[BEGIN] TSR'S SAGA AND GLEN COOK'S BLACK COMPANY (PART II) Article (C) 1999-2000 Ricardo J. Méndez rmendez@sheertalent.com Saga, The Black Company and all the other stuff are the properties of their respective owners. ----------------------------------- SAGA AND MAGIC IN THE BLACK COMPANY ----------------------------------- The magic in the Black Company Universe - which we had already agreed on calling The Empire - seems to be specially well suited to the Saga way of doing things. Magic comes from withing the caster. Spell results aren't fixed but instead they are left to the wizard's imagination and skill. Also, the schools of magic are very well delimited and even powerful wizards have a hard time crossing boundaries. However, there are some sections where both systems clearly clash. Look! A Wizard! --------------- In Dragonlance: The 5th Age, anybody with the correct stats can weild magic. Wizards aren't a dime a dozen in the Empire, being instead rather scarce: maybe one out of five or six hundred can have magical abilities. They also have to be trained by another wizard, since harnessing your inner power is rather hard. My recommendation would be to request high skills on both Reason and Spirit. This should place a fair limit on the number of players that can use magic, since it is actually the exception more than the norm to have a small party (less than 20 members) that includes a magic user. At least at first I heartily recommend not using magic users at all as Mugs. Regaining magic points ---------------------- Regaining magic points seems to be faster in the Empire than in DL5A, with a good night's sleep being more than enough. Magically imbued items ---------------------- It appears that with enough care and dedication, almost any item can be imbued with magic abilities. Only the most powerful enchantments will make this properties last, but rope, spears and other items can be easily enchanted to perform an specific task or have some property for a one-shot use. Old wizards never die --------------------- Unlike traditional AD&D or even Saga, as wizards get more powerful they also get harder to kill, and not only because it gets harder to get close to them but because if even half the body survives it may return to life and hunt you down. You may put an arrow on an old wizard and he'll keep on casting. Cut off his tongue and he'll wiggle his fingers at you and manage to get some spell going. Chop off his fingers and he'll stare at you through murderous eyes while he wonders about a way to strangle you by sheer force of will. It may be due to some spell they apply to themselves, but this is never clearly explained. ------------- MAGIC SCHOOLS ------------- Wizards seem to have access to several schools of magic, but only the most powerful wizards can access more than two of them and perhaps only two in the whole world can dedicate a lot of effort to more than three. It is recommended that you reflect this on having a harder difficulty for those of which the Mug wasn't a dedicated student. Animism ------- Seldom used on the books, Animism does make an appearance with the crows and the little owl-like things (so as not to give any spoilers) on the Books of the South. It is a rather rare school to find. Divination magic ---------------- Divination is less rare than animism, and its description doesn't vary form the one provided with the Saga rules. However, while divining into events that already transpired is easy, finding out about the future is nearly impossible. Healing magic ------------- It is not that normal to see healing magic at work, although some wizards apparently have access to it. To fill the gap, Herbalism and Medicine play a rather substantial role. Rejuvenation and cosmetic magic ------------------------------- A sort of magic practiced by almost every wizard to enlongate their life span, rejuvenation and cosmetic magic appears to be almost a cantrip to which they have access. Rejuvenation involves just keeping the inner organs young and on working order, while cosmetic magic is geared towards an external rejuvenation. Illusion magic -------------- Illusion is BIG on the Empire. With just a little dedication a wizard can create illusions that fight and feel like the real thing until they go up in smoke. Elemental magic --------------- Traditional elemental magic (pyromancy, geomancy, etc.) appears to be absent from the universe. Weather magic ------------- Weather magic requires dedication, but is possible to control. Shapeshifting magic ------------------- Funny enough, Shapeshifting doesn't appear to be one of the hardest magics in the universe. It does have an interesting quirk, nevertheless. Suppose that you learn a spell that will turn you into a leopard. The same spell won't turn you back into a human, so you better learn both halves of it before using it. Mind magic ---------- Getting anything but the simplest confusion spells out of Mind magic can be extremely difficult, and even powerful wizards have a hard time charming others or reading their minds (when they do "read" their minds it is mostly of out knowledge of how the human mind works). Death magic ----------- The most difficult and powerful of all magics, "killing spells", as they are called in the books, are mastered only by the rare few and appear to be a sort of post-grade study for wizards. ------------- ODDS AND ENDS ------------- True names ---------- A wizard's true name is powerful in the Empire, since it is the key to that wizard's power. With its true name a wizard can be stipped his ability to wield magic forever. Taking ------ Taking is a ceremony where a powerful wizard bends a less powerful one to its will. Apparently the ceremony requires the Taken's True Name. However, the ceremony is incredibly lenghty and difficult, since it involves breaking and re-shaping the wizard until it is completely subservient to the Taker. I feel a tremor in the force ---------------------------- For some reason, strong wizards can feel each other. It may have to due with auras but is never explained in the books. Priestly magic -------------- Since there doesn't appear to be any gods in The Empire, any individual that claims to be weilding priestly magic is more likely than not using its own inner power to get things done. [END]