I’ve relaunched my The Broken World campaign and I decided to go with 5E D&D as the ruleset for a few reasons that I’ll get into in another post, but I did want to personalize the campaign somewhat, so I have a few house rules that I’ve added and will be discussing here. For this post I’m focusing on my house rule regarding
how magic affects magic-users, and what I mean by “magic-users” is anyone that
has spellcasting ability and spell slots.
I’m calling this the Mark of Magic and it represents how magic is a
powerful force in the universe and that tapping into it can change the
individual. I’ve always enjoyed stories in
which magic had a cost and so I wanted to represent that in my new campaign
with something that was not only interesting, but would potentially make each
spellcaster unique in some way from other spellcasters. I may have gone a little overboard with some
of these, but that’s okay; I can always tweak these later.
The Mark of Magic:
Magic changes those who use it. The changes vary and depend on how magic is tapped. The most drastic and rapid changes happen to wizards, who use the least natural means of tapping into magic, but other classes are changes though in more subtle ways. Changes happen to all races as well, though the elven race is the most resistant to the changes magic cause.
Each level in which a magic-using class is taken, the character must make a saving throw vs the primary ability score for the class. The saving throw DC varies by class, making it harder to resist the effects of the magic as the character gets more powerful. This is a magical effect, so apply any modifiers to the saving throw as appropriate. Characters that come from fey or draconic races (elves, gnomes, dragonborn) gain Advantage on this saving throw. The saving throw can be failed willingly if desired. If the character chooses to willing accept a Mark of Magic, they must still roll on the chart but they may choose the number rolled or the number directly before or after it.
· Wizards: Intelligence Saving Throw, DC 15 + level.
· Cleric: Wisdom Saving Throw), DC 10 + level.
· Paladin: Charisma Saving Throw, DC 12 + level.
· Bard: Charisma Saving Throw, DC 10 + level.
· Sorcerers: Wisdom Saving Throw, DC 10 + level.
· Warlock: Charisma Saving Throw, DC 12 + level.
· Druid: Wisdom Saving Throw, DC 8 + level.
· Ranger: Wisdom Saving Throw, DC 10 + level.
· Eldritch Knight: Intelligence Saving Throw, DC 12 + level.
Mark of Magic Table 1:
1. Character's head and facial hair grows long and grows back immediately if cut.
2. Skin changes to an unnatural color for the character's race (blue, purple, red, etc.)
3. Character floats above the ground by a few inches. They must still walk normally, but they no longer touch the ground.
4. An astral breeze blows upon the character constantly, causing their hair and clothing to flow as though a normal breeze were blowing, but no other creature can feel or are affected by this breeze.
5. The character's eyes glow, which is visible even in the daylight. In darkness it provides the same light as a torch.
6. The character's shadow acts independently of him/her.
7. The character loses all body hair.
8. The character's voice constantly echos eerily and is very unnerving to others.
9. The character can no longer reflect their image in mirrors or any reflective surface.
10. The character's fingers and toes grow unnaturally long.
11. The character can no longer eat normal food. Instead, their food appears magically once per day and they must eat whatever appears, no matter what it is, in order to gain nourishment.
12. The character becomes increasingly resistant to magical potions, requiring twice as much to gain the same effect one potion used to have.
13. The temperature in the character's immediate surroundings is 10 degrees hotter or colder than it is in the rest of the area.
14. The character loses their sexual identity and become androgynous, losing their sexual organs in the process.
15. Music is constantly playing softly around the character, mirroring their mood. Anyone within 10 feet of the character can hear the music. The character can suppress the music, but must make an Intelligence (Arcana) check DC 10 to do so, which lasts for 1 minute.
16. The character grows a third eye upon their forehead, which is invisible when closed, but when open it is visible to all. The character sees magical auras from this eye as per the 1st level spell Detect Magic.
17. All living creatures with intelligence scores of 5 or less feel uneasy in the presence of the character and either avoid or attack them.
18. The character's skin becomes scaly, bark-like or metallic, increasing their Armor Class by 1 when they are not wearing armor.
19. Whenever the character uses magic, all vegetation within their immediate area withers and dies. If there is no vegetation in the area, the nearest vegetation dies instead.
20. If the character already has a magical consequence from this list, the effect increases (DM determines effects). If the character does not have anything from this list, they roll twice on the list, ignoring results of "20".
Mark of Magic Table 2:
1. Character changes to the opposite gender. No change to ability scores.
2. Character’s hands and/or feet grow unusually large or shrink unusually small in proportion to the rest of their body. No impact to use of hands/feet.
3. Character’s name becomes embedded in the fabric of the universe. Whenever anyone speaks the character’s name aloud, the character become aware of who spoke it and where they are.
4. Character’s magical aura imprints itself into the fabric of the universe. Whenever anyone comes within 5 feet of the character, they hear the “theme song” played in their heads. Feel free to choose this theme song.
5. Character’s body absorbs the magical properties of one of their magic items that require attunement (DM’s discretion on which item is absorbed). They maintain the powers of that item, but no longer need to carry/wear the item as its properties are now inherent in their body. This frees-up an attunement slot.
6. Character become a living implement and no longer needs to carry one in order to gain the benefits of using an implement to cast spells.
7. Character learns their personal Truename. They may invoke their Truename when casting any spell, which automatically maximizes any applicable damage dice and imposes Disadvantage on the target(s) of their spell for any saving throws required to resist the spell. However, if that creature is a sentient creature with an intelligence score of 10 or higher, they learn the character’s Truename.
8. Character grows a horn out of their forehead similar to a unicorn’s horn. Should the horn be removed, they lose all magical abilities until it grows back, which takes 2d6 weeks.
9. Character gains the ability to breath the medium of the aether and no longer suffers any ill effect from exhausting their personal air bubble while in the aether.
10. Character may use their personal magical power as the power source for spelljamming in the same manner as incarnum is used. The character may sacrifice a spell slot to act as an incarnum crystal for the duration of a journey. A level 1 spell slot acts as 1 incarnum crystal, a level 2 slot acts as 2 incarnum crystals and so on. Once the connection to the spelljamming helm is lost, the character must sacrifice another spell slot in order to act as an incarnum crystal again.
11. Character no longer needs a spelljamming helm to channel incarnum. They function as a minor helm if they are a spellcasting level of 1-10 and they act as a major helm if they are a spellcating level of 11-20.
12. The universe creates a pocket dimension for the character, which they may enter/exit at will as an action. Only the character (or anyone that knows their Truename) may utilize this dimension and they may make it appear any way they wish. The character may store anything they’d like within the space, provide it fits through the aperture, which is the size of a standard door. The space created is 20 square feet per spellcaster level.
13. The character gains the power to issue a death curse. Any creature that delivers a killing blow (and the character fails their 3rd death save if applicable) to the character must make an Intelligence saving throw at DC 15 + the character’s spellcaster level. On a failed save, the creature takes damage equal to 1d6 times the character’s spellcaster level. The character dies at that point unless the subject of their death curse dies, in which case the character survives with 1 hp.
14. The character no longer needs to eat or drink. They gain nourishment directly from magic. However, they must regain at least 1 spell slot within 8 hours of using up their last one or they have Disadvantage on all saving throws, ability checks, and attack rolls until they regain at least 1 spell slot.
15. A clone of the character is created somewhere in the world with the same identity, level and equipment, but the clone is the exact opposite in alignment and behavior. Should the character or their clone ever meet, they will be compelled to destroy the other, as only one of them can exist in the same universe.
16. The character is bonded with a dragon somewhere in the world. The dragon and the character cannot harm each other and if either is harmed, the other takes ½ the damage. Neither knows who the other is but both know the bond exists.
17. The character gains a magical sigil that is attuned to their specific magical aura. The character may magically inscribe that sigil on any surface and may use that sigil as the conduit of a spell. The sigil is a conduit to the character as well and may be subjected to attacks through it.
18. You may choose any Mark from this list.
19. You may choose any Mark from this list or List 1.
20. You may choose any two Marks from this list and/or List 1, or choose to not gain a Mark.
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