Base Class Challenge Chat Thread III: Gotta 'Brew 'Em All!

[Xhosant]

I'll vote for Alternate Magic. Wasn't that the "new magic mechanics, a la incarnum etc."?

[Temotei]

Reposting from last time.

Thanks much, breh.

{table=head]Theme|Votes|Voters
Something Bad Luck|0|
Slack and Hash (food)|1|sirpercival
Inner Planes|2|ben-zayb, Silva Stormrage
Time|0|
Alternate Magic|4|InstinctsKill, malonkey1, Tavar, Xhosant
NPCs|0|
Steam and Sorcery|0|
SPAAAAAACE|1|Cheesy74
Metagaming MAAAAANNNIIIIAAAAAA|0|
Variable Magic|1|Network[/table]

I'd like to point out that anyone can vote, not just participants in the contest. You're in no way obligated to participate in a contest if you vote and vice-versa.

[ben-zayb]

Does alternate magic necessarily mean alternative sources too? If not, then +1 alternate magic.

[malonkey1]

Alternate Magic here, too.

[Temotei]

Does alternate magic necessarily mean alternative sources too? If not, then +1 alternate magic.

Here is the source of the idea.

[Network]

What is variable magic? Is it for classes with a random casting mechanic?

[Temotei]

What is variable magic? Is it for classes with a random casting mechanic?

And here is the source of that idea.

[Cheesy74]

A vote for SPAAACE ships.

[Network]

And here is the source of that idea.

It sounds silly enough to be good. My vote go to Variable Magic.

[ben-zayb]

Here is the source of the idea.

And here is the source of that idea.

Sounds interesting. I may have some ideas that could work for these theme...

[Silva Stormrage]

Alternate Magic for me as well

[Xhosant]

I still don't get the precise alternate magic description... Is a sorcerer's magic "alternate" in regards to a Wizard's, or do we need a more "major" distinction?

[sirpercival]

A sorcerer's magic is "spells", which is not alternate magic at all. It's basically a vote for subsystems, new or old (incarnum, binding, make-up-your-own, etc.).

The reason I didn't vote for that is that almost everything I write has a different subsystem... blargh. It doesn't restrict the theme at all, it's a mechanical challenge not a flavor one.

Temotei, if that one wins, would it be allowed to use an existing homebrew subsystem?

[Xhosant]

Bummer, had a gish-friendly system in the works that could fit in nicely :/

[Temotei]

Temotei, if that one wins, would it be allowed to use an existing homebrew subsystem?

Yes.

You thinking astronomy, gramarie, ritual magic, or something else?

[sirpercival]

Yes.

You thinking astronomy, gramarie, ritual magic, or something else?

Probably æther, honestly, though that could change.

[Temotei]

Probably æther, honestly, though that could change.

Another stellar choice.

[Xhosant]

I think i will try Abudant magic, a.k.a. collecting the magic of the world to simple spell-like abilities. I'll gear it for Gish use.

[sirpercival]

I think i will try Abudant magic, a.k.a. collecting the magic of the world to simple spell-like abilities. I'll gear it for Gish use.

Something like this?

[Xhosant]

This, plus natural magic, lay lines, planar overlapping and what have you.

Slowly collecting Mana off the world to power spells, if you wish. Like oxygen or moisture or radiation.

[ben-zayb]

The reason I didn't vote for that is that almost everything I write has a different subsystem... blargh. It doesn't restrict the theme at all, it's a mechanical challenge not a flavor one.

I think I'm going to agree with this and change my vote to Inner Planes. It does sound more of mechanics than flavor.

Although since Alterable Magic is the popular choice, would someone be kind enough to look if my idea for a (sub)system already exists? I find making new mechanics hard in terms of creating/maintaining balance, so a pre-tested, pre-existing one would help remedy that. (And my homebrew-fu is weak outside of contest/tier-compendium Searching)
Idea:

• Affinity/Shift Magic: every Ability (both passive and active) chosen has multiple modes (sort of how Truespeak has 2 modes)
• Modal based on Affinity or "likeness" (e.g. Gets +X to something for every Ability in a particular mode). More specialization grants more power
• Inherently versatile, but the flexibility is based on specialization so it's harder to "shift" modes if the gap is far and wide (i.e. with 4 Abilities, it's harder for a specialized 3/1 than a generalist 2/2 mode distribution to shift "modes")

Again, explaining the concept alone is hard, so I'm not sure how would that work.

[Temotei]

I think I'm going to agree with this and change my vote to Inner Planes with this. It does sound more like a mechanical challenge than a flavor.

Vote changed. Thanks for the separated paragraph. It makes it easier to see.

[InstinctsKill]

Alternate Magicks. Seems some people have some pretty interesting ideas in mind there. Let's see them brought to life!

[sirpercival]

Can I vote for more than one? Because I'd love to do either SPAA...ACE or Inner Planes, have ideas for all three.

EDIT: Speaking of Æther, Temotei (and anyone else...), I'd love an opinion on something. There's a discussion on MMX about the Ætherforge. Garryl suggested making æther more granular for balance & play smoothness purposes, but I'm afraid that'll make it too much like psionics or a recharge/spell points system, so less unique. I want more people to weigh-in before I make a decision.

Linky to the class thread; this specific discussion is in the last several posts, page 7.

[Tavar]

The Inner planes are the elemental ones(possibly including the Pos/Neg planes), right? The only problem I have for that is that I tend to like non-standard elemental systems, so it's hard to work with them sometimes.

[Temotei]

The Inner planes are the elemental ones(possibly including the Pos/Neg planes), right? The only problem I have for that is that I tend to like non-standard elemental systems, so it's hard to work with them sometimes.

These are what you're looking for.

[Carl]

Since apparently we can use existing homebrew systems that means i could finish up a system i'm working on now, post it for PEACH, and then use it in the comp, yes?

[Tavar]

Since apparently we can use existing homebrew systems that means i could finish up a system i'm working on now, post it for PEACH, and then use it in the comp, yes?

Maybe. It depends very much on how the system interacts with the class mechanics. Essentially, any class you enter has to be completely unique and not previously posted. I believe if you make a system like, say, Tome of Blades, then you could theoretically have entered the Swordsage, Crusader, and the Warblade into the contest consecutively.

These are what you're looking for.

So that's a yes, then.

[Silva Stormrage]

Oh if inner planes contains negative and positive energy planes change my vote to that, since thats basically what I was going to focus on anyway

[Carl]

Maybe. It depends very much on how the system interacts with the class mechanics. Essentially, any class you enter has to be completely unique and not previously posted. I believe if you make a system like, say, Tome of Blades, then you could theoretically have entered the Swordsage, Crusader, and the Warblade into the contest consecutively.

I'm planning on posting the system sans a class for PEACH'ing before i use it, though i already have a separate class idea for using with it from either class i'm currently developing it for.

So i assume that means i'm ok to post it for PEACH'ing?