Hello there!
Any advice to how to create magic and monsters? Im decided to make a westmarches stile campaign and use Dragonbane for my games as engine.
Now i see lack of spells and monsters. Maybe you have some advice to how create it?
No, I didn’t looked at the bestiary. Doesn’t found it in digital and physical book isn’t available for buying for me.yes, but also have you looked at the bestiary that was released? it has a LOT that one can crib from and rearrange.
HI!yes, but also have you looked at the bestiary that was released? it has a LOT that one can crib from and rearrange.
I been trying to tinker with creating a school of magic, so here is some input i could give. Now it should be noted that a book of magic is in the works (But it will likely not be released in a good while), so consider this a baseline.
Amount of spells: A school of magic will generally consist of 3-5 tricks, 5 Rank 1 spells, 5 Rank 2 Spells, and usually 3 rank 3 spells. This is not a "hard" rule (elementalism has 5 rank 1 spells, 5 rank 2 spells and 6 rank 5 spells), but you can consider 3-5 tricks and a rough total of 13 proper spells the amount a school should have.
Spell Ranks: Spells of rank 2 need to have a prerequisite that you must know a relevant rank 1 spell. Rank 3 spells should have a prerequisite that you know a relevant rank 2 spell, but this is also not a "hard" rule (Fly, a mentalism rank 3 spells only require the player to know the rank 1 spell Levitate, likewise with Teleport and Farsight). However, consider how often you would want a rank to be "skipped", sense you might give players access to something powerful faster (or at least, the GM will need to decide how early they can get that spell).
There is also rank 4 and 5 spells. These are often very powerful. Currently, only General Magic has Rank 4 and 5 spells, but used together, they can create magic items, which can give non-magic users very powerful options. There is nothing that stops you from adding a 4th and 5th rank if you wish to your school, (and it is possible the book of magic may add these to existing schools), but if so, consider what kind of spell that would be.
Requirements: Each spell needs at least one, preferably more requirements to be cast. The usual option is gesture and word, but spells that requires a focus can be neat. Spells that require ingredients (such as Protector) tends to punch above their weight sense they have a consumable requirement.
Tricks: Tricks are very basic spells, so the effects should be fairly simple. They can generally not deal any damage (If they can, it should be very low), but the effects can be pretty practical. A good way to look at it is that they can fufill similar role to gear and items, letting you potentially bypass certain inconveniences.
Attack Spells: Spells that can deal damage generally comes in two forms. A single target spell, or an aoe.
The single target spell usually counts as a ranged attack (but there are exceptions, such as Banish/Purge, or the "Lightning" spells from animaisem), and generally deals 2d6 at rank 1, 2d8 at rank 2 and 2d10 at rank 3, with the damage increasing by one die per power level. Usually there is some form of added effect to the spell (Fireball can put things on fire, and can at higher power levels hit more targets for example).
Aoe's start from the caster, and often takes either a cone, or a sphere (centered from the caster). These generally hits a little lower than a single target spell, but usually aside from damage have some additional effect such as knock back. Sphere spells tend to grow bigger in size with each Power Level, but cone's do not (but often compensate by having either stronger damage, or greater range).
Power Level: Most (but not all) spells usually have additional effects per power level the spell is cast from. Some examples are:
-The spell deals extra damage/effectiveness increases by one for each power level.
-The spell can target an additional target for each power level.
-The spell's range/duration/effect increases.
-If the spell requires the caster to make the casting roll to see if the spell works (such as resurrection), Casting it at Power level 1 gives you a bane to the roll, 2 you roll as normal, and at 3 you roll with a boon.
-If the spell requires the target to make a roll (usually against WIL) to try and resist the effect of your spell (such as Sleep), casting it at power level 1 gives them a boon, 2 they roll as normal, and at 3 they roll with a bane.
This is what i would pass on. But it is rather rough, so if others have some additional insights feel free to add in.