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View Full Version : Common/Hidden Magic



arguskos
2008-08-19, 01:52 AM
I don't know anywhere else to put this idea, so I'll put it here.

So, the basic premise is that there are two categories of magic in the world:

Common magic is the stuff in the PHB. All mages, druids, clerics, etc have access to it, if they would normally (ie. mages can select from common magic spells at level-up, druids/clerics have access to all their common magic spells, etc).

Hidden magic is... well, everything else. This means all spells that are not cleared as common magic by the DM and must be found/researched independently by casters.

I know this is pretty much second nature to some people (me included), but I thought I'd get some feedback on the basic premise. For example, hidden spells would have the [hidden] subtype, just to mark that they aren't your average spells, and maybe someone could make a hidden spell that worked like an anti-magic field, but only for common spells, or whatever. I think it might have merit, and wondered if anyone else agreed.

-argus

Winged One
2008-08-19, 02:02 AM
So, uncommon magic would be stuff in splatbooks, then? Interesting idea.

arguskos
2008-08-19, 02:12 AM
Yeah, pretty much. Common magic is, by default, PHB only (and whatever the DM ok's, like repair spells in Eberron). Hidden is anything from anywhere else.

I really think the more interesting aspect of the Common/Hidden magic idea is the idea of the [hidden] subtype to spells, and what could be done with that. Thoughts?

-argus

bahamut920
2008-08-19, 07:54 PM
Actually, the Wheel of Time RPG had a system like this. There were [Comon] weaves that anyone could learn,and [Rare] or [Lost] weaves, which had to be taught by someone who knew them - although "teaching" worked differently in WoT; all you had to do was observe the weave and make a Weavesight (equivalent to Spellcraft) check.

RTGoodman
2008-08-19, 08:22 PM
The XCrawl Campaign Setting (D&D in the modern world, and dungeon-crawls are televised event like American Gladiators) has something quite a bit like this. For some amount of money or XP or something, you can research a new spell and then copyright it, meaning no one can learn it without paying you to do so. There were several examples in the book, but none too impressive. Also, MOST divination spells were highly illegal because they make spying and privacy-invasion too easy. (Of course, they're fine with, you know, finger of death and such, but heaven forbid you learn greater scrying or whatever. And my DM didn't tell me about this 'til I'd already created my Diviniation Specialist Wizard... :smallannoyed:)

In a modern setting, it seems like an interesting way to make certain spells that are considered overpowered or game-breaking (in Core or otherwise) harder to access.