Artificer Intelligence

I built an entire class for Old-School Essentials around the concept of the infusion mechanism detailed in my previous post. Since I cribbed the name "infusion" from the 5e Artificer anyway, I call it the Artificer here, though I also considered Enchanter or Mage-Wright.

The Artificer class for Old-School Essentials

I started with the Magic-User "chassis." It uses the same hit dice, level progression, saving throws, and base attack bonus.

The biggest drawbacks compared to the M-U: the Artificer's reliance on finding spell scrolls and then successfully crafting once they do. They have to jump through far more hoops to even have their first spell effect.

Because of those drawbacks, I give them a bit more up front:

• The ability to wear leather armor and use shields. Since they don't have to perform an incantation like the Magic-User, they don't have the same limitations.
• Access to a few extra weapons: the crossbow and the warhammer. For a class concept built around using tools to craft, proficiency with a big hammer felt right. Crossbows, being more like contraptions than other ranged weapons, are also at home here. If your campaign uses the new Black Powder Firearms rules from Carcass Crawler # 1, consider giving the Artificer access to the semi-martial firearms as well.
• Since they depend on understanding spell scrolls to even gain access to magical effects, I give them the ability to spend a turn to decipher magical scripts. Essentially, they can Read Magic without casting the spell. Otherwise, they'd rely on a casting class to even get started tinkering.

Additionally, the mechanism itself has the same benefits that I outlined in my previous post: the potential to get more uses out of a spell scroll and opening up access to spell effects to other classes through your infusions.

For those of you familiar with Numenera, this class essentially creates cyphers: limited use arcane contraptions. You could even consider stealing that game's rule that restricts the number of contraptions any character can carry: carry too many, and they start malfunctioning and blowing up in your face.

A few more insights into my design choices:

• The Level 11 class feature states that your apprentices arrive with spell scrolls of their own. This could insinuate that Artificers start with a spell scroll. If you choose to do this, I suggest randomly determining the scroll as if it had been acquired by chance.
• Artificers can use spell scrolls normally, like other arcane casters, but they always have the Thief's 10% chance of error. They aren't quite the experts at casting that Magic-Users are.
• The section on infusions does not explicitly prohibit infusing the same item multiple times. For instance, an Artificer 3 could infuse the same armor with Shield three times, thus giving it three charges. I find this to be an entirely viable interpretation!
• Note that when the Artificer attempts to recharge an infusion, the original spell scroll is not required.

There you are: an Artificer for OSE. Steal it, mine it for ideas, use it for inspiration ...  it's yours to do with as you please!

Magical Arts and Crafts

Crafting rules for pen-and-paper RPGs usually miss the mark. They're often overwrought or too complicated. Sometimes they're too specific to a certain setting and difficult to apply outside of it.

Magical crafting rules will usually list a set of components or reagents necessary, plus a Very Special element that requires a Very Special quest to retrieve. This approach forces a campaign to revolve around crafting, at least for a little bit. That's fine and could be fun, but what if you want to play a magical craftsman or enchanter type in a more traditional dungeon crawl campaign?

I designed a game mechanism (class feature, character ability, however you want to use it) to address that question.

What is art? Are we art? Is art art?

Magical Infusions

It all starts with a spell scroll. To craft a magical item at low levels, you must transfer the magic from a spell scroll into that item.

Why spell scrolls? Mostly because spell scrolls fit right into the basic dungeon-crawling feedback loop. They're found as treasure in most adventures.

Then, with enough time, the right tools, a place to work, and some training, a character can infuse an otherwise mundane object with the spell from that scroll. This allows someone to cast that spell from the item instead of the scroll.

Why would anyone want to go through this trouble?

• It could increase the number of consumable spells at your party's disposal, as it doesn't necessarily consume the original spell scroll.
• Anyone can cast the spell from the infused item, whereas not everyone can use spell scrolls.

Ok, so what are the limitations?

• A character can only maintain a number of infusions equal to their class level.
• Every attempt to infuse an item carries a 10% chance of error: the spell disappears from the scroll, and maybe something else goes awry.

Creating an Infusion

To infuse an item with magic, the character requires:

• A spell scroll that they can read
• A set of tools: tinker's, alchemist's, smith's ... something
• A workbench in a safe place

Then, the character can spend an uninterrupted day at work to make an infusion attempt using their Intelligence score. This could be a standard INT check based on your system of choice. Alternatively, you could use the Spell Books and Learning Spells table from OSE: Advanced Fantasy that I referenced in my previous post on copying spells.

Whichever method you use to adjudicate the Intelligence check, remember to include a 10% chance that the scroll gets erased entirely.

Higher Level Spells

One potential way to abuse this ability: finding a high level spell scroll and using it to repeatedly churn out powerful infusions, even at a low class level.

To avoid this, you could simply rule that there is a maximum spell level that a character can infuse at any given class level. I would probably align this to the maximum spell level that a magic-user of a similar class level could cast.

Or, you could allow higher level infusions, but apply some penalty to the infusion attempt.

Infusions on Adventures

Once created, any character can carry this infused item and cast the spell contained within in the same way a magic-user would cast a spell from memory. Once used, the magic fades and the spell cannot be cast again.

However, if returned to the character who created it in the first place, there is a chance that they can recharge the infusion by spending another day at work and making another attempt using their Intelligence score. Note that they do not need the original scroll on hand to do this.

They only get one shot: if the attempt to recharge the infusion fails, the magic fades for good.

An Example

You're a Level 2 Fighter. Last week during your downtime, a fairy smith in town taught you how to enchant items using the process described above.

During your adventure, your party finds a Scroll of Invisibility. You pocket it and return to town.

You acquire some tools from the local blacksmith and rent out a room with a large table where you can work. You spend the next full day tinkering with a mundane silver ring and the scroll.

You have an Intelligence score of 13. Since Invisibility is a Level 2 spell (and above what an equivalent M-U could cast at this level), the referee applies a -2 penalty to your INT score for this check. That brings your adjusted score to 11: a 50% chance of success.

You make a roll: 67. A failure. However, not within the 10% range of a catastrophic failure, so the scroll is still intact. You sleep and make another attempt the next day.

This time you roll a 14: success! You have infused the spell Invisibility into the ring. You grab another ring and try again the next day, since at Level 2 you can maintain two infusions.

You make your check: 96. Uh oh, you're in the danger zone. The attempt fails. The spell disappears from the scroll! The mishap makes your eyes turn a milky gray.

After a few more days of rest, you slip on your magical ring with its single charge and set off for your next adventure, looking for more spell scrolls.

Never Let Your Friend Copy Your Magic Homework

My magic-user player found his first scroll a few sessions ago. I knew that Old-School Essentials - by the book - does not have rules for copying spells. The magic-user receives one spell per level, and that's that. If they want more, they must spend money and time on research.

However, the new Advanced Fantasy rules contain optional rules for spell books, including a rule that allows a magic-user to attempt to copy a spell scroll with a chance of success dependent upon their INT score:

A very advanced table (from the OSE Advanced Fantasy Player's Tome)

I like this table. It has a good B/X "mechanically unrelated to other parts of the game but feels right anyway" quality to it. I didn't love the price of failure, though. If the M-U fails their roll to copy the spell, they can never learn it again.

It's ok, but it also doesn't present much of a choice. I guess for spells that you really want the choice is "do I risk it or wait to level up and use my class benefit to obtain it?" But, for most spells, the choice is do I risk trying to copy the spell and fail or ... never get the spell at all? Wait until I research it? I think there is an even better way.

Treat the price of failure as the scroll itself. If you fail your roll, it doesn't copy to your spell book and the spell scroll crumbles to dust. Now your choice becomes "do I risk losing the scroll to possibly copy the spell and get to use the scroll later, or do I refrain and guarantee that I have the scroll for my next adventure?"

This has the added benefit of explaining why magic-users don't lend out their spell books for others to copy very often, besides the hand-wavey "because magic-users are selfish and greedy." If you lend out your spell book and your pal fails their roll, the spell gets erased from your book. Not good!

Finding Good Wood

A man showing you that he is a wizard

I recently re-read Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy and it had me pondering how to add some of her unique wizard flavor to my magic-users, particularly her descriptions of a wizard's staff: staves of yew or oak shod with copper or bronze engraved with runes of silver that are unique for every mage.

I'm also somewhat smitten with the Mage class for Old-School Essentials from the inaugural issue of Carcass Crawler. One of its class features is the Mage's Staff:

My wheels now turning, I searched the OSR blogosphere for house rules involving staves for magic-users. I found a common modification that grants a magic-user a staff at 1st Level that can hold a spell. I also discovered more complicated variations, such as this neat take from a decade ago.

There are a lot of fun ways to use staves out there, but I didn't find much that focused on the type of wood used. So, here are some ideas the give your staves a little more flavor.

Magic-users can take any mundane staff and cast a spell into it (this spell can be loosed by the magic-user later). This action binds the staff to the magic-user and grants the magic-user benefits based upon the type of wood:

- Ash: Your staff hums when close to portals to other realms.

- Yew: You can spend a dungeon turn to speak with the dead.

- Oak: You regain 1 hp every wilderness turn spent walking outdoors.

- Pine: Your staff protects you from the ill effects of natural weather.

Additionally, when you camp beneath a large tree that matches your staff, the tree acts as a guardian throughout the night and will warn you if danger approaches. As a result, you cannot be surprised.

(To find a specific type of suitable tree in the wilderness, use foraging and hunting chances as a starting point).

Casting Spells

Last night I kicked off a mini-campaign that will employ a simplified, hacked, and house-ruled magic system. The action only saw one spell cast, but it was memorable. The caster completely botched it and suffered a nasty spell complication.

But the complication was the icing on the top. The real fun came with the uncertainty inherent in the magic system and casting mechanics, which revolve around a d20 roll-to-cast instead of relying on spell points or spell slots. The spell being cast wasn't written in the rules and so it had a real air of mystery and sorcery. I couldn't be happier with the system's first test.

A sorcerer who has suffered from numerous spell catastrophes (art by Russ Nicholson)

Spellcasting works like this:

• Spellcasters specialize in certain types of spells: schools, circles, domains, whatever. They are proficient in casting those spells. They can cast other spells, but not as well.

• During every full rest (a rest spent in a safe haven), a caster can memorize a number of spells equal to their level.

• When they wish to cast a spell, they roll a d20 and add their INT bonus (and caster level / 2 if it's from their favored school), trying to exceed 10 plus the level of the spell.

• If they succeed, they cast the spell and remember the steps to cast it again.
• If they fail, they still cast the spell, but forget how to cast it again.
• A natural 1 results in bad news: everything goes bottoms up. The casting fails miserably and the caster suffers a catastrophe.

• If the spell requires an attack or contested roll, use the result of the d20 roll as the attack roll.

That's pretty much it. I'm using the magnificently zany supplement Wonder & Wickedness as the source of my sorcery schools, spell catastrophes, and several spells. The casting system itself draws inspiration from Dungeon Crawl Classics and Index Card RPG, for those of you interested in my influences.

One tweak I may consider once the players become more familiar: a less binary set of results for the casting check, based on my d20 reaction table. Something like:

< 2 Catastrophe! The spell fails, it's lost from memory, and the caster suffers a magical mishap.

2 - 6 Casting fizzles ... the spell fails and it's lost from memory.

7 - Target Lost focus ... the spell actuates but it's lost from memory.

> Target Textbook casting. The spell actuates and the caster can recall the incantation to cast it again.

Natural 1s always count as a catastrophe result, regardless of modifiers.