Custom Traditions
By combining drawbacks and boons, a truly unique casting tradition can be created and used to breathe life into a setting or concept. It is also entirely possible for a player to ask a GM if he can create his own custom tradition to reflect a particular character concept; however, it must be remembered that custom casting traditions are a GM tool first and a player tool second.
Example: Jake the GM is creating a campaign centered around the conflict between four groups of magic users; wizards (who use the Traditional Magic tradition), clerics (who use the Divine Petitioner tradition), druids (who use the Druidic tradition), and cultists (who use the Blood Magic tradition). He informs the players that they are free to use whatever classes they wish, but that their character should pick one of those four traditions to use. One of the players approaches the GM and asks if they can use a custom tradition; their character is an alchemist who gains power by ingesting custom brews, transforming into a magical alter-ego not unlike Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. After thinking it over, the GM decides this is awesome and agrees, telling the player that his tradition will be considered a subset of the Traditional Magic tradition and will count as Traditional Magic for all purposes.
Sample Custom Casting Traditions
Addled
Hidden within the ramblings of the insane, one word is often repeated. Some healers theorize that this word is the name of the hidden god of madness, gaining power from—and granting power to—those who surrender their minds to him. There must be some truth to this theory, because sometimes, when those with this word on their lips are displeased with their surroundings, they possess the ability to change them.
Casting Ability Modifier: Charisma
Drawbacks: Addictive Magic, Verbal Casting, Wild Magic
Boons: Easy Focus, +1 spell point, +1 per 6 levels in casting classes.
Apothecary
Apothecaries are masters of tinctures and tonics, who are capable of turning mere bottles of water or pinches of salt into potions and magic powders. Unlike the academic alchemists of the larger cities, apothecaries usually set up shop in country towns, learning as much from experimentation and tradition as they do from their teachers.
Casting Ability Modifier: Intelligence
Drawbacks: Material Casting, Skilled Casting (Craft (alchemy) or Profession (apothecary)); Special Delivery (Enhancement)
Boon: +1 spell point, +1 per six levels in casting classes.
Artificery
Artificers construct magical implements (known as an artificer’s focus) to direct and control their magic. Each sphere they know requires a different focus, and foci can be created by spending 8 hours in a magic lab or alchemist’s lab. While somewhat unstable, these items make directing power easy.
Casting Ability Modifier: Intelligence
Drawbacks: Focus Casting (artificer’s focus), Wild Magic
Boon: Easy Focus
Bardic Magic
Bardic magic is a holistic style of magic that transforms the natural magic of music into powerful magical force. While rather physically demanding, those who have trained in bardic magic often have more power at their call than others.
Casting Ability Modifier: Charisma
Drawbacks: Skilled Casting (Perform (any)), Somatic Casting, Verbal Casting
Boon: +1 spell point per odd level in casting classes.
Beast Charming
It is often said that music can soothe the savage beasts of the world, but the knack for doing so is a difficult, and often dangerous, skill to develop. Many practitioners develop specialties that cause them to become more comfortable with certain kinds of animals, but whether they choose to catch rats, charm snakes, or divert locusts from crops the ability to pacify, guide, or otherwise enchant animals remains the same.
Casting Ability Modifier: Charisma
Drawbacks: Skilled Casting (Perform (any)), Somatic Casting x2; Animal Shaman (Mind)
Boon: +1 spell point per odd level in casting classes.
Bloodletting
Casters of the bloodletting tradition use their ornate ritual knife to make precise incisions, drawing forth trickles of blood that is smeared, thrown, or otherwise manipulated to cast their spells. Casters of this tradition usually use the Blood Price optional ritual pricing.
Casting Ability Modifier: Constitution
Drawbacks: Draining Casting, Focus Casting (ritual knife), Magical Signs, Painful Magic, Somatic Casting
Boons: Fortified Casting, Sanguine Empowerment, +1 spell point, +1 per 6 levels in casting classes.
Blood Magic
One of the most dangerous forms of magic, blood magic, promises great power to its practitioners, but with a price. Blood magic is difficult, lengthy, complicated, and draining, but for its practitioners the promise of insurmountable power is worth the mere price of their life force. Blood mages are constantly performing a dangerous dance, for the closer they are to death’s door, the greater their power.
Casting Ability Modifier: Constitution
Drawbacks: Draining Casting, Extended Casting, Somatic Casting x2, Verbal Casting
Boons: Deathful Magic, Fortified Casting, Overcharge
Bonneteur
This method of fast talking con artistry has been developed to the point where it is undeniably supernatural in nature. A tradition closely guarded by many thieves guilds until they can monopolize a region, it has nevertheless spilled out into the world. Only a small number of true magicians employ this style, but rogues, bards, and other dabblers in mental magic will often focus their studies on this magical tradition.
The fast-talking and wild gesticulating arm movements are similar enough to the actions of street hawkers that the magic can often go unnoticed by those who are not expecting it, and its effectiveness at the negotiating table makes the draining effect on the caster’s psyche worth the trouble.
Casting Ability Modifier: Charisma
Drawbacks: Draining Casting, Somatic Casting, Verbal Casting; Lost In Translation (Mind)
Boon: +1 spell point per odd level in casting classes.
Caffiend [Jester's HB]
Caffiends are an odd blend of addicts and savants who draw strength from their love of coffee, tea, or other caffeine-laden drinks.
Casting Ability Modifier: Intelligence
Drawbacks: Material Casting (coffee or tea), Rigorous Concentrating, Witchmarked (scent of coffee or tea).
Boons: +1 spell point per odd level in a casting class.
Cartomancy
Most commonly practiced by itinerant fortune-tellers, cartomancy is the art of divining by cards. Many casters extend this to manipulating the myths the cards symbolize to empower themselves and others.
Casting Ability Modifier: Wisdom
Drawbacks: Extended Casting, Focus Casting (deck of cards), Skilled Casting (Profession (fortuneteller)); Limited Divination (sense) (Divination), Sanctified and Tongue Of Ages (Fate)
Boons: Easy Focus, +1 spell point, +1 per six levels in casting classes.
Chi Tracer
Considered a subset of the monastic casting tradition, monks who train their minds as well as their body and spirit have a greater endurance for performing their techniques, though their feats of mentalism require a knowledge of an enemies’ (or allies’) pressure points and chi lines, giving them the ability to deliver crippling nerve pinches (or helpful chiropractic alterations) to impart their charms.
Casting Ability Modifier: Wisdom
Drawbacks: Somatic Casting x2; Lycanthropic (Alteration), Meld Into Dark (Dark), Deathful Touch (Death), Destructive Touch (Destruction), Bodily Enhancement and Personal Magics (Enhancement), Personal Fate (Fate), Personal Illusion (Illusion), Touch Of Light (Light), Regenerate (Life), Tactile Charm (Mind), Nature Spirit (Nature), Limited Protection (Protection), Personal Time (Time), Solo Combatant (War), Personal Warp (Warp)
Boon: Easy Focus
Cholmic Traditionalist
A tradition that dates back to the long dead Cholmic civilization, the methods of their cultural magic have been lost to all but a few liches and fragments of old, rotten tomes. While the methods themselves are cursed by the very gods, that curse has also decayed over the years – while the magic would have originally hideously harmed the caster and the recipient, nowadays most of the curse decays into simple pain, grey light, and the noise of vast bells.
Casting Ability Modifier: Intelligence
Drawbacks: Addictive Casting, Magical Signs, Painful Magic, Somatic Casting x2, Verbal Casting
Boons: Overwhelming Power, +1 spell point per level in casting classes.
Contaminated
Somewhere in the bowels of the criminal underworld, an alchemist cracked the code of magic and created Essence. This powerful, addictive powder would grant magical ability to anyone who consumed it. The crime lord who first distributed Essence sold it everywhere, eager to gain a dedicated following of addicted ‘wizards’, but he underestimated the power of the addiction— and of the addicted. The lab was destroyed as magic users descended on it to increase their supply and steal the secret of its creation. Now Essence can be found virtually anywhere people are rich enough—and foolish enough—to seek it out.
Casting Ability Modifier: Intelligence
Drawbacks: Addictive Casting, Material Casting, Wild Magic
Boon: +1 spell point per odd level in casting classes.
Divine Petitioner
A divine petitioner gains their magic through service and prayer to a divine source, such as a deity. A divine petitioner must pray every day to regain their spell points, petitioning not only for their magic, but specifying how they intend to use it that day. Divine petitioners do everything in the name of their deity and find it difficult to even manifest their power unless they have their holy symbol in hand.
Casting Ability Modifier: Wisdom
Drawbacks: Focus Casting, Prepared Caster, Verbal Casting; Aligned Combatant (Destruction), Aligned Protection (Protection)
Boon: +1 spell point per odd level they gain in casting classes.
Dream Casting
Dream casters are aloof individuals often viewed as extremely odd by other types of magic users. Wielding strange implements and prone to torporic trances, dream casters typically draw their power from esoteric and poorly understood spheres such as Mind and Time. Walking the far borders of reality, dream casters are able to call upon amazing strength but do so at significant risk.
Casting Ability Modifier: Wisdom
Drawbacks: Focus Casting, Magical Signs, Narcoleptic Casting
Boons: Overcharge, +1 spell point, +1 per three levels in casting classes.
Druidic
A druid gains their magic through communion with nature and the spirits contained therein. While many casters band together for mutual study and protection, druids take this a step further, possessing their own secret language that identifies one druid to another. The hierarchy of the druids is a very sacred thing for them, and there are only so many high-level druids in the world at any one time. Indeed, a druid rising through the ranks often times must claim their new title by taking it from another druid through a demonstration of superior magic. A druid gains +1 spell point, +1 per three levels gained in a spellcasting class.
Casting Ability Modifier: Wisdom
Drawbacks: Focus Casting, Prepared Caster, Verbal Casting; Animal Shaman (Mind)
Boon: +1 spell point, +1 per odd level in casting classes.
Fey Magic
To the fey, magic is simply a part of life - and those who study their styles often find that their emotions are a problem, but magic is stronger and easier to control.
Casting Ability Modifier: Charisma
Drawbacks: Emotional Casting, Fey-Infused Magic, Somatic Casting, Wild Magic
Boons: Easy Focus, Overcharge
Flame-Blooded
There exist those who bear in their blood a touch of pure fire. Details of their origin are spotty at best, but the tale is told of a tryst between a mortal woman and the elemental spirit of fire itself, granting the power of fire to all her descendants. The flame-blooded are often as brash and volatile as the element that powers their magic; to cross one is to invite a swift and deadly response.
Casting Ability Modifier: Charisma
Drawbacks: Energy Focus (fire) (Destruction), Limited Warp (requires fire) (Warp), Focused Weather (Heat) (Weather)
Boons: None
Gadgeteer
Not often thought of as a mentalist or magician (even amongst themselves), gadgeteers have a knack for constructs, magic devices, and machinery. Armed with a favored tool or set of tools (such as a specially designed burin or wrench), they tinker with clockwork and other bits of artifice to transform the world around themselves and bring mental might to bear on creatures such as golems. Teammates often dislike their magic due to suddenly having clockwork gears or strange gadgets incorporated into them, but apart from that they can bring great gifts to those they assist.
Casting Ability Modifier: Intelligence
Drawbacks: Focus Casting (artisan tools), Magical Signs, Material Casting, Rigorous Concentration, Skilled Casting (Craft (mechanical)); Unnatural Transformation (gadgets and gears) (Alteration), Elongated Summoning (Conjuration), Kindred Knack (construct) (Mind)
Boon: +1 spell point per level in casting classes.
Hypnotism
Often unsettling and always mysterious, the art of hypnotism, sometimes called mesmerism, has its roots in the magic of the mind, but a flick of the wrist, sway of a pendulum, and penetrating stare of a master has allowed magicians of all stripes to unlock their truest potential. Wielding a specially prepared amulet, pocket watch, gemstone, or other lustrous item that can be held aloft or swayed with a practiced hand, hypnotists and those who use their methods to unlock magical power are often feared as insidious or enthralling masterminds, but can also be celebrated as entertainers and practitioners of skills that make the mysterious appear whimsical and mundane.
Casting Ability Modifier: Intelligence
Drawbacks: Extended Casting, Focus Casting, Skilled Casting (Profession (hypnotist)), Somatic Casting
Boon: +1 spell point per level in casting classes.
Inherent Divinity
For some, the source of divine power does not come from without, but from within. With nothing more than a word and their will, they can impose their desires on the world.
Casting Ability Modifier: Charisma
Drawbacks: Emotional Casting, Verbal Casting
Boon: Easy Focus
Ley-line Tapper
Ley-line tappers draw their power from the innate mystic potential of the leylines connected to notable natural locations. Doing so takes great effort, but once the power is drawn, it is in some measure self-sustaining.
Casting Ability Modifier: Intelligence
Drawbacks: Area Bound, Extended Casting
Boons: Easy Focus, +1 spell point, +1 per six levels in casting classes.
Lycanthrope
Curses are terrible things and lycanthropy more so than most. For some casters, however, lycanthropy is the beginning of a long journey to power. These souls not only learn to control their animalistic natures, but to expand them, pulling power from their curse and turning it into a source of magic. Practitioners of this magic should beware however; curses are not trivial things, and a lycanthrope’s magic is unpredictable at best.
Casting Ability Modifier: Charisma
Drawbacks: Wild Magic; Lycanthropic (Alteration)
Boon: +1 spell point, +1 per six levels in casting classes.
Mind
For some people, magic is an expression of their will, and a little mental focus is enough to call it into being.
Casting Ability Modifier: Intelligence
Drawbacks: Emotional Casting, Rigorous Concentration
Boon: +1 spell point, +1 per three levels in casting classes.
Monastic
When the power of the spirit is properly cultivated through physical discipline and meditation, it can elevate itself to a form of magic. There are orders of monks who practice this form of magic, using their monastic traditions to guide their pursuit of magical awakening. Renowned for their versatility of power, casters of these monastic orders are often solitary, as the very source that gives them such great power also makes it difficult to manifest that power outside of their own bodies.
Casting Ability Modifier: Wisdom
Drawbacks: Somatic Casting x2; Lycanthropic (Alteration), Meld Into Dark (Dark), Deathful Touch (Death), Destructive Touch (Destruction), Bodily Enhancement and Personal Magics (Enhancement), Personal Fate (Fate), Personal Illusion (Illusion), Touch Of Light (Light), Regenerate (Life), Nature Spirit (Nature), Protected Soul (Protection), Personal Time (Time), Solo Combatant (War), Personal Warp (Warp)
Boon: Easy Focus
Mysticism
Mysticism is less about strict hierarchies and more about learning from the divine forces that empower the world. As students of the magical arts, those who follow the path of the mystic tend to have very obvious displays of magic as they channel the might of various spirits and deities.
Casting Ability Modifier: Wisdom
Drawbacks: Focus Casting (any), Magical Signs, Verbal Casting, Wild Magic
Boon: Empowered Abilities, Metamagic Expert
Natural
Creatures with Natural casting have innate magical abilities with no drawbacks or boons.
Casting Ability Modifier: Charisma
Drawbacks: None
Boon: None
Nomad Shamans
An oral magical tradition, the nomad shamans are members of nomadic tribes who have honed their connection to the natural world through ritual deprivation. Their long and harsh training is often necessary for the survival of their tribe, allowing their people to subsist in areas too harsh for normal survival.
Casting Ability Modifier: Charisma
Drawbacks: Magical Signs, Verbal Casting; Bodily Enhancement and Restricted Enhancement (tribe members) (Enhancement), Nature Spirit (Nature)
Boon: Draw Magic
Pact Magic
Pact Magic focuses on summoning beings to cast magic on the user’s behalf. Having another entity managing the power makes it easy to control, but it can be hard to resist the pull they have over the caster…
Casting Ability Modifier: Charisma
Drawback: Addictive Casting
Boon: Easy Focus
Runist
Runists study the first language—the language of creation itself. With this knowledge, they can create magical effects by writing out the appropriate runes—a time-consuming process, but a powerful one. Runists spend their lives mastering true names and meditating on the meaning of the runes, for once a runist has mastered a rune’s essence, they master that aspect of creation itself.
Casting Ability Modifier: Intelligence
Drawbacks: Extended Casting, Skilled Casting (Craft (calligraphy)), Somatic Casting x2
Boon: +1 spell point per level in casting classes.
Scion Of The Crown
In a small Western kingdom, the princes and princesses are taught a unique casting tradition that draws on the symbolism of permanence through ponderous recitations of their family line back generations and straight-backed demonstrations of their authority. Throughout centuries of marriages, alliances, and usurpations, this tradition has spread throughout the land – however, competition with foreign traditions and the requirement of noble blood has left it as more of a curiosity than anything else.
Casting Ability Modifier: Charisma
Drawbacks: Extended Casting, Focus Casting (crown or coronet), Skilled Casting (Knowledge (nobility)), Verbal Casting
Boons: Drawback feat (Careful Magic, Magical Focus), +1 spell point per six levels in casting classes.
Song-Wielder
Born of ancient royalty, a song-wielder makes magic through the power of their voice. It is an ancient art and difficult to master, but very rewarding. Because a song-wielder’s magic is tied to their voice, they grow in strength the longer they sing. Often, it is only when a song-wielder has sung himself hoarse that his true power manifests.
Casting Ability Modifier: Intelligence
Drawbacks: Skilled Casting (Perform (sing)), Verbal Casting
Boon: Empowered Abilities
Sorcerous Blood
For some individuals, magic is truly in the blood, and all it takes to use it is a flick of the wrist and a quick chant of arcane words.
Casting Ability Modifier: Charisma
Drawbacks: Somatic Casting x2, Verbal Casting
Boon: +1 spell point per odd level in casting classes.
Sword-Bound
Sometimes, when a magic-user dies, a part of their spirit (called an echo) remains attached to the objects they wielded in life. This is the case with a particular ancient house, where the heir apparent inherits the house’s sword on their fifteenth birthday. Not only does this ancient sword still cut as well as the day it was forged, but it also carries the echo of the family’s founder, granting its owner access to the ancestor’s famed magical power. Wielding the sword is exhausting, but it is a small price to pay to access its magic.
Casting Ability Modifier: Charisma
Drawbacks: Draining Casting, Focus Casting (sword)
Boon: Fortified Casting
Traditional Magic
Traditional magic is the study of the natural world, astronomy, alchemy, and ancient learning to create magic through a combination of gestures, words, and magical components. Traditional magic is based on performing specific rites and observing various taboos, meaning its practitioners must decide each morning what magic they will use that day so they may perform the appropriate rituals. Traditional magic is the realm of academics, making it a long and grueling course of study but granting wisdom and power in equal amounts.
Casting Ability Modifier: Intelligence
Drawbacks: Material Casting, Prepared Caster, Somatic Casting x2, Verbal Casting
Boon: +1 spell point per level in casting classes.
Vitalist
Where some spellcasters learn their magical talents through their blood or through study; some unfortunate spellcasters were born with a soul intrinsically tied to magic. These people may never notice their magical powers until they grow of age, suddenly and spontaneously utilizing magic when at their healthiest- and notably feeling much more exhausted afterwards. Vitalists are spellcasters whose magical forces are tied directly with the health of their hearts, and who’s bodies serve as a physical vessel for their mana; even small disturbances such as illnesses or diseases can inhibit their magic.
Casting Ability Modifier: Charisma
Drawbacks: Magical Signs, Unstable Storage, Vulnerable Spellcaster.
Boon: +1 spell point per odd level.
Water-Magi
There exists an order of monks who pull power from an ancient pact formed with the spirit of the moon. These water-magi are born with the power to bend water to their will, pulling it as the moon pulls the tides. Through dedicated practice, they use their movements to control this liquid and bring its power to bear against their enemies.
Casting Ability Modifier: Wisdom
Drawbacks: Somatic Casting x2; Water Wizard (Creation), Energy Focus (cold) (Destruction), Limited Telekinesis (requires water) (Telekinesis), Focused Weather (Precipitation) (Weather)
Boon: Easy Focus
Wild-Born
A wild-born is someone who was raised by magical creatures: the adopted children of dragons, fey beings, or other creatures of natural inborn magic. While being raised by such beings does not grant the adopted child their parent’s magic, a wild-born might develop a connection with a magical sibling, drawing their power through this familiar bond.
Casting Ability Modifier: Charisma
Drawbacks: Focus Casting, Verbal Casting
Boon: Bound Creature
Wizardry
Considered a subset of traditional magic, wizardry takes a lot of study, using magic wands and exotic materials to bend natural powers to the user’s will in very obvious displays of power. Wizards often carry a signature when they use magic, as it manifests in a particular color and shape that grows as they gain power to reflect their own personal styling. The path of wizardry is hard, but those who master it learn to manipulate their power with great skill, becoming masters of metamagic.
Casting Ability Modifier: Intelligence
Drawbacks: Focus Casting, Magical Signs, Material Casting, Prepared Caster, Somatic Casting x2, Verbal Casting
Boons: Metamagic Expert, +1 spell point per level in casting classes.