Variant/specialist wizards

I’ve placed my game in an offshoot of the Red Tide setting and I’m getting to the point of wanting to start converting some of the variant caster classes from Crimson Pandect. These classes are all arcane caster types, but each of them has a selection of unique spells and limited access to the general Magic User spell list.

The same basic concept has appeared in various official D&D versions in the form of specialist caster classes, such as Illusionists or Necromancers, who can cast a wider range of spells within their specialty (often including some which are not available to a generalist Magic User) in exchange for losing access to other spells.

Has anyone done something like this in ACKS previously?

The obvious (to me) approach would be to assign custom Source modifiers for each such class, then build their custom spells (and adjust the levels of standard spells) based on that, but this seems like it would tend to produce a good deal of unnecessary work with assigning 11 Source modifiers per class while trying to remain balanced.

The other extreme would be to just treat it as plain old arcane magic with different special effects/trappings on their spells (e.g., The Kuan Amelatu “Call of the Grave” spell is just a no-range “Fireball” that only affects enemies.), but that feels a bit flat and loses what I consider to be the entire point of specialist wizards: They can’t do as many things, but, what they can do, they do better than anyone else. (e.g., A Gadaal Astromancer can’t cast any direct damage spells doing more than 2d6 damage, but nobody else comes close to their ability to see the future and manipulate fate.) They don’t just know a different set of spells than a normal Mage, they know spells that a Mage isn’t even capable of casting and vice-versa.

Pathfinder already simplified the specialist wizards such that “forbidden” schools just mean the spells must be prepared 2 levels higher than they already were. Doing the same in ACKs, which only has 6 spell levels instead of 9, would be as good as forbidding the spell outright.

ACKS reflects specialization within the mage class in four ways:

  1. A mage’s spell repertoire.
  2. A mage’s spell signature.
  3. A mage’s proficiencies (e.g. Transmogrification or Black Lore)
  4. A mage’s personally-researched (unique) spells.

What it never does is reduce the ability of mages to learn spells of a particular type in exchange for making the mage more powerful. So if the current specialization mechanics are not robust enough for you, that would be the area to focus.

I quite like the ACKs setup for mages, but it does sometimes make it hard to imagine different kinds of mages out in the world when all 4 of their build points are dedicated to arcane casting and the repertoire of every mage is the same. It wasn’t extremely noticeable until the player’s companion where there’s a gaggle of alternate divine casters but only the elven enchanter as a true alternate mage, but without arcane power provided by racial points, it’s hard to add many effects.

One thing I’ve always wanted to do is have a way for, say classes that are hybrids like the spellsword or the nightblade or some other hypothetical class to have access to spells that are tuned towards their goal. For example, if the nightblade had easier access to invisibility or stealth providing spells. Normally that would require spell research at level 5, but it just now occurred to me you could “bake” such things into the game world by having the nightblade already belong to a school that has researched several custom stealth-enabling spells, possibly with breakthroughs to make them more effective. The only problem is that, if said elf nightblade teams up with a mage PC, there’s not a whole lot to stop them from sharing spells and letting the mage become extra stealthy as well.

I did a wizard (elementalist) variant based on CharlesDMs work using 3/4 arcane progression. I allowed them full caster level in their chosen element, no spells allowed of their banned element (and other types of spells like illusions and death magics that don’t seem to mesh with the elemental theme), and 3/4 progression for the rest. They also have spell-like abilities in their chosen element that I allowed them to add to their repertoire automatically over and above what they get as 3/4 casters. I think it works.

I’d never argue that arcane casters aren’t potent but it is a bit difficult to give them true differentiation as specialists - mages have the least number of class proficiencies in the game which exacerbates the issue. The alternative I used was the 3/4 caster build with 1 point of thief added to it in the PC class builder rules. Swap out the thief skills for the points and then get creative throwing in abilities that really support a specialist theme. However, if you go that route I advise banning groups of spells or types of spells in order to balance giving them full caster level progression in their specialty. Nothing worse than being a specialist who can’t cast their specialty spells as well as a general mage.

In the Heroic Companion I’m working on, both arcane and divine magic are replaced by eldritch magic. It is as good as divine in most areas, better than divine in blast, but not as good as arcane in blast or wall spells.

The trick is that you can be either an eldritch caster or an eldritch ceremonialist. Casters are identical to those in ACKS. Ceremonialists use ceremonies rather than spells, which take longer to cast - think of hermetic rituals or rune-carving. If equipped with the right selection of proficiencies, trinkets, and talismans, ceremonialists can cast spells quickly (in combat).

Eldritch magic provides class powers when you select it, and eldritch ceremonialists are built like clerics, so there’s a wide array of differentiated characters you can build with it. Here’s two examples.

Ecclesiastic

Ecclesiastics are human men and women dedicated to the service of a religious order. If your Judge has not specified particular religious orders in his campaign, the default ecclesiastic is assumed to be a member of the Temple of the Winged Sun, devoted to Ammonar, God of Law and Light. Whatever order they serve, the majority of ecclesiastics never adventure, preferring to dedicate themselves to ministry, prayer, and sacramental duties. Only a few venture forth from their parishes into the dangers of the world, traveling as mendicants, proselytizers, missionaries, or crusaders. Most of these ecclesiastics lose their lives or their faith to darkness or decadence. Those ecclesiastics who succeed in bringing the light of faith into dark places are recorded by later generations as saints and prophets of their god.

Ecclesiastic Level Progression

Ecclesiastic Ceremony Progression

Experience

Title

Level

Hit Dice

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

0

Catechist

1

1d4

 

1

-

-

-

-

-

1,250

Acolyte

2

2d4

 

2

-

-

-

-

-

2,500

Priest

3

3d4

 

2

1

-

-

-

-

5,000

Curate

4

4d4

 

2

2

-

-

-

-

10,000

Vicar

5

5d4

 

2

2

1

-

-

-

20,000

Rector

6

6d4

 

2

2

2

-

-

-

40,000

Prelate

7

7d4

 

3

2

2

1

-

-

80,000

Bishop

8

8d4

 

3

3

2

2

-

-

160,000

Patriarch

9

9d4

 

3

3

3

2

1

-

260,000

Patriarch, 10th lvl

10

9d4+1*

 

3

3

3

3

2

-

360,000

Patriarch, 11th lvl

11

9d4+2*

 

4

3

3

3

2

1

460,000

Patriarch, 12th lvl

12

9d4+3*

 

4

4

3

3

3

2

560,000

Patriarch, 13th lvl

13

9d4+4*

 

4

4

4

3

3

2

660,000

Saint

14

9d4+5*

 

4

4

4

4

3

3

*Hit point modifiers from constitution are ignored

 

Ecclesiastics receive little combat training. At first level, ecclesiastics hit an unarmored foe (AC 0) with an attack throw of 10+. They advance in attack throws only two points every six levels of experience (i.e. the same as mages), but they advance in saving throws by two points every four levels of experience (i.e. as clerics). They may only fight with quarterstaffs, clubs, daggers, or darts. They are unable to use shields, fight with two weapons, or wear any kind of armor.

Although they cannot cast spells like clerics, ecclesiastics may learn and perform eldritch ceremonies in the liturgical tradition starting at 1st level (Acolyte). The number and levels of ceremonies the ecclesiastic can perform in a single day is summarized on the Ecclesiastic Ceremony Progression table. An ecclesiastic’s selection of ceremonies is limited to the ceremonies in his repertoire. An ecclesiastic’s repertoire can include a number of eldritch ceremonies up to the number and level of ceremonies listed for his level, increased by his Intelligence bonus. More information on ceremonial magic, and individual spell descriptions, can be found in the Magic chapter (p. XX).

As they advance in level, ecclesiastics may add new ceremonies to their repertoire by visiting a temple of their order and spending one game week per ceremony. At the Judge’s discretion, the ecclesiastic’s order may require that the ecclesiastic learn particular ceremonies at each level, or refuse to teach certain ceremonies it deems sacrilegious. Ecclesiastics who wish to learn such ceremonies must find or research them on their own.

EXAMPLE: Balbus, an ecclesiastic, has advanced to 2nd level, increasing his repertoire from one to two 1st level ceremonies. He visits the local Temple of the Winged Sun and impudently inquires of his Patriarch whether he might learn darkness or weave smoke. After a stern lecture on upholding Light and Law, Balbus is offered a choice of light or command word

Ecclesiastics must uphold the doctrines of their faith in order to remain members of their religious order. If an ecclesiastic is found breaking the rules of his order, he may be disciplined or even separated from his order.

An ecclesiastic who is separated from his order may not return to the order when they advance in level to learn new ceremonies, and will not receive aid or followers when building a cathedral (see below). Other penalties are entirely up to the Judge.

Ecclesiastics are among the most educated and respected members of their society. All ecclesiastics learn theology at a seminary or monastery (as per the Theology proficiency). They can automatically identify religious symbols, spell signatures, trappings, and holy days of their own faith, and can recognize those of other faiths with a proficiency throw of 11+. Rare or occult cults may be harder to recognize (Judge’s discretion). An ecclesiastic may select additional ranks in the Theology proficiency to improve his proficiency throw if desired.

In order to evangelize their faith and convert others to the worship of their god, ecclesiastics are trained in diplomacy. They receive a +2 bonus on all reaction rolls when they attempt to parley with intelligent creatures (as per the Diplomacy proficiency).

Ecclesiastics can comfort and console the wounded, helping the faithful to better endure pain and suffering while they heal. The base healing rate of a character is doubled during each day of complete rest under the care of an ecclesiastic. The ecclesiastic can simultaneously comfort and console up to one character per level of experience. An ecclesiastic cannot comfort and console wounded characters of a different alignment or religion. This ability does not stack with the effects of the salving rest spell.

By reciting a sermon or singing a hymn before battle, ecclesiastics can inspire courage in the faithful. Inspiring courage requires  a few moments of oration (one round), and grants the ecclesiastic’s allies within a 50' radius a +1 bonus to attack throws, damage rolls, morale rolls (for monsters or NPCs allied with the caster), and saving throws against magical fear. The bonus lasts for 10 minutes (1 turn). An ecclesiastic can inspire courage in any given character once per day per class level.  (Even the most inspiring parable gets old if you hear it twice in the same day.) An ecclesiastic cannot inspire courage in characters who are already engaged in combat or in characters of a different alignment or religion.

Finally, all ecclesiastics have the ability to turn undead, calling upon the liturgy of their faith to drive back, and even destroy, undead. Ecclesiastics turn undead as clerics of their level. There is no limit to how often an ecclesiastic may attempt to turn undead each day, but if an attempt to turn undead fails during an encounter, the ecclesiastic may not attempt to turn undead again for the remainder of that encounter. At the Judge’s discretion, some orders may teach their ecclesiastics to control undead rather than turn them.

An ecclesiastic can use any magic items usable by mages or clerics. When an ecclesiastic reaches 5th level (Vicar), he may begin to research spells, scribe scrolls, and brew potions. Ecclesiastics may collect and use divine power as clerics in order to fuel their magical research.

At 9th level (Patriarch), he is able to create more powerful magic items such as weapons, rings, and staffs. Also upon attaining 9th level (Patriarch), an ecclesiastic may establish or build a cathedral. So long as the ecclesiastic is currently a member in good standing of his order, he may buy or build his cathedral at half the normal price due to aid from his order. Once a cathedral is established, the ecclesiastic’s reputation will spread and he will attract 5d6x10 0th level soldiers armed with various weapons, plus another 1d6 ecclesiastics of 1st-3rd level of the same religion to serve the order. They are completely loyal (morale +4). While in the ecclesiastic’s service, his followers must be provided food and lodging, but need not be paid wages. The Judge determines which proportions of followers are archers, infantry, etc. Ecclesiastic’s cathedrals are otherwise identical to cleric’s fortified temples, as detailed in the Campaign chapter of the ACKS Rulebook.

At 11th level, an ecclesiastic may create ceremonial artifacts (see p. XX), may learn and cast ritual divine spells of great power (6th and 7th level), craft magical constructs, and create magical cross-breads. If chaotic, the ecclesiastic will become able to create necromantic servants and even become undead himself.

Loremaster

And the loremasters among them learned also the High Eldarin tongue of the Blessed Realm, in which much story and song was preserved from the beginning of the world; and they made letters and scrolls and books, and wrote in them many things of wisdom and wonder in the high tide of their realm, of which all is now forgot. – Akallabêth, in The Silmarillion (J.R.R. Tolkien)

Prime Requisite:  INT and WIS

Requirements:     None

Hit Dice:                 1d4

Maximum Level:  14

Loremasters pursue knowledge and preserve ancient wisdom handed down from time immemorial. Most loremasters live ascetic lives devoted to annotating and studying the books and scrolls collected by their predecessors. But the boldest and most ambitious become adventurers, delving into the dungeons and tombs of past kingdoms in search of knowledge which has been lost. Wielding secrets forgotten for centuries, these loremasters become the most powerful of their kind, legends whose deeds will become the subject of study by the annalists of the future.

Because of their devotion to study, loremasters receive limited combat training. At first level, loremasters hit an unarmored foe (AC 0) with an attack throw of 10+. They advance in attack throws only two points every six levels of experience (i.e. half as fast as fighters), though they advance in saving throws by two points every four levels (i.e. as clerics). They may only fight with quarterstaffs, clubs, daggers, and darts. They are unable to use shields, fight with two weapons, or wear any kind of armor. For these reasons, loremasters are quite vulnerable to physical danger, and in an adventuring group they should be protected.

The books and scrolls of interest to the loremaster are virtually never written in the Common tongue so loremasters soon become familiar with even the most obscure scripts, codes, and languages. At 1st level, a loremaster may read languages unfamiliar to them (including ciphers, treasure maps, and dead languages, but not magical writings) with a proficiency throw of 5+ on 1d20. If the roll does not succeed, the loremaster may not try to read that particular piece of writing until he reaches a higher level of experience.

Loremaster Level Progression

 

Loremaster Ceremony Progression

Experience

Title

Level

Hit Dice

Special Abilities

1

2

3

4

5

6

0

Learner

1

1d4

Favored ceremony, read languages, loremastery

1

-

-

-

-

-

2,000

Disciple

2

2d4

-

2

-

-

-

-

-

4,000

Scholastic

3

3d4

Favored ceremony

2

1

-

-

-

-

8,000

Archivist

4

4d4

-

3

2

-

-

-

-

16,000

Scholar

5

5d4

Magic research (minor)

3

2

1

-

-

-

32,000

Antiquarian

6

6d4

-

3

3

2

-

-

-

65,000

Annalist

7

7d4

-

4

3

2

1

-

-

130,000

Savant

8

8d4

-

4

3

3

2

-

-

230,000

Loremaster

9

9d4

Athenaeum, magic research

4

4

3

2

1

-

330,000

Loremaster, 10th lvl

10

9d4+1*

 

4

4

3

3

2

-

430,000

Loremaster, 11th lvl

11

9d4+2*

Favored ceremony, magic research (advanced)

5

4

4

3

2

1

530,000

Loremaster, 12th lvl

12

9d4+3*

-

5

4

4

3

3

2

630,000

Loremaster, 13th lvl

13

9d4+4*

-

5

5

4

4

3

2

730,000

Sage

14

9d4+5*

-

5

5

4

4

3

3

 

*Hit point modifiers from constitution are ignored

 

 

From careful study of ancient annals and legends, loremasters can decipher occult mysteries, remember ancient history, identify historic artifacts, and similar tasks. At 1st level, a loremaster must make a proficiency throw of 18+ on 1d20 to succeed in loremastery. The proficiency throw for loremastery reduces by 1 per level.

Most importantly, the scholarly pursuits of loremasters allow them to learn and perform eldritch ceremonies in the theurgical tradition. The number and levels of ceremonies the loremaster can perform in a single day is summarized on the Loremaster Ceremony Progression table.

A loremaster’s selection of ceremonies is limited to the ceremonies in his repertoire. A loremaster’s repertoire can include a number of eldritch ceremonies up to the number and level of ceremonies listed for his level, increased by his Intelligence bonus. A loremaster can use any magic items usable by mages or clerics. More information on ceremonial magic, and individual spell descriptions, can be found in the Magic chapter (p. XX).

At the start of his adventuring career, each loremaster chooses one ceremony from among those in his repertoire to be his favored ceremony. When performing his favored ceremony, the loremaster does not need his traditional implements.  He may hastily perform his favored ceremony without requiring a ceremony throw provided he uses an affiliated trinket. If he does not have an affiliated trinket, he may hastily perform his favored ceremony as if he did. The loremaster gains an additional favored ceremony at 3rd level and again at 11th level. He may gain other favored ceremonies by selecting the Ceremonial Focus proficiency (see p. XX).   

When a loremaster reaches 5th level (Scholar), he may begin to research ceremonies, scribe scrolls, and brew potions. Loremasters may collect and use divine power as clerics in order to fuel their magical research.

When a loremaster reaches 9th level (Loremaster), he is able to create more powerful magic items such as weapons, rings, and staffs. A loremaster may also build an athenaeum, typically a great library, when he reaches 9th level. He will then attract 1d6 apprentices of 1st-3rd level plus 2d6 normal men seeking to become loremasters. Their intelligence scores will be above average, but many will become discouraged from the rigorous mental training and quit after 1d6 months. While in the loremaster’s service, apprentices must be provided food and lodging, but need not be paid wages. If the loremaster builds a menagerie beneath or near his athenaeum, monsters may be collected therein. Loremaster’s athenaeum and menageries are otherwise identical to mages’ sanctums and dungeons, as detailed in the Campaign chapter of the ACKS Rulebook.

At 11th level, a loremaster may create ceremonial artifacts (see p. XX), learn and cast ritual eldritch spells of great power (7th, 8th, and 9th level), craft magical constructs, and create magical cross-breeds. If chaotic, the loremaster may create necromantic servants and become undead. 

First note: Heroic Fantasy is looking more and more awesome.

To OP: There are a few solutions. One is to simply give the class a different spell list.

It’s true that there are currently no arcane classes that use a spell list other than the mage’s, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be. There’s no reason why you can’t just add and subtract spells from the class’s spell list.

A second is to use the Player’s Companion spell categories; a diviner might be banned from Blast spells, but be able to cast an extra Detection spell per level per day or receive some other bonus when casting a Detection spell. (Since this method involves not modifying the spell list in any significant way, they would still cast Detection spells at the normal level.)

Third option is to give them a free proficiency or proficiencies. If your Necromancer class gets Black Lore of Zahar at first level for free, they’ll be a better necromancer than an average wizard. (This does require you to have some kind of class value from your race to create tradeoffs if you want more than one; a fighting 0 can trade away their weapon style for a custom power. More than that, and you need to get a class value to trade away, since arcane 4 gives you no options for tradeoffs, or be a less-than-full caster.)

I would love yo see the Crimson Pandect classes in ACKS. I was just thinking about the same thing recently, specifically the Astromancer.

Awesome.

Not to derail the thread, Alex, but are these classes balanced with the standard ACKS classes from the Core Rulebook and Player’s Companion? Could a loremaster simply be a spellcaster from a different culture? Or is it impossible for a mage and a loremaster to function in the same game?

I’m interested in the new material but I’m much more interested in it if you can cross-pollinate a standard ACKS game with some of the material presented in the new book.

I’ve been looking to do just that with the astromancer. It has some abilities that make it difficult to balance as an arcane caster with standard ACKS classes. The last time I started to put it together, I think I went the warlock route and made it a 3/4 arcane spellcaster which wasn’t quite satisfying. I believe I was toying with making it a divine caster with a distinct spell-list (which you could do) - in that case you have a lot more wiggle room.

Divine 3, thief 1, trade undead turning for soothsaying proficiency, thief skills for reskin divine health as curse immunity, animal reflexes, divinations at +2 caster level like Black Lore, that thing that let’s you roll twice on the mortal wounds table. Would that work? It’s way toned down from the LL version but those are the ACKS equivalents.

Thanks for this reply, as it crystallized in my mind exactly what ACKS is missing for me in this area: All of those methods of specialization are at the level of the individual mage. They don’t consider the possibility of different styles of magic which operate on distinct principles and are mutually-incompatible beyond the broad split between arcane and divine - no matter what choices an individual mage makes, he can ultimately still steal any other mage’s spellbook and learn all of its spells (assuming he’s high enough level, of course) and every one of them will still be cast at the same level. That pervasive equivalency is what I’d like to get away from (at least in principle; in practice I realize it could easily create a lot more work than its worth).

For a Crimson Pandect example, a Makerite Theurgist gains his powers by studying religious Law and using that Law to make proclamations which reality must obey. A Kuan Amelatu Necrolator gains his powers by assisting the spirits of the dead and exploring the boundary between life and death. A necrolator could never cast a theurgist’s spells because he lacks the knowledge of the Law and the conviction in its truth. Conversely, a theurgist doesn’t have the relationship with the dead needed to use necrolatry. It’s a deeper divide than just “I get +2 caster levels on these spells and you don’t.”

Class spell lists: That’s basically the approach taken by Crimson Pandect, but it would also be nice to be able to create new spells for these variant caster classes using the Player’s Companion rules, which kind of implies creating class-specific effect types and/or additional Source multipliers in order to make them distinct. A Kuan Amelatu Necrolator is simply better at spells which destroy undead (i.e., those spells are lower level and/or more powerful than a mechanically-similar spell cast by another kind of mage) because bringing peace to the spirits of the restless dead is the primary focus of what necrolators do.

Player’s Companion spell categories: I probably shouldn’t have brought up AD&D spell schools, because that’s not actually what I was talking about, it was just the closest thing I could think of that most readers would be familiar with. My intention here is focused more on a thematic level rather than by type of mechanical effect.

Free proficiencies: I’m kind of moving in that direction at the moment, by switching them to eldritch magic in order to get additional class powers to spend on things associated with the style of magic, but that’s feels more like it’s just a start rather than a complete solution.

It’s not actually necessary to use different source modifiers to create more powerful spells for a particular discipline when you’re using different spell lists.

The magic of different spell lists is that you can take an existing spell, reduce it by 1 or 2 levels, and call it a breakthrough. This doesn’t work with shared spell lists, as was mentioned earlier in the thread, because then a normal mage could pick it right back up and be just as good. But when the breakthrough spell is not on the mage spell list, they can’t do that.

This does have the drawback that it doesn’t work out quite as well when they’re researching new spells; they would end up not being any better at researching new spells in their specialty than a normal mage. This can be solved with a custom power; give them a bonus on magical research rolls when they are doing something in their specialty. (+2 or +3 for a single power seems appropriate to me, since Magical Engineering is +1 to all and also allows identification). Giving them this bonus on magical research throws would make breakthroughs more likely, which explains why they have breakthrough’d spells on their spell list. You could also give them reduced mishaps to make them more likely to experiment, again making breakthroughs more likely. And as an added side bonus, they get to be better at making magic items of their specialty.

To spell schools: Fair enough. It would be possible to define schools of effect, rather than schools of philosophy, for all ACKS spells, but it would be a non-trivial task and likely unrealistic to do.

My current notes on this:

  • It’s likely that the best approach to the spell lists may be to just use the CP spells as-is without trying to rebuild them under Player’s Companion system. While I would find it much more satisfying to convert them to PC, I reread the lists earlier today and there are so many weird little details in the effects which aren’t accounted for in PC’s cost calculations that it would be likely to end up being essentially arbitrary anyhow.

  • That said, there are two things that would need to be addressed in the spell lists. For the high-level game, some of the level 7 spells may need to be reduced to level 6 in ACKS because they don’t all feel to me like they should be rituals. For the low-level game, most of the classes have level 1 or 2 spells equivalent to Create Food and Water, which is a much higher-level effect in ACKS, so they’d need to have their level increased accordingly.

  • The affinity of various classes with specific types of spells could be modeled in the PC spell creation system relatively easily by either applying multipliers to the construction point cost (e.g., x0.9 for “appropriate” and x1.25 for “inappropriate”) or by treating “appropriate” spells as breakthroughs and bumping the spell level down by 1.

  • Rather than converting the actual classes, I’m now thinking about possibly making the magical styles into customized drop-in replacements for the standard Arcane Score, so that, instead of having an Astromancer or a Yamabushi character class, you might have a Nobirian Wonderworker who uses Astromancy or a Zaharan Ruinguard who uses The Mountain Way. This does have the disadvantage, though, of some combinations simply not working out that well. (The one I’ve encountered so far is an Elven Enchanter who uses Necrolatry. A lot of the Kuan Amelatu spells are focused on melee combat, so it’s a bit of a waste to give them to a pure-mage class with minimal melee abilities.)

Aside from the classes, I’m also seriously debating whether to use the ACKS magic research rules or the Crimson Pandect rules. I tend to prefer the CP version, but it uses a very different cost structure, which could mess with the ACKS economy, plus it assumes that you’re doing low-level research right from the start (even learning a new spell is a research project), which could throw off class balance. So I’m unsure of whether using it would be a good idea. Plus the CP rules don’t require monster parts for creating magic items, which is one of the fun parts of the ACKS rules. I suppose that needs to go onto my pile of conversion projects as well…

All of the classes in the Heroic Companion should, in theory, be balanced with classes from the Core Rulebook and Player’s Companion.

Before creating the new eldritch magic system, I created a meta-system for creating new magic types, and then used that to create new class-build values, and then built the new classes on top of that.

If I got the balance correct, then a full-progression eldritch spellcaster is approximately equal to a mage, and a full-progression eldritch ceremonialist is approximately equal to a priestess or witch.

Because of this equivalency, I am able to provide rules for converting all of the standard ACKS casting classes to use eldritch magic. So for instance to convert a shaman, you retains his class powers, hit dice, level progression, and other class traits, but instead of being a divine caster he becomes an eldritch ceremonialist of the shamanic tradition.

You would need the rules for ceremonial magic, corruption and black magic, and the eldritch spell list to make use of those classes. But in theory, a cleric and an ecclesiastic and a loremaster and a mage could all function in the same campaign.

You could also grant negative proficiencies to balance positive proficiencies, rather than finagling class powers; a necromancer might get Black Lore for free, but also get a negative copy of Elementalism, suffering a -1 per die of damage and -1 HP/HD penalty on summoned elementals, and granting a +2 to saves vs his elemental spells. Negative Beast Friendship would be even more fun, with -2 to reaction rolls with normal animals, and a chance on a 2- for them to go berserk…

“Before creating the new eldritch magic system, I created a meta-system for creating new magic types, and then used that to create new class-build values, and then built the new classes on top of that.”

Do want.