New Elementalist Spell: Tidings

Continuing work on The Complete Elementalist. Here's a new water spell...



Tidings
Level: 4th
Duration: Special
Range: Unlimited
Elements: Water

This spell allows an elementalist to send messages across vast distances, harnessing the force of the seas and oceans. The elementalist's missive, which may be of any length, is taken up by the susurrations of the flowing water and carried across the tides to a destination named by the caster. Both the destination and the location where the spell is cast must be beside a body of water which connects to the sea – either at the seashore itself or beside a river which flows into the sea. The message is carried by the tides and currents of the seas at a rate of 50 miles per hour (1,200 miles per day).

Upon reaching the destination, the message is reproduced in its fullness by the crashing, frothing, and bubbling of the waters. The elementalist may choose one of the following conditions of delivery:

Immediate: the message is delivered as soon as it reaches the destination, irrespective of whether anyone is there to hear it.

General recipient: the message will await the arrival of the specified type of recipient. This may be as broad or narrow as the elementalist wishes, for example: “an elf”, “a man of the village of Thariknea”, “a woman wearing a crucifix”.

Specific recipient: the message will only be repeated for a single, named recipient. If this person does not visit the location to which the message has been delivered within three days of its arrival, they will begin to experience dreams of increasing vividness, directing them towards the location where the message is to be delivered.

Legends tell of lost tidings – castings of this spell which failed to reach the intended recipient and which still linger in the waves.


(The Complete Elementalist is going to be a self-contained book detailing a greatly expanded version of the elementalist class from Theorems & Thaumaturgy.)

Elemental Progress

Just a very quick progress report on The Complete Elementalist. After a period of gestation, I'm pleased to report that I now have a burgeoning list of ideas for new spells. There are currently about 75 ideas in the list and they keep coming thick and fast. Now I'll just have to find the time to write them all up properly!

I'll post some more spells as work progresses.

The Complete Vivimancer: Print Version Live! PDF Price Reduced!

After a fair amount of wailing, gnashing of teeth, tearing of hair, and such like, I am proud to announce that the print version (A5, softcover) of The Complete Vivimancer is now live for purchase at RPGNow!

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/128029/The-Complete-Vivimancer

With the launch of the print version, I've also reassessed the pricing of the book. It now costs:

PDF only - $6.99
Print only - $9.99
Print & PDF - $13.99

Go get it!


For people who have already bought the PDF at its former price: I've created a special discount code which allows you to get a copy of the print version of the book at cost. You should have received an email with the code. (I wasn't able to email all of you directly through RPGNow, so if you're one of these people and you've not received the coupon, just get in touch and I'll send it to you.)

New Elementalist Spell: Crystal Resonance

It ain't all just "fist of flame!!!!!!" in elementalist world.

Crystal Resonance
Level: 1
Duration: Special
Range: 30'
Casting time: 1 turn
Elements: Earth

A specially attuned crystal (costing 75gp), in combination with this spell, allows the elementalist to absorb certain energies from his surroundings. Once an energy has been impressed into the crystal's resonance, a second casting of this spell causes it to reproduce the stored energy in whatever environment it now occupies. One of the following energies may be absorbed into the crystal:

• Light: the lighting qualities of an environment may be absorbed and reproduced, causing an area of light, gloom, shadow, and so forth to be emitted from the crystal for 1 turn per level of the caster.
• Images: a static snapshot of the crystal's environment can be attuned for later examination. The image is reproduced for 1 turn.
• Sound: any sound emitted during the 1 turn casting time may be recorded and reproduced.
• Temperature: warmth or cold may be absorbed into the crystal and re-emitted for 1 turn per level of the caster.

A crystal which has been attuned with this spell retains the absorbed energy indefinitely. Each crystal can, however, only be attuned to a single energy – subsequent attunements will replace the original.
Each time this spell is cast, there is a 5% chance of the crystal shattering and becoming useless.

New Elementalist Spell: Sound the Deeps

Getting down to a bit of work on expanding the elementalist class presented in Theorems & Thaumaturgy.

I'm going for a bit of a Gandalf vibe with some of these spells.

Sound the Deeps
Level: 1
Duration: Instant
Range: Touch
Elements: Water & Earth

The elementalist invokes a dolorous boom to echo through a body of water or rock which he touches with his hand or staff. The returning tremors of the sound allow the caster to precisely divine the depth to which it travelled. Thus, the caster can determine the extent and approximate shape of bodies of water, chasms, shafts, clefts, mountain peaks, caverns, passages, and so forth.

In addition to this divinatory function, a sound the deeps spell may optionally be used to arouse slumbering beings in the affected area up to 50' distant per level of the caster. Creatures in a natural state of sleep are awakened to alertness and unnatural entities such as dormant undead, constructs, or planar beings may also be aroused.

Casting this spell always incurs a wandering monster check, as nearby creatures may come to investigate the source of the booming.

Psionics Without Limit?

I've been thinking a lot about psionics lately. Not sure why really. Perhaps partly because the Dying Sun campaign which I've been running features a lot of psionic characters (it's a kind of Dark Sun / Dune mashup, so that's not surprising). We've been testing out some home-brew psionics rules for Labyrinth Lord which I developed some time last year (photos of booklets here). I guess probably my current musings on psionics are inspired by some post-play analysis of what works and what doesn't work in the rules I came up with.

The rules we're currently using are, I suppose, reasonably close to the old AD&D 2e rules, as far as I remember them. There's a psionicist class (actually two classes in my rules: psychics and adepts), psionicists know a certain number of powers which increases with level, and have a pool of Psionic Strength Points which fuels the use of powers. Psionic attacks work with a combat matrix very similar to the standard attack matrix, comparing the attacker's PSP pool + a d20 roll against the defender's PSP pool. A successful attack deals psionic damage, decreasing the defender's PSPs.

The system's worked out ok so far, but I find myself wanting something a little bit simpler. The main thing I'd like is to simplify (or do away with) the PSP pool. Most (all?) psionics systems I've seen in the past use this kind of point-based mechanic as a differentiating factor between psionics and magic. So one idea I've been mulling over is whether this really adds anything much, and whether it could be fun to make a psionicist class that works with the existing magic-user system of spells / level / day. It works fine for clerics and their divine magic too, right, so why not psionics as well?

But the other day, a completely different idea came to me, and I'm very keen on it: how about a system of psionic powers which can be used without limit, as often as the psionicist wishes? This would be another way to do away with the PSP pool and could lead to a very nicely simplified system.

It would of course require some pretty careful balancing. A class which can, for example, perform a psychic crush (target must save vs death or die due to neural disintegration, in my current rules) without limit would clearly be out of the question. Two ideas I've considered:

1. Psionic powers of a similar utility level to thief skills or fighter attacks. Both these things can be used by those classes without limit, so a psionicist class with a similar power level could work.
2. More potent psionic powers, in line with the traditional power level of magic-user spells, say, but with a risk attached, instead of a fixed limit to uses per day.

Either of these options could work out pretty well, I feel, but I'm currently veering more towards the latter. I like the idea of psionics being wild and barely controlled.

An example:

Psionic Blast
The psychic unleashes a wave of psionic energy which disrupts the synaptic flow of targets within a 90 degree cone 40' long. Up to two Hit Dice of targets may be affected per level of the psychic. Psionically capable targets are unaffected but others must save versus spells be stunned for 1d6 rounds.

When unleashing this power, the psychic must save versus spells or suffer a minor side-effect.

Minor Telepathic Side-Effects
This would be a table with at least 20  entries, possibly 30 or more, if enough ideas were forthcoming. Some basic ideas would be things like the following, probably on the scale of about 1d6 rounds:

1. Optic overload. Vision blotted out.
2. Psionic blank. Cannot use powers. All defences dropped.
3. Complete amnesia.
4. Muscle spasms.
5. Disruption of the speech centre of the brain. Can only produce nonsense.
6. Higher brain centres disabled, base instinct takes over.

I envisage that there would also be a table of major side-effects, which would be either more intense or longer lasting. Some powers (psychic crush, for example) would entail a saving throw or roll directly on the major side-effects table. The last entry in the minor table might also say "roll on the major side-effects table".

So that's the current state of my thoughts. A couple of comments:

• Having the psionicist make a saving throw to avoid a negative side-effect has the effect of allowing higher level characters to use powers more freely (as their save gets better with level), which is desirable.
• I like the idea of tables of minor and major side-effects, and the risk of more longer lasting effects, but it's not clear at this stage how many powers would directly entail a roll on the major table. If it turns out that it's only one or two, it might be worth rethinking.

Any thoughts?

Two Reviews of The Complete Vivimancer

Both very positive!

The first from Ben Laurence of the blog Mazirian's Garden.

And the second from Tim Brannan of The Other Side blog.