d20 Plot Device Colours of Magic - White.pdf - Plot Device - R5700

White Magic

The Oracle sat quietly in his chair, twirling his thumbs,

and waiting with some measure of impatience. The fact that he

knew exactly when what was going to happen was going to

happen did not calm him in the slightest. He hated the waiting as

much as anyone else, but for different reasons. It was just so

darned boring. “Finally,” he muttered, about a tenth of a second

before the rapping came at the door. He paused to assume his best

spot and brushed the hair from his eyes. He waved to his

attendant, who smiled at him warmly before going to open

the door. Foolish woman. He would have to make up a

story to upset her later. Something about her son,

that would show her proper place.

am so looking forward to that. Quickly, Quickly, it will only take a minute!”

The Senator shook his head, but under the withering gaze of the Oracle he

opened he decided to speak rather than risk any further incident. “I need to find

the way to the city of the Nine Seals, to place a wreath on the throne of an

ancient Queen and convey the wishes of the government to the Verdant Isle.”

The Oracle sat up in his chair. “That sounds totally amazing,” his eyes

lit up with enthusiasm, and he got an eerie, far away look. “The seals are in

the hands of a crying man, whose beard drags in the river, as he

stands on planks and speaks to the wind. Seek him in the

heart of the forest.” He blinked. “Now tell me I can come

too!” He g rinned at the man, who look ed ab out for help.

“Under no circumstances, my son,” said the

caretaker, shaking her head. “The Forest is no place for

a ten year old.” Her tone brooked no appeal.

“Greetings, Senator Wrythor. You are

most welcome. All is well with you personally,

I see. It pleases me to renew our

acquaintance.” He smiled.

Index

O v e r v i e w ……………………. …

The Senator was unnerved,

but chose not to make a display. “Greetings, Seer.

I have needs of your …” he managed before being

cut off. “Yes, and though you will protest it once,

you will agree to the price of forty thousand gold.”

In te r v e n ti on ……………………

O m n i sci e n ce ………………. . ….

Su m m on i n g …………………….

T h e O r a cl e ……. ………………. .

Appendix (White Spells) …….

“But, that is…” The Senator stopped himself,

and then continued, “acceptable.” He swallowed

then smiled wryly. “So is there actually anything

that you do not know?”

L i ce n ce ………………………….

2 4

Chromatic Arcana

This game supplement requires the Dungeons &

Drag ons Play ers Handb ook , Third Edition, pub lished b y

Wizards of the Coast, Inc. It uses material from the updated

v3.5 revision. All content in the Game Rule Info sections, all spell

descriptions and names and all tables are OGC. All fiction, pictures and other

descriptive text are IP of the respective creators.

“Actually, yes. What is it exactly that you

want me to do?” said the Oracle with an eager,

almost hungry look in his eyes. All hope of maintaining

a semblance of dignity left the Senator and he stared at the

Oracle in total incredulity. “But you have agreed… That is to say,

how could you know…? I am sorry, what?”

Chromatic Arcana is a re-organization of the magic system of d20 fantasy.

Instead of Illusion, or Evocation, spells are classified according to colours. Three

new cleric domains are also included. It is possible to use this supplement directly

with the normal classes. A new class is also included: The Oracle.

“I only got the silly details in my last vision, I know

nothing of the specifics of what y ou want of me. I just k now

how I am going to feel about it when you tell me, and I

Chromatic Magic Overview

S chool , S u b -school , D escr ipt or

The easiest application of these rules is to

simply allow a few new character classes that you

can say come from a culture that has had a different

approach to the study of magic within an already

existent standard world. It is relatively easy to

assume that a culture separated from the

mainstream of a fantasy world might develop a

mag ical metaphy sics that approached arcane theory

from a chromatic perspective rather than an

elemental or effect-based one.

character class. Please feel free to ignore the 0 level

spell for domains if you do not want to use that

option in y our g ame world. If y ou do choose to use

this option, you should grant an extra 0 level spell

slot to clerics that must be chosen from the relevant

domain spells, as per the domain bonus spell rules. I

have included two levels of Domain power, the base

level available to clerics that might choose the

domain, and the advanced power that is available to

Mystics and classes like the Oracle. Feel free to use

or ignore this extra information at your whim.

In the Players Handbook, spells are

classified b y School, Sub -School and Descriptor.

Here is the text of the information about this

categorisation system copied in from the System

Reference Document for reference:

Almost every spell belongs to one of eight schools of

magic. A school of magic is a group of related spells that work in

similar ways. A small number of spells (arcane mark, limited

wish, permanency, prestidigitation, and wish) are universal,

belonging to no school.

Appearing on the same line as the school and sub-

school, when applicable, is a descriptor that further categorizes

the spell in some way. Some spells have more than one

descriptor.

The descriptors are acid, air, chaotic, cold, darkness,

death, earth, electricity, evil, fear, fire, force, good, language-

dependent, lawful, light, mind-affecting, sonic, and water.

Most of these descriptors have no game effect by

themselves, but they govern how the spell interacts with other

spells, with special abilities, with unusual creatures, with

alignment, and so on.

Each of the new schools (the Colours in

other words) is sub-divided into three sub-sections,

or “spheres”. Spheres are in essence Sub-schools and

Descriptors wrapped into one. Note that focusing on

a sphere has no in-game effect with the standard

character classes. Some GMs may choose to use an

optional rule of giving a bonus to Sorcerers that

learn all the spells in a particular domain and colour

in exclusion of granting them the base domain or

even the advanced domain powers of the domain in

question as an added incentive for specialising.

T he Col ou r W hit e

White is the colour of the spirit world,

granting perception, influence and power to the

intangible soul. To incorporate Colours into an

existing campaign, allocate them to deities; in the

case of White, deities of knowledge or the afterlife,

ruling gods, or indeed any deity at all might have

influence over the domains of Intervention,

Omniscience and Summoning. Next allow Specialist

Wizards to choose a Colour as their primary school.

The colours are opposed to each other in the

following manner by default, but please feel free to

add in your own chromatic oppositional restrictions:

S pect r u m S hift

Chromatic Mag ic is a reclassification of the

base spells from the standard rules using a different

school system. All spells are given a school, or

Colour. The basic descriptors of spells do not

change. Only a few of their effects are modified to fit

in with this reclassification. The schools and sub-

schools do change. The effect of this alteration to the

magic system is simple and subtle, but it has a very

powerful follow-on effect to the nature of the game

world that it might be included in. In particular

there are fundamental effects upon specialist

Wizards, and there may (if you choose to go that far)

be effects upon clerical magic, or even the existence

of any of the standard spellcasting classes.

Basically this is the name I gave to a d20

rules modification that I came up with for a game

universe I ran for my friends in 2004. I twisted the

magic system, the base character classes and

alignments, and took out the classic fantasy races,

adding in a few archetypes of my own. It was a lot

of fun to do, so I wanted to share these ideas.

Red (energy) ÅÆ Indigo (thought)

Blue (pattern) ÅÆ Orange (disorder)

White (divine) ÅÆ Black (mundane)

Yellow (life) ÅÆ Purple (death)

Green (nature) ÅÆ Brown (artifice)

Grey (form) ÅÆ Chrome (function)

In the Spectrum Shift system, all domains

are given a 0 level spell. If you are interested in

finding out what 0 level spells are allocated to the

b asic domains out of the Play er’s Handb ook , they

are available in the “Unlikely Heroes: The Mystic”

For ease of use, the complete list of Black

spells is shown after the White Spell descriptions on

page 22. An alternate limitation might be Brown or

Grey magic.

The Sphere of Intervention

A fundamental premise of most d20

fantasy worlds is that gods and spirits of the

other world like to meddle. Every cleric calls on

them for assistance, and every one of them gets

the help they ask for, within the limits of their

level and memorised spells. Intervention is the

sphere for those powers that can be evoked by

calling on the other world to perform action

upon the mundane universe.

Like most of the Yellow spheres, the

spells this White sphere contains are classically

associated to divine or clerical magic, so you

may feel it is inappropriate to grant this sphere

to arcane spell casters. If you do allow these

spells broader access be very aware of the

consequence to the cleric class, as several key

abilities that only they have will subsequently

be shared with arcane casters. Justifying

allowing this style of magic is easy enough:

arcane spell casters that learn Intervention

magic do not draw upon specific deities or even

their own natural piety toward a particular

alignment as their source of influence on the

other world, but rather draw directly upon the

power of magic itself as a force, and through

their command of arcane power, gain the

needed respect and influence needed to call

upon these effects. This justification is not

without fantasy examples, quite the opposite.

Table White 1 All Intervention Spells

Spell Name

this does not preclude or limit this sphere to

good aligned clerics. The ability to Intervene is

indiscriminate as regards morality.

Level

Divine Favour

Bane

Bless

The ba se d om a i n ability for the domain

of Intervention grants the supplicant access to

the Knowledge (religion) skill as a class skill if

it was not one already, and also grants a +3

natural bonus to this skill.

Bless Water

Bless Weapon

Augury

Consecrate

Gentle Repose

Spectral Hand

The advanced domain power of

Intervention grants the devotee the ability to

call on the powers to protect them, as per the

spell Sanctuary, except as noted below. This

ability can be used a number of rounds per day

equal to the character’s class levels, and these

rounds do not need to be sequential. It is a free

action to activate this ability on the characters

turn. The DC of the will roll to avoid this affect

is 5 + the character’s Charisma bonus + the

character’s class level.

Helping Hand

Prayer

Divination

Planar Ally, Lesser

Atonement

Commune

Forbiddance

Planar Ally

Holy Sword

Planar Ally, Greater

Miracle

T he D omain of Int er vent ion

Table White 2 Intervention Domain

Spell Name

Level

Practically any deity at all might grant

the powers of this domain. In fact, you might

say that this is a Common domain, and all

deities offer it to their clerics. The principle of

intervening on behalf of a supplicant is intrinsic

to the very nature of divine magic, so this is not

at all out of concept. Any cleric might gain

access to these powers. Note that there are

some spells that have been historically classed

as “good” spells ( consecrate, gentle repose ) but

Divine Favour

Bless

Augury

Prayer

Divination

Planar Ally, Lesser

Commune

Planar Ally

This is a very powerful miscellaneous

sphere, with many useful effects to bolster,

assist and mitigate the abilities of others.

Planar Ally, Greater

Miracle

The Sphere of Omniscience

Omniscience consists of awareness and

pure perception. Some theoreticians attribute

the powers of this sphere to a natural sixth

sense or so-called “Sight” that is natural to all

spiritual entities, even those that are currently

living or bound to mortal forms. They further

speculate that this sensory capacity remains

blinded when we are within corporeal form,

accessible only with the power of this kind of

magic. Others say that this sphere allows

casters to tap into the awareness of the gods,

and thus share in their superlative perceptive

abilities. Some, in turn, speculate that there are

no otherworld elements to this sphere at all,

and magic itself is simply giving extra senses

where none existed before, or amplifying the

natural faculties of the spell-casting individuals

in some other way.

The ba se d om a i n power of Omniscience

grants the devotee a +2 insight bonus to the

skills Listen and Spot, making them both class

skills if they were not already.

Table White 3 All Omniscience Spells

Spell Name

Level

Guidance

Detect Snares and Pits

Alarm

Detect Secret Doors

The advanced domain ability of

Omniscience gives the devotee a limited form

of prescience. This extra sensory perception

gives the character a cumulative insight bonus

of +2 that is usable for one round per level per

day, which do not need to be consecutive

rounds. Activating this insight bonus is a free

action, and when this ability is used, the

character must choose one of the following

areas to apply it to until their next action:

• Attack rolls

• Armour class

• One saving throw (will, fortitude, reflex)

• Damage from one weapon used

• Spell DC for one spell the character casts.

True Strike

Find Traps

Owl Wisdom

See Invisibility

Clairaudience/Clairvoyance

Arcane Eye

Detect Scrying

Scrying

Prying Eyes

True Seeing

Find the Path

Legend Lore

Owl's Wisdom, Mass

Scrying, greater

Irrespective of the theoretical origins of

this sphere, it grants extremely powerful

miscellaneous abilities. The ability to know

what is transpiring, or to grant insight into the

true nature of things is extremely useful in so

many ways. In times of conflict it is often this

kind of power that governs the course of wars

or skirmishes, determining victor and victim.

Vision

Discern Location

Moment of Prescience

Table White 4 Omniscience Domain

Spell Name

Prying Eyes, greater

Level

Foresight

Guidance

T he D omain of O mniscience

Alarm

See Invisibility

Much like the other white domains,

almost any deity might grant access to the

powers of Omniscience. It has particular

association with the concepts of knowledge,

wisdom and forethought, so it is likely to have

favour with any being whose influence

includes these.

Clairaudience/Clairvoyance

Scrying

Though there are no direct offensive

abilities here, one indirect one (True Strike),

and only very few defensive ones at the highest

of levels, nevertheless this is a very powerful

sphere both in combat and out of it.

True Seeing

Find the Path

Vision

Discern Location

Foresight

The Sphere of Summoning

The ba se d om a i n ability of Summoning

grants an insight bonus of +3 to the Knowledge

(The Planes) skill, and makes it a class skill if it

was not one before. Furthermore, it allows the

devotee to select any extra planer or elemental

language as one of their initial or subsequent

language choices at no penalty.

The advanced domain power for

Summoning allows the devotee to choose a

specific plane of existence upon which to focus

(not their home plane). When summoning

creatures from this other plane the caster is

capable of ensuring they get only the larger and

more powerful specimens of creatures, giving

them automatically maximum hit points for

creatures of their type. Further, the devotee

gains +2 insight bonus on all rolls to do with

creatures from this plane, including skill rolls,

attack rolls, armour class against their attacks,

DC of spells cast upon them and saving throws

against their powers.

While the sphere of Omniscience allows

sensing things that are elsewhere in time or

space, or enhances the ability to perceive of the

mage; and the sphere of Intervention allows the

caster to draw power or abilities from beings

from elsewhere, often leading to interacting

with them with mutual respect; Summoning is

something else entirely. The power that this

sphere holds is much more direct and

immediate, and relies upon universal laws and

structures that govern how interaction between

different dimensions occur. This sphere allows

the caster to summon the physical essence of a

being from elsewhere, and command it to act as

the character wills.

Unlike the power of command over

others that the purple sphere of Dominion

holds, or indeed the influence over others that

the yellow sphere of Motive allows, this power

does not convey any influence over creatures

belonging to the natural realm. There is some

aspect to Summoning that seems to limit the

will and fundamental abilities of the creature

summoned. Some have speculated that this is

because only the mystical and physical nature

of the creature is in fact called, and not the

entirety of the creature at all.

Table White 5 All Summoning Spells

Spell Name

Level

Summon Instrument / tool

Mount

Summon Monster I

Summon Monster II

Summon Monster III

Planar Binding, lesser

Summon Monster IV

Contact Other Plane

Summon Monster V

Planar Binding

Summon Monster VI

D.'s Instant Summons

Summon Monster VII

Binding

Planar Binding, greater

Summon Monster VIII

Soul Bind

Summon Monster IX

T he D omain of S u mmoning

Like the other White domains, any deity

might grant Summoning to their priests.

Specific entities renown for having hoards of

creatures at their beck and call are particularly

likely to favour it. Before allowing this sphere

to be used by a cleric it is best to create a

specific list of relevant CR creatures that spells

of a particular pantheon or deity are likely to

call. It is, for example, bad form for a demonic

god to allow summoning of angelic creatures.

You can use the default alignments from the

standard summoned creatures as a guide

(replicated on page 23).

Table White 6 Summoning Domain

Spell Name

Level

Summon Instrument / tool

Summon Monster I

Summon Monster II

Summon Monster III

Summon Monster IV

Some elements of this sphere allow

communication to other planes of existence.

Unlike Intervention, communication does not

convey affiliation, and any interactions must be

coerced or called through other magic.

Summon Monster V

Summon Monster VI

Summon Monster VII

Summon Monster VIII

Summon Monster IX

d20 Plot Device Colours of Magic - White.pdf

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