll for the spells, assign these as he or she sees fit, or allow the player to choose, at his or her option. Typically one spell will be a base Sorcerer spell, and the other will come from their Blood Heritage spells. A Sorcerer does not keep a Spell Book. Instead, they have set of known spells called a Repertoire. A Sorcerer may learn a maximum number of spells of each spell level equal to two plus their Charisma bonus. They can learn spells from any being capable of casting such magic, so long as the spell appears on the Sorcerer list or their Blood Heritage list and they have the appropriate slots in their Repertoire available. For new spell creations, ...

Is that new wording acceptable and clearer? I made sure to actually name and identify the Repertoire, which the originally mentioned by didn't highlight.