Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 12
  1. #1
    Bearcat
    Guest

    Blooded vs Unblooded/Mages vs M

    >No unblooded character (or elf-blooded) can cast spells above 2nd level in any
    >school other than Illusion or Divination, right? Why should this exclude
    >specialist Illusionists and Diviners? Provided, of course, that they still
    >abide by the rule that prevents them from casting "true" magic, I can't see any
    >reason for non-blooded Illusionists and Diviners to exist in a Birthright
    >campaign. In fact, they could have pretty much the same skills/abilities as
    >Magicians.

    A Magician is the equivalent of a specialist in _both_ Illusion and
    divination schools. For a relatively easy (when compared to the requirements
    for illusionist and diviner characters). If there was an illusionist then
    not only would he be restricted to spells of lesser magic, he would also
    limit his repretoire of higher level spells and their effectiveness.

    Bearcat
    lcgm@elogica.com.br
    Come visit Bearcat's Birthright Homepage at:
    http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/6204

  2. #2
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Posts
    17
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0

    Blooded vs Unblooded/Mages vs M

    Question:

    Blooded humans can be either Magicians or Wizards, as per Book of
    Magecraft. Why would a blooded human wish to become a Magician? And
    what stops him from becoming a Wizard later on? I'm toying with the
    house rule that only blooded humans (and elves, of course) can become
    Wizards, while unblooded characters can only become Magicians. Makes
    being a Mage all that more special, I think, and explains why an
    unblooded character can never wield True Magic.

    Does anyone else do this in their campaign, or have an opinion on it?

    Regards.

  3. #3
    gandalf
    Guest

    Blooded vs Unblooded/Mages vs M

    >Question:
    >
    >Blooded humans can be either Magicians or Wizards, as per Book of
    >Magecraft. Why would a blooded human wish to become a Magician? And
    >what stops him from becoming a Wizard later on? I'm toying with the
    >house rule that only blooded humans (and elves, of course) can become
    >Wizards, while unblooded characters can only become Magicians. Makes
    >being a Mage all that more special, I think, and explains why an
    >unblooded character can never wield True Magic.


    I may be getting this wrong, but isn't this the actual, 'official' case?
    As for blooded character becoming just magicians, I think there have been
    such cases, explained through
    'he was a promising student, but the burden of his nation was upon him
    before he managed to complete his studies as a wizard, and thus he was never
    able to master the more powerful magic'.
    I think this is the case of some regent in (ummmmmm...) i think the Khinasi
    Lands. I am not certain who it is though... I'll look it up and tell you.

    Gandalf

  4. #4
    Bret W. Davenport
    Guest

    Blooded vs Unblooded/Mages vs M

    > Blooded humans can be either Magicians or Wizards, as per Book of
    > Magecraft. Why would a blooded human wish to become a Magician? And
    > what stops him from becoming a Wizard later on? I'm toying with the
    > house rule that only blooded humans (and elves, of course) can become
    > Wizards, while unblooded characters can only become Magicians. Makes
    > being a Mage all that more special, I think, and explains why an
    > unblooded character can never wield True Magic.

    Actually, according to the rule book (page 12), "True Magic includes all other schools of wizardy
    (outside of the illusion and divination based lesser magic), but only elves, half-elves, and blooded
    humans can command its arcane power." In other words, you already have your answer. To be a
    specialist or even generic Wizard, a non-blooded can not qualify for unless they are elven or
    half-elven. And, as the book says, there exists only a handful of them in the world (with even much
    fewer having domains and realm magic). Allowing for a Wizard PC, with or without Regency, should be
    a distinction of some note (and should be role-played, imho, with that in mind).

    Bret

  5. #5
    Brandon Quina
    Guest

    Blooded vs Unblooded/Mages vs M

    > >Blooded humans can be either Magicians or Wizards, as per Book of
    > >Magecraft. Why would a blooded human wish to become a Magician?

    Because he didnt want to take the time to learn all of magic.
    Blooded wizards can still use some weapons, and are better at
    defending themselves than normal wizard. A rich lazy noble
    might become a magician just because he didnt want to take the
    time and dedication required to learn true magic.



    - --
    (lore@tmgbbs.com) \|/// Zzzzzzzzzzzz
    Brandon Lance Quina (- -)
    ICQ Number: 6809944 ---ooO(_)Ooo---

  6. #6
    James Ruhland
    Guest

    Blooded vs Unblooded/Mages vs M

    >
    > Maybe the blooded magician couldn´t find a wizard master and is self
    > taught.
    > He has the potential but can´t use it fully because he doesn´t know how -
    > result:
    > a blooded magician.
    > ( I have an NPC just like that)
    >
    could just be for personal reasons he didn't choose to study "Wizad" stuff.
    Magicians get some nice benifits, they don't in our opinion prolly
    completely make up for their restrictions. But a person who wants to lead a
    certain kind of life, I.E. finding things out for people & doing "special
    effects" type work would prolly rather be a magician than a Wizad, even if
    he is Blooded. Not only does he get several advantages which will help him
    in his work, but he won't have as many people coming by trying to dragoon
    him into the national armed forces, either ("oh, him? yah, he's good for
    locating my wife's broach when she looses it, but I want someone who can
    burn my enemies with fireballs!" --Regent who forgets a magician can cast
    Rain of Magic Missiles and Rolling Fire.)

    Plus, there is prolly something "extra special" involved in becoming a
    Wizard. We know for example that about 1% of all Cerilians are Blooded. But
    perhaps 1% of that total (circa 150-300) are Wizards capable of True Magic.
    If all that was nessisary to become a Wizard was that you were blooded,
    then in the Khinasi lands at least (where Mages are especially revered)
    there would be a lot more of them.

    I donno what this "something else special" might be and I for one don't use
    a rule to tell my players "no, you can't be a Wizard because you lack the
    special ingredient", just as I don't make them roll 01 on a d100 to see if
    they're blooded or not. So I.E. I don't see a rule covering this, and every
    DM will have to decide why fewer seemingly qualified people (I.E. because
    Blooded) don't study to become Wizads.

    N.B. re. that: I'm also one of thouse people who sees a character, NPC or
    whatever, who has a listed Int of, say, 17, but is a Fighter (or whatever;
    I.E. not a Wizard) and says "why? I'd be a mage, gosh darn it! But perhaps
    that person just prefered being a warrior (or whatever). Same holds true
    for Blooded Magicians (to circle back to the original point of this screed.
    Think of it this way: a lot of you see people playing Humans, or Halflings
    and ask "why not play an Elf, like smart people do?" well, perhaps we're
    sick of eating leaves. . .

    James Ruhland, whos characters
    always USED to be Elves

  7. #7

    Blooded vs Unblooded/Mages vs M

    In a message dated 98-03-06 11:30:11 EST, you write:

    >Blooded humans can be either Magicians or Wizards, as per Book of
    > >Magecraft. Why would a blooded human wish to become a Magician?
    >>

    1. Lack of access to wizardly training.
    2. A strong interest in illusion or divination (same reason a wizard in
    another setting would specialize in one of these schools).
    3. Cultural taboos against wizardly magic (e.g. Rjurik and Vos)

    I'm sure there are others...
    CB

  8. #8
    Mark A Vandermeulen
    Guest

    Blooded vs Unblooded/Mages vs M

    On Fri, 6 Mar 1998, Druid wrote:

    > Blooded humans can be either Magicians or Wizards, as per Book of
    > Magecraft. Why would a blooded human wish to become a Magician? And
    > what stops him from becoming a Wizard later on? I'm toying with the
    > house rule that only blooded humans (and elves, of course) can become
    > Wizards, while unblooded characters can only become Magicians. Makes
    > being a Mage all that more special, I think, and explains why an
    > unblooded character can never wield True Magic.

    I might be misremembering this, but don't Magicians (as opposed to
    wizards) have BIG weapons advantages over the wizards, i.e. ability to
    wear armor and sling around the swords with at least rogue, if not cleric
    level of ability? I thought that the magician class was cheifly a means of
    allowing players to play "swords and sorcery" type characters.

    Mark VanderMeulen
    vander+@pitt.edu

  9. #9
    J D Sivyer
    Guest

    Blooded vs Unblooded/Mages vs M

    gandalf wrote:

    > I may be getting this wrong, but isn't this the actual, 'official'
    > case?
    > As for blooded character becoming just magicians, I think there have
    > been
    > such cases, explained through
    > 'he was a promising student, but the burden of his nation was upon him
    >
    > before he managed to complete his studies as a wizard, and thus he was
    > never
    > able to master the more powerful magic'.
    > I think this is the case of some regent in (ummmmmm...) i think the
    > Khinasi
    > Lands. I am not certain who it is though... I'll look it up and tell
    > you.

    I know there are a few cases of blooded humans becoming magicians, as
    there is one in the Book of Magecraft, but...even if they were a
    "promising student", what stops them from completing their studies later
    on? When you start your studies you do not learn how to manage higher
    level spells, but learn that as you go along.

    Personally, I prefer my ruling that blooded characters do not becoming
    magicians, that only unblooded characters do - it fits in better to the
    world, I think.

    Regards.

  10. #10
    Gary V. Foss
    Guest

    Blooded vs Unblooded/Mages vs M

    As long as someone is talking about blooded and unblooded magicians/mages there
    is an issue I've been meaning to bounce off some people for quite some time. To
    wit:

    No unblooded character (or elf-blooded) can cast spells above 2nd level in any
    school other than Illusion or Divination, right? Why should this exclude
    specialist Illusionists and Diviners? Provided, of course, that they still
    abide by the rule that prevents them from casting "true" magic, I can't see any
    reason for non-blooded Illusionists and Diviners to exist in a Birthright
    campaign. In fact, they could have pretty much the same skills/abilities as
    Magicians.

    Why would anyone choose to be an Illusionist when s/he could be a Magician you
    might ask? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, Magicians are required
    to have a Wisdom of 14+. Depending on what method of rolling up characters you
    choose, a character with a high Intelligence score could still be prevented from
    becoming a Magician because of a low Wisdom score. Second, in the case of dual
    class characters (which seems to be causing so much grief amongts BR
    afficionados) an unblooded character looking to switch to the Magician class
    would be required to have 17's in both Intelligence and Wisdom. This might not
    always be possible. Of course, a character looking to become an Illusionist
    would have to have 17's in both Intelligence and Dexterity, but the point is
    that the option should be open to players.

    Anyone have any thoughts along these lines?


    > >Question:
    > >
    > >Blooded humans can be either Magicians or Wizards, as per Book of
    > >Magecraft. Why would a blooded human wish to become a Magician? And
    > >what stops him from becoming a Wizard later on? I'm toying with the
    > >house rule that only blooded humans (and elves, of course) can become
    > >Wizards, while unblooded characters can only become Magicians. Makes
    > >being a Mage all that more special, I think, and explains why an
    > >unblooded character can never wield True Magic.
    >
    > I may be getting this wrong, but isn't this the actual, 'official' case?
    > As for blooded character becoming just magicians, I think there have been
    > such cases, explained through
    > 'he was a promising student, but the burden of his nation was upon him
    > before he managed to complete his studies as a wizard, and thus he was never
    > able to master the more powerful magic'.
    > I think this is the case of some regent in (ummmmmm...) i think the Khinasi
    > Lands. I am not certain who it is though... I'll look it up and tell you.
    >
    > Gandalf
    >
    > ************************************************** *************************
    > >

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Unblooded
    By Sorontar in forum Main
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 08-14-2009, 05:27 AM
  2. Unblooded Regents
    By Magian in forum The Royal Library
    Replies: 39
    Last Post: 07-29-2002, 02:51 PM
  3. Unblooded regents: what about mages
    By Guest in forum MPGN Mailinglist archive 1996-1999
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 03-04-1998, 11:22 PM
  4. Unblooded Regents
    By Morten Helles in forum MPGN Mailinglist archive 1996-1999
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 09-28-1997, 11:41 PM
  5. Unblooded Regents
    By Darkstar in forum MPGN Mailinglist archive 1996-1999
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 09-27-1997, 07:24 AM

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
BIRTHRIGHT, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, the BIRTHRIGHT logo, and the D&D logo are trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used by permission. ©2002-2010 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.