Strange quirks of magic

[Carnifex]

So, last night I ran a game set in the Warhammer world, where the band of level 1 PC's had to save a village from an undead assault, discovered that the reason behind the attacks was that a wight in a nearby barrow mound wanted something that had been stolen from him given back, and that a necromancer in the village had stolen the item from the wight.

So they went into the guy's house to get the amulet back, and I managed to spook them quite badly with a set of mirrors through the house that were attuned to the necromancer. Basically, he could peer through any one and see out of any of the others, even firing spells through them.

Anyways, the first time the party saw him peering at them through one of the mirrors, he immediately moved away from the mirror he was looking through - and thus out of their own vision. Now, they got it into their heads that perhaps he was invisible, except he could be seen in the mirrors, still. They were quickly disabused on this notion, but the idea stuck with me.

I think I'm going to add it as a genuine magical quirk. People under the invisibility spell are kinda the opposite of vampires; unseeable normally, but you can see their reflection in a mirror (has to be a proper mirror, not just a highly polished breastplate or whatever). I'm wanting to add more of these kinda quirks, to both give more flavour to magic and add extra ways that magic can be identified and defeated. (The setting is somewhere between low magic and medium magic, depending on where you are, so the party are never really going to have hoards of magical trinkets to help out against spellcasters with). Things that would not necessarily be common knowledge, except to those with arcane training.

Other ideas I've had so far are things like:

Whatever spell you use to change your shape, and no matter what shape you take, you can't change your eyes. They stay the same colour, and also the same appearance (ie catlike, human, or snakelike irises).

Weaving the correct charms around a house with various herbs and bits of twine and beads (takes a Knowledge (Arcana) check, DC 12 to get it right) grants a +2 saving throw bonus vs curses and mind-affecting spells to all within the house.




Anyone got any more cool ideas along these lines?

 

[Nifft]

Make defense easier than offence. So, mirrors that are Blessed or on Hallowed ground reflect black auras around [Evil] beings, and mirrors on Unhallowed ground (or under the effects of the Bane spell) will blur the images of Paladins and other agents of [Good].

Eyes not changing: means that shapeshifters in armor (with visors) are tougher than those which must use spells (thus cloaks & hoods). Make masks acceptable in less-good cultures -- costume parties, masked balls, etc. -- to compensate and give an air of mystery.

Okay, more specifics: since we all know that bells ringing = angels getting wings, make demons hate the sound of bells. Let bells act as an Antipathy effect, with a duration of one hour -- which explains chruch bells perfectly, no?

The Moon is the source of insanity, so all [Charm] and [Compulsion] effects are at +2 DC if moonlight is falling on the victim. Conversely, the Sun is the Lord's Holy Tool of Truth, Justice and the American Way, so all Will saves vs. mind-affecting effects are at +4 if the victim is lit by direct sunlight.

Music can calm the raging beast. Lycanthropes encountering performances must make a will save [DC = Perform check] or join in the revelry in animal form (not hybrid form), for the duration of the performance. Thus, on the nights of the full moon, villages are either boarded up or are out dancing all night. No middle ground.

Fey cannot abide iron. Instead, they make weapons & armor from magical elemental substances. For example, a Dryad could have a wooden dagger that cut like steel, and a Nixie could have a spear tipped with a shard of unmelting ice. Fey have an initially Unfriendly attitude towards anyone wearing or weilding iron armor or weapons. A Pixie with a sword made of solid flame wouldn't be impossible. (The Fey are good sources for non-aligned magical weapons, if you make magical weapons the domain of miracles from your god(s).)

-- N

 

[RangerWickett]

Teleport spells used by the Wayfarer's Guild use the elemental plane of fire as a conduit, because of all the elements, fire is the easiest to travel through. You're only there for a fraction of a second, but whenever you teleport, you see an image like hellfire. It is possible to teleport with one of these spells while affected with dimensional anchor, but you travel through a world of icy black emptiness, so cold so piercing that you take 10d6 points of cold damage.

While using an illusion spell to conceal your identity, you have to make Will saves every few minutes or else your mind wanders and you start to act like what you're pretending to be. This effect is mild; though it makes it harder to concentrate on subterfuge and secret missions (-2 to checks that are out of character for your new appearance), it makes you seem more natural in your role (+2 to Bluff and Disguise checks). If you fail your Will save with a natural 1, you overcompensate, and have to exert your personality to avoid losing focus of who you are (-2 penalty to all checks, -4 to Bluff and Disguise).

 

[Varianor Abroad]

After casting a spell to shift to a different plane, you become slightly translucent and your aura reflects something about the plane where you were.

If you use shadow magic, occasionally your own shadow detaches, wanders off, and does things. Then it returns and doesn't tell you where it went.

Rangers with favorite enemies show images of their skulls in their eyes when talking about the enemy in question.

 

[rbingham2000]

I like this. Kinda reminds me of ideas I had along the same lines in a thread I created about non-magical ways to defeat a sorcerer (which went for a page or so before being taken over by the hack-and-slash crowd...grrrrr...).

Water is a natural purifier, which explains its use in baptisms to cleanse a newborn baby of sin, and it's also known as the "element which gives life." Undead, like vampires and zombies, are the very definition of "unclean" and are an affront to life itself. So it follows that undead cannot be near any natural body of water, like a river or a lake. And if it happens to rain while they're out terrorizing the countryside, they will suffer. Badly.

And buddy, if you think regular water's bad enough, holy water's even worse. They can't be near it even in a man-made container, which makes it great for warding off the undead. And as a weapon against the undead, there's nothing better other than fire and sunlight.

And on the magic column...

Water also counters fire, which makes it a big help in dealing with those sorcerers that like to use fire. Maybe dousing a firemage in water will nullify his powers until he's all dried out.

Better still, maybe using fire-magic uses up the water in your system, meaning you have to drink more water to replace the water you used up, and if you use fire-magic for too long without a good drink of water, you will die of thirst...

 

[Carnifex]

A little bump to say, any more for any more?

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I rather liked the idea of the Sigils from Ars Magica. Basically magic users are (mostly) pretty weird and they warp the world around them very slightly, with increasing effect as they use more powerful magic.

For example, 1 particular mage exuded an aura of slight cold around them. His most powerful spells would cause a light frost and small icicles (sic?) to form out to about 50ft. Another one attracted flying insects, she always had a fair cloud of midges and flys, up to the point of barely being visible. None of them would ever bite or bother her, but did make it hard to get invites to parties

No 'number crunchy' effect, but it was pretty cool. Scared the heck out of superstitious peasants, kids and animals...

Edit: And another one! Perhaps 'proper' magic items often have minor curses or conditions attatched to them. For example a sword that only has magic power if you've used it to kill a domestic animal in the last 24 hours - you could end up with a morally ambiguous rogue running around villages performing hits on cats, dogs and horses. Perhaps they'd have to start carrying a box of rats round to get their sword working! Either that or a ring of protection turns your hair green while you're wearing it. A wand that makes your fingernails grow half an inch the first time you touch it.

Other than that, any of the old superstitions can be good fun: Black cats, salt to ward off demons (protection from evil?), walking under ladders (no paint pot falls on your head!) Cool stuff, but not sure how to work that into game effects of any sort.

One last thought. Gypsies are great. Mysterious or funny works for me. Perhaps their charms and trinkets have real effects? Herbal salves for healing? Fortune telling: Get a deck of tarrot cards and load them to produce the prediction you want... with a few cryptic mumblings it can be lots of fun.