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03/24/2006 Printer Friendly Email A Friend Discuss This Article
We're hoping this column becomes your window into roleplaying design and development -- or at least the way we approach these things here at Wizards of the Coast. We'll handle a wide range of topics in weeks to come, from frank discussions about over- or underpowered material, to the design goals of a certain supplement, to what we think are the next big ideas for the Dungeons & Dragons game. All of this comes bundled with a healthy look at the people and events that are roleplaying R&D. T his week, Matthew Sernett provides part 1 of a Tome of Magic web enhancement--explaining how you can design and develop your own unique vestiges.
Tome of Magic offers three new forms of magic for your D&D game: pact, shadow, and truename magic capitalize on a wealth of fantasy literature, D&D history, and real-world esoterica to give you new play options that fit seamlessly with your ongoing game. T his article focuses on pact magic, the supernatural summoning of otherworldly spirits to inhabit your body so that you can use their powers. If you havent read Tome on Magic yet, pick up a copy to familiarize yourself with pact magic and the nature of vestigesthe spirits that pact magic practitioners summon. In part 1, well go through the creation process for a new vestige so that you can then make your own. In part 2, Ill present the fully developed vestige well be introducing here today.
Designers Note: Vestiges are great for DMs, but they were designed with players in mind. More specifically, their legends are meant for player use. When designing the pact magic system, I wanted to put more ownership of the flavor of D&D into players hands and give them more material to roleplay with. T he DM owns most of the history of D&D settings and other flavorful details, but with pact magic, a binders player can be the one revealing and reveling in all of that. For this reason, players and DMs should work together on new vestiges or changing old ones.
Where to Begin
Start with an idea that inspires you. T his idea might be a game mechanic you find exciting, an element of background information from your campaign, an idea for a vestige that suits your view of what vestiges should be like, or whatever triggers your desire to make a new vestige. A vestiges legend often drives the rest of its description, so you might find that an interesting legendary figure from your campaign will strike a chord with you and the other players. In the home campaign Im planning to run for some friends, the gods left the creatures of the world to fend for themselves centuries ago. Since then, various monsters have risen to power as living deities like some of the pharaohs of Egypt and emperors of Rome. This presents a great environment for the use of binders and vestiges, because in my campaign, I can make the vestiges represent the deities that left. T hus I retain the taboo nature of pact magic as the current deific rulers want everyone to forget the old gods. For most of the vestiges, I can alter them to suit my needs or keep them the same. The mists of time and the mutability of legends can explain why the write-ups in Tome of Magic might not match the facts of these deities in my campaign. However, a departed deity of temptation and fear is important for the grand plot arc of my campaign, and looking at the vestiges, I find that nothing quite suits my needs. With that idea as inspiration, Im ready to begin making a new vestige.
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Note that the standard use limitation means that a character will likely get one or two uses from the ability during a fight. Uses per day or similar limitations dont work well for binders as they can simply switch to another vestige to use its abilities. Avoid Duplication and Conflict: Each granted ability you create should be unique among the vestiges. If your ability duplicates or counters the benefit of the granted ability of another vestige, its likely one or the other will see less use. On the other hand, you might strategically create an ability that stacks with an ability granted by another vestige. T his way a clever player can get greater benefit when using both (at later levels, binders are able to make pacts with more than one vestige simultaneously). Also, you might consider creating your vestiges requirements such that it wont make a pact with a binder who hosts the vestige that has a similar power. Avoid Penalties: Granted abilities shouldnt penalize a PC. It might seem fun or flavorful, or it might seem to balance an ability, but a penalty on a game mechanic a player must choose to use is almost always a bad ideaoften because it simply leads players to choose a different mechanic. Support a Play Style: Binders function much like clerics or druids. T hey can use their special abilities from the back of the party, like a wizard or sorcerer, or they can bolster themselves and run into the thick of fighting. Also, a binder can take up a different role, such as being the stealthy scout, depending on the vestiges the binder chooses to make a pact with. When designing your granted abilities, consider what role youre offering to a binder player. At the same time, you dont want to steal all the thunder from a particular play style. T he vestige abilities you create should not make the binder a better melee combatant that the fighter, a better assassin than the rogue, a better artillery battery than the wizard, or a better healer than the cleric. Instead the binder should be a slightly weaker but more versatile actor in any one of those roles. Rem ain Useful: The granted abilities you design work best if theyre balanced for the vestige level but also remain tempting choices at higher level. Similarly, they work best if they dont negate choosing a vestige of lower level. For example, a vestige that grants bonuses to Hide and Move Silently for as long as it is bound ends up trumped if a later vestige grants the ability to cast silence and i nvi sibility at will. Express Legend or Personality: T he granted abilities of a vestige exist as an extension of its history and persona. Most of the abilities you create should thus express what youve created in the vestiges legend. T hese legends might be pure myths created to explain the abilities a binder gains, so most should fit the themes you present. For the vestige Im creating, Ill work with themes of listening, freedom from constraints, and panic. I considered creating abilities that deal with opening barriers, but Otiax (described on page 43 of Tome of Magic ) already covers that ground.
To see the full details of Vanus, check back next time (04/07) for Tome of Magic : Creating a Vestige, Part 2. In addition to revealing the final design for the vestige I discussed in this article and describing how I derived its vestige level, Ill discuss the sources of D&D legend used for the vestiges of Tome of Magi c and elsewhere.
About the Authors Once editor-in-chief of Dragon Magazine and now a game designer at Wizards of the Coast, Matthew Sernett was Lead Designer for Tome of Magic. He wrote in a Dragon editorial that there's nothing in D&D he likes better than when the adventurers flee through the dungeon, running pell-mell through traps and past monsters because what chases them is worse. When he wrote that, Matthew was thinking about Undermountain -- a feature that also appears on the official D&D website.
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