Author Topic: Chapter 2 - Spirit Magic (start here)  (Read 2132 times)

Offline TheGeometer

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Chapter 2 - Spirit Magic (start here)
« on: August 05, 2014, 01:32:00 PM »
Spirit Magic


Spirits are mysterious beings. Some believe them to be gods from another world, separated from our own by an abstract veil. They hold tremendous divine power, including the ability to grant divine spells, but their influence in our world is so limited that they may each only interact with it through a single chosen acolyte. As their bond with the acolyte deepens and they lend increasing amounts of power, their reach extends closer and closer to our reality. The ultimate goal of these spirits is to pass into our world, using their acolyte as a conduit. Though some spirits are kind and good, scholars of the spirits warn unconditionally against allowing this to happen. For surely, these beings were confined beyond the veil for a reason...

Spirit magic is based on risk versus reward. Each time an acolyte requests a spell from her spirit, the spirit has a chance of inflicting a harmful effect on them. The acolyte can request more powerful spells - more powerful even than a Cleric of her level could cast - but this increases the chance of the spirit harming them. Mastery of spirit magic requires optimizing your magical output while minimizing the danger from your spirit.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2021, 09:22:13 AM by TheGeometer »

Offline TheGeometer

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The Spirit Contract
« Reply #1 on: August 10, 2014, 11:29:03 AM »
The Spirit Contract

When a character takes her first level in a spirit magic class, she enters into a contract with a spirit. Once chosen, the spirit cannot be changed. From that moment on, the spirit is bound to that character, and cannot bind to any other (no two creatures may serve the same spirit). The connection between a spirit and spirit caster, or Acolyte, can be thought of as a more powerful version of the pact that Binders make with their vestiges (see Tome of Magic for details), or a more personal version of the relationship between a Cleric and her deity. Some Acolytes worship their spirits and want to help them enter this reality, blot out its imperfections and cleanse the unworthy, while others see the spirits as a means to an end, an easier route to magical power than years of religious devotion or arcane studies. Either way, spirits generally take offense to their Acolyte worshiping another deity, so most Acolytes do not. An Acolyte may only choose a spirit whose alignment is within one step of her own.

The contract's terms are very simple. The spirit grants the Acolyte divine spells upon request. In return, the Acolyte agrees to work toward the spirit's general goals, carrying out their will on this plane of existence. As the Acolyte gains levels, the spirit's ability to influence reality expands, and she is able to offer higher-level spells. The table below indicates the main level of spells granted at each level. An Acolyte can cast spells of this level or lower without reducing his spirit's favor (see Favor, Blessings and Maledictions below):

(click to show/hide)

Acolyte spells are identical in all respects to spells of the same name cast by divine casters, including required components and casting times. The Acolyte has a caster level equal to her class level, and prestige classes can advance it as normal if they advance divine casting. Unlike most divine casters, Acolytes cast spontaneously, with no need to prepare spells ahead of time. They know all spells on their spell list, like a Warmage or Beguiler. They can also apply metamagic feats, if any, to their spells, modifying the level of the spell appropriately. This does not increase the casting time like it does for spontaneous arcane casters. The spell list for Acolytes is given by their base list, which includes between 7 and 12 divine spells of each level, plus an additional set of 2 spells of each level which are unique to their specific spirit.

Since Acolytes have access to the full, undivided power of a godlike being, they can request far more spells per day than a Cleric can. The only restriction is that for every 10 spells the Acolyte casts within any given hour-long span, the spirit, annoyed at the frequency of requests, gives them a disfavor token (see Tokens of Favor below). An Acolyte with 3 disfavor tokens cannot request any more spells. The only reliable way to remove a token is to pray to or praise the spirit once per day at dawn, so casting too many spells in quick succession can render an Acolyte useless for the remainder of the day.

The Acolyte's most powerful ability is to be able to request spells up to 2 levels above her main spell level (even if her caster level is too low to normally be able to cast them). Such a request requires more effort on the spirit's part, and makes their attitude toward the Acolyte less favorable. Thus, a 1st-level Spirit Acolyte, normally only capable of casting 0th-level spells, can cast up to a 2nd-level spell in this way. However, doing so risks a severe punishment from her spirit, as we will now discuss.


Favor, Blessings and Maledictions

An Acolyte can request a spell in one of two ways. When casting a spell of her main level or lower, she may spend 2 full rounds casting it (or more, if the spell's casting time is usually longer). If she does so, known as slow-casting, the spirit has ample time to generate the necessary divine energy, and will be able to reliably meet the Acolyte's request. The spell is cast normally other than the increased casting time. Effects that change casting time, such as the feat Quicken Spell, cannot be used on slow-cast spells.

If an Acolyte wishes to cast a spell more quickly, using its regular casting time, she must deal with her spirit's reaction. Spirits are mercurial and unknowable; even when they appear to be pleased, they can unpredictably decide to inflict harmful maledictions on their Acolytes in response to such a request. There is also a chance of a better-than-expected outcome, too, with the spirit electing to bestow a blessing on their Acolyte, seemingly for no reason.

Mechanically, this functions as follows. Before casting a spell, roll the decision die (a 1d10), given below:

1d10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Additional Effect
Harsh Malediction
Malediction
Malediction
No Effect
No Effect
No Effect
No Effect
No Effect
Blessing
Blessing

If "No Effect" is rolled, the spell is cast normally. If, however, a blessing, malediction, or harsh malediction is rolled (these effects are collectively called edicts), you must then roll to determine which specific edict occurs. Each type of edict has its own table that corresponds to the possible roll of the edict die (another 1d10). Once the edict has been determined, it takes effect, and then the spell is cast as normal (the edict may affect the spell).

This process is modified if your spirit has a favorable or unfavorable stance toward you at that moment, as indicated by a value called favor. At any given time, this value can be between -3 and +3, inclusive. At the end of each round, the spirit's favor, if positive or negative, takes 1 step closer to 0. Thus, combat almost always begins with the spirit's favor at 0. If your spirit's favor is 0, the decision die is rolled normally before each spell. However, if your favor is -1, -2, or -3, the decision die is rolled twice, 3 times, or 4 times, respectively, and the lowest of the rolled values is taken. Similarly, if your favor is +1, +2, or +3, the decision die is rolled 2, 3, or 4 times, respectively, and the highest of the rolled values is taken. This means that if your spirit's favor is low, you are more likely to receive a harmful malediction, and when it's high, you are more likely to receive no ill effect or even a blessing.

The Acolyte can cast a spell 1 level above her main spell level by taking -1 to her spirit's favor or a spell 2 levels above her main spell level by taking -2 to her spirit's favor. Likewise, if she casts a spell 1 level below her main spell level, her spirit gains +1 favor, and if she casts a spell 2 or more levels below her main level, her spirit gains +2. Such gains in favor (but not losses) occur only if the spell has a casting time of a standard action or longer and are cast during a combat situation; otherwise, any spell below the main level has no effect on favor. These changes to favor occur before the decision die is rolled.

Below is an example of an Acolyte requesting and casting a spell:

(click to show/hide)


Tokens of Favor

Spirits reward their Acolytes for acting in ways aligned with the spirit's nature or goals. They do this through favor tokens. Any time an Acolyte acts in a way that the spirit approves of (as noted in the spirit's entry), it bestows a favor token, which is not a physical token, but rather an owed quantity of favor that can be redeemed at any point in the future. Spending a favor token is a free action and immediately increases the spirit's favor by 1 (up to a maximum favor of +3). These work at any time, not just in combat like other gains in favor do. Any number of favor tokens can be spent just before a decision die roll, for example. The Acolyte can have up to 3 favor tokens at any given time.

Each day at dawn, the Acolyte can receive 1 (and only 1) favor token by praying to or praising her spirit for 1 minute. However, other favor tokens are not so easily earned. Favor tokens are in general a role-playing reward, or a reward for taking actions that follow the spirit (pun intended) of the patron spirit's goals. For instance, the spirit Balagaan the Unmaker revels in destruction, and will reward his Acolyte for breaking objects, especially at large scales or during combat. However, implicit in this statement is that the Acolyte cannot, for example, drop a glass as a free action in order to break it and earn a favor token. Rather, the spirit desires novel, relevant forms of destruction. Reaching 3 favor tokens should be a rare occurrence, and if a player finds simple ways to earn favor tokens, the spirit will quickly become bored of these methods and cease awarding tokens for them.

Note that likewise, spirits care about intention whenever they award favor in combat for casting a spell below the main spell level. Thus, it is pointless to seek out weak encounters in order to cast low-level spells in them and raise the spirit's favor (in order to then cast a longer-duration effect without risk of an ongoing malediction, for instance), or to deliberately drag out a fight in order to raise favor and then cast long-duration spells. In such cases, the spirits will simply not change their favor in response to the low-level spellcasting.

Similarly to favor tokens, Acolytes may rarely be given disfavor tokens for committing acts that are antithetical to the spirit's nature (a disfavor token is also given for casting too many spells too quickly, as mentioned above. Whenever the Acolyte casts her 10th spell in a 1-hour span, she is given a disfavor token. Another token is bestowed on the 20th spell, the 30th, and so on). The Acolyte cannot have more than 3 disfavor tokens at a time; if she has 3, her spirit refuses all spell requests. The Acolyte can spend a favor token as a free action at any time to remove a disfavor token.

Disfavor tokens are particularly harmful to the Acolyte in combat. If the Acolyte has disfavor tokens, her spirit (controlled by the DM) chooses moments to spend them that would be as disadvantageous to the Acolyte as possible. Spending a disfavor token reduces the spirit's favor by 1 (down to a minimum favor of -3). In this way, as long as the Acolyte has unresolved disfavor tokens, she can be inflicted with maledictions when she can least afford it.


Multiclassing and Prerequisites

Spirit magic classes can be treated as divine spellcasting classes for most purposes. They can multiclass with other divine classes, provided these do not require worshiping a deity other than the spirit. For the purpose of prerequisites, such as for feats and prestige classes, spirit magic classes may count spells they can cast that cost 1 favor, but not 2. For example, Mystic Theurge, which requires the ability to cast 2nd-level divine spells, can be entered with 2 levels of Spirit Acolyte (in addition to levels of an arcane class), because at level 2, the Acolyte's main spell level becomes 1st, so she can spend 1 favor to cast 2nd-level spells. Spell lists in spirit magic do not count for the purpose of effects that reference other classes' spell lists, such as the Artificer's ability to create magic items.

Spirit magic is a commitment in ways that other classes are not. If the bound spirit does not believe you are invested in it, it will cease cooperating with you. For this reason, after you take your first level of a spirit magic class, you may not take levels in any other class until after your class level (or your class level plus progressed levels from a prestige class) is at least 3. If you take a level in another class before that point, your spirit abandons you and you lose all benefits and features associated with the spirit magic class. The only way to reverse this is to cast an Atonement spell and then attempt to contact the spirit again (the spells Interplanar Message or Sending are sufficient for this purpose). There is only a 50% chance they will agree to another contract; refusal requires another Atonement and a repetition of this process.
« Last Edit: August 30, 2021, 01:05:24 PM by TheGeometer »