House Rules for a Nicer Sorcerer

by Brian Potter

Date: Tue, 27 Feb 1996 11:46:14 -0500 From: Brian Potter To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: [MAGIC]Making sorcerors less evil

About a month ago, there was a lengthy discussion about sorcerors and whether or not they were evil. Without reopening that whole discussion, I thought I'd describe how it affected my own campaign.

In one of my main cultures, there are 3 main areas considered evil:

1. inflicting pain or suffering _for its own sake_ is evil, while murder is not necessarily evil. The god of death is worshipped heavily, and fighters pray to him before battle for a death without pain and that they may kill their opponents without inflicting pain. Clerics of this god have special spells that do things like remove pain from a critically injured person, or hasten soul departure.

2. any spell that opens any sort of gate between planes is classified as evil; this includes demon summoning spells, teleport spells, elemental summoning spells, etc.

3. spells relating to demons or other extra-planar beings.

Because of this structure, I decided that the sorceror list Soul Destruction could only be evil to people in this country. Many of the spells inflict pain or suffering without leading directly to death, or they deal with demons. So, I set about making a new list to replace it. I noticed that sorcerors could destroy all kinds of matter, but had no spells for energy. I ended up with 2 lists, which I'll describe here. I HAVE NOT play-tested them for balance. They're far from my ideal, and I'm asking for suggested changes.

Energy destruction I deals with kinetic, potential, and magical energy. Energy destruction II deals with light, sound, and heat.

		I							II
1 - Slow Blow 2*				Equilibrate Temperature
2 - Destroy Elasticity				Cool liquid
3 - Cancel channeling or essence*		Silence (1')
4 - Slow Blow 5*				Cool solid
5 - Cancel mentalism*				Charge dispersion I*
6 - Decrease momentum 5			        Silence (5')
7 - Slow Blow 10*				Dark (10')
8 - Cancel arcane				Quench
9 - Dispell channeling or essence		Dark (20')
10 - Decrease momentum 25			Charge dispersion II*
11 - Dispell mentalism				Silence (10')
12 - Dissipate power				Greater quench
13 - Slow Blow 25*				Charge dispersion III*
14 - Dispell arcane				Utterdark (20')
15 - Decrease momentum 100

(similar names mean similar to already existing RM2 spells, except as noted.)
        Slow blow n: total penalty of 10n may be split over any number of
attacks in increments of 10.  The penalty must all go against one target,
and the distribution specified at the time of casting.
        Destroy Elasticity: destroys the elasticity of a bowstring or
similar object. (I haven't decided on a duration for this one.)
        Decrease momentum n: as Staying n spells in RM2, can only slow an
object, never increase speed.
        Dissipate power: duration 1 min/10% failure. all spells cast while
the target is affected by this spell will cost twice their normal value in
PP. (higher level versions could make spells cost 3x, 4x, etc.)
        Equilibrate temperature:  causes the temperature of up to 1 cu'/lvl
of solid or liquid to match that of the ambient air.  Adjustment takes 2
minutes.
        Cool liquid: caster may lower temp of 1 cu'/level of liquid to 0
celsius. It does not automatically freeze.
        Cool solid: caster may lower temp of 1 cu'/level of a solid to -10
celsius.
        Charge dispersion I: cast against a shock bolt (100'), the spells
make RRs against each other.  If this spell succeeds, the bolt is cancelled.
If cast against a shock bolt with range greater than 100', this spell
reduces the range by 100' (effectively, it increases the caster-to-target
distance by 100'); against a lightning bolt, this spell has the effect of
increasing the caster-to-target distance by 50'.
        Quench: duration 1min/lvl, range:100', area of effect:10'r.
Extinguishes any nonmagical fire in the area of effect, and causes any fire
entering the area during the duration to go out as well.
        Charge dispersion II: cast against a shock bolt (100') or shock bolt
(300'), the spells make RRs against each other.  If this spell succeeds, the
bolt is cancelled.  If cast against a shock bolt with range greater than
300', this spell reduces the range by 300' (effectively, it increases the
caster-to-target distance by 300');against a lightning bolt, 
this spell has the effect of increasing the caster-to-target distance by 100'.
        Greater quench: as quench, but also affects magical fires
(fireballs, bolts, walls, etc.)  Magical fires get a RR against this spell.
        Charge dispersion III: cast against a lightning bolt (100'), the
spells make RRs against each other.  If this spell succeeds, the bolt is
cancelled.  Against shock bolts the spell increases the effective
caster-to-target distance by 400', and against lightning bolts with ranges
over 100' it reduces the effective caster-to-target distance by 100'.

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