Level 1 Sorcerer Reversed Spells

Wyrmbreath

As Dragonbreath, but unleash a blast of icy cold air with Speed 10 but doing 1d6 + 8 damage. If the GM is feeling generous, this can be used for some utility purposes (putting out fire, creating chill water and so on).

Ghost Image

Creates an image that is obviously false, but can be made to move around, though complex movement are impossible (no swinging of arms for a human person). Useful when you need to conjure floating daggers in front of potential usurpers.

Pain Touch

Does 2 points of HP damage to a person touched by the caster, or in other way in contact within 2m (such as through a weapon). This allows the target to make a Magic Defence roll. Armour does not protect against the damage.

Lunar Eclipse

Create a shade of darkness that plunge the surrounding area (5m in radius) into dimness. It is not completely dark (if it was dim before, then it is), but only those with darkvision could see clearly.

Portal

The original Portal spell is originally 2 spell in one (Close Portal and Open Portal)!

Strengthen

Grants the target (within 10m) +1 Attack and +1 damage in combat.

Level 2 Sorcerer Reversed Spells

Hide Aura (expired when dispelled)

Dampen the Sorcerer’s innate magical aura, making him more difficult to be detected as a Sorcerer. The aura can be extend by 2m in a sphere for every 1 extra MP used. It can also be cast on a magical item to prevent its true nature to be known. If a Sorcerer or any other magic-using profession attempt to use a spell to detect auras, treat the Hide Aura spell as a specialised Magic Wall. Magic cast within a Hide Aura, if its level is equal or lower than the MP invested in it, would not be picked up by any magic users.

Mana Lash

As Inflict Wound, but cause the opponent to lose 4 points of Mana instead of 5 points of HP.

Veil Against Unnatural Eyes (Spell Expiry Roll)

Range: 5m
Area of Effect: 2m

Creates an area that is blocked from spells such as Peer and Scry.

Lure Undead

As Hold off the Dead, but this time it lures the undead towards the target, but if they fail their magical defence. This can be tactically useful in some instance, for unless the undead is intelligent, it would just move in easiest method to the caster. Even if there is a pit in front of it.

Wither

This clears a patch of vegetation equal 2m in radius within a range of 15m of the Sorcerer. Trees, weeds, undergrowth and bushes would just wither away, as if water is being siphoned out of them directly and crumble into dust. This spell has no effect on human and other living creatures. Good for removing thick cover quickly.

Warrior’s Luck

Instead of adding -2 to an attacking creature’s hit roll, the Sorcerer gains a +2 on all hit-rolls.  The Sorcerer may cast this spell and attack immediately.

1. A few records of Taidezi arrived at Ellesland, probably smuggled out from the country (for those are all considered Imperial treasures) and sorcerers, sages and scholars are scrambling to get their hand on it. Meanwhile, Imperial agents from Khitai have arrived, determined to retrieve the star charts at all cost. If the adventurers meet them, the agents would explain it is more than a matter of pride – the charts itself contain the exact arrangement of “A Doom of the Sky”, a time when the “celestial lights are in disharmonious accord” which made it easier to summon demons and fiends to the world.
2. A merchant, gifted with a star chart of Taidezi from a high ranking Khitian officer, had a few of his scholarly friends examine it and all went away puzzled. The stars are all in a strange arrangement which does not match those of western astrology and the scholars come to the conclusion that either there is something they didn’t know or the chart is a fraud. Yet when the merchant accidentally hang the chart in front of a mirror, certain of the arrangement begin to form Khitian characters! What is the secret hidden within the star chart?
3. Taidezi did more than just record down the arrangement of the stars. He reconstructed them, using the resources of powerful warlords, sorcerers and Imperial Ministers whom were his patrons. He predicted the time when he would die, and retreated into the Sixty-Four-Fold Celestial Formation, a hilly and forested region of natural wonders, with iron pillars erected at certain positioned. If one would climb the Mountain of the Heavenly Wonders and looked down, those pillars would form the major constellations of the Khitian sky. Yet why did Taidezi create such a formation? There are legends that this formation actually channeled the raw Yin and Yang enegry towards its centre, and there Taidezi still live, observing and studying the stars. If  the adventurers are in need of sagely advice, Taidezi and the Sixty-Four-Fold Celeistal Formation is a place to go.

Create Light Breeze: The wind created is one of heat, and all those caught in it must make a strength roll of 2d6 + Elementalist’s Rank or suffer -2 to Attack and -1 to Defend.

Stargaze: Against fire attacks, the Elementalist has an AF of 2 + his Rank, for the benefit of reducing damage.

False Rumours: Originally, the spell just create aural illusions which sounds threatening. The fire variant of it makes the sounds feel alluring, and could lull someone off to sleep (Pit the Elementalist’s Magical Attack against all the hearer’s Magical Defence). This spell can also make one specific target more vulnerable to mind controlling spell (such as Transfix). If used as such, he suffers a penalty to his Magical Defence equal to half the caster’s Rank.

Windwall: The wall itself is of intense heat. Anyone who come within 2.5m of the caster will take 1d6 points of damage; those who steps within will take 1d10. But the caster himself is not immune from the effects. He takes 1 point of damage per round (unless he has Stargaze cast prior!)

Summon the Host of the Air: All the insects summoned would leave nasty, itchy rashes or boils, which count as a disease (roll 4d6 under Strength to shrug it off). Those who are unable to resist it will find that the itch is unbearable, imposing a -2 penalty to all rolls and reducing the affected person’s Looks by 4. For each day that passes, roll 4d6 under Strength again to see if the disease is shrugged off. If not, 1 point of damage is infected per day (not curable by natural resting)

Intangibility: No variant exists (anyone care to suggest?)

Garrotte: The caster, if he wishes, may want to scar the neck of the victim with burn marks, if the victim takes more than 6 points of damage from the spell.

Flight: For an impressive entrance, the Fire Elementalist could cast a ‘bridge of flame’ to appear under him, as if he is walking on fire in thin air! This can impose a Morale Check on mere mortals and adventurers.

Spin: As the darkness variant of the spell, Spin would cause the poor victim to be bore into the ground, and cause it to become molten in the process (+2 points of damage).

Banshee: The Banshee would be dead after one implosion, but on its death throbs it would ignite the air around it, causing an explosion of flame which is spherical in shape, and up to 20m in radius and having Speed 20, doing 4d10 + 4 points of damage to all victims. Only those who have cover to duck behind, or at the edge of the explosion, may use their Evasion to avoid the flame.

So this is it for the Fire Elementalist’s variants! Remember that variant spells should cost half the MP in the primary (so a level 10 Fire Banshee costs 5 Fire MP and 10 Air MP).

Sleeping Gods, and the campaign world Legend, I feel, is the real reason why Dragon Warriors shine. In this review I hope to explain why. Needless to say, this review is abound with spoilers.

Summary: Sleeping Gods is a set of seven episodic dungeon-crawls which could be linked together as a campaign. It will bring 1st rank adventurers (competent when compared to the ordinary mortal) to 13th rank heroes (legends of the world). It is tied with a rather loose narrative and gives lots of wiggle rooms for the aspiring GM to add in more adventures between each episode.

The most important thing about Sleeping Gods is that it is, in a way, an interactive cultural and historical lesson. Albion, the kingdom where the players are mostly going about, is based on a feudal system much like the medieval times and its elements are practically abound everywhere in the book. There’s also one adventure which would expand the horizon of the characters when they take on an exotic trading voyage.

The Goods: In short, Sleeping Gods is immersive. Small details are everywhere to remind the players of the game world. As Legend is quite similar to our world in some ways, this helps to keep the adventures rooted. The dungeon crawls are reasonably managable and each has their own unique elements.

The second good thing about the campaign is the atmosphere. There is always a sense of danger, the unknown and something familiar. Much of the ‘lore’ in the campaign are based on our world and remains mostly the same – but the context is different. This is different from just plugging in the names, like what Final Fantasy series did to Shiva.

An over-arching element of the campaign is the cultural and social norms aspect. Most of the time, the adventurers would be under a liege lord. The lord grants them social status, a stable income, boarding and basically, respect from others. In return the adventurers can only keep 10% of the treasures which they have found. This must be most discomforting to an adventurer from the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk!

To be fair though, the player’s liege lord is fair and would grant the loot back to the players as boon, but the emphasis is clear – there’s a social norm to follow. Duty and loyalty are common themes throughout.

The Bad: That said, the dungeon crawls’ designs belong to the days of yore. One-wrong-step-and-you-are-dead death traps exist (in the first adventure!) but thankfully, their numbers within one dungeon can be counted with just one hand (even if you have your ring finger bitten off).

Each adventure assume the only motivation for the adventurers is to get rich. Details abound as to how much each trinket would fetch the adventurers at the market place. GMs who wish to involve the characters more into the narrative and the dungeons would have to come up with their own hooks.

There are some inconsistencies between each adventures. For example, each monster has a rank-equivalent. This is present throughout the stat blocks. However, the second adventure has that missing; the first adventure has it as the last line of the block while the third places it as the first.

Second, the rules for stat check in Dragon Warriors goes like this: assign the task a difficulty. If the player’s stat is above that difficulty, it is an automatic success; if not, he has to roll under it on 1d20. This is used for the first adventure – difficulties for each task are given. However, throughout the other, this is missing. All obstacles more or less have the wording “Roll under stat on a D20″.

Quirks: Spot rules abound throughout the book – there’s an obscure reference to what would happen to a Sorcerer who has his left hand injured (all Sorcerers are left-handed in Dragon Warriors). This may be all right considering that Dragon Warriors is rules-lite compared to many of its fantasy-based brethren but it can be annoying when you need to look something up.

The second strange thing about the adventures are that while each has a climax which involves an encounter with a demi-god being, it may not happen at all depending on the player’s choices. (There is only one “scripted” instance where the players would confront with one of them). This sandbox style may eventually lead the characters doing things which could be totally anti-climatic, unless you railroad them (heaven forbids), think fast or have a back-up plan.

The adventures in detail

The title of the campaign, “Sleeping Gods”, actually refers to the various forgotten heroes, demi-gods and deities of Legend. At the point of the campaign, the True Faith (an analog of Christianity) has pretty much spread throughout the world – many old gods and religions were either destroyed or forgotten.

Each adventure typically feature one of those Sleeping Gods; they, however, strangely do not play a big part in the narrative. In fact, players may not even meet them at all if they are too cautious.

1. The King Under the Forest

This has all the vibes of the Arthurian legend; a powerful warrior-king who is kept in stasis by a wizard and would return again when the land has need of him again. The adventurers explore the tomb of the king and may have a chance to become his vassal. The old-school design influences are clear within the first room – death-traps, puzzles which involve trial and error (and probably loss of a few lives) to solve and a tomb which is unlike any real tomb. GMs may wish to rework this adventure a little to fit their tastes – the dungeon crawl may snap some players’ suspension of disbelief.

2. A Shadow on the Mist

A much pretty thought-out dungeon crawl than the prior one (as in, it’s more logical) and pretty thick with atmosphere. The adventurers are sent into a haunted dell to find the fate of a tax-collector who may have wander into there. There is a chance that the players may never come across the big bad boss in the area, unless they are really doing treasure hunting. Careful players who get in, get to the objective and get out fast would miss the “fun” part.

3. Hunter’s Moon

The adventurers and their liege lord are on a sea voyage when a storm wrecks their ship. The ship has to dock to repair, but the cove they have found is near a ruined citadel. The adventurers are dispatched to investigate the building, eliminate all threats and return with treasures (remember, they only get to keep 10%).

The biggest problem with this adventure is that there is an exposition done at the beginning which explain the history of the citadel, and is quite accurate. Players could just say “Right, this citadel belongs to the worshipers of a banished god and they are all dead. Let’s go back to sleep” and finish the adventure – there’s no compelling need for them to venture in except for treasure-lust.

And as before the players may not run into the demi-god of this adventure; just before the climax, they have a chance to turn back. There might be no exciting ending to this adventure unless the GM has something as back-up.

4. The One-Eyed God

An adventure where the narrative is stronger and much better “scripted” (perhaps that’s the politically correct term for railroading?). An assassin has just escaped after an attempt on the adventurers’ liege lord, and the players are sent to hunt him down. The assassin’s escape route, strangely, is through a barrow. Again, this is one of the case where the adventurers may not meet the aforementioned “sleeping god” unless they are serious pack rats and treasure hunters. The objective (to capture the assassin) has nothing to do with the “sleeping god” in question. GMs are encouraged to be creative.

5. Sins of the Father

A heavily scripted adventure which would eventually led the players to meet one of those “sleeping gods”. It also involve a plot-twist and suspicious players may know the answer (thanks to the work of a movie director whose name is best not mentioned). The plot twist is the weakest link in the adventure; the text instructs the GM to cheat if needed to preserve it. Other than this, the adventure is well done and feature many interesting encounters.

6. Mungoda Gold

A departure from the previous adventure, this is an open-ended adventure which puts the adventurers aboard a trading vessel to the a land which parallels Africa. How the entire adventure might go in the latter stage depends on the actions of the adventurers. The highlight of this adventure, however, is on a group of Khitian adventurers — if I am not wrong, that is the Legend’s version of China. Spot rules for tropical diseases and wearing piece-meal armour are included.

7. The Greatest Prize

This is a strange one. The first part is a free-form adventure where the characters have to infiltrate a castle and make a choice – either to ally with the owner, or take it for their own. The second part is a puzzle-based challenge which could be frustrating because there are only a couple of solutions for each of them (think King’s Quests).

This is, however, not a climax to the campaign or the sort. As an ending adventure it makes for a rather weak conclusion. It’s more of a “the adventurers have reach a higher level of play” as they now owe a castle and could become a force to reckon with.

Conclusion

Irregardless, Sleeping Gods is an enjoyable read and may give some ideas for GMs to chew and think about. There is no need to use all the adventures – the GM can choose to drop one or two out from the arc, or even rearrange them.

The weakest part about Sleeping Gods is the lack of a narrative – it may be very well be its biggest strength as it allows the creative GM to put in one of his own. This makes the dungeon crawls flexible – you can use them stand-alone without the plot elements if you wish to.

Scores

Substance (4/5): The dungeons come with maps and description, and even with red herrings and dead-ends. Cultural information, where applicable, are given and spot rules are provided for special situations. Each adventure is stand-alone and ready for running as “they are”, and each has a different feel and favor.

Style (3.5/5) : Evocative illustrations are placed throughout the book and the book, being in an A4 format, makes it easier to read than its original small paperback ancestor.Maps are well drawn, functional and at the same time, stylish. There are a few formatting inconsistencies. An above average production

Being Staggered

The idea here is simple. Whenever you are hit by a weapon which does 4 points or more damage, even though your armour has blocked it, you may be staggered. You are staggered if the damage of the weapon is 4 or above.

Effects of Staggering

The effects of Staggering is simply that your Defence score drops by half till your next turn in combat. This should stop knights from going around in full plate as if they are something of untouchable armoured killing machine.

Cuts and Bruises

For a more lethal feel to combat, GM may want to consider that even in case of a failed bypass roll, if the weapon is large or sharp enough to be dangerous (more than 4 points of damage), he may wish the target to take 1 HP damage anyway.

Attributes and Ranged Attacks

In a previous article on adding a new Stat called Ranged Attack, there is a section missing on how would attribute influence the stats.

• Strength: Use the same rules for Armour Bypass rolls. Increased Strength has no adds to Ranged Attacks
• Reflexes: 13+ will give you +1 Ranged Attack, while 16+ will give you +2 and 19+ will give you +3. Likewise, score of 6 to 8 gives you a -1 and 3 to 5 gives you a -2
• Intelligence: For score of 16+, you get +1 to Ranged Attack. For score of 5 and less, you get -1 to Ranged Attack
• Psychic Talent: No effect

Barbarian Archery Style [The Wild Hunt]

At rank 8 when Barbarian would get Bloodrage, he can choose to forsake that for Wild Hunt. In this unique style, the Barbarian fires arrow at several targets within range, splitting his combined score of Perception and Ranged Attack  for each target.  He achieves that by holding a number of arrows in left hand along with the bow and rapidly firing them at target base on instinct alone (this is similar to the archery style used by the ancient Huns of our world). The drawback is the Barbarian may not go into Berserk before or after the Wild Hunt and his Evasion and Defence is reduced to zero till his next round.

1. Wild Hunt cannot be used if the Barbarian has used Berserk.
2. The Barbarian adds his Perception to his Ranged Attack
3. The Barbarian may fire at any number of targets by splitting his modified Ranged Attack score (up to 5 targets maximum)
4. The Barbarian is at 0 Defence and 0 Evasion till his next turn in combat
5. The Barbarian may not enter Berserk or Bloodrage for the rest of the combat.

Barbarian Horseback Archery

At rank 8, the Barbarian ignores penalties for moving quickly while firing (normally, a target that is moving quickly has a +4 vs. ranged attacks – in the same sense, if the archer is moving quickly, he would also suffer the penalty).

The idea here is to introduce another statistic to govern the use of ranged attacks, such as bows, crossbows and throwing daggers, as the discipline that goes behind them is different from hand to hand combat.

Ranged Attack

In addition to the stats Attack, Defense and Evasion, Ranged Attack determines your chance to hit with a ranged weapon. When using a bow in combat, you use Ranged Attack instead of Attack and otherwise using all the other rules as stated in Dragon Warriors.

Here is the progression of Ranged Attack for each character:

Knights: Starting score of 11, +1 Ranged Attack every 2 levels
Barbarian: Starting score of 12, +1 Ranged Attack every 3 levels
Sorcerer: Starting score of 9, +1  Ranged Attack every 4 levels
Mystics: Starting score of 12, +1.5 Ranged Attack every 2 levels (always round down)
Elementalist: Starting score of 7, +1 Ranged Attack every 3 levels
Warlock: Starting score of 9, +1 Ranged Attack every 4 levels
Assassin: Starting score of 11, +1 Ranged Attack every 1 level

Close Combat Ranged Attack

If anyone attempt to fire into a close combat, he incur a -2 penalty. Also, if the first attack miss, the ally involved in the combat must roll his Evasion to prevent being hit too. Rolling Evasion to counter ranged attacks is only possible if the target is aware that he is being fired at. Usually a verbal warning from a party member counts.

Cutting Powers of the Mind: Increase Reflexes, instead of Intelligence, to 18 (increase to 19 if it was already 18).

Stargaze [Starfire] : Has a AF of 2 against fire-based spells and attacks.

False Rumours: No variant

Windwall: The wind is of extremely hot air. The Elementalist may cast it on an enemy instead of himself. Those who are trapped within the wall takes 1 point of damage per round and requires a lose of 1d8 HP (ignores armour) and a roll of Strength under 2d20 to break out.

Summon Hosts of the Air: For results of 4 and above on the 1d6, those struck by the insects have a chance of getting a disease if they fail to roll under their strength on 3d6 (become 4d6 when the Elementalist reaches rank 9)

Intangibility: While affected by this spell the Elementalist stays at consistent temperature; extreme hot and cold are of no effects on him.

Garrotte: Garrotte of Fire does 1 point of damage minimum even to creatures usually immune to strangulation (undead, for example)

Flight: A nimbus of fire surrounds the Elementalist as he flies which in effect gives him a +2 to Evasion for avoiding missile attacks

Spin: No variant

Banshee: The Banshee may affect magical beings affiliated with water, such as a Water Elemental.

Under the new system, Elementalists will get to roll d6, d10, d12 and d20 for their blast powers. The basics work like this:

• The basic damage dice the Elementalist roll is 1d4. To increase the base dice, you spend additional MP as below
  • Increase to D6: +2 MP
  • Increase to D8: +4 MP
  • Increase to D10: +6 MP
  • Increase to D12: +8 MP
  • Increase to D20: +16MP (see the trend here?)
• You also do a base damage equal to the amount of MP spent. Hence if you spend 1 MP for a blast, it is actually a 1d4+1 point of damage
• You cannot spend more MP than your rank.
• Range is 5m * MP spent
• Speed is 10 + (MP spent)

Hence, using this revised formula, let see how the various blasts look like:

1 MP Blast = Damage: 1d4+1 (2 – 5) , Speed: 11, Range: 5m

3 MP Blast = Damage: 1d6+3 (4 – 9), Speed: 13, Range: 15m

5 MP Blast = Damage: 1d8+5 (6 – 13), Speed: 15, Range: 25m

7 MP Blast = Damage: 1d10+7 (8 – 17), Speed: 17, Range: 35m

9 MP Blast = Damage: 1d12+9 (10 – 21), Speed: 19, Range: 45m

12 MP Blast (12th rank elementalist) = Damage: 1d12+12 (13 – 24), Speed: 22, Range: 60m

17 MP Blast (17th rank elementalist!?) = Damage: 1d20+17 (18 – 37), Speed: 27, Range: 85m

As you can see, whereas in the original rules a 3rd rank elementalist can throw a 6d6 blast, in the revised rules, he at most can spend 4MP for 1d6+4 points of blast, which is weaker than the Sorcerer’s spells but just as effective. A 12-MP blast from a 12th rank Elementalist is pretty much death unless the target is warded against magic.

Comparing with Sorcerers

As a comparision, the 9th level spell Firestorm inflicts 4d10 + 4 damage, which is a range of 8 to 44 points of damage. A 9-MP blast from the Elementalist does 1d12+9, which is just 13 to 24 points of damage, which is half the damage potential but has a higher base damage.  Firestorm has a speed of 18; the 9-MP blast has 19 speed, a slight advantage. However, Firestorm is an area-of-effect spell.

We can also consider the level 4 Shadowbolt spell (Speed 14, 2d6+10 damage) against a 4-MP blast, which has too has a Speed of 14 and does 1d6+4 points of damage. Shadowbolt has a potential of 12 to 22 points of damage while  the 4-MP blast has a potential of 5 to 10 points of damage. Clearly at lower levels the revised elemental blast cannot hold a candle to the Sorcerer’s spells, but this is the point in the first place, if Sorcerers are supposed to be the artillery (or ‘nuker’) mage.

Deathlight, a level 7 spell, does 3d6+10 damage (13 to 28 points of damage) while a 7-MP blast is 1d10 + 7, which yields 8 to 17 points of damage with an advantage in 1 point in speed. Clearly the Sorcerer is still the best damage dealer here.

What if we just double the power cost?

One other solution is that for the base damage for a 1-MP blast is 1d6. For every 2 MP, you increase that by a further 1d6. Hence a 3rd rank elementalist, who can spend 3 MP for a blast, does 3d6 points of damage. That is comparable to Sorcerers, but this time round it is the Sorcerer who has a much stable damage output while the Elementalist has a chance for a higher damage output but if poor roll prevails, he just going to do 3 points of damage. This puts Elementalist’s maximum potential damage output on par with the Sorcerer’s, with an element of risk thrown in, which gives it a different style.