Magic: Force College

Magic: Force College

There are many “force” spells in the colleges of Movement and Protection & Warning, but some iconic wizardly spells, like Magic Missile, do not really fit these colleges, so I have decided to make a new one.

Magic: Time College

Magic: Time College

Time manipulation spells belong to the Gate College in GURPS Magic, but their selection is quite limited, and most of them can influence the game significantly. I have decided to look through the book again and create a Time College from existing spells and make some new ones (mostly converted from AD&D Chronomancer).

Magic: Truename Magic

Magic: Truename Magic

I've already covered the truename magic conversion to Sorcery, but it always felt that studying true names of things should be skill-based. I can imagine academies where scholars study huge tomes of true names and practice the pronunciation. I figured that if you know a true name for the word "body", for example, then you would be able to affect the bodies in different ways, and for this I think Ritual Magic works the best.

Magic: Divine Domains, Part 2

Magic: Divine Domains, Part 2

As I'm preparing for a fantasy game, I have been thinking about differences between arcane and divine spellcasters. To differentiate them, I decided that the arcane spellcasters will use the standard college-based system, while the divine spellcasters use ritual magic with colleges replaced with domains. Clerics get access to domains depending on their patron deities. Some of the spells within the domains have been moved to make them harder or easier to cast (for example, I wanted to make deadly spells from GURPS Magic - Death Spells more difficult to cast).

Here are the domains of Metal, Nobility, Plant, Protection, Repose, Rune, Scalykind, Strength, Sun, Travel, Trickery, Void, War, Water, and Weather.

Magic: Divine Domains, Part 1

Magic: Divine Domains, Part 1

As I'm preparing for a fantasy game, I have been thinking about differences between arcane and divine spellcasters. To differentiate them, I decided that the arcane spellcasters will use the standard college-based system, while the divine spellcasters use ritual magic with colleges replaced with domains. Clerics get access to domains depending on their patron deities. Some of the spells within the domains have been moved to make them harder or easier to cast (for example, I wanted to make deadly spells from GURPS Magic - Death Spells more difficult to cast).

Here are the domains of Air, Animal, Artifice, Chaos, Charm, Community, Darkness, Death, Destruction, Earth, Enchantment, Evil, Fire, Fungus, Glory, Good, Healing, Knowledge, Law, Liberation, Luck, Madness, and Magic.

Magic: Gravity College

Magic: Gravity College

Gravity manipulation is barely covered in GURPS Magic, so I decided make a new Gravity college with some appropriate spells from the Movement college. Gravity mages may be very useful in settings with space travel, but in other settings usefulness of this college is determined by the popularity of the college, because the spells manipulate gravitational anomalies that can only me created by other gravity mages. This is my first serious attempt at creating new Magic spells, using existing spells as the guidelines, as well as the guidelines in Magic, so I'm not sure if I did a good job.

Magic: Shadow Magic and Incarnum Update

Magic: Shadow Magic and Incarnum Update

A few days ago I noticed a glaring mistake in my incarnum conversion - you can freely switch soulmelds on a particular chakra. Now I've edited the post, corrected the mistake, making switching the soulmelds on and off take 1 minute, and fixed some minor mistakes and miscalculations.

I've already covered the shadow magic conversion to Sorcery, but what if you wanted to give the shadowcasters more of a scholarly feel, using spells as skills, like in GURPS Magic? Here's my attempt.

Magic: Ritual Magic Paths, Part 2

Magic: Ritual Magic Paths, Part 2

And here is the second half of the paths. Strangely, this website doesn't let me do it all in one post. Perhaps there's a character limit?

Magic: Ritual Magic Paths, Part 1

Magic: Ritual Magic Paths, Part 1

Ritual Magic is presented in GURPS Magic and expanded upon in GURPS Thaumatology. Basically, each college is a separate skill that defaults to the core Ritual Magic skill, and every spell is a technique that defaults to its college skill with a penalty equal to the spell's prerequisite count. This may sound confusing, especially if you are aware of all the other magic systems. Ritual magic, ritual path magic, path/book magic, oh boy! Ritual magic looks like a nice concept, especially if you want to differentiate two magical traditions while keeping the mechanics almost identical. This way you can have scholarly wizards who study spells normally and clerics that use ritual magic representing their more general and less "scientific" grasp of magical powers. It feels like some prerequisite counts should be deliberately altered to prevent ritual mages from abusing their powers, so this system might need some fine tuning. I wish it got some more attention from the writers. If you're used to Dungeons and Dragons, I feel that you can represent clerical magic using ritual magic very well, making each divine domain a separate path.