Author Topic: Spellsong Index & General Discussion  (Read 18071 times)

Offline Stratovarius

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Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« on: July 15, 2014, 02:55:37 PM »
Spellsong
Spellsong is the newest of the magics that have slowly spread their influence over the world of Arhosa since the first interventions of Lledrith. Created by Fasnachu as a last-ditch response to the war between Lledrith and Drancedigaeth, it combines her love of the arts and creative practice with a recognition that unless it was able to compete on an equal footing with arcanists, ritualists, runecarvers, and others, it would never be viewed as a legitimate art, and would die a stillborn death. Thus, she imbued it with as much of her talents as she could dare afford. It is the very creation of spellsong that is responsible for the loss of so much luck and trade in the rest of the world, although it is all but certain that that loss would have occurred anyway, torn asunder by the war of the gods.

Spellsong is a skill-based magic system that is focused on direct damage and save or suck effects, using the result of a DC check to determine every aspect of the system through an effect multiplier setup.

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« Last Edit: March 13, 2020, 07:41:17 AM by Stratovarius »

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2014, 07:17:38 AM »
Looking at the material already available for the Spellsinger, what needs to be created next?

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #2 on: August 28, 2014, 03:58:32 PM »
Changed the DC to 20, and added about 15 new spellsongs, as well as mapping out all the rest that need to be created.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #3 on: August 29, 2014, 08:50:55 AM »
Question - should Spellsongs that deal damage allow a reflex save to cut the damage in half? Right now they don't.

Offline Gazzien

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #4 on: September 01, 2014, 11:51:44 PM »
I don't think so - at least, not as a general for-everything, or else Spellsingers ... or whatever the term is ... have a crippling weakness against anything with Evasion.

(Also Arx (class) needs to capitalize its crafting feats, and Chicken Lord makes potions with a leek instead of a leak, I'm pretty sure, but I didn't want to post in those threads because they're old)

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2014, 06:27:16 AM »
Right now, the direct damage songs are SR yes, but Save and RTA no. So they always do a fair amount of damage, and because the spellsinger can always pick which ones she wants, can almost always overcome any damage resistance. Hence the thought of needing a save.

And you can post in any threads, age around here doesn't mean very much. :P

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #6 on: September 04, 2014, 08:40:55 AM »
Finished the 18 skill points required level of Spellsongs. Only 5 more to go before the list is complete. I'm just not sure where to go from here.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #7 on: September 04, 2014, 08:58:59 AM »
And done. Spellsongs complete.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #8 on: September 05, 2014, 07:52:55 AM »
Added Chanwyr racial feats to the available list.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #9 on: May 26, 2015, 03:23:38 PM »
Added the Earthspeaker prestige class and the Voice of the Elements feat. It's a little dull at the moment, being a mostly numbers shifting class.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #10 on: September 01, 2015, 10:56:50 AM »
Previously, added in the Voice of Luck prestige class.

Just finished the Songpriest of Fasnachu and the associated Two Faced feat.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #11 on: October 16, 2015, 06:30:00 PM »
Trying to come up with a theme for the last of the prestige classes for Spellsinger and failing a little. I've done Trade/Arts (Artisan), Elements (Earthspeaker), Luck (Voice of Luck), and Religion (Songpriest of Fasnachu), which means the only aspect of Fasnachu's portfolio that isn't entirely covered is Deception, but I don't know how to turn that into a prestige class without walking all over the Thrallherd/Illusion/Shadow area that Spellsong doesn't cover.

And, unlike other systems, I can't make a "new to Spellsong" class, because anyone can enter by getting it as a class skill, so there's no way to design an accelerated class.

:banghead

Offline Gazzien

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #12 on: October 16, 2015, 07:45:10 PM »
Trying to come up with a theme for the last of the prestige classes for Spellsinger and failing a little. I've done Trade/Arts (Artisan), Elements (Earthspeaker), Luck (Voice of Luck), and Religion (Songpriest of Fasnachu), which means the only aspect of Fasnachu's portfolio that isn't entirely covered is Deception, but I don't know how to turn that into a prestige class without walking all over the Thrallherd/Illusion/Shadow area that Spellsong doesn't cover.

And, unlike other systems, I can't make a "new to Spellsong" class, because anyone can enter by getting it as a class skill, so there's no way to design an accelerated class.

:banghead
Perhaps some sort of beguiler-like Songpriest, that can hide their singing / make it quieter?

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #13 on: October 16, 2015, 08:46:02 PM »
Perhaps some sort of beguiler-like Songpriest, that can hide their singing / make it quieter?

It's an interesting idea, but it's much more relevant to a vancian caster - there's no way to counterspell a Spellsong, or even dispel one, so there's not much point to hiding the singing. Granted, that's mostly because it's an untouched mechanical area, but it still applies.

The kind of Warchanter-esque leader/face idea is covered much better by Gallants/Bardic classes... I could do something like a Siren class that emulates illusion spells, but that runs into my previous objection. Maybe something called a Songcrafter, that uses Spellsong to wrap up the notes of her music into little parcels that she can hand out to others to open later, be it as traps, gifts, etc. Guildmaster, a high level Spellsinger class somewhat equivalent to the Archmage or Hierophant classes.

Finally just had an idea I like (I've been playing around with a lot of ideas while writing this post) - Conductor, someone who draws luck out of allies in order to increase the power of her spellsongs. Or, conversely, takes away luck from herself to boost her allies. A little bit like those ancient MtG creatures that could transfer +1/+1 tokens all over the place at will.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #14 on: October 17, 2015, 08:23:00 AM »
Speculator is done. It's a fairly group focused luck/spellsong class. The capstone ability I can see being rather handy. And with that, Spellsong is more or less complete. I'm much less bothered about creating monsters and items, etc., these days.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #15 on: October 18, 2015, 03:25:28 PM »
For those looking for Spellsong, it's hopped over to its new home in Minor Magics, since the system is effectively complete, barring minor material changes.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #16 on: February 26, 2016, 04:22:32 PM »
Since you're about to ask, Nanshork, I'd just start at the top of the index and work your way down :D

Offline Nanshork

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #17 on: February 26, 2016, 05:17:28 PM »
Since you're about to ask, Nanshork, I'd just start at the top of the index and work your way down :D

 :P

I'm going to assume that the skill has been worked on enough and move on.

Spellsinger!

I didn't realize the class had a luck feat base, it's nice to see those rules used somewhere.

Again, the curses could use some smoothing over.  They aren't any big offenders in here, but for example:

Stumbling Curse and Crippling Anguish are super close except Crippling Anguish doesn't say staggered.
Strip Protections is pretty damn powerful.
As is Attraction.
And with Hex of Fasnachu who needs Creation's Hex?


Everything else seems to look okay.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #18 on: February 26, 2016, 06:17:34 PM »
Fasnachu being the setting's God of Luck (among other things), I figured that this was a good place to have luck play an important role. So a couple of the PrCs as well are very luck focused, although the actual spellsongs are much less so. This is because the inspiration for the system (there's a book series called the Spellsong Cycle) tends to lean towards what D&D would call the conjuration/evocation end of things, as opposed to the abjuration/enchantment end where luck normally resides. And I wrote the spellsongs first.

As for the curses, here's the changes:
Creation's Hex: The affected target must make a Will save or suffer a -4 luck penalty on attack rolls, armour class, saving throws, ability checks, and skill checks.
Crippling Anguish: The affected target must make a fortitude save or become inflicted with wracking pain that deals one point of constitution and dexterity damage a round.

Other thoughts:
Strip protections is either quite powerful, or completely useless. Stripping protections from a lot of the big Outsiders and Elementals does absolutely nothing. But it can put a hurting on any villain who relies on magical items for protection. Poor bastards should have picked better class features :P
Attraction is a direct port of the Necromantic/Diablo II curse Attract. Mostly, though, it just forces the target to run away, because anyone who can bail out quickly can avoid the curse's impact. It's also a level 17 ability.
Remember that Curse of Fasnachu is basically the capstone of the class (it's level 19), while Creation's Hex is level 1. Hence the differing power level.

And some day I want to work out what the maximum damage a Thunderous Finale can do. It's not exactly infinite loop levels, but it should paste a whole pack of Hecas in one action.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: Spellsong Index & General Discussion
« Reply #19 on: February 26, 2016, 06:24:34 PM »
Creation's Hex and Crippling Anguish now have niches, I like that.

Yeah, I do realize that Strip Protections is an all or nothing gambit depending on the enemy, but you get my point. :P

Ahh, I didn't look at the table so assumed it was another of your "pick something from this list" things.  Creation's Hex might not need that change then.

I didn't want to do damage calculations on a capstone. :P