"Go to the sign of Marvel's Axe, a dubious inn on the edge of the Thieves Quarter, in the City of Greyhawk, and look to your own wrist. If you perceive a bracelet and dangling dice, watch for the next throw in the war between Law and Chaos and be prepared to follow the compelling geas." -Signal

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Wizards & Rogues of the Realms, Miser's Bane

Wizards and Rogues of the Realms is not what I thought it was  going to be when I first saw it way back when. I was under the  assumption that it was going to be along the line of a Rogues  Gallery type of item. I remember thinking to myself why they  would have broken out just two classes for the book. I made the assumption that it was just to sell more books.

The book is just what most of the other "splat" books are. The  book outlines different kits for Wizards and Rogues in the  Forgotten Realms. The majority of the book (maybe two thirds or  more) is dedicated to wizards. Each portion takes a look at the  class as they would exist in nations inside the Realms.

There are also two new classes described. For wizards it is the  Spellsinger and for rogues it is the Shadow Walker. I will need  to be honest and say that I can't see me allowing either of these  into any campaign I would run. The Spellsinger is so open to  abuse that they address that inside the description of the class.  The Shadow Walker is does not suffer from being over powered it  is just a modified MU/Thief that does not need to split  experience. It loses some of the thief abilities and has a lower  spell count. I am not sure the other abilities make it a fair  trade.

The space spent on the new classes is small though. The vast  majority of the book is going over the new class kits available  for each of the nations in Faerun. There are some nice variations  on the classes mixed in among the huge number of variants. I  think that even though I would never use it as I would not find a  reason to use the setting there are some things that can be  extracted for external use.


Published: 1995
Pages: 128

From the back of the book...

From Waterdeep to Thay, from the great Galcier to Calimshan,  wizards and rogues dress, think, and behave in ways that tell the  learned observer just where they hail from. Sometimes the  differences are obvious - anyone can distinguish a seafaring mage  from a turban-crowned spellcaster, or a thief of Lantan from a  burglar of Amn. But often, appearance gives no clue: even wizards  and rogues of the Dalelands vary from Dale to Dale, though one  may look the same as another.Faerunians are fiercely proud of  their heritage, and they carry their native traits with them  wherever they go.

Within these pages are dozens of kits designed to help players in  a Forgotten Realms campaign discover their characters' roots and  reflect them in role-playing. Special benefits and disadvantages  related to each particular home town or territory allow players  to create unique kits that can be applied to mages, specialist  wizards, and rogues, and they can even be layered over other  kits. As a bonus, two new player character subclasses have been  included: the intriguing spellsinger and the stealthy shadow walker.



Spell:

Miser's Bane


Level: Fourth
Range: 12"
Duration: Instantaneous
Area of Effect: One Target
Components: V,S,M
Casting Time: 2 Segments
Saving Throw: Special

This spell allows the magic user to inflict damage onto those who  have the misfortune of carrying around more wealth than they  should. The spell allows the victim an option to avoid some of  the damage though at a cost.

When this spell is cast the magic user will compare the amount of  coins that they have on their person versus that of what the  target of the spell is carrying. For each type of coin that the  target has in excess of the caster they will suffer a varying  amount of damage. The dice used for each type of coin is below:

Copper  - 1d4
Silver  - 1d6
Electrum  - 1d8
Gold  - 1d10
Platinum  - 1d12

In addition to the dice the caster will also cause 1 point per level they posses. The victim is not entitled to a saving through  unless the caster elects to allow it. The caster can in advance elect to allow the victim a save. If this is done and the save is  made then any wealth in excess is immediately teleported to the  casters person and the victim takes half the damage they would  have. If the save fails then they take full damage. The caster  must declare the option before rolling the damage.

The material component of this spell is one coin of each type  that the caster will use to compare wealth against. If the caster  does not have a coin of the appropriate type it is not used.  These coins are destroyed with the casting of the spell and do  not count against the totals when being compared.

Disclaimer: The spells that you will see, for how ever long the  write ups last, were all written up or conceived of back in the  80's so the terminology may not appropriate for anything other  than 1e and depending on how well I did back then it may be  slightly off for that as well. If there is any duplication of  spells that exist now it is most likely I wrote mine first :)  Please feel free to comment on them but try not to be too hard on  me. If anyone wishes to use these in anything they print please  let me know in advance and all I ask is proper credit.

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