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Contagious Cure
Acolyte
5 Posts |
 Posted - 06 Oct 2012 : 20:26:50
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Making a post-spellplague campaign with a party of "longevity races" (i.e. 1 drow, 1 yuan-ti, 1 half-elf along with 1 human). Aside from the human PC, all others were born pre-spellplague. None of them are arcane spellcasters so I haven't had to worry too much about how they survived the spellplague events. I'm trying to have them encounter a "rival" party that does include arcane spellcasters and who caused the party trouble during their early adventuring days pre-spellplague but I'm trying to find a valid explanation for how they survived the collapse of the weave. The spellcasters in the rival party include a wiz lvl 6/palemaster lvl 7, a level 12 warlock and a level 19 conjurer that leads the party.
So basically I have three questions:
1. As the source of warlock magic is pacts, would I be right in saying they would not have had their abilities affected by the spell-plague? I've also been told warlocks can no longer infinitely cast their invocations post-spellplague? Is there a 4E version of Complete Arcane to explain this?
2. Would a Pale Master's abilities be affected by the spell-plague? (i.e. I assume his touch attacks would not be affected the same way a lich's paralyzing touch wasn't affected, but what about his animate dead ability and his control of his undead minions and his undead cohort?). If he retains these abilities I could just say he survived by relying on his palemaster abilities to get by.
3. As arcane spellcasters had to "re-master" their art, would the conjurer take a permanent level penalty? Or would he be brought straight back to level 1 to re-learn everything? Or no penalty at all? Also would he be somewhat mentally unhinged now?
For a point of reference who are some well known arcane spellcasters that survived the spell-plague? Aside from ultra powerful ones like Larloch who I can assume survives everything. I think Szass Tam survived but did so by making some pact with Bane. Any that did not resort to that kind of thing?
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Edited by - Contagious Cure on 06 Oct 2012 21:00:01
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Derulbaskul
Senior Scribe
Singapore
408 Posts |
Posted - 07 Oct 2012 : 07:25:06
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Wouldn't the easiest thing be to simply assume that they spent a number of years re-learning their spellcasting techniques? After all, you're still running 3.5E, right?
There are a number of FR references - more as throwaway lines rather than formal explanations - that spellcasters relearned their magic.
FYI, Arcane Power is a core book so it mentions nothing about the (FR-specific) Spellplague. |
Cheers
D
NB: Please remember: A cannon is a big gun. Canon is what we discuss here. |
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Diffan
Great Reader
USA
4436 Posts |
Posted - 07 Oct 2012 : 19:09:02
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quote:
Originally posted by Contagious Cure
Making a post-spellplague campaign with a party of "longevity races" (i.e. 1 drow, 1 yuan-ti, 1 half-elf along with 1 human). Aside from the human PC, all others were born pre-spellplague. None of them are arcane spellcasters so I haven't had to worry too much about how they survived the spellplague events. I'm trying to have them encounter a "rival" party that does include arcane spellcasters and who caused the party trouble during their early adventuring days pre-spellplague but I'm trying to find a valid explanation for how they survived the collapse of the weave. The spellcasters in the rival party include a wiz lvl 6/palemaster lvl 7, a level 12 warlock and a level 19 conjurer that leads the party.
I don't think you need to expalin anything really. The Spellplague did effect the majority of spellcasters in the Realms but not all of them lost their ability to cast spells or go insane or die from the plague-like effects. Some might have lost the power for a bit but then quickly regained it automatically or even just with tinkering a bit with magic in it's new, un-weave like state.
quote:
Originally posted by Contagious Cure
1. As the source of warlock magic is pacts, would I be right in saying they would not have had their abilities affected by the spell-plague? I've also been told warlocks can no longer infinitely cast their invocations post-spellplague? Is there a 4E version of Complete Arcane to explain this?
As Derulbaskul mentiones, Arcane Power (the 4E equivalent to Complete Arcane) does not mention it because it's a non-Setting book. I would, however, think that because a Warlock's ability is arcane it might've been affected by the Spellplague. That being said, I wouldn't worry about trying to infuse 4E elements (like Pacts) into 3E games in any mechanical way. You could say that, due to the shift in the weave a Warlock needs a patron (fey, demonic, dark, the stars, etc.) to have a firmer grasp of the arcane and cast his invocations but it would/should be from a flavor perspective and not a mechanical one.
Warlocks still cast At-Will spells and use Encounter/Daily resources for some Invocations. The mechanics have changed them from v3.5 but that shouldn't be an issue for a 3E game.
quote:
Originally posted by Contagious Cure
2. Would a Pale Master's abilities be affected by the spell-plague? (i.e. I assume his touch attacks would not be affected the same way a lich's paralyzing touch wasn't affected, but what about his animate dead ability and his control of his undead minions and his undead cohort?). If he retains these abilities I could just say he survived by relying on his palemaster abilities to get by.
Necromancy is still around and I'd say the abilities work in a Post-Spellplague world. Keep in mind that 4E has multiple Necomancy/Nethermancy spells as well as relying on Shadow magic. You could say that because the Weave faild him, he relied soley on the Shadowfell/Plane of Shadow for his source of magic. Then, as the days went by, he slowly learned to use/regain his other spellcasting powers (ie. raise undead minions).
quote:
Originally posted by Contagious Cure
3. As arcane spellcasters had to "re-master" their art, would the conjurer take a permanent level penalty? Or would he be brought straight back to level 1 to re-learn everything? Or no penalty at all? Also would he be somewhat mentally unhinged now?
Depends on if you want him to be a viable enemy for your party to face or what role you design him to be in your campaign. You could make it so he retained/regained his power in short order, perhaps relying on magical devices like Wands and Staffs charges until he could properly master the Art again. Or you could have him be a shellf of a man, in no way able to fight off the PCs and thus gives up at a moments notice. Personally, I don't think you have to justify how bad-guys still cast their spells to have a Post-Spellplague game with 3E mechanics. They just do and your players should just accept that. But I hope I offered some advice to give the world changes more credence.
quote:
Originally posted by Contagious Cure
For a point of reference who are some well known arcane spellcasters that survived the spell-plague? Aside from ultra powerful ones like Larloch who I can assume survives everything. I think Szass Tam survived but did so by making some pact with Bane. Any that did not resort to that kind of thing?
Alustriel died from old age, but retained her magic until then. Despite the death of Mystra and the collapse of the Weave, Elminster was still a ridicuously powerful mage with strong magic to call on. The Simbul as well. The evil elven mage from the Blades of the Moonsea book was still a very strong spellcaster and I have a fair assumption that he survived the Spellplague. |
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Contagious Cure
Acolyte
5 Posts |
Posted - 08 Oct 2012 : 19:20:04
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Thanks for the information/advice. A lot of my players just want to know so they can adapt their roleplay, although I personally like to add flavour to my characters/encounters as well.
On a completely different question, although still surrounding the spellplague, with the disappearance of the Mulhorandi pantheon, does that mean Sseth is now free from the machinations of Set? |
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Spellplague Questions
