DF:A Without Divine Magic

[LoneWolf23k]

Something I've been thinking about concerning Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers, was how to use the Clerics and Druids (and the Holy Warrior), but switching Power Investiture with Magery. In short, instead of true divine champions, they'd be "White Mages" (for clerics) and "Green Mages" (for druids).

This would be to fit Clerics and Druids into settings like Banestorm, where "Divine Magic" is limited to vague Mystic gifts, and most religious spellcasters are priests (or imams) with Magery and knowledge of spell magic.

Another alternative I was considering is making a new variation on limited Magery, working very much like One-College Magery, but with a selection of spells based on a patron deity's portfolio.

Any opinions?

[ravenfish]

Sounds good to me. The one problem I see with your Divine College suggestion is prerequisites- specifically, the fact that you will have to either adjust them to keep them in college, waive them entirely, or force the mage to take spells he can't cast. Shouldn't be too much work, though.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf23k

Another alternative I was considering is making a new variation on limited Magery, working very much like One-College Magery, but with a selection of spells based on a patron deity's portfolio.

As in, still needing all the usual spell prereqs and everything? I don't see any problem with that.

Once Thaumatology is finally released into the wild there are good guidelines in there for rolling your own colleges and pricing One College Magery for them fairly based on the number of spells available in the college. (or two college Magery or whatever).

[Kromm]

Or you could have divine magic on Yrth. I ran two campaigns that used Yrth: one that was a pure Yrth game, from 1986 to 1990, and one that started life on Yrth and stayed there from 1990 until early 1993. Both had divine magic. About the only thing you need to make it work is to decide on the gods. In my case, I made the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim deity the same entity, and reduced the Yrthly religions to somewhat hostile philosophical sects. Other deities worshipped by other cultures and races were simply different, and coexisted with each other and the monotheists' deity. Mortal man could easily enough be wrong about "There is only one god!" and/or "Only these gods are real!" -- that's just more philosophy. I found that spellcasting clerics didn't really change the flavor of the setting appreciably but did make it far more interesting and acceptable to former D&D players.

[LoneWolf23k]

Interesting approach, Kromm. It reminds me of the methodology used in GURPS Myth, where Power Investiture represents a religious or philosophical approach to Magery.

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf23k

Interesting approach, Kromm. It reminds me of the methodology used in GURPS Myth, where Power Investiture represents a religious or philosophical approach to Magery.

I'm very interested in that idea, but I don't have GURPS Myth.

By chance, will be that Power Investiture interpretation discussed in Thaumatology?

[Kromm]

It won't be discussed much because it's fairly trivial, really. While fans of setting canon and some setting creators are all gung-ho about which gods are unique and which are aspects differentiated by mortal thinkers, a purely objective look at the ineffable will invariably conclude that it's all conjecture anyway and what matters is what you see manifested, not what might exist on a metaphysical plane you can't plumb. It isn't like miracle-working priests with identical powers would be able to stand in the way of a religious war between warlords more interested in each jot and squiggle of a holy writing than in proof they lack the perceptions to understand anyway.