Legend4ry Arcana: Magic at a Cost

I grew up reading sword and sorcery books, I love pulp, so of course I love Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian. Howard himself was a crazy guy stuck in the vast wastes that is the state of Texas. His typewriter, imagination, and knack for getting into bar brawls fueled the stories of the Cimmerian known as Conan. And by Krom, it was awesome. Howard was also a fast friend and confidant with H.P. Lovecraft; the two used to write short stories and send them back and forth for each other's critique and enjoyment. You can see a hugely Lovecraftian influence on Howard's later Conan tales and even in his Weird Tales. 

Enough yammering about Conan, Howard, and Lovecraft. There is method to my madness. While it is true that my love of Conan is one of the reasons that the Dark Sun campaign setting resonates with me so, there is another reason as well. Magic at a cost. I've made mention in my many, many posts over magic items that I am of the Risk Versus Reward mindset. How can one port this to 4e?

It's simple... we kill the Batman. But no, seriously, how can we do this? Having a powerful yet physically weak mage or magic-user isn't outside of the realm or even history of D&D. Look at Dragonlance's Raistlin, for example. 

Mechanically it is a different story and in my head, I tie it to Healing Surges. Much like Defiling in Dark Sun, it is purely optional, and because of the cost of physical health for boosted power, I don't see this being game-breaking, either. In fact, it balances itself in a Risk Vs Reward aspect.

So here it is, magic at a cost:

If a mage wants to boost the power of a spell, (s)he can choose to, as a Free Action, delve into their own reserve of vitality to do so, sacrificing a Healing Surge and gaining no benefit of healing to add damage to their attack equal to their Healing Surge Value.

Click to ENLARGE!!!

If a willing ally is adjacent to the mage, as a Minor Touch Action, they may draw upon their ally's vitality, causing them to sacrifice a Healing Surge with no healing benefit to add damage to their attack equal to the mage's Healing Surge Value.

Click to ENLARGE!!!

To keep this balanced, all extra damage is based on the mage's Surge Value, lest the party Defender overpower the spells and break the balance. This is similar in a reverse way to the Paladin's Lay on Hands.

For the issue of multi-targeting attacks, divide the extra damage equally among the targets or choose one target to take the extra damage. 

At the end of the day, the mage sacrifices a Healing Surge (either their own or an ally's) to boost an attack. If no Healing Surges are available to the mage (either their own or their ally's) the mage can still boost an attack's power by taking damage equal to their Healing Surge Value. 

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EDIT: I also entered an art contest over at the Id DM's site to show my own version of Iddy, his mascot. Check it out here, and see all of the awesome entries! 

As always, click to ENLARGE!!!

Until next time,

-blob

You can follow me on Twitter @Sorcerer_Blob or via the hash-tag #legend4ry. You can also find my blog and others at the Fourthcore Hub and at the RPG Blog Alliance.