Dungeons & Delvers: Magic With Flavor

Spurred by this thread on The RPG Site, comments that continue to trickle in on this blog post, and my recent interview with DM Bluddworth where someone asked something about bards I think, here's an in-depth look at how magic works in Dungeons & Delvers.

First off, there aren't any spell levels or leveled-slots. Instead what you can do is limited by a combination of your class level and spellcasting resource, and sometimes by your talent choices.

Every class has a point-based spellcasting resource (for now). I know some people for some reason detest the idea of a Magic Point system, but after a year or so of design and playtesting, exploring plenty of options (including an actual Vancian magic system) it just made the most sense from an "in-game" perspective.

The amount of points you get varies by class: at a per-level rate clerics get 1 Favor, bards 2 Rhythm, wizards 4 Willpower, and sorcerers 6 Mana. This is because the "spell" cost and recovery rate can vary, plus some classes have other options and abilities that help more or less "balance" it all out (such as wizards getting lots of Bonus Talents to pick up new spells).

Each "spell" talent costs points to use, but you can often spend more to enhance it in various ways: increased damage, area of effect, duration, range, or even causing it to do something completely different. This is why levels aren't really needed: your points and the cost can make it impossible to use a talent that you've chosen, at least at the potency that you might expect it to start out with in Dungeons & Dragons.

Take Fireball for example. Normally this is a 3rd-level spell, so in Dungeons & Dragons you'd need to wait until 5th-level to get it; it's got a starting range of 600 feet, and inflicts a baseline 5d6 fire damage to a 20-foot radius.

In Dungeons & Delvers you can get Fireball at 1st-level, though its range is only 50 feet, its blast radius is only 10-feet, and it only inflicts 3d6 fire damage (with some Burning damage on a failed save). Its base Drain is 1d6, so at 4 Willpower + your Intelligence you're likely to burn through most if not all your points right out of the gate.

And if you want to enhance it to 3rd Edition levels? That'll run you a whopping 4d6 Drain: +2d6 to up the damage to 5d6, and another 1d6 to up the radius to 20-feet. Here's the Fireball spell right out of the book so you can get an idea of what it all looks like:

While you could enhance the range and area of effect, you couldn't up the damage as it's capped by your level. Note that base damage isn't limited in this fashion, so a 1d6 Drain Fireball will still inflict 3d6 damage, even at 1st-level.

This also helps ensure that "starting spells" (ie, those with no prerequisites) are useful at higher levels. Burning Hands isn't normally terribly useful after a few levels (capping at 5d4 damage in 3rd Edition), but in Dungeons & Delvers? You can soup it up as needed, increasing not only the damage, but even the area of effect.

There's also a kind of "soft" level requirement, in that many spells have prerequisites. Checking Fireball above, you need to have the Evoker talent (grants access to Evocation magic), then you need to take Burning Hands and Scorching Ray. A human wizard can pull this off right away, but everyone else would need to wait until at least 2nd-level. Up to you if you want to hyper specialize in fire magic.

All that serves as the general foundation of how magic works from a purely mechanical sense in Dungeons & Delvers. Let's get into class specifics.

BARDS

Bards have Rhythm points equal to their level + Charisma (Dungeons & Delvers uses modifiers only, so this typically only adds one or so points, not, say, 10 or more).

Using their songs to create spells is far more taxing than simply making mundane music, and the expenditure of Rhythm represents strain on the bard's voice and hands (assuming they use an instrument).

They get it all back during a Short Rest (which are capped at three per day, and take increasingly longer each time), but many bard spells have what is essentially a "ritual" casting option, allowing the bard to slowly build up to a magical effect over time without exerting themselves, thereby allowing them to conserve Rhythm.

Obviously bards must sing or play an instrument to use their magic: if you can't make noise you aren't casting any spells. Singing lets you use your hands for something else (or use your magic when you can't move your hands), but an instrument is needed to benefit from your Song Bonus (scaling bonus to damage and saving throw DCs), and many spells gain additional effects with a musical instrument.

For example, Feel the Music makes illusions you create with See the Music solid. Such illusions are destroyed if they suffer any damage, and have an AC equal to 10 + your Charisma. But, if you're using an instrument they add your Song Bonus to AC, saves, and also gain it as DR, making them much more durable.

One last thing: while bard magic is predictable and safe in that you know the "spell point" cost and cannot accidentally hurt yourself, there is a talent called Blood, Sweat, and Tears, which lets you suffer Wound Point damage to gain Rhythm, which must be used immediately.

Note: For 2nd Edition, I am looking into the possibility of making bards into more of a "ritual" caster. As in, give them essentially unlimited magic, but it takes awhile to build up to. Also smaller effects, like a kind of battle song that gives a constant +1 to damage, and a +1 to hit if using an instrument.

Currently Melissa is playtesting a healing bard without the ability to quickly heal the party using Rhythm. Instead all of her abilities function as part of a Short Rest, healing WP and extra VP, and piling on temporary VP on top of it all. Problem is none of it costs Rhythm, so she has the points but nothing to do with it.

Something I just considered: Perform check. Do it every round, and the result determines the potency. So, you start playing Slaying Song during combat, you make a Perform check to see if it even works. Say the DC starts at 15 for a +1 bonus to damage for that turn, but a 20 is +2 damage, 25 is +3 damage, etc.

This wouldn't be for everything, mind you: wouldn't want a bard with infinite healing. Instead I could see a DR and/or Defense booster, which might cause issues with a cleric with the Hymn of Protection. Could also just have some bard Songs cause damage as well. Or inflict damage if you don't wait for a period of time before doing it again.

CLERICS & DRUIDS

Both of these guys use a Favor mechanic, which operates the same way: your Favor is equal to your level + WIS, and once per day you can pray to your god(s) to get it all back for free.

Favor is used to call upon Miracles, which requires you to speak/chant/pray, so as with bards if you can't talk you can't call upon your god for aid. The class has a Divine Bonus (scaling bonus to various parameters), but it only kicks in if you're presenting your holy symbol. So, like the bard you can do without it, but your Miracles won't be as effective.

A cleric's Miracles are restricted by which Domains he has access to (ie, Fire Domain, Healing Domain, etc), which requires spending talents. In this way it doesn't really matter how many Domains your god has: if you don't spend the talent to pick it up, you can't use it.

Druids are instead restricted by Circles (ie, Circle of Stone and Circle of the Sun), as well as an extensive Skinchanger and Animal Companion group. Should note that they're all optional, so if you don't care about changing your shape or having a pet, you don't need to.

Both classes can regain Favor by offering up sacrifices, at later levels can temporarily gain access to Miracles they don't normally have, and clerics can potentially get an advance on Favor by making an ability check.

SORCERER

Sorcerers use a Mana resource, and at 6 points per level (modified by CHA) have quite a bit to play with. They're also a bit tougher than wizards, which is good because they can actually hurt and kill themselves by casting too many spells.

The cost of a sorcerer's spells are largely randomized (like wizard spells, as indicated earlier with the Fireball example), making their magic a bit unpredictable: whenever you want to cast a spell you roll the cost (referred to as Drain) and deduct it from your Mana.

If you don't have enough Mana it is then removed from Vitality Points. If you don't have enough VP it then starts eating away at your Wound Points, and if that's still not enough you fall unconscious and start dying as normal.

The upside is that with each Short Rest you gain 1 point per level back, and sorcerers generally don't need to speak to use their powers, and only sometimes need to move.

The downside is that sorcerers are very limited in what they can do by their bloodline, which gives them some passive abilities but also determines all of their starting talents. For example, a dragon sorcerer has fire resistance, and starts with the ability to grow claws, breath fire, and smell magic.

Some of these don't use up any Mana at all, but when it comes to choosing new abilities you can only do what a dragon can: growing wings and flying around? Sure, but you can't teleport, charm creatures, create illusions, or transform objects.

Sorcerers also gain new abilities fairly slowly, at a rate of one per level, and currently have no reliable method to swap out or even temporarily gain access to new powers, though this will change in 2nd Edition: similar to how monks and wizards can buy and create focuses to gain access to various abilities, sorcerers will have something similar, but it'll still be throttled by bloodline.

So, your dragon sorcerer could make a dragonscale cloak, granting access to the Hardened Scales and Fiery Shroud talents, but wouldn't be able to don blackice gauntlets to gain access to the frost giant bloodline's Crushing Fists and Giant Strength talents.

WARLOCK

The warlock is fairly similar to the cleric. They use Eldritch Power, which is equal to their level + CHA. Eldritch Power is a reservoir of magical energy that you possess as part of the pact you forge with your patron, and mechanically functions like the cleric and druid's Favor: you know precisely how much magical power you have at any given time, as well as what your spells will cost.

Also like clerics and druids, the warlock's power is on loan from a patron. The main difference is that you'll be in regular communication with your patron, and will likely need to perform various services to keep them happy. Otherwise you can lose your magic.

Unlike clerics and druids you don't need any particular focus to gain your scaling bonus to magic, nor do you need to speak, but you might need to move to direct your magic. 

The type of pact (infernal, star, or winter court) gives you some passive bonuses, determines which spells you can choose (similar to the sorcerer), and also how you transform over time. For example, infernal pact warlocks might grow horns or scales, while star pact warlocks can grow tentacles and eyes.

2nd Edition

Considering rolling this back to 3rd Edition, where you get very few spells, but it's all at-will. Might even go with a kind of Willpower/Mana mechanic, where you spend WP/VP to cast spells, the idea being that your patron just gives you the magic, but it's up to you to cast it. Or, at the least, let you suffer WP damage to gain temporary Eldritch Power.

In this regard it would end up being similar to the witch class we're working on (which makes sense given the term's origins), though for that I also want to give a lot of "ritual" magic options.

WIZARD

A wizard's Willpower resource is identical to the sorcerer's Mana, they just get less (only 4 per level as opposed to 6) and aren't as tough. Still mostly random, and still eats into your WP and VP if you push yourself too hard.

The difference is sheer flexibility: wizards start with more spells, get to choose them all, gain them far more quickly (Bonus Talent pretty much every other level), and can craft focuses that give them access to more. 

Scrolls and spellbooks are another option: anyone can learn and cast from a scroll or spellbook (which are not destroyed when used in this manner), but wizards can do so more quickly, and with less risk given that using scrolls and spellbooks without meeting the spell's prerequisites maxes out the Drain cost (which also determines the casting time in rounds).

This also means that you don't need to use a talent to "master" spells that you don't think you'll use very much. While you can master Teleport and cast it almost instantly, if you don't think you'll need to very often, you can just keep a Teleport scroll on hand and use that when you need it. Hell, teach it to the entire party, so everyone can use it in a pinch.

The drawback is that wizards need to speak and use gestures, and also need some sort of focus (such as a staff or wand) to gain their Magic Bonus. Though, as mentioned above, your focus can also grant spells and other bonuses, assuming you spend the time and money to go for a masterwork version. Something to do with your downtime and cash.