Some more minor arcana for #Stonetop. This time: spells.
At this point, I’m thinking of spells as treasure, things you can discover (or seek out) but usually have to study or otherwise learn.
To that end, I created these based on the random tables I posted earlier, then worked them up into cards. The first side describes the discovery itself and what the PCs must be do unlock its secrets. The back side describes the spell.
Anyhow… feedback welcome and appreciated.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0lFq3ECDQDQWnFJUkhGWnZFZHc
I think I missed how wizard spells work in Stonetop, but I take it they don’t have to be prepared like for the standard Wizard? Since you haven’t specified levels for them.
Correct.
They’re more like moves you unlock through fiction rather than spells you prepare/memorize and potentially forget when cast. And the Seeker class is the best at finding and learning them, probably will start with 1-2 of them (plus an artifact).
The triggers of how you learn them are super cool. The effects themselves seem either to be quite situational (Truth Seeds, Old Mother’s Wine, Fiery Veil, Tomb-Bog’s Mark) or fairly low level (Sudden Sinkhole, Thunderous Bellow). I assume that’s intentional, since you’ve labelled these as Minor Arcana?
The one that strikes me as most powerful on first reading is the Shell Game of Souls – a guaranteed dodge of Death (though you do still have to make a bargain). Tomb-Bog’s Mark at first seemed pretty powerful, but then I started thinking about how much work it would be to contrive the situation (you have to have a subject that you know is guilty of something – though it could be something very small – and then you get a geas that doesn’t actually compel them to do anything – it just means that eventually they probably get attacked if they don’t. How effective that is I guess depends on whether you can get them to believe you when you pronounce the geas, and how scared they are of the Tomb-Bog.
About Game of Souls. If you want power it down, you could give a cumulative +1 on standard Death roll, for every soul you release.
I’m not actually too concerned about the Shell Game spell being too powerful. Mostly, I think if a player is willing to bind the soul of another living, intelligent creature in order to use them as insurance… well, that’s a pretty bold choice and not one that’s likely to sit well with other PCs. Plus, the player is giving me all sorts of fictional positioning to start screwing with them.
With that said, i’m thinking it’d be better if each bound soul reduced your max HP (rather than dealing damage). End result being that, yeah, you’ve got death insurance, but you’re more likely to need it.
FWIW, I don’t think it’s too powerful. It seems pretty evil, and powerful enough to be maybe tempting, and has a potentially interesting drawback. Sounds good all around, especially since if the players are too good to use it, their enemies won’t be.