Thing’s My Master Taught Me

This rule was implemented in the magician-campaign. The purpose of the rule was to illustrate the various traditions at The Great School of Magic.

Each student has his own mentor, and to illustrate the concept of each mentor having his style and that it is taught to his students, I wanted a mechanic where this could enter the game. Since spells can wander without being taught solely by it’s designer, it wouldn’t do to create a series of spells for each mentor. Instead I wanted to show, that each master had his own way of using Magic Missile and Hold Person, and furthermore I wanted to do this without having long lists of descriptions on how each mentor did his magic, and then having the players to refer to those.

Instead I chose a simpler mechanic following in the tradition of some of the other mechanics. The player adds a description, when a spell is cast, and in this description, the player describes how the mentor’s style shapes the spell. This also help us to re-incorporate a part of the fiction for now the mentor becomes present in the fiction, whenever spells need to be cast in a more powerful way. More powerful becomes of the bonus earned from using the mechanic.

When the rule is used, the player chooses a bonus to add to the spell, which makes it more powerful. Part of this is to add a different kind of bonus, and part of this is to illustrate that the magic of the mentors is more powerful than some generic spellcasting.

So her is the mechanic:

• Whenever a spell is cast, the player can employ this rule.
• The player adds a description of how the spell is cast, describing gestures, words and components and how this is the style of his master.
• This adds a +2 modifier to skill checks attempting to identify the spell (in other words it becomes easier to identify the spell due to the signatures of the masters style)
• One of the following effects is added to the spell chosen by player

• • Add +1 to the spell saves DC
  • Add +1 caster level (range and duration only)
  • Add +1 caster level (damage only)
  • Add +1 caster level (# of targets only)
  • Replace the traditinal components (V, M, S) with any others (this cannot replace especially expensive components, but for the crearive player, there are certain advantages in this one)
  • Add a free cantrip to the spell (they are cast simultaneously as one spell).
• The same description cannot be used twice (just to make sure, the description does not become standardized)