SAGA House Rules
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SAGA Resources
Character Creation
This is a point-based system for building characters rather than the card-based system normally used by SAGA. This should hopefully produce more balanced characters than the card-based system and allow for more control over one's concept.
Step 1: Concept
Think of the basic character concept that you would like to play. Optionally, if undecided, much of the concept can be gleaned later by drawing cards for nature, demeanor, background and the like.
Step 2: Nature, Demeanor and Background
To determine your nature and demeanor, simply go through the Fate Deck and pick from the cards as they match your character concept. Alternately, if you would like, you may instead draw a hand of twelve cards and choose your nature and demeanor from among the cards drawn.
Once this is done it is time to determine your character's background using the "Background Lifepath" system presented in "A Saga Companion" (page 8). Except, instead of having to choose from the cards drawn, you may simply pick at each step if you would like (or you can use the cards, if that appeals to you), except for in step 7.
Step 3: Race & Role
Choose a race and role, making sure to note the restrictions they will apply to your ability ratings and ability codes. You will have to abide by these restrictions. Also note your racial advantages and disadvantages. Write them down, keeping in mind the house rule (see below) about auto-trump abilities becoming reductions in difficulty. Roles listed in "A Saga Companion" (page 110) are available. You do not have to pick a role now, as they can be acquired through play as well (unless the role requirements dictate otherwise. However, a character may have only one role at a time.
In addition to the core book races, the following racial options are also available: Gully Dwarves (Heroes of Defiance, page 36), Kagonesti Elves (Heroes of Hope, page 82), Half-Kagonesti Elves (Heroes of Hope, page 85), Ogres (Rise of the Titans, page 23) and Half-Ogres (Rise of the Titans, page 23).
Step 4: Ability Codes
You have up to 50 Hero Points to spend to raise Ability Codes. Hero Points left over from this step will carry over to raising Ability Ratings (step 6). The costs of each of the different ability codes is as follows:
Code Cost X 0 D 2 C 5 B 9 A 14
Step 5: Advantages & Disadvantages
Based on the Ability Codes you chose in the last step go ahead and assign any resulting advantages and disadvantages you gain as a result.
Step 6: Ability Ratings
You have up to 70 Hero Points to spend to raise Ability Ratings, plus any left over from step 4. Hero Points left over from this step will carry over to step 7. The costs for the ratings are as follows:
Rating Cost 1 0 2 1 3 2 4 4 5 6 6 9 7 12 8 16 9 20 10 25
Step 7: Quests, Wealth & Equipment
You have up to 20 Hero Points to spend to raise your Quests and Wealth, plus any left over from step 6. Hero points left over from this step are lost. The costs for each are as follows:
Quests Cost Wealth Cost 1 0 1 0 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 6 4 6 5 8 5 8 6 10 6 10 7 12 7 12 8 14 8 14 9 16 9 16 10 18 10 18
Once you have your Wealth score you can now choose your starting equipment. Not only is the equipment in the core book available, but the extra weapons listed in Heroes of Steel (page 72) are available as well.
Step 8: Skills
Assign skills to your character as described in "A Saga Companion" (page 28). Note the house rule on auto-trumps affects the mechanic of skills.
Step 8: Secret
Consult the GM and draw a Fate Card to determine if your character has a secret and what it is. The GM will tell you what your secret is based on the optional rules for secrets (Heroes of Defiance, page 46) if you even know of the secret yourself (depends on the secret).
Step 10: Finishing Touches
Look over your character and make sure you are happy with it. Make changes if necessary. Fill out your background some more.
Game Play
Revised Combined Action Rules
The more sensible rules for Combined and Coordinated actions are being used, as found in Heroes of Steel, page 55. These replace the rules found in the core book.
Role-Playing Action Modifiers
The optional rules for role-playing action modifiers (Heroes of Steel, page 54) are in use. Basically, these allow good and dramatic role-playing to provide a bonus to actions. Similarly, making a half-hearted or feeble attempt at role-playing can net you a penalty. These are all applied by the GM transparently behind the scene.
Advanced Combat, Etc.
The advanced combat optional rules (Heroes of Steel, page 60) are in use. In addition to these are the rules for Improvised Weapons (Heroes of Steel, page 79) and Mass Combat (Heroes of Steel, page 82).
Advanced Magic, Etc.
The advanced rules for magic use--Difficulty vs. Cost (Heroes of Sorcery, page 59), Long Term Durations (Heroes of Sorcery, page 52), Magic Items (Heroes of Sorcery, page 70 and The Last Tower, page 36) and Magical Mishaps (Heroes of Sorcery, page 76) are in use.
Expanded Overland & Ariel Movement Rules
The optional expanded rules for Overland movement (Heroes of Steel, page 56) and Ariel Movement (Wings of Fury, page 106) are in use.
Auto-Trumps & Never-Trumps
Any racial advantage or other source that would normally give an auto-trump instead simply reduces the difficulty of the action by a stage. This corrects for some racial imbalances and makes most modifiers consistent as affecting the difficulty level instead of trumps. Additionally, if you have a disadvantage that would make an action never trump. It instead raises the difficulty of those actions by one stage.
Skills
Characters now have a number of skills as described in the Saga Skill System ("A Saga Companion", page 28).
Regaining Spell Points
Spell points come back 3/hour if you are rated "A" in the appropriate ability. They come back 1/hour if you are rated "B". These rates are doubled when sleeping.
Expanded Wealth & Social Status
The expanded wealth and social status rules found in "A saga Companion" (page 41) are in use.
Redraw Tokens
At the beginning of every session every character gets three redraw tokens. A redraw token can be spent to discard all cards from your hand and to redraw up to the same number of cards you previously held. These can be used to get rid of bad cards without having to play them... at least until you run out of tokens.
High Sorcery & Devotion
The purpose of this system is to recreate the spirit of High Sorcery and Devotion, and contrast these two systems of magic from Primal Sorcery and Mysticism, whilst not sacrificing too much of the flexibility of magic in the SAGA rules.
General Rules
The following general rules apply when dealing with four types of magic.
Choice of Magic & Restrictions
Characters with an A or B in Reason or Spirit must decide what type of associated magic they are skilled in. Reason governs High and Primal Sorcery. Spirit governs Devotion and Mysticism. Once a character has one type of magic, that type of magic may be mutually exclusive with other types of magic and restrict future choices. The restrictions in choices are below.
- A character may only have an "A" in one type of magic.
- Magic types that share the same associated ability are mutually exclusive, but can be switched between in a process known as "Epiphany." This process requires an adventure's worth of study, during which spell casting actions are considered one step harder than normal--this represents the character having to adjust to the new way of casting.
High Sorcery & Devotion
When choosing High Sorcery or Devotion, heroes with Reason or Spirit scores of 'A' have access to five Schools or Spheres, not three as in Sorcery and Mysticism. Heroes with Reason or Spirit scores of 'B' have access to two Schools or Spheres, rather than just one in Sorcery and Mysticism.
To balance the greater range of spells available to them, spell casters of High Sorcery and Devotion do not have the flexibility of defining their spells at the moment of casting. Instead, players of Wizards and Clerics define the spells that they want to have prepared to cast at the beginning of each game day:
- Each hero may memorize one spell per Quest; specifying effect, range, area, etc. The cost is calculated at the point of memorization. Characters can memorize any spell that have access to the schools or spheres of, as they are assumed to have a spellbook listing all the available spells to them, or a religious sigil with a connection to their deity.
- Any combination of these memorized spells may be cast each day, until the hero runs out of Spell Points.
- Spells cast cost the same number of Spell Points as in Sorcery and Mysticism.
Wizards of High Sorcery
Heroes usually join the Order of High Sorcery appropriate to the aura of their Nature card. Some heroes may wish to join the Order indicated by the aura of their Demeanor card instead, if this differs from their Nature card. Such Wizards struggle to fit into an Order that does not truly meet their inner desires.
Schools of Magic
The magic of High Sorcery operates within Schools. Only certain Schools are usable by the different Orders of High Sorcery; spells castable by wizards of one Order may not necessarily be cast by those of another. Note that some of the Schools of magic available to Wizards of High Sorcery are described as spheres of Mysticism in the standard Saga rules; before the Second Cataclysm, mages were able to cast their spells that would become impossible during the Fifth Age. Wizard spells are able to affect living targets, unlike sorcery spells.
Assuming a Reason score of 'A':
- A Wizard of the White Robes may choose five of the following schools of magic: Aeromancy, Alteration, Divination, Electromancy, Enchantment, Mentalism, Pyromancy, Summoning, and Transmutation.
- A Wizard of the Red Robes may choose five of the following schools of magic: Aeromancy, Alteration, Enchantment, Geomancy, Hydromancy, Pyromancy, Spectramancy, Summoning, and Transmutation.
- A Wizard of the Black Robes may choose five of the following schools of magic: Alteration, Cryomancy, Divination, Enchantment, Mentalism, Necromancy, Pyromancy, Spiritualism, and Summoning.
- Renegade wizards may choose any of the schools listed for the three Orders, but their career is generally very brief.
The Test
Wizards with a Reason score of 'B' are considered novices by the Wizards of High Sorcery, and are permitted to practice their minor spells without swearing loyalty to the Conclave or formally declaring their allegiance to the white, red, or black moon. Nor are heroes with a Reason score of 'B' affected by the changing moons of magic.
Those heroes who seek greater power must first increase their Reason code to 'A'. Before the hero gains the benefit of this increased code, he must travel to a Tower of High Sorcery to take the Test of High Sorcery. Failure could mean death. Once the hero has undergone the Test, he chooses which Order of High Sorcery he will join and is considered a full wizard.
A hero who begins play with a Reason score of 'A' is considered to have completed his Test some time in the past. The player should detail this harrowing event, and describe the ways in which it now affects the Wizard's use of magic.
The Three Moons of Magic
Each of the three Orders of High Sorcery receives its power from one of the three moons. Wizards of the White Robes gain power from Solinari, Red Robes from Lunitari, and Black Robes from Nuitari. Renegade wizards are not affected by the moons of magic, unless the Narrator deems otherwise.
The phase of a specific moon affects the magic of the appropriate Order. To determine the current phase of the moon draw 6 cards and look at the aura. Each aura is associated with the moon of the same color. If you draw 3+ cards of that aura, the associated moon is in High Sanction. If you draw no cards of that color, the associated moon is in low sanction. Otherwise it is waxing or waning. Finally, if you draw two cards of each color, the moons are aligned as a Night of the Eye. This has the following mechanical effects:
- When a moon is in High Sanction (full), all spellcasting actions made by heroes of that moon's Order are considered one step less difficult.
- When the moon is either waxing or waning, spells are cast normally.
- When the moon is in Low Sanction (new), all spellcasting actions made by heroes of that moon's Order are one step more difficult.
- If all three moons are aligned, this is called a Night of the Eye. All spells for all Orders are two steps less difficult.
The Holy Orders of the Stars
The choice of god that a cleric hero worship can be made for many different reasons: the hero's race or role; the personal interests and likes of the player. There are only three restrictions to this choice that the player must keep in mind:
- Heroes must worship a god appropriate to the aura of their Nature card;
- Heroes who also belong to the Knights of Solamnia must choose Paladine, Kiri-Jolith, or Habbakuk; heroes who belong to the Knights of Takhisis must choose Takhisis, or another evil god after Takhsis' death.
- Heroes who also belong to the Orders of High Sorcery must choose Solinari, Nuitari, or Lunitari.
A cleric's spells are able to affect nonliving targets in the Fourth Age. Each god has five "spheres" that are associated with that deity. These spheres are mostly Spheres of Mysticism as in the Fifth Age Mysticism rules, but include a few Schools of Sorcery (for example, Clerics of Sirrion have access to Pyromancy).
A hero with a Spirit score of 'A' can cast spells using all five of his god's spheres. A hero with a Spirit score of 'B' must choose two of the available spheres from which to cast his spells.
The Gods of Good
- Paladine: Channelling, Healing, Mentalism, Sensitivity, Pyromancy.
- Mishakal: Cryomancy, Divination, Healing, Mentalism, Spiritualism.
- Majere: Animism, Channelling, Meditation, Mentalism, Summoning.
- Kiri-Jolith: Channelling, Divination, Enchantment, Healing, Sensitivity.
- Habbakuk: Aeromancy, Alteration, Animism, Hydromancy, Sensitivity.
- Branchala: Aeromancy, Healing, Meditation, Mentalism, Spectramancy.
- Solinari: Channelling, Divination, Enchantment, Healing, Sensitivity.
The Gods of Evil
- Takhisis: Healing, Necromancy, Pyromancy, Sensitivity, Summoning.
- Sargonnas: Alteration, Channelling, Enchantment, Mentalism, Summoning.
- Morgion: Channelling, Divination, Healing, Necromancy, Sensitivity.
- Chemosh: Animism, Channelling, Healing, Necromancy, Spiritualism.
- Zeboim: Aeromancy, Alteration, Animism, Hydromancy, Sensitivity.
- Hiddukel: Channelling, Divination, Healing, Mentalism, Necromancy.
- Nuitari: Divination, Enchantment, Healing, Sensitivity, Spiritualism.
The Gods of Neutrality
- Gilean: Animism, Divination, Healing, Meditation, Sensitivity.
- Sirrion: Channelling, Healing, Meditation, Pyromancy, Summoning.
- Reorx: Alteration, Channelling, Enchantment, Geomancy, Spiritualism.
- Chislev: Aeromancy, Alteration, Animism, Healing, Mentalism.
- Zivilyn: Animism, Divination, Meditation, Sensitivity, Spiritualism.
- Shinare: Channelling, Enchantment, Meditation, Mentalism, Transmutation.
- Lunitari: Divination, Healing, Meditation, Spectramancy, Summoning.
