Magic in the world of the Barbaric Frontier is not your common vanilla fantasy thing. It's danegerous to cast spells - if someone fail at casting, he will at least become partially insane . To reflect this I've made a small addition to the typical vancian magic. Every time magic-user attempts to cast a spell, he must make a saving throw with the negative modifier as the level of the cast spell. If he fails, player must consult the table below:
| Roll 1d8 | Effect |
| 1 | Caster loses 1d4 insanity points |
| 2 | Caster loses 1d6 insanity points |
| 3 | Caster ages 2d4 years |
| 4 | Offensive spell is being cast on the caster; healing spell has the reversed effect |
| 5 | Monstrosity from the Beyond attacks the caster and his allies(a random demon is summoned at the discretion of the Referee |
| 6 | 1d8 insanity points |
| 7 | Caster falls unconscious |
| 8 | Caster recieves 1d6 damage |
Interesting idea, but, bearing in mind how bad 1st level characters' saves are, wouldn't it mean that most magic-users would be dead or insane well before reaching 2nd level? :)
ReplyDeleteIndeed that was my intention, however when I play-test it I will probably soften this a bit:). Maybe with additional saving throw and changed table.
ReplyDeleteWeighting the table with a 2d4 or 2d6 roll may be a good idea if you want magic-users to be at all a viable class at lower levels. They already have enough problems as it is.
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