The Quintessential Chaos Mage
| Author | Patrick Younts |
| Publisher | Mongoose Publishing |
| Publish date | 2003 |
| OGL Section 15 | qcmg |
Note: Material in this section may be "mature" in nature.
The material below is designated as Open Game Content
Chaos Sorcery
The nature of chaos is not endless change, though it may seem otherwise. Chaos mages will sometimes refer to their magical effects as ‘weaves’ rather than the more staid description of ‘spells’.
This section presents the full rules necessary to bring chaos magic into new or ongoing fantasy campaigns. The information on the following pages will lead you, step-by-step, through the creation of a chaos magic effect, from choosing the initial effect to the actual casting of the spell. Each step along the way will lay out all the relevant mechanics in an easy to follow fashion, so that you will quickly learn how to create spells on the fly.
Step-By-Step
What follows are the basic instructions for choosing and casting chaos magic effects. Each step lays out all the options and choices available to the character, and to the player, allowing him to make informed choices.
Each option is presented in the following fashion:
Effect Descriptor – the name of the effect.
Casting DC – the number added to the total DC of the spell, which must be overcome by a chaos mage’s casting check to successfully cast the spell.
Save – The saving throw permitted to overcome or reduce the effect, if applicable.
Spell Resistance – if applicable.
Continued Concentration – Whether the effect requires the chaos mage to concentrate throughout the effect’s duration or not.
Effect Description – specific details of the effect, including relevant mechanics.
There are six steps to creating and, ultimately, casting a chaos magic spell. An overview of each step is listed below, with an in-depth presentation of each immediately following the overview.
Step Overview
Step 1: Choose an Element Effect
All chaos magic spells have a final effect and this final effect is what you will select first. Do you want to burn your enemies with fire? Teleport miles outside their grasp? Or do you wish to charm them into submission? You will decide that here.
Step 2: Choose an Area of Effect Element
All chaos magic spell effects have a designated area of effect, from effects that target only the caster or another individual, to spells which encompass wide swathes of terrain or hordes of beings.
Step 3: Choose a Range Element
All chaos magic spells require a range element. While it is relatively simple for a chaos mage to use an effect against a target right in front of him, he does not have to. A skilled chaos mage can launch effects across a distance of miles.
Step 4: Choose a Duration Element
Most chaos magic effects are instantaneous, with the effects occurring and then ending, in the space between breaths. Should he choose to, however, a chaos mage can weave effects that last for minutes, or even hours. There is no way for a chaos mage to create a permanent effect, though, as the nature of chaos is to avoid stagnation.
Step 5: Choose a Saving Throw Element
There are many magical defences to thwart spellcasters, but the chaos mage has the unique
ability to overwhelm them through sheer weight of chaos energy. This step is where he can decide to do so, at the cost of making his spell much more difficult to cast.
Step 6: Casting the Spell
The final step in the creation process is the actual casting of the chaos magic spell. To cast the spell, the player should add together the DC numbers received by selecting options in steps one through five. The total of these numbers is the final DC which must be overcome by the chaos mage with a caster check to successfully cast the effect. If the check is successful, the spell goes off as expected, subject to the vagaries of its interacting with the target and other spell effects.
While the casting will be discussed in greater detail later, it is worth noting that the casting check to successfully cast a chaos magic spell is
Chaos mage’s class level + Wisdom bonus + 1d20 vs the total spell effect DC
It has been mentioned before, but it bears repeating here: Games Masters and players alike should spend some time reviewing and familiarising themselves with the rules presented in this chapter, to better speed their integration into the campaign.
