Spellcrafting explained - Elyse's Guide to Magic

hello I'm Brian saskin one of the lead designers on Draco Studio's new book Alisa's guide to Magic this is a book about spells and Magic so I'm here today to talk to you about one of the exciting new options we're designing spellcrafting spellcrafting is an optional spell system that lets you create a spell on the Fly combining effects and adjusting elements of the spell as you see fit it even allows for multiple characters even non-c casting characters to combine their effort to cast a spell as a group so how does it work well in general spellcrafting is a point-based modular spell creation system you now point-based systems like this have been done in the past editions but we're bringing something new and exciting to the concept since this system is actively being designed as we speak we can't reveal everything but I'm going to give you all a sneak peek spellcrafting uses the concept of vaa basically another word for magic and vaa exists in everything most living creatures access vaa through three vital aspects Dream Will and Source depending on your class and level you gain a number of vaa points you can spend to activate various abilities including spellcasting Additionally you have a moe of affinity to one of the three aspects basically it means you're more attuned to one of the three now Moes give you a discount on the cost of using various aspect abilities okay so let's give you an example let's say you're in battle against dangerous foe you're playing a fifth level fighter you have two Moes of source and nine vola points in your pool it's your turn and you can see that the bad guy is going to totally Maul your already wounded cleric companion when it goes next Oh no you're too far away to get into melee with the foe but that's where spellcrafting comes in I'm going to use spell casting and blast that guy with magic okay uh tell me about your spell spellcrafting combines three elements a base spell primary and secondary effects and finally kodas that alter those effects the spell base is all of the mechanics of the spell things like range duration casting time base damage and so forth now the base doesn't cost you any points from your spell pool but adjusting any of those mechanics does so in this case the foe is more than 15 ft away so you need to add two points to increase the range to 60 ft the base damage is 2d6 so you probably want to add more damage right yeah so you add two more points to increase the damage to 6 D6 primary and secondary effects are really the heart of the spell casting system they're effects that you can buy with points and combine them as you like now you can choose from the list that we are including in the book or you can make up your own effects so long as your GM agrees in this case you choose a Direct Energy effect to throw a ball of energy at your Foe and you select lightning as the damage type but you also decide that it would be cool and hilarious if the bad guy is also reduced in size so you choose reduction as a secondary effect now after getting blasted by your primary effect the foe has to make a wisdom saving throw or be shrunk down by one size category sweet totally sweet now comes the cost so you need to spend a total of nine points three for being a non-caster one for each spell effect two to increase the range and two to increase the damage damage I have nine points so I cast a spell you're going to have to make the conate first all right spell crafting is directly channeling raw magic so it takes some concentration when you cast a crafted spell you need to make a constitution saving throw to see if you maintain concentration if you make it you cast a spell if you fail you suffer backlash I made it let's go in this case it worked out but let's say you wanted to make up your own effect instead of choosing one from the list I'm going to use spell casting and blast that guy with magic okay uh tell me about your spell I want to freeze him in his track so he can't approach the CLA nice hey thanks you got it pal since that's a dream effect your Moes and Source can't help you so the cost of a spell like that is eight points three for being an non-caster three for the freeze effect and two to increase the range to 60 ft all right so it's a dream effect and it's going to cost you three points awesome you're a great GM now all you have to do is not roll a one on that Constitution saving Pro well now you jinxed it always there to help so that's a very brief rundown of our new spellcrafting system it's designed to be fast flexible and fun for the players and non gamebreaking for the GMS there's still time to pledge to our Kickstarter for Lisa's guide to Magic go check it out

Channel: Draco Studios

Views: 772

Keywords: ttrpg, magic, dragons, dungeons and dragons, fantasy, how to cast spells, ttrpg news, dnd, d&d, dragonbond, elyse's guide to magic, magic system, spellcraft

Id: IMXwJ7LWehc

Length: 5min 2sec (302 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 23 2023