The Complete Vivimancer: Tantalisation

It's so close I can feel the slime dripping off it!

The Complete Vivimancer: Sample Illustration

Here's a further advanced (I don't think quite finished) version of the illustration for the decay spell, the rough draft of which I posted a few days ago.

Elementalist: Specialists and 1st Level Spell List

While waiting for the completion of the illustrations for The Complete Vivimancer, I've been playing around with some ideas for my follow-up project The Complete Elementalist.

My plan is to include rules for a generalist elementalist as well as specialists in each individual element. What I have in mind is the following:

• An elementalist may at any point in his career choose to focus his study on one of the cardinal elements. Once made, this decision cannot be reversed.
• Elemental specialists can only memorize spells which are directly related to their chosen element, though this includes sub-elements. For example, a fire specialist could also memorize sub-elemental spells of ash or magma.
• Elemental specialists can cast spells relating to other elements from scrolls, but are absolutely restricted from casting spells of the element opposed to their chosen speciality, including sub-elements. For example, a fire elementalist cannot cast water-related spells from scrolls, even spells of steam (a sub-element of fire and water).
• The advantage of a narrow focus is that an elemental specialist casts and memorizes spells at one experience level higher than his true level.

This ability to specialise on a single element means, of course, that the spell lists will need to be balanced, providing a decent selection of spells for each element. Ideally I'd like to make the spell list exactly balanced.

I've been working on the 1st level spells, and so far this has worked out. Here's the list as it stands.

All 1st Level Spells
1. Burning hands
2. Create water
3. Crystal resonance
4. Domination of lesser elementines
5. Dust blast
6. Feather fall
7. Feet of stone
8. Firelight
9. Firewreath
10. Fist of stone
11. Flickerflame
12. Hush
13. Ignite
14. Lasting breath
15. Lodestone
16. Manipulate fire
17. Message
18. Mudflow
19. Purify
20. Ray of fire / ice
21. Resist cold
22. Rusting grasp
23. Seasong / windsong / firesong
24. Shapes
25. Sound the deeps
26. Stalagmites / stalactites
27. Stoneskin
28. Unburn
29. Wall of vapour
30. Windwreath

1st Level Air Spells
1. Domination of lesser elementines
2. Dust blast
3. Feather fall
4. Flickerflame
5. Hush
6. Lasting breath
7. Message
8. Purify
9. Seasong / windsong / firesong
10. Shapes
11. Wall of vapour
12. Windwreath

1st Level Earth Spells
1. Crystal resonance
2. Domination of lesser elementines
3. Dust blast
4. Feet of stone
5. Fist of stone
6. Lodestone
7. Mudflow
8. Purify
9. Shapes
10. Sound the deeps
11. Stalagmites / stalactites
12. Stoneskin

1st Level Fire Spells
1. Burning hands
2. Domination of lesser elementines
3. Firelight
4. Firewreath
5. Flickerflame
6. Ignite
7. Manipulate fire
8. Purify
9. Ray of fire / ice
10. Seasong / windsong / firesong
11. Shapes
12. Unburn

1st Level Water Spells
1. Create water
2. Domination of lesser elementines
3. Lasting breath
4. Mudflow
5. Purify
6. Ray of fire / ice
7. Resist cold
8. Rusting grasp
9. Seasong / windsong / firesong
10. Shapes
11. Sound the deeps
12. Wall of vapour

The Complete Vivimancer: Mind Fungus

Due to a small layout mistake I've just discovered I've got a little bit of space to squeeze a small amount of extra material into The Complete Vivimancer. Thus, an extra magic item:

Mind Fungus
Reminiscent of a fist-sized human brain, a single specimen of this species of robust magical mushroom is the fruit of a lengthy procedure of growth under carefully controlled conditions. The mushrooms must be grown on a medium of neural matter, and are fed a solution of magically treated spinal fluid. A character who consumes one of these rare fruits gains a permanent +1 bonus to INT, but must also roll a side-effect on the following table, as the psychic echoes of the minds which fed the fungus interact with the character's neural structure.

1-2: None
3: -1d3 WIS
4: -1d3 CHA
5: Re-roll WIS (3d6)
6: Re-roll CHA (3d6)
7: Alignment change – randomly determined (roll again if no change)
8: Insanity (as per the 4th level spell)
9: Radical personality change
10: Memory warp – long periods of the character's memory are either erased or replaced with events which did not occur (50% of each)

The Complete Vivimancer: (Still) Coming Soon

Yes, it's still progressing. Illustrations are flowing in, both as drafts and as finished versions, so we shouldn't be too far off being finished now. A conservative estimate would be within one month.

Just for fun, here's a teaser... Cadanse's draft for the illustration of the 2nd level spell decay.

Spell Reformulation 1: Change One Letter

Fact: a magic spell is an arcane formula which can bring about a certain well-defined effect.

Hypothesis: new spells are typically researched by making a series of small modifications to known spell formula.

Proposal: the game-mechanical description of a spell mirrors the corresponding arcane formula. Modifications to the former also apply to the latter. The description and the formula are inextricably bound -- one is simply a modern-Earth-human translation of the other.

Techniques: various forms of modification are possible, from altering, removing or adding single letters of a spell's name or description, to advanced splicing of the formulae of two different spells.

Note: obviously, this is weird. Such processes are only suitable for players and referees who are open to improvisation, free interpretation and radical re-workings of standard spells.


An Example
The sequential modification of the common sleep spell (text from Labyrinth Lord) by one-letter changes to its name. The description of the new spell is created by making small modifications to the text of the spell it was derived from, adjusting meaning as appropriate.

This simple example proves not only the silly fun but also the simplicity and practicability of this system.

Sleep
Level: 1
Duration: 4d4 turns
Range: 240’
A sleep spell causes a magical slumber to come upon creatures with 4+1 Hit Die or fewer. The caster may only affect 1 creature if it has 4+1 HD, but the spell will otherwise affect up to 2d8 HD of creatures. Calculate monsters with less than 1 HD as having 1 HD, and monsters with a bonus to HD as having the flat amount. For example, a 3+2 HD monster would be calculated as having 3 HD. Hit Die that are not sufficient to affect a creature are wasted. Creatures with the fewest HD are affected first. Sleeping creatures are helpless and can be killed instantly with a blade weapon. Slapping or wounding awakens an affected creature, but normal noise does not. Sleep does not affect undead creatures.

Change one letter → sheep

Sheep
Level: 1
Duration: 4d4 turns
Range: 240’
A sheep spell causes a magical fleece to come upon creatures with 4+1 Hit Die or fewer. The caster may only affect 1 creature if it has 4+1 HD, but the spell will otherwise affect up to 2d8 HD of creatures. Calculate monsters with less than 1 HD as having 1 HD, and monsters with a bonus to HD as having the flat amount. For example, a 3+2 HD monster would be calculated as having 3 HD. Hit Die that are not sufficient to affect a creature are wasted. Creatures with the fewest HD are affected first. Fleeced creatures are warm and snuggly and can be shorn instantly with a blade weapon. Slapping or wounding enrages an affected creature, but normal shearing does not. Sheep does not affect undead creatures.

Change one letter → cheep

Cheep
Level: 1
Duration: 4d4 turns
Range: 240’
A cheep spell causes a magical chirruping jubilation to come upon creatures with 4+1 Hit Die or fewer. The caster may only affect 1 creature if it has 4+1 HD, but the spell will otherwise affect up to 2d8 HD of creatures. Calculate monsters with less than 1 HD as having 1 HD, and monsters with a bonus to HD as having the flat amount. For example, a 3+2 HD monster would be calculated as having 3 HD. Hit Die that are not sufficient to affect a creature are wasted. Creatures with the fewest HD are affected first. Chirruping creatures are merry and gay and can be shooed instantly with a brandished weapon. Stealing of seeds enrages an affected creature, but normal foraging does not. Cheep does not affect undead creatures.

Change one letter → cheap

Cheap
Level: 1
Duration: 4d4 turns
Range: 240’
A cheap spell causes a magical frenzied 2-for-1 everything-must-go sales jubilation to come upon creatures with 4+1 Hit Die or fewer. The caster may only affect 1 creature if it has 4+1 HD, but the spell will otherwise affect up to 2d8 HD of creatures. Calculate monsters with less than 1 HD as having 1 HD, and monsters with a bonus to HD as having the flat amount. For example, a 3+2 HD monster would be calculated as having 3 HD. Hit Die that are not sufficient to affect a creature are wasted. Creatures with the fewest HD are affected first. Sale-frenzied creatures are merry and gay but can be sobered instantly with a brandished weapon. Stealing of goods enrages an affected creature, but normal haggling does not. Cheap does not affect undead creatures.

LotFP House Rules 2: One-Shot this Weekend

As I mentioned recently, I've been thinking of running a small adventure using the LotFP rules. Well, the thinking has becoming doing now, so here are the house rules we'll be using. Note that, for the sake of simplicity in this one-shot, I've not messed around with any of the classes.

Classes

• Humans only.
• Clerics are witch-hunters or crusaders.

Skills
Some additional skills. All characters have a base 1 in 6 chance of success. Specialists can add extra skill points as usual.

• Medicine: identify herbs*, spend one turn with first aid kit (counts as specialist's tools, 10 uses) to heal 1d3 hp of freshly accrued damage. The skill can only be used for healing if the patient has at least half of his maximum hit points.
• Arcane dabbling: use wands & scrolls. If the skill roll fails, the item is used (scroll destroyed, wand charge used) with no effect. If the skill roll fails with a 6 (or double 6), the item backfires, creating a detrimental effect (sometimes the opposite to what was intended).
• Sense magic: spend one turn to detect whether a single object, creature or 10' square area is magical. Further turns may be spent to determine the following things, in order: the type of magic, its potency (approximate spell level), the age of the enchantment.

*Bushcraft can also be used to identify herbs.