What is your attitude on conan Magic?

[Elaith the Serpant]

I was just wondering on what your attitude on PC's and the use of magic. Heres mine, as magic is seen as evil, comparitivly rare and deadly. For this reason i'm not letting charecters start as a scholor or multiclass into the scholor class unless they find a magical tomb or somesuch and spend time and effort finding people to teach them, (for the scholor class) or try private study, which would qualify the dabbler feat.

I was just wondering is this a comparable to your opinions, and if not whats yours?

 

[Arkobla Conn]

I've got a player who is always a Magic User type and since we are all very good friends, I didn't want to arbitrarily cut him off at the knees and tell him he couldn't play one. This is what I/we did.

1. The campaign is starting at 2nd level to give the scholar some variety. he's taken prestidigitation and divination...moderately innocent areas.
He's also going to be proficient in teh Stygian bow, so he can contribute during combat.

2. I've told him that he needs to find sources of learning/mentoring for him to continue.

3. I've WARNED him that this is not DnD magic...he'll get few spells and he'll have to be inventive to be able to use them.

All in all, it's about having fun..and this is what he wants...who am I to limit him.

 

[Erlik the Red]

Well my group started out at level 1 and now they have advanced to level 3-4. I only allowed one scholar, and that was my friend who is extremely well read when it comes to the Howard stories. He created a Khiti scholar from the religious organization of Yog. So far its been going extremely well, the scholar has actually only used his magic twice. Once to stop a horde of excaping cultists (used defensive blast) and another time to save a comrad by engaging a night wierd in a battle of wills. He's been very judicious about his displays of power, and it has proved quite heroic sofar. He's currently managed to avoid garnering too much corruption, and since he's far from his homeland, he has been self teaching himself for the last 3 levels.

 

[Deathdealer]

Elaith, that is pretty much the way I will approach it myself. I really don't want to see sorcerer PCs. It just seems wrong to me for the Conan game.

 

[bampf]

I m in agreement that a campaign with magic in the hands of only the ne'erdowellers of Hyboria seems more 'right.' But I also have a player who always plays magic user types, so I ve agreed to let him try the Scholar route... just made sure to give him a laundry list of Howard magic caveats. We ll see how it goes.

 

[BhilJhoanz]

Elaith - ideally your presentation is perfect. I'd have very strong reservations about letting players start scholar at 1st level. Furthermore, a party with a scholar takes a very different tack than a party of fighter types.

Fortunately, Our group hasn't run into a problem with people wanting to play 1st level scholars.

 

[Zak Arntson]

Your group should discuss what you all perceive Conan-style magic to be, so you have an agreement before play starts. If you have someone who wants to play a scholar (or multiclass to scholar in the future), you may need to accomodate a player-friendly stance, including making sorcerer's a little easier to stomach than the strict canon.

In Howard's The Scarlet Citadel, Conan briefly teams up with a sorcerer to escape a dungeon. Though the sorcerer is far more powerful than Conan, at least it's some kind of precedent.

If you don't mind scene switching (i.e., PCs are in different scenes, and the GM switches from one scene to the next and back, preferably at mini-cliffhangers), you could also forgo the traditional party play and tie the players together through NPCs. Say, two players are rogues and scoundrels, and are trying to steal from Atlagh of the Red Eyes' demesne. They are aided by a young man, who is secretly involved with Atlagh's weird daughter (turns out she's mostyl human). The young man happens to be the scholar PC's brother. The scholar PC is learning under Atlagh, but recently discovered that Atlagh plans to kill his brother, and so the PC is now plotting against Atlagh. Combat could slow scene switching, but give the out-of-action player an NPC to fight with or something?

 

[Throthvile]

If you're gonna go scene switching and leaving people without much to do, I suggest having a sort of assistant gm hanging about to help. I played in a game with 1 1/2 GMs once, and my god, we were always doing something. No down time. It was the assistant's job to help with combat, provide sound effects and some colorful character acting, and also make sure everyone was engaged. Party split up?No problem, Mr. Assistant throws something at you. Worked rather well. THough it was a one shot, and survival horror at that. Then again, for something different occasionally, I wouldn't mind.

 

[bolen]

I found some books by Karl Wagner about Kane (He seems like what I would expect a conan type sorcereer to be like

 

[Anonymous]

I found some books by Karl Wagner about Kane (He seems like what I would expect a conan type sorcereer to be like

Yeah, I have read the kane books. No, Kane is not a true sorceror, in conan terms he would be a dabbler. Also, if you know about the chronology, Kane actually has a good grasp of alien/future science, and thus somtimes uses alien weapons/future weapons that appear to be magikal.

If you want a great taste on sword and sorcery magik, read the elric books by moorcock. The conan magik is ok for the game; but I really wish someone would put out a real rpg that focuses on sword and sorcery magik like in elric. The stormbringer game by chaosium, while tries to remain true to the elric magik, it ends up being way, way to vague.

As for the original argument; definately allow players to be sorcerors. But don't allow more than one in any game. Also, encourage them to be proficient in combat; say by taking a weapon proficiency, or certain feats like weapon focus, combat expertise, etc etc. The is little need to multi-class, sorc chars already need to be of a VERY high level to be actually able to cast spells that make a difference.

 

[Zak Arntson]

Kane is very much a sorcerer. It's just that sorcery is presented as so dangerous, that even a powerful sorcerer like Kane hardly ever uses it. Even if you separate technology from magic, Kane knows some pretty powerful tricks. Dark Crusade showcases some sorcerery, in particular, with the thing he unearths at the beach (if I'm remembering right) and his use of the tower (trying to be vague so I don't spoil anything).

In any case, I'm not sure if magic is separate from technology in Howard's or Wagner's work. But that's a whole other thread!