Sorcerous Arts:Rules Modifications

This page contains the modifications to the d20 system being used for the College of Sorcerous Arts play-by-post game. Rules have been altered, added, or limited in the following areas: race, class, hit points, experience points, levels, and magic. If you are playing in the College of Sorcerous Arts campaign, please familiarize yourself with these rules changes! They will be necessary for the creation of player characters.

Core Assumptions

A few core assumptions have been altered: first and foremost, what character level means. Teenaged characters, and characters who have never made anything of their lives, will be 1st level. Most experienced adults will be 2nd level characters. Those with a great degree of talent and experience, who have lead interesting and exciting lives, may be 3rd or 4th level. Extremely capable and skilled experts who have lead heroic lives will be 5th or 6th level. A few might live to reach 7th or 8th, while 9th and 10th are generally reserved for legendary figures.

Secondly, monsters! The game may very well include legendary beasts and monsters, built along the rules present in the Monster Manual -- but they will not have the same stats as the MM beasties, even if they have the same name! Therefore, please be cautious with your metagame knowledge: it may prove to be inaccurate. Monsters will not be exceedingly common. Humans are the only widespread sapient race. There are no demi-humans, at least none to speak of. If they exist, very few people know about them.

Lastly, magic and magic items will not be exceedingly prevalent. You won't be able to find Ye Olde Magicke Shoppe in the commercial district. If you want a magic item, you've got three choices: loot it from an ancient ruin, dragon's lair, rival's collection, or demon prince's stronghold; trade for it (most likely using IOUN stones and other magic items as currency); or have it made to your specifications, either crafting it yourself or commissioning a colleague to do so.

Also note that the magic system is rather heavily modified. See the Magician class for more details.

Characters

The following sections describe changes to choices available to characters and character statistics.

Starting PCs

Player Characters will be made with 10,000 experience points (5th level). There are only five available classes: Barbarian, Expert (see below), Fighter, Magician (see below), and Rogue. As characters will be professors, upper level students, and important associates of the College, every character must take at least three levels of Magician.

Ability scores will be bought with 30 points, according to the standard point buy scheme. Don't forget to add in an extra point for reaching 4th level! For posterity's sake, the standard point buy table is given below in the following format: ability score / point cost / ability modifier / bonus Valences (see below).

• 8 / 0 / -1 / 0
• 9 / 1 / -1 / 0
• 10 / 2 / +0 / 0
• 11 / 3 / +0 / 0
• 12 / 4 / +1 / 1
• 13 / 5 / +1 / 2
• 14 / 6 / +2 / 3
• 15 / 8 / +2 / 4
• 16 / 10 / +3 / 6
• 17 / 13 / +3 / 8
• 18 / 16 / +4 / 10

All characters must be human.

As far as wealth goes, all characters have apartments (and, for faculty, offices) at the College of Sorcerous Arts. They also may have one or two signature magical items totaling up to about 8,000 gold pieces in worth, and other notable items totaling up to about 3,000 gold pieces in worth. Don't bother counting the costs of items worth less than 50 gold pieces. Any of your alloted gold not spent goes into spending money and IOUN Stones. NOTE: These are more like Jack Vance's stones than standard D&D Ioun Stones. See below for more details.

Hit Points

Hit Points will not be figured in the normal fashion. Instead, medium-sized characters have hp equal to their Constitution score (use '5' instead, if a character has no Con score), plus a fixed number of bonus hit points per level, depending on hit die. Bonus hit points at first level are doubled for heroic characters, including the PCs. d4 grant 1 hp, d6 grant 2 hp, d8 grant 3 hp, d10 grant 4 hp, and d12 grant 5 hp. For instance, a 3rd level heroic Rogue (d6 hit die) with a Constitution score of 13 who took the Toughness feat once would have 24 hit points.

Larger characters gain bonus hit points based on size: +10 for Large, +20 for Huge, +40 for Gargantuan, and +80 for Colossal.

Smaller characters divide their total hit points by a number based on size: 2 for Small, 4 for Tiny, 8 for Diminutive, and 16 for Fine. Round up.

Being Disabled

In standard d20, characters are disabled (can only take a single move or attack action each round, lose one hit point if they do so) only when they hit 0 hp. We will be playing where characters are disabled at either one fifth (for heroic) or one third (for normal) of their hp total, rounding down. Thus, our above example 3rd level Rogue with 24 hit points would be disabled when they reach 4 hp.

Advancement

Characters do not receive experience points for slaying monsters. Instead, each PC will get 100 experience points for each week in which their player makes a substantive post. Bonus awards of 50 or 100 experience points will be given out on a weekly basis for each of the following: profuse and excellent posting (4 or more quality posts during the week), doing something awesome or entertaining, doing something that moves the plot in an unforeseen direction, and doing neat and helpful metagame stuff such as finding or creating game related artwork.

In order to speed up the rate at which players see their investments in the game rewarded, characters will level up 1/5th of a level at a time. These increments will be spaced evenly for each level. Thus, starting characters at 5th level will gain an increment at 11,000 exp, 12,000 exp, 13,000 exp, 14,000 exp, and 15,000 exp, at which point they will have fully attained 6th level. The five increments are as follows:

• BAB and save increases
• Hit point increase (NOT the same thing as hit dice)
• Skill points
• Special class abilities, magic, and caster level
• Character level, hit dice, and feats and ability score increases from level

The first four increments may be taken in any order. The final increment (level, hit dice, &c.) must be taken last.

Character Class

Unheroic NPCs may take any of the normal NPC classes, except for the Adept and Expert. Heroic NPCs and PCs may take levels in Barbarian, Expert (newly modified to be up-to-snuff), Fighter, Magician, and Rogue. See below for explication of the new Expert and Magician classes.

The Expert

Hit Points: +3 per level (d8 HD)

BAB: Moderate (as Rogue)

Saves: Fortitude poor, Reflex poor, Will good

Skills: 8 + Intelligence modifier per level (4x at first level)

Proficiencies: The Expert is proficient with all simple weapons, a single martial weapon of their choice, and with light armor but not shields.

Class Skills: Craft (Int), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), and any other ten non-exclusive skills of the player's choice may be class skills for the Expert.

Special Class Abilities

Skill Focus: At 1st level, the Expert gains Skill Focus as a bonus feat.

Bonus Feats: At every even numbered level (2nd, 4th, 6th, etc.), the Expert gains a bonus feat. This feat may be any General feat, or it may be the Skill Mastery feat (same as the Rogue special ability).

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The Magician

Hit Points: +1 per level (d4 HD)

BAB: Poor (as Wizard)

Saves: Fortitude poor, Reflex poor, Will good

Skills: 4 + Intelligence modifier per level (4x at first level)

Proficiencies: The Magician is proficient with all simple weapons, no armor, and no shields.

Class Skills: Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Knoweldge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int). Magicians are encouraged to take multiple Knowledge skills.

Special Class Abilities

Familiar or Feat: At 1st level, a Magician may either gain a Familiar (as the Sorcerer), a bonus Metamagic feat, a bonus Magician special feat (see below), or Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat.

Effective Caster Level: For the purposes of determining spell effects, caster level is equal to Magician class level. For the purposes of meeting metamagic and item creation feat requirements, and creating magical items, caster level is equal to two times Magician class level.

Spell Casting: A Magician casts Arcane spells from the Sorcerer / Wizard list by binding them in a cocoon of mental energy, and then releasing them with specific words and gestures. With the exception of level 0 magic, only bound spells may be cast, but a magician does not necessarily have to know a spell to bind it. Once a spell has been cast, it becomes unbound. Spells may be bound multiple times. Level 0 spells may be cast spontaneously, an infinite number of times per day, as long as the character knows them.

The DC of resisting a Magician's spell is 10 plus spell level plus the caster's Charisma modifier.

Binding a known spell takes two minutes per spell level and uses up a number of Valences equal to the spell level. Binding a spell from a written text takes ten minutes per spell level and uses up a number of Valences equal to double the spell level (or 5 minutes and 1 Valence for a level 0 spell). A character may only bind a spell if their Intelligence score is at least equal to ten plus the spell's level, and their Magician class level is at least equal to the spell's level.

The number of Valences available to a character is dependent upon their Magician level and their Wisdom score. The number of Valences provided by level is given below (in the format of Level / Valences), and those provided by Wisdom are described in the ability scores table, above. For instance, a 3rd level Magician with a Wisdom of 17 would have 14 Valences to work with.

• 1 / 1
• 2 / 3
• 3 / 6
• 4 / 10
• 5 / 15
• 6 / 21
• 7 / 28
• 8 / 36
• 9 / 45
• 10 / 55

When a spell is cast, the Valences that held it do not become available for re-use until hours equal to the spell's level have passed. In addition, while a spell is still in effect, the Valences used to power it cannot be used. The exception is for spells that last for more than 24 hours: in these cases, Valences become available again after one day has passed.

When a character needs to pack an especially large arsenal, they can make use of the risky practice of partial binding. This takes twice as long as normal, but uses up one fewer Valences. When a partially bound spell is cast, the Magician takes damage equal to 1d6 + spell level, and must thus make a Concentration check or lose the spell.

Spells Known: At first level, a Magician knows ten level 0 spells, and a number of first level spells equal to 5 plus their Intelligence bonus. At each level thereafter, they may learn a number of spells equal to 2 plus their Intelligence bonus. Learned spells may be of any level that the Magician is capable of binding and casting. All spells must come from the Sorcerer / Wizard spell list.

Specialization: At any point, the Magician may choose to specialize in a particular school of magic. They must choose one other school to give up. A specialized Magician gains +2 to Spellcraft checks when dealing with magic of their chosen school, and a number special Valences that may only be used for spells of that school equal to their Magician class level. However, they may not bind or cast spells of their forsaken school at all. Once a Magician has specialized, they may never reverse their decision.

OPTION: You may choose to specialize with a common descriptor, instead of a school. In this case, you must give up the opposite descriptor, or as close to the opposite as you can find. For instance, if you specialized with [fire], you would have to give up [water]; if you specialized with [good], you would have to give up [evil].

Special Feats: Magicians have access to the following special feats.

DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE [SPECIAL]
Prerequisites: Magician level 1st
Benefit: Choose four spells that you are capable of binding and casting, and learn those spells.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Each time you take the feat, it applies to four new spells.

EXPANDED MIND [SPECIAL]
Prerequisites: Magician level 1st
Benefit: Gain +3 Valences.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

SIGNATURE SPELL [SPECIAL]
Prerequisites: Magician level 1st, know chosen spell
Benefit: Choose one spell that you know of second level or higher. When casting this spell, your effective caster level is increased by one.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new spell.

IOUN Stones

In the setting of the College of Sorcerous Arts, magicians consider the magical IOUN stones to be a sort of eldritch currency. A few hundred or thousand of the stones exist, making them, perhaps, the most common magical item in existence; however, the process for forging them is unknown, and they are thus considered to be minor artifacts. Should a wizard choose to sell a stone, the going rate is about a thousand pieces of gold apiece.

When a sorcerer's stones are with them, they hang in the air within a yard of their owner, tracing slow orbits around their bodies. They are beautiful to look at: glass beads, spindles, prisms, rhomboids, and ovoids in a myriad of greens, blues, and reds. They are not merely decorative, however: IOUN stones act as both a battery of magical energy and a last-ditch defense against enemy spells.

A Magician gains bonus Valences equal to the square of the number of IOUN stones orbiting them, rounding down.

Also, when a Magician is subject to a spell's effects, they may choose to use a stone's energy to protect their person from harm. This decision may be made after rolling saves and SR. A check of 1d20 + caster level + Charisma bonus is made against the spell's save DC. If the check is successful, the spell has no effect on the magician. Regardless of success, the stone loses its magic, becoming grey and worthless.

NOTE: These IOUN Stones completely replace the Ioun Stones in the DMG. Don't buy Ioun Stones. Buy IOUN Stones!