Have you ever had a game where the caster invoked magical entities instead of simply casting spells?did it had any weight on the actual game or was it mostly ignored?Warlock/Shaman storytime?pic not related
>>98135906why do tourists just talk about games and not actually play them?
I would love something similar to Golden Sun where players are for the most part melee but can gain access to elementals for their spells but I don't know any system that actually does it.
>>98135906My last full campaign had a Necromancer. It was 5e D&D, but I had a great time working with him as a player> Goldi, as we knew him, was the last of the Yuan-Ti, from a time and culture where necromancy was commonplace.> We started off as pirate prisoners and ended up sailing around as part of the plot, but he made the best use of his zombies by filling them with gunpowder so they could be used as bombs> Like the drowned zombies from Darkest Dungeon> We had zombie cannon fodder almost everywhere we went, and they proved remarkably useful.> Towards the end we were fighting giants, and Goldi made a point of taking on zombie giants as we approached the final bossHad a lot of fun with Goldi and my clockwork sorcerer, but I wish I'd done more to work with his summoning/minion commander gimmick.
Yeah but the problem is that mechanically it always ends up as "I cast spells"I would love a system that actually conveys a feeling of animism but never found one.
>>98142543I feel like it's the sort of thing I've seen in systems before, but looking through everything I've gathered I can't pinpoint one that really focuses on it. There's some games out there that have spells that basically function as loot that anyone can use, but I can't think of many that take the angle of having it all be from creatures.Even speaking more broadly, in the cases where it isn't just purely flavor (saying a character's spellcasting comes from a pact with a magical being), it's usually closer to Final Fantasy style summons, where it doesn't really do anything outside of one big flashy effect. >>98143303I suppose the question would be how to get that feeling across. The way it usually ends up just being "I cast spells" is because the mechanics are well-defined enough to be rote. For example, a Cleric in Dungeon Crawl Classics have to worry about their god's disapproval, but they're able to fix it at the cost of 50 gp of sacrificial offerings (of whichever flavor the god prefers) per point of disapproval.Even in the case where the rules handled it on a more case-by-case basis, it's the sort of thing that would end up gamified, because the rules would need to estimate how powerful a requested effect from an entity is, and what sort of favor or offering the entity would expect in return. But when you break that down into fundamentals, it's still just spells with a material component cost. You spend 1 hour burning X incense while chanting praises to the lord of fire, and he gives you Y result. Unless everything gets turned into an unpredictable negotiation, it's generally going to resemble a spell. And if it's too unpredictable, then it becomes something that the players are less likely to engage with because they can't rely on it when they need it.
>>98143409L5R is a great example. Everything is supposed to be nebulous favors from the kami but it's all completely gamified. Even later splats that add some aspects of ritual sacrifice make it "sacrifice this, receive a bonus to your skill roll"
>>98143409>Even speaking more broadly, in the cases where it isn't just purely flavor (saying a character's spellcasting comes from a pact with a magical being), it's usually closer to Final Fantasy style summons, where it doesn't really do anything outside of one big flashy effect.I don't think I've seen any systems with a Final Fantasy summon system either though. Usually the only summoning I see is the D&D "Summon creature" type of spells where you summon a beast of some kind. Not really the same as summoning Shiva in my opinion. The only other Summoner thing I usually see is Pathfinder's Summoner class but that also doesn't fit that "summon creature for magical effect" feel.
>>98135906>>98143303Mythras does exactly that, with the Chaman magic users.You go around looking for spirits, which you can try to capture and who have different powers.You can bind a spirit to an object, to enchant it or get a magical use out of it, or you can send them to attack people or other spirits, Pokemon style.
>>98143303Stormbringer.
>>98144717Which one
>>98135906D&D 4e has The Invoker class who basically do this to cast Divine magic as a Sorcerer casts Arcane magic.
>>98145474I love 4e but the invoker is just divine wizard. There's not much spiritualism or animism.
Bump for interest
>>98145474When you said 4e I was expecting you to point to the Shaman, since that does have a spirit that you conjure up and position to make the most of abilities. Though even then that's not quite what OP is after since if I remember right, you don't really swap spirits, so much as just pick one as a specialization.
>>98135906A few years ago I played in a Berserk inspired campaign The magic system for most spell was basically the mage entering in trance and barter/persuade some spirit to do interveneThe majority of spirits being local to general area or just there because an specific event attract themIn one session we started a forest fire to attract a greater fire spirit so we could use it to attack a nearby fortified camp
