Magician Spell List

[ryancaveney]

chuck all Divine caster classes (get rid of clerics and druids and use the non-spell variants for rangers and paladins. Also allow the shape shift ranger to compensate for the druid), then don't use the division between divine and arcane magic. The bard will be completely rewritten so it won't have any spell casting at all (making the bard what it should be, a bard that sings,tells stories and entertains. If the bard wants illusions he can take a few levels of wizard).

This is the approach I have long used myself. In fact, I go even further: IMC, rangers are fighter/rogues, and paladins, priests and bards are all some combination of fighter, rogue and magician or wizard; I also enthusiastically employ the "no more than half your levels in spellcasting classes" rule. I have utterly abandoned the arcane/divine distinction, but I have greatly reinforced the blooded/unblooded distinction, which I think makes my system an even better model of what I think Birthright represents. In my system, there is much more difference between a blooded priest and an unblooded one than between a blooded priest and a blooded wizard, which I think enhances the theme of the setting even more.

Blooded casters cast spontaneously; unblooded must memorize in advance. Blooded casters don't need material components for any spell; unblooded need them for every spell. Blooded casters determine bonus spells, max spell level castable and save DC from the higher of Int and Wis; unblooded casters determine them from the lower of Int and Wis minus two. Bloodline score divided by ten and rounded down gives an extra caster level of effect and point of save DC, as does every level of source the caster holds in the province. Regent wizards can also spend RP instead of xp any time they are required (by spell or for magic item creation); my feelings on best ratio vary, but I generally favor 1 RP to 100 xp.

The only classes left will be the magician, sorcerer and wizard. All three spell lists will be rebuild and the wizard will be rewritten so more specialization is possible (for example, able to drop the familiar or scribe scroll to use elemental channeling (turn/rebuke undead (negative/positive energy), fire-, water-, earth- or air energy) and able to specialize in a domain instead of a school).

In my model, blooded casters are capable of learning any spell at all (assuming I haven't banned it from the campaign), but unblooded casters can only learn those allowed to 2e wizards specializing in both divination and illusion: that is, only Divination, Enchantment, Illusion and Transmutation; Conjuration, Necromancy, Evocation and Abjuration are barred to them utterly. Blooded priests could learn the whole PHB, but they don't: each religion has a standard spellbook, which consists of those things they were allowed under 2e rules. Turning is also a spell, researchable by wizards if they desire, and taught by some religions; actually, it's three spells, because Turn Undead is Abjuration, Destroy Undead is Evocation, and Command Undead is Necromancy (so NO unblooded priests can learn any of them). All priests are taught all of those spells of their sect which they can learn, but all of the religious spellbooks were essentially set in stone centuries ago; only in temples of Ruornil, and to a lesser extent Avani, is any magical research conducted by priests -- in which case they do it exactly as wizards do. In fact, IMC, many wizards are descended (in a master-to-apprentice sense) from priests who left the temples of Ruornil a millenium ago in order to spread the study of magic for its own sake rather than as part of a religion.

Where do Sidhelien fit into this, you ask? IMC, the 3e PHB Druid class is precisely the Sidhelien racial class. Some of the powers are reordered; for example, in 2e BR, all Sidhelien had Trackless Step, so I moved it from Druid 3 to Druid 1, while moving Animal Companion to 3rd. They are not restricted to the druid spell list, but many of them mainly choose to cast things from it. This class is not open to any other race, including half-elves, though half-elves still count as blooded for spellcasting purposes (but they don't get additional bonuses to DC, etc. unless they have an actual bloodline of their own). Druid (or Sidhe, as I now call it) is also a spellcasting class, and I don't want all elves to be identical, so they can also take at most half their levels from it -- unless they are blooded, in which case they may be half-Druid and half-Wizard if they wish (like Laeddra and Siebharrin), but are not required to be (like Rhuandice Tuarlacheim).


Ryan