Psionics
Psionic powers are not known to exist. They may do, but if so, they are the province of alien creatures from beyond. I haven't decided whether to include Mind Flayers in the setting yet or not, but I'm leaning towards "no". If I do include them (or Yuan-ti), psionics will be included. If not, I'll probably not bother.
Clerical Magic
A gift from god (or the gods, or the ancestors, or whatever). Clerical magic is regarded as the only acceptable expression of magical power in human lands. That said, the power of wizardry is such that most clerics are forced to accept non-clerical manifestations, although they rail against it with all the fervour of an anti-D&D rant.
Druidic Magic
Power drawn directly from the elements themselves. Druidic magic is regarded as heretical by (most) humans, hobgoblins and halflings. Dwarves and elves make extensive use of druidic magic, and regard it as completely natural.
Ranger Magic
See druidic magic.
Wizardry
Wizardry is regarded as secret knowlegde stolen from the gods. Most wizards count themselves as loyal followers of the campaign's major god, but there are some who are fervently athiest, or even anti-theist (don't think that's a real word) in their outlook. Wizard magic is expressed through complex mathematical and philosophical formulae, leading to a constant push to control books and learning in the human lands. Moreover, it leads to wizards attempting to establish universities in major cities, to allow them to better collaborate in their efforts.
The most recent controversy to rock the magical world was the publication by the athiest wizard Garin of his "Magical Incompleteness Theorem". This work contested the previously-held view that magic could, in time, achieve any result. Garin's theorem states that the power of magic is finite, and moreover that certain relatively simple effects simply cannot be enacted through magic.
Garin's big mistake, however, was that he made no distinction between arcane and divine magic in his statement. Infuriated, the arcane community turned Garin over to the church, who burned him at the stake for the crime of heresy. The cause of anger amongst the arcane community? They couldn't disprove his work.
Sorcery
Long thought to be a sub-discipline of wizardry, sorcery has now been identified as an expression of the blood. Only those with draconic, fae or elven ancestry are capable of sorcery. That said, it is thought that the magical influence need only be minute to permit sorcery, and that the influence of fae and dragons on humanity is so pervasive that very few people have no talent for sorcery at all.
The elves, of course, are the master sorcerers of this setting, since each and every one of them has elven blood :-)
Bardic Magic
Bardic magic is an expression of sorcery, above.
Rules Impact
There are two rules effects of magic being as described above, one related to bards/sorcerers, and the other to wizards.
A character who wishes to take levels in Bard or Sorcerer must necessarily have fae, draconic or elven blood in their ancestry at some point in the past. This is largely a character decision for the layer to make. A character who multi-classes into one of these two classes is assumed to have recently manifested this heritage. However, if a player ever decides his character has absolutely no magical blood in their heritage (say, if they want to prove this to the approval of some xenophobic priest), that character can then never take levels in one of these classes. Naturally, in the normal state of affairs, this decision will remain unmade for most characters.
The effect of this reliance on complex formulae and arcane knowledge on Wizards is implemented as follows: Each school of magic is associated with a particular knowledge skill (with two schools per skill). In order to learn spells of a given school, a character must have the associated skill with a number of ranks equal to the spell level.
The read magic spell is removed from the game. Instead, a character with high enough ranks to learn a spell is assumed to also possess the ability to read that spell. Note, however, that the character must still transcribe spells into their own journals, as normal. This is because truly mastering the spell requires going through the formula line-by-line very carefully, a process most easily achieved in the process of scribing the spell. This isn't simply a matter of copying the formula; the character has to take the time to fully understand every aspect of it, complete with all its interpretations.
The mapping between schools and skills is as follows:
- Abjuration: Philosophy
- Conjuration: Thanatology
- Divination: Mathematics
- Enchantment: Psychology
- Evocation: Mathematics
- Illusion: Psychology
- Necromancy: Thanatology
- Transmutation: Philosophy
Example: Quarion is a 5th level Wizard. He is capable of casting 3rd level spells. However, Quarion has been neglecting his studies, and so has a Knowledge: Philosophy skill at 4 ranks, Knowledge: Psychology at 2 ranks, Knowledge: Mathematics at 1 rank, and no ranks in Knowledge:Thanatology at all. Quarion is capable of reading any Abjuration or Transmutation spell he encounters that is 4th level or lower at will. He may also learn any spell of these schools of up to 3rd level. However, Quarion can only read, learn or cast an Enchantment or Illusion spell of up to 2nd level, a Divination or Evocation spell of up to 1st level, or a Necromancy or Conjuration spell of 0 level.
That's magic done. I do have one more thing to cover, which is the skill lists of the various classes. Then, it's time for something new.
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