d20 Natural 20 Press The Elements of Magic.pdf

Requires the use of a Roleplaying Game Core Book

published by Wizards of the Coast®

Contents

Introduction

Rune Magic

Powers of the Mind

Fifty Character Ideas

Poison

So What’s Changed?

Sample Characters

Polymorph [Creature]

Layout

Polymorph [Element]

Conversion Issues

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Power Word

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Spellcasting Basics

Preserve & Decay

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Deining your Spells

Regeneration

Sight

Spell Lists

Prestidigitation

Spectral Hand

Spell Expertise

Abjure [Creature]

Summon [Element]

Magic Points

Abjure [Element]

Summon [Outsider]

Metamagic Feats and Spells

Abjure Magic

Telepathy [Creature]

Elemental Relations

and Damage Type

Abjure [Outsider]

Teleportation

Alter Reality

Wall of [Element]

Elemental Side Efects

Animate Object

Blanket Changes

to Magic Rules

Credits

Written by

Matt ‘Cyberzombie’ Blakeley

Editors

Mark Clover

Greg Dinkelman

Aaron Morgan

Russell Morrissey

Ryan Nock

Alex “Angramainyu” Wilson

Artwork

Robin Blakeley

Chris Shepard

Matt Blakeley

Aaron Morgan

Graphic Design and Typesetting

Duncan Fielden

Astral Projection

Banish [Element]

Schools of Magic

and Spell Descriptors

Banish [Outsider]

Bind [Element]

Bind [Outsider]

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Mage

Charm [Creature]

Command [Creature]

Companion [Creature]

Magical Subclasses

Compel [Creature]

Black or White Mage



Create [Element] Object

Green Mage



Cursecraft

Green Magic



Disease

Grey or Red Mage



Disjunction

Bard



Dominate [Creature]

Paladin



Enervate & Restore

Ranger



Enthrall [Creature]

Evoke [Element]

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Alchemy

Evoke Area [Element]

Fast Healing

Figment

Dispel Magic

Infuse Creature

with [Element]

Divination

with extra special thanks to

Chris Shepard

Intuit Direction

Infuse Object

with [Element]

Scry

Spellcraft

Natural  Press is an imprint of

EN World. Please visit:

http://www.enworld.org

for more information.

Instill Emotion

in [Creature]

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Other Useful Resources

Invisibility

Life & Death

Spellcraft and Worldcraft

Mass Compulsion

[Creature]

Familiar Magic

Vancian Magic

Mass Projection

Arcane and Divine

Paralysis & Petriication

Introduction

Magic deines fantasy. Whether it is the

timeless magic of unlikely heroes defeating

iendish plots, or the more tangible magic of

sorcery and charms, it is the magical that makes

a normal story into a fantasy that delights

listeners, readers, and gamers by making all

the impossibilities we can imagine come real.

Dreams of magic can make even the most

mundane day something to cherish, like a poem

evoking the charm of the everyday world.

But sometimes, just like poems, magic can

become stale and clichéd. rough repeated

exposure, its novelty can wear of, and certainly,

thirty years of magic missiles and inger of

deaths has been enough to render many fantasy

gamers jaded. At its core, saying, “My love

is a dove,” in a poem is as trite as, “I cast

detect magic .” is is not to say that all core

magic is clichéd, for some spells would

certainly qualify as classics, but many

are simply adequate. Detect magic may

be adequate, perhaps, but it is not as

evocative as “I whisper to my spirit

guide, asking for him to lend his

eyes, that I may see the realm of

magic.”

Already, Natural 20 Press’s

Wild Spellcraft has added a

greater sense of mystery and

danger to magic. Now e

Elements of Magic opens

the world of magic to you,

letting you create almost

any type of magic-user

you’d like. Magic is an

artform, like poetry,

and any good poem

is never content

to merely recite

the works of

others.

e Elements of Magic is intended to be

modular, able to it whatever role you want it

to play. It can be added to an existing campaign

that already has wizards, sorcerers, clerics, and

druids, perhaps representing another, higher

sort of magic, or it can wholly replace the

existing magic system, providing a whole new

feel to your fantasy gaming. You will need a

d20 core rulebook to use these rules, but this

book will let you ignore the old, clichéd spells

presented in those books, and create your own

works of magical art.

So What’s Changed?

e largest and most important change e

Elements of Magic presents is that it eliminates

the spell memorization and preparation system

entirely. Instead, this rules module uses a spell

list and magic point system, which is more

lexible, letting you decide what the mechanics

actually mean.

e division between arcane and divine

magic (and psionics, for that matter) has been

done away with in an attempt to make these

rules as setting-neutral as possible. Of course,

a spellcaster can always attribute his magic

to whatever source he believes in, but such

possibilities should be determined by how the

player and game master roleplay their world.

e rules for all spellcasters are the same, and

this system does not presuppose anything.

Magic can be a gift from the gods, the ancient

lingering spirit-energies of dead dragons, a

power innate in the world, or whatever else you

choose. Perhaps the most interesting possibility

is to make magic as mysterious in your game

as it is in the real world, where everyone has an

opinion, but there might be no single truth to

what magic is.

While the schools of magic from the core

rules are used, they have not been strictly

maintained. e necromancy school has been

dropped entirely, most divination spells have

been turned into magic skills, and some spells

are placed in diferent schools than they would

be in the core rules. e Evoke Life list, for

example, is roughly equivalent to the cure spells,

but it is in the evocation school rather than

conjuration (healing).

e alignment system, while not entirely

dropped, has been de-emphasized. e Life and

Death magical elements below, despite their

names, have no alignment. Death magic is no

more inherently evil than laming someone to a

crisp, and Life magic is used as much by villains

as heroes. Alignments are used primarily for

magic that deals with outsiders, since such

entities are assumed to be nearly the physical

embodiment of their alignment. is move away

from the alignment system is intentional, since

most settings other than the core d20 Fantasy

settings do not use alignment. While the moral-

absolutism of alignment is appropriate for the

d20 core rules, it is not appropriate for most

settings, especially a modern or futuristic one.

Unless, of course, the game master says

otherwise. e Elements of Magic is intended to

make it easy for you to create the fantasy world

you desire, with minimal tinkering. We have

done all the work of rules for you. All you have

to do is add whatever tone and descriptions

you want, and you can make these scattered

elements of magic manifest into a striking and

intriguing fantasy.

magic system to represent the speciic tone of

your game world, we also present several sample

variations of the Mage, all of which emphasize

the various spell elements. Finally is a revision

of the bard and ranger to these new rules.

Chapter ree: Magical Skills –

presents two new skills, as well as new uses for

ive skills from the core rules. All seven skills

gain extra abilities when used with magic.

Chapter Four: Worlds of Magic –

gives advice on creating interesting and

compelling forms of magic in your game, and

provides tons of ideas for creating your own

spellcasting character, along with three sample

characters.

Chapter Five: Elemental Monsters –

presents rules on new elementals for use with

this book. e .rtf ile included in this zip ile

contains combat statistics for all 20 elementals

at all 10 power levels.

Chapter Six: Spell Lists –

presents the descriptions of the spell lists, in a

format very similar to the spell descriptions of

the core rules.

Conversion Issues

You may wonder how adding a new magic

system will afect all the magic-using creatures,

magic items, and NPCs already in your game.

For most purposes, however, you should be able

to plug this book into your campaign with little

diiculty. Spellcasting characters and monsters

can be converted to a spellcasting class from

this book if you feel like going to the efort, but

since the new magic system is balanced with the

older magic rules, no conlicts should arise if

you use an old spell. Most spell-like abilities and

magic items can be kept unchanged, though you

can convert them to a related spell list from this

book if you’d like to add some new spice. Our

goal is to eventually create a sequel book with

additional ideas for new monsters using these

rules, but we don’t doubt that you’ll be tinkering

in the meanwhile.

Layout

Since this book uses a very diferent magic

system than the core rules, you might need a

little help navigating it.

Chapter One: Concepts & Deinitions –

explains the workings of the new magic system.

Once you have some familiarity with this

chapter, most of the rest of the book follows

easily from there.

Chapter Two: Spellcasting Classes –

covers the new core spellcasting class, the Mage.

Additionally, as examples of how to utilize this

T hough many artists can be quite skilled

creature, or outsider type. ere are 20 types of

elements, 12 types of creatures, and 9 types of

outsiders in all.

Elements: Each element has its own unique

efects and side efects, such as Fire’s ability to

start ires, and Water’s ability to drown.

Creatures: e creature descriptors are used

for spells that afect a creature directly instead

of using elemental energy, and such spells must

be tailored to the creature’s type. A Charm

Humanoid spell will not afect an Aberration.

Outsiders: Outsiders are classiied strictly

by their alignment.

by simply letting their muse guide their

craft, the great masters are those who

understand the tools at their disposal, and then

make use of their canny skill. Similarly, before

you are able to truly utilize this magic system,

you will need to familiarize yourself with its

components.

Spellcasting Basics

In this book, this is only one core spellcasting

class, the Mage, though we present several

optional ways to tweak it for diferent lavors.

Unlike the core rules where magic from

diferent classes was gained and handled

separately, a spellcaster from e Elements

of Magic has only one spellcaster level that

increases in a fashion much like the character’s

base attack bonus. If you’re just using the Mage

class, this will not be a concern, but if you

decide to use the diferent subclasses of the

Mage, this mechanic means that multiclassing

will not be the great drawback it is for a

spellcaster in the core rules.

A spellcaster learns to use spells in spell

lists , which go from ‘0’ to 9th level spells, rather

than individual spells. While some spell lists

are unique, such as Disease and Polymorph,

most spell lists are created by combining a

type of action that the spell does, with a type of

element, creature, or outsider that they afect.

For example, the spell list Evoke Area Lightning

is a combination of Evoke Area [Element] and

the element of Lightning.

ere are over two dozen types of spell

actions, such as Abjure [Element], Charm

[Creature], or Summon [Outsider]. When

actually learning a spell list you would combine

an action with a single particular element,

Spellcaster Level

ough the Mage is the core spellcasting class in

e Elements of Magic , because you may want to

create your own types of spellcasters, we have

simpliied spellcasting progression so that caster

levels from all magic-using classes stack, just as

Base Attack Bonus stacks. Some of the optional

classes, such as the red and grey mage, will not

gain a spellcaster level every time they gain a

class level, since they are not solely dedicated

to magic, and the revised ranger class gains

spellcaster levels in 2 level increments, much

like a 2 level of a skill. us, the table below is

presented in 2 level increments.

When determining the level-based efects of

a spell, as usual, round down fractions. us, a

character with a caster level of 112 would cast

spells that are functionally identical to those

cast by someone with caster level 11.

e character’s spellcaster level determines

what level of spells they can cast, how many

spell lists they know (see the next entry), and

how many magic points they have (see the entry

after that), as given on Table 1-1: Spellcaster

Levels , overleaf:

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