So with the new magic rules only mages get to cast magic

question

#1

Am I right in thinking that with the new magic rules that only mages do magic?? Making a lot of the other classes (priest scout etc) useless. Or is it only mages get access to higher level spells


#2

Not quite. Mage is not a class, so you can combine being a mage with an existing class. You may need to make some changes to the class but that’s it.


#3

I don’t quite understand so a blade or an archer for example can be a mage?? Because in the core a mage is a class the same as a blade priest etc. Just trying to Rap my head around it.


#4

A priest (or whatever) is also a wizard. All casters are wizards through and through just with different trappings.
You can do whatever you want in your game though, hack that shit. We are all about hacking and creating up in here friend!
All WIS and INT spells in CORE are effectively Lvl1 spells with the MAGIC rules


#5

What GMagnus means when he says “wizard” is “mage”. Anybody who casts spells and uses the rules from ICRPG MAGIC is simply called a mage. This is different from how magic is handled in ICRPG CORE.

So yes, while technically a blade or an archer can be a mage but remember that it is similar to multiclassing because when an archer gains a milestone, the player should either choose a MILESTONE LOOT or a SPELL from ICRPG MAGIC. This of course depends on how the GM runs the game.


#6

No. That is not accurate. In terms of casting, the new rules apply equally to INT-based and WIS-based characters. If you want to play a priest and cast any of the spells in the Magic Book, go for it.

Not the case at all. The best way to think of the Magic book is as an expansion of the Core rules. You always have the ability to use magic, even as another class. There aren’t any limitations like that. Although the Magic book does have guidelines on learning higher tier spells, there is nothing that says you have to follow those guidelines. If you want to have a Blade who can cast Time Warp, a Level IV Time spell, do it!


#7

In my campaign this run, Magic has been treated as rare, hidden and costly even before I got the MAGIC book, because I knew that was the flavor coming. So when Magic arrived, I treated it as the Even Rarer, Hidden-er, Costlier Big Brother, that didn’t like a mage serving two masters…

When I brought the new MAGIC rules in, my plan was to have it be a bit like a bunch of Raistlin’s taking a journey through a Jack Kirby/Dr. Strange flavored headtrip session the Tower of Testing and the job of the other characters to be their Caramons— dedicated to keeping them alive. The night it went down happened to be a weird no show night and of the two who showed, one was Lizardfolk Sorceror, the other a Brass Dragonborn Commander. Given the way Paths had been used in the campaign so far, the Commander was already very multi-class feeling anyway (And I had developed a custom Path the Lizardfolk by request for the other).

(Naturally) the Commander wanted some Magic of his own too and why not? So the two of them went through the tests as allies rather than mage and protector.

So how I handled the sudden I boarding of Magic rules was different for each of them, and then a third weirdness for the Tiefling Warlock a couple sessions later when he was able to make it.

The Testing was effectively a weird little scenario not much more than a TRIAL at most for each part of building a MAGIC character. Origin room, Destiny Room, etc. but all were in trippy headspace dimensions.

I let them roll during each stage of the Testing, with opportunity to override the roll based on success and what made a better story/happier PC. After one brutal failure, the Sorceror was told something was taken from her and she didn’t know what. (The paltry lesser magic spells she had been using) Later rooms she gained new stuff from char gen and so on.

The Commander ended up an Alchemist, which fit with his multiclass persona and so I let him keep his old magic spells, but he did not get any starter Loot or equipment from failures in those trials. Also, he was kind of forced him to trade his free-range Path Loot options (every other Milestone—class/path/class/path) for Commander/Alchemist/Commander/Alchemist.

When the Warlock finally showed, he had been on this storyline dealing with a barkskin bracer that he hadn’t quite figured out was a venom symbionts like thing. So I had a short side-session with him just to update his character to new rules and gave him all the choices and did not require him to lose his old magic, telling him that in true Warlock fashion, the cost, when it came would be high, but he should enjoy the greater and lesser Magics together while he can…) and when he started to realize the barkskin bracer was …problematic… he knew the true joy of playing a Warlock! :smiling_imp:

So I say all of that to say this: Handle it in the way that makes the most sense and fun for your players and your story.


#8

Thanks for the reply’s they really helped.


#9

Raistlin FTW, Screw Caramon, Also great post