Pathmagic / Article

Chapter 2 - Class - Pathmagic

Pathmagic Original Article

Khenvorm Rallister, called the Gaunt, had worked long hours on the paths of magic, and the road was growing easier the further he travelled it. Today had given him a chance to prove his skills with a petrification spell of his own invention. He looked out of his tower at the results; twelve goblins serving as lawn ornaments, faces frozen in expressions of stony horror. His colleagues at the Guild of Seven Stars had helped him walk the Path of Stone, just as they had helped his first steps on the Path of Lesser Fire Magics. With luck and hard work, soon he would be a master of all the elements, and ready to challenge that old fool Anselm the Bald for the Guildmaster’s chair. He smiled quietly to himself; no one at the Guild knew that the secret ways of necromancy had fallen to his superior intellect. They thought they had taught him all his tricks at the Seven Stars, but his mastery of the Reapers Road would be an unpleasant surprise for anyone foolish enough to oppose him. . . .

In most AD&D game campaigns, magic is organized into schools, colleges of magic that feature related spells such as charms, alterations, or illusions. Each mage can choose to learn any spell he finds, of any school. Specialist wizards can memorize more spells each day, at the price of being forever barred from all spells of certain schools. The current rules don’t allow for any variation from these two patterns— but there is another path that a wizard character can follow.

This article describes a new set of rules to govern magic in AD&D game campaigns. It allows a mage the best of both worlds; depending on the choices he makes when he begins studying magic, an archmage may be a specialist, a generalist, or may end up somewhere in between. The spells he chooses early on determine what spells he gains in the future. Path magic—also called pattern magic, step magic, or web magic—operates by mimicking the learning process. Mages don’t just jump randomly from spell to spell; they choose and then pursue paths of power that channel their options.

In the current rules, each spell is learned in isolation, with no connection to a larger picture. Magic loses some of its wonder because it operates just as reliably and simply as a hammer or any other tool. Variant rules based on spell points (sometimes called mana) fail for the same reason; they draw no connections between spells. But magic isn’t a tool; it’s an art, a system of interwoven knowledge and skills. This article reinforces that fact and restores a sense of progression to your fantasy role-playing setting.

In addition to improving the logic of the rules, grouping similar spells in sequence gives players a way to discuss spells in character: “Well, once we saw that Marzak of the Azure Lightning had mastered the seventh step of the Storm Path, we knew his magic could be the death of us all, so we pretended to surrender, and then . . .”

Paths are bodies of knowledge that are kept in colleges, where the initial stepping stones are passed down from masters to students. Colleges are founded to pursue certain forms of magic; to follow a path, a mage either must research each step on his own or join a guild or college. Because each mage’s guild is devoted to certain paths, the DM can limit player choices in a logical way (“They don’t teach the Path of the Mind at the Guild of Seven Stars”), but this also gives the player a chance to either accept the DM’s ruling (“I guess I’ll keep going to the guild anyway”) or take on new goals for more quests and adventures. (“We need to find another guild.“)

Learning magic step by step

What are the paths of power? In the game, they are sequences of related spells that must be learned in a particular order, from lowest to highest level. If a path contains more than one spell of a certain level, the mage only needs to learn one of those spells in order to progress along the path (but she may learn more than one spell of a certain level on a given path if she so desires).

In this system of magic, each step on the path of power depends on understanding the principles behind previous steps; that is, a mage never can learn a spell if he does not understand the previous spells on the same path. For this reason, spells are arranged in sequences of required learning, like the rungs of a ladder or the steps on a staircase. For instance, before a mage on the path of Greater Fire Magic can cast a fireflow spell (third level), he must be able to cast at least one of the three second-level spells preceding fireflow on this path: Agannazar’s scorcher, burning hands, or pyrotechnics.

This system might seem too constricting, forcing choices, a straitjacket for mages. However, there are advantages to pursuing magic along paths. In fact, it opens many choices as well, for a mage on a path may always automatically find information about the next spell on a path when he reaches the experience level that allows him to cast it. No more need to rummage through dusty tomes with all the dignity of a looter on a battlefield; no need for a player to depend on a DM’s whim for the spells he wants; no need for the DM to drop scrolls and spell books “conveniently” into every adventure.

Simply put, the mage rolls the percentage chance to learn a spell whenever he wishes (assuming he has access to that level of spell). If a path is frustrated in one direction (he fails the roll for a prerequisite spell), he may be able to approach it from another direction (if the path contains more than one spell of the same level), or he may try again to learn the next spell when he gains another level.

Paths of power that contain four or more spells are commonly called “roads,” but in general there is no system for naming paths. Many of the paths of power described below are given different names in different lands: the Trickster’s Road is known as Loki’s Path among the Norse, and Hermes’ Path near Mount Olympus. Be creative in choosing your own names and your own forks in the roads.

Greater and lesser paths

All paths belong to one of two categories, greater or lesser. The distinction between the two is simply a matter of whether a path includes one or more first level spells. Greater paths, the ones that contain first-level spells, are the paths that all mages must start on. Their names are printed in bold type in the lists of paths given later in this article.

The shorter paths that begin with higher-level spells are referred to as lesser paths, for their forms of magic are not as simple or as extensive as the greater paths. Only more powerful mages travel these paths, since they include no first-level spells. Lesser paths are printed in bold italic type in the lists below.

Skipping steps

As a wizard progresses along a path, he builds a base of knowledge, formulas, and techniques for the magic of the path. Once he knows spells from two or more consecutive spell levels on a path, he may skip one step farther along on the path. For example, a wizard on the Eagle’s Road already knows feather fall (first level) and ride the wind (second level). He may then skip one step (the third-level fly spell) and learn spectral wings (fourth level).

Only one spell level can be skipped on any path. However, it is possible to go back and fill in a step that had been skipped earlier. In the example, the wizard could learn fly after originally skipping it in favor of spectral wings, and then, if he so chose, he could skip another step farther along the path—passing over vortex, for instance, and learning Bloodstone’s spectral steed as his next spell on this path.

Interesting connections

In one sense, path magic is simply an extension and refinement of the schools of magic. However, this interpretation over-simplifies and misses the system’s broader usefulness for DMs and players. Sure, some paths represent the core spells of the various schools; it’s only logical, since the spells of each school are derived from the same arcane tradition. But paths link the spells of a school together (for instance, the Path of Deception described below covers much of the heart of the school of illusion), and also link together spells from completely unrelated schools (as in the Path of Shadows or the Path of the Drow). Paths can make more interesting connections than schools can: for instance, the Dragon’s Road mimics the powers of many dragons, and the Path of the Drow includes many of the powers of the dark elves, as well as their spider magics.

How many paths can a mage follow?

The number of paths a mage can travel on depends on both his experience level and his Intelligence. Path magic requires a new set of assumptions about how many spells a mage can learn. The Intelligence Table in the Player’s Handbook defines the maximum number of spells of a certain level that a wizard character can know. DRAGON 43 But spells in paths are not neatly arranged by level; they cross and intersect and clog that system.

The number of paths a specialist wizard can follow is a more complex issue. Generally, there aren’t any specialists of path magic, since the paths themselves set limits and force a mage to specialize by limiting what types of spells he can learn and cast. The bonuses for mastering a path provide an additional incentive to master just specialized paths of magic.

However, if the DM and players prefer to keep specialists in the campaign, a specialist retains his normal bonuses (he may memorize one additional spell of each level he is capable of learning about) but he can learn fewer paths at any given level than a generalist (a mage) can. Spells from opposition schools are still off limits; this may prevent the specialist from gaining mastery of some paths. Opposition paths are beyond the scope of this article.

Table A below lists the number of paths that a mage or a specialist of a certain experience level can follow (i.e., learn spells from). Table B gives bonuses to this number according to the wizard’s Intelligence score (and it also includes the “Max.

  1. of Spells/Lvl” and “Chance to Learn

Spell” columns from the Intelligence Table in the Player’s Handbook, for convenience). For example, a mage (not a specialist) of 10th level with a 16 Intelligence can learn spells from up to 12 different paths (9 for being 10th level, +3 for his Int score).

Completing a path

If a wizard learns every spell in a path, the path is said to be completed, and it no longer counts against his maximum allowable number of paths. This rule makes archmages very powerful indeed, because they can learn more spell paths by completing prior ones, thus dodging the “Max.

  1. Paths” limits of Table A. In addition, they

can learn new paths very quickly (just by making an unbroken series of successful “% to learn” rolls), much more quickly than a traditional mage could gather all the formulae from spell books and grimoires hidden in obscure corners of the campaign. In general, though, paths become less and less limiting at higher levels, since the archmage knows almost everything is there is to know about the arcane arts anyway; new paths are less challenging because of their similarities to spells he has already studied and mastered.

Forgetting steps

Powerful mages on a path may know so much about a certain set of spells that they have nothing more to learn on that road. They also may know so many basic spells that they cannot begin any new paths because of Intelligence or level limits on the number of spells they can learn. One way around the problem is to simply forget the first steps on other paths; once a mage has mastered the simplest forms of magic, he may not need access to those spells any longer. Unlike in the standard AD&D system, this means that spells can be removed from a mage’s repertoire.

Forgetting part of a spell path requires spells on that path; only one spell can be forgotten, and it must be the lowest-level spell on the path. Forgetting a spell eliminates all knowledge of the spell from the mage’s grimoires (or memory, see “New system” below) and opens a spell slot. Forgotten spells do not count against a mage when he attempts to skip steps at the high-level end of the path.

Forking paths

When paths of power intersect, the wizard learning the paths has three choices: he may continue to follow only the path he began with, ignoring the intersection; he can switch from one path to the other, abandoning the chance of any further progress on the first path; or he can pursue both paths by declaring that he will follow a forking path. These forking paths offer a wizard more options than just a straight line because he can learn spells from either path as he gains more levels, but each “branch” of the fork still counts as a separate path for purposes of determining how many paths a wizard can follow.

Some spells are listed on more than one path; there’s more than one way to learn many of the arts of magic, after all. Spells that intersect at the crossroads of two or more paths are called nexus spells. Firstlevel spells are never nexus spells. To jump the track and switch from one path to another at a nexus point, the mage must know about the existence of both paths. Once he switches tracks on a forked path, he can no longer skip any spells beyond the nexus spell; this is only part of the price he pays for forking his path. If he abandons one path entirely (either by forgetting or completing it), he may skip spells on the second forking path normally.

Two-way travel

Although paths are generally meant to be followed from beginning to end (from lowest-level spell to highest-level spell), there is nothing to prevent a wizard from “backtracking” to learn a lower-level spell he did not already know. In fact, this is what happens when a wizard fills in a step along a path that he had earlier skipped (see “Skipping steps” above). The same sort of “filling in” can be done for the sake of picking up a spell that didn’t have to be learned earlier (in the case of a path containing more than one spell of a certain level), and for the sake of acquiring lower-level spells along a path that the wizard began to follow at a nexus point (see Forking paths above). A wizard may not often find it useful to engage in this backtracking, but it can be done if she so desires.

Paths of power

In the following lists, the spells in each path are given in the order they must be learned. Greater paths are indicated in bold type; lesser paths are in bold italic type. The level of a spell is indicated by the number in parentheses following it. Unless otherwise indicated, a spell is from the Player’s Handbook. Spells identified as “new” are described later in this article. Spells from the Tome of Magic are indicated with an asterisk (*). Other sources are abbreviated as follows:

secret page (3), wizard sight* (3), divination enhancement* (4), Rary’s mnemonic enhancer (4), wizard eye (4), Khazid’s procurement* (5), contingency (6), geas (6), Mordenkainen’s lucubration (6), chain contingency* (9), Elminster’s evasion (9, FA), Mordenkainen’s disjunction (9)

Path magic in the campaign

In campaign terms, path magic promotes magic as a discipline, an art learned stage by stage. DMs can tailor paths to suit their own tastes and the needs of the campaign, and powerful spells are the direct result of earlier studies. No mage can simply learn disintegrate without learning (for instance) ESP iron mind, and telekinesis first, since those spells precede disintegrate on the Path of the Mind.

Because the initial selection of paths will determine many of the mage’s future spell choices, the player and DM should consider the character’s first-level spells very carefully.

New system

In addition to the sequenced learning requirements of path magic, you may choose to offer mages a new system of casting spells as well, Normally, mages simply master the spells in their grimoires, memorize them, and cast them based on their level. Path magic allows for some interesting variations, if both the players and the DM agree.

The new system of spell-casting does not call on a complicated mana system; a wizard may still cast the same number of spells as given in the basic rules, but he does not memorize them ahead of time. Instead, each day the wizard declares which of the paths that he studies he will use. For that day, the mage must cast spells from those paths only. The number of daily paths is given on Table 4. This system gives a mage flexibility within constraints

New spells

The following spells affect paths directly, forming by themselves a sort of “Path of Paths.” Because they strike at the root of a path wizard’s power, they should be extremely rare—and extremely feared. Any mage using them indiscriminately will soon find himself hunted by other wizards who want to see him stopped.

Close path (Abjuration)
Level: 3
Range: 10’/level
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 day
Casting Time: 3
Area of Effect: 1 wizard
Saving Throw: Neg.

This lesser magic closes a mage’s access to a path he normally can follow. This bars his access to one path (chosen randomly), for the remainder of the day.
Spells already memorized are not forgotten; the wizard simply can’t access them. The caster does not know which spell or spells are barred from the target (if any). After 24 hours pass, the target may memorize and cast spells of the closed path again normally.
The material component of the close path spell is a small silver key worth at least 50 gp, which must be broken during the casting.

Seal path (Abjuration) Reversible
Level: 5
Range: 10’/level
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Permanent until dispelled
Casting Time: 5
Area of Effect: 1 wizard
Saving Throw: Neg.

The wizard affected by this spell can learn no more spells in a path (chosen by the caster from among those the caster knows the target follows) until the magical roadblock of this spell is removed. If the target wizard fails his saving throw by 4 or more, he also suffers the effects of a close path spell affecting the same path for the remainder of the day. If the target makes the saving throw by more than 4, he may reflect the spell back at the caster.
The caster is entitled to a saving throw against the weakened, reflected spell with a +4 bonus; if he succeeds there is no effect, but if he fails the spell affects him normally. The spell cannot be reflected more than once.The seal on the chosen path can only be removed by an open path spell (the reversed form of seal path), a limited wish, or a wish spell. The material component is a shining seal made of a special alloy of lead and mithril. The seal is inscribed with the victim’s name or sigil, and its cost is never less than 1,000 gp.

Burn path (Necromancy/Abjuration)
Level: 8
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Permanent
Casting Time: 8
Area of Effect: 1 wizard
Saving Throw: See below

This powerful destructive magic destroys all knowledge a mage has of one path chosen by the caster. The spells and formulas are all instantly forgotten, memorized spells vanish from the victim’s mind, and all spells on that path must be relearned as if the victim never knew them.
The spell’s effect cannot be reversed, but if the target’s saving throw succeeds, the path is merely sealed as per a seal path spell. The spell cannot be reflected.
The material component is a thin sheet of beaten gold inscribed with the formula for the spell that serves as the path’s starting point; this special scroll costs no less than 3,000 gp. The scroll is magically consumed in the casting.

Path masters

A wizard’s expertise with any given path improves if he has mastered the path. To become a master of a path, a wizard must know every single spell available to him in that given path—that is, every spell of a level he can cast. So long as he retains mastery, the master casts all of those spells more effectively. The benefits of mastery are simple: his spells gain a -1 saving throw modifier, a +1 bonus per die of damage, and range, duration, and area of affect are all as if the path master were one level higher than his actual level. He loses mastery only if he chooses not to learn a spell of that path when he gains an experience level, if he fails his roll to learn a spell of the path, or if he chooses to forget or skip a spell.

A wizard may never be a master of more than a single path at any time, but if he fulfills all the requirements for mastery in more than one path, the player may choose which path the wizard is a master of. The wizard may switch his choice of mastery whenever he learns a new spell in either path.

Wiping away paths

As an optional rule, paths that a wizard ignores may atrophy because the skills required are not kept up. Here’s the formula: If a wizard has not learned any new spells in a path by the time he finishes the experience level when two or more new steps have become available to him, his skill in that path stalls at the lowest level required to cast the spells he does know. For example, consider a wizard following the Stone Road who has attained 7th level—the point at which he becomes able to cast a fourth-level spell. If that wizard has not learned the third-level spell Maximillian’s stony grasp or either of the fourth-level spells stoneskin or dig by the time he reaches 8th level, his progress on that path is forfeited, and thereafter he casts fist of stone and Maximillian’s earthen grasp (the first- and second-level spells on the path) as if he were only a 3rd-level mage (since he has contented himself with casting only first- and second-level spells from the path). If a third step of spells becomes available and is ignored (wall of stone or stone shape in this example), the path is entirely forgotten

Lost paths

The DM may designate one or more paths as lost, meaning that they are not available to most mages. Paths named after famous mages or monsters are especially good for this. Recovering and restoring such a path may become an adventuring goal for player characters.

Furthermore, particular settings may require their own paths: the provinces of sand, sea, flame, and wind in the AL-QADIM® setting certainly can be the basis of several good paths, because the elemental magics of that setting are even more carefully defined and interwoven than in the AD&D core rules (see “Customized campaign paths” below). The genies’ paths can easily be constructed using spells from the Secrets of the Lamp sourcebox, and elementalist characters will appreciate these paths as well.

In a FORGOTTEN REALMS campaign, the spells of the many powerful mages should serve as starting points for paths: Elminster’s, Snilloc’s, and the Simbul’s magics are all unique. These paths are given below as examples, but many others could be made to suit individual tastes and the needs of powerful mage characters and the DM’s wishes for a campaign.

Bigby’s, Leomund’s, and Mordenkainen’s paths are surely more common in the WORLD OF GREYHAWK® setting—where they were invented—than anywhere else. These individual variations are always up to the DM.

Sample lost paths

While path magic is intended for a traditional fantasy setting, it isn’t limited to that style of play. Sure, the lost paths of Toril could include the Road of Southern Magic of the Old Empires, or the magic of the elves of Evermeet, or the lost magic of Myth Drannor, or the forbidden fire magics of the Red Wizards of Thay. But much more exotic roads can be created if there are wizards willing to walk them. The dragons of Athas surely have their own powerful magics of desert survival. The PLANESCAPETM setting could easily have Roads of Law and Chaos, and a Road of the Abyss. Each world will have its own magical traditions and cultures, but the pattern and system of magic presented here can readily be adapted to suit your preferences. Experiment!

Inherited magic

For long-term campaigns or for developing campaign history, players and DMs may want to consider making magic inheritable, that is, making certain families known for having an aptitude for certain forms of magic. Though this doesn’t reveal exactly what spells an NPC wizard has on hand, it does give player characters a general idea of what they can expect-in this sense it functions as a mechanic that presents a sort of NPC reputation to the players. For example, it allows characters to learn a great deal about potential allies or enemies by knowing something about the character’s ancestors (“Old Zeb, sure, he’s the son of Zackary, who was the son of Geoffry. Everybody knows they’re all enchanters, councilors, divining, and dragon mages.“) At the DM’s option, bards or PCs with the Spellcraft nonweapon proficiency may know the origin, ancestry, and genealogy of many of the paths of power, giving the PCs a valuable clue about what they may be up against.

Although this might seem like an unfair advantage, the knowledge cuts in both directions. After all, these rules are meant to encourage players and DMs to act more like the mages of fantasy literature do. Player characters may be the sons and daughters of well-known lineages, the offspring of a mage’s house, with all the expected mage’s blood and mage’s gifts. As a result, players may be reluctant to reveal their true names to strangers for fear of giving valuable information about the character’s skills: and isn’t that what fantasy mages are all about?

Creating new paths

Players will soon want their characters to create spell paths of their own, but this is a difficult undertaking for any but the most powerful sorcerers. To create a new path, a PC wizard must list all the elements for the path, that is, all the spells that would comprise it—and the character must be able to cast all of them. The elements of the list must have some common bond: a certain school of magic, the form that the spells all take, their function, the spells’ inventor, or the like. If the DM approves, the wizard can begin researching. The cost of “path research” is the total number of spell levels in the path times 1,000 gp, and the time required is one week per each spell level in the path. The percentage chance of success is the mage’s level plus his Intelligence, minus the number of spell levels on the road. For example, if an 11th-level mage with Int 18 attempted to create a Path of Ice using the Snilloc’s spells (eight total levels), ice storm, and wall of ice (both fourth-level spells), the total levels would be 16, the cost would be 16,000 gp, the total time required would be 16 weeks, and the chance of success would be 11 + 18 - 16 = 13%. Researching paths is a chancy business at best, but a mage can keep trying over and over until he runs out of money.

Usually, a mage will invent a new path only to accommodate newly researched spells; most new spells can simply be assigned to existing paths based on similarity (for instance, a new series of skiing, water walking, and airwalking spells might require a new path). This does not mean that the newly researched spell is immediately available to all other wizards; paths are traditional series of spells, and mages learn of these newly researched spells only slowly, as their inventor and his guild popularize the spells involved. Eventually, when the spell is widely known, it is adopted as part of the path. By then, the inventor is usually long dead.

Customized campaign paths

As samples of detailed, specialized paths for a campaign, examine the following lists for the AL-QADIM setting and the multiple paths for the necromancer. The Arabian Adventures rule book describes the category of universal spells; these spells are included in the paths presented earlier in this article, as are the more general spells from the Complete Sha’ir’s Handbook. The more specific spell paths detailing the four elemental provinces of Zakhara are listed below.

Province of flame

Province of sand

Province of the sea

Province of the wind

Necromancy

As elaborated in the Complete Book of Necromancers, necromantic magic also has its own special feel. This is reflected in the many paths presented below. The core rule books provide a limited selection of necromantic magic, but with the details from the Complete Book of Necromancers and the necromantic spells of the Forgotten Realms Adventures and Complete Sha’ir’s Handbook expansions, NPC necromancers gain a much broader selection of spells—and correspondingly broader paths of power.

Conclusion

Use these rules to enhance the feel of AD&D game mages, and to broaden the scope of magic in your campaign. Special thanks to Svetozar Fung, Daniel Quaroni, Christian Tapia, Josh Gerner, and Abram Connelly.

Table A: Number of Paths/Level Table B: Bonus Paths for Intelligence Table C: Daily Paths
Level of
Wizard
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20 		Max # of Paths
Mage
3
3
4
4
5
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
18
20
22 		Max # Paths
Specialist
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
18 		Wizard's
INT
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25 		Bonus # of
Paths
0
0
+1
+1
+1
+2
+2
+3
+3
+4
+5
+5
+6
+7
+8
+9
+10 		Max # Spells
Levels
6
7
7
7
9
9
11
11
14
18
All
All
All
All
All
All
All 		Chance to
Learn Spell
35%
40%
45%
50%
55%
60%
65%
70%
75%
85%
95%
96%
97%
98%
99%
100%
100%
Level of
Wizard
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20 		Max of Paths
Avail/Day
1
2
2
3
3
3
4
5
5
6
7
8
8
9
10
11
12
13
13
14