Today’s lore drop is going to be a look under the hood of a Cartographer of Possibility game. Everyone in this game knows that 4th edition is my go-to edition, and a little bit as to why, but the short reason is the game is balanced, so from levels 1 to 30, everyone can be “cool in their own way”. In other editions, wizards and sorcerers start out weak enough that if you sneeze at them too hard, they die, while fighters are burly. But by level 20 wizards and sorcerers are godly in their spell casting, while fighters are still burly, but basically just hit things, a lot. In 3.5 they tried to expand this by giving maneuvers, but in 4th edition, they just gave them cool powers outright, and to all the classes. The power structure (at will, encounter, daily, and utility) is the same for all characters, {except psionics, F those guys}, and the strength of the powers are pretty well in line with your class role. The upside is everybody has cool shit to do, the downside is that the methods people used to overcome the shortcomings of their character (and trying to outsmart the system) was basically written out of the game.
With that though, the system introduced two of my favorite features. Rituals, and flavor.
One of the best parts of it was the addition of rituals. Rituals are a replacement for your long cast spells in other editions. Rather than using a precious spell slot to keep identify on hand for when you find a magic item, you just have a ritual that you can cast. Divination spells, Tenser’s floating disk, water walking and breathing, all fall under this. they have casting components and costs, as well as a cast time that typically wont fit into a standard combat encounter (unless trying to cast or finish the ritual (or disrupt an enemy’s ritual) is part of the unique challenge of the ritual). And best of all, it even has guides to allow your players to make their own rituals. They tell you what they want, you compare it to others, plan a price, a stat, and a level, and bam. Instant custom magic.
The other major addition they added, but didn’t expand on or embrace nearly enough, is flavor. In each and every power in the game is flavor text, which can be used to describe cinematic effect of the spell or attack in combat, and it’s all completely customizable. Magic Missle: “A glowing blue bolt of magical energy hurtles from your finger and unerringly strikes your target.” ok. but I want it to be green, and a skull, and as I cast it I glow in the same sickly color, and lets call it Brian’s homing bolt of death. and you can, who cares. Additionally, if you want to change the damage type from force damage to fire, as long as your DM approves, there’s no issue.
In that same vein, if there’s something you want to do that isn’t in the rules directly, there’s so much room to flow it in seamlessly. If you want to adjust your detect magic ability (tied to arcana) to turn into a magical bloodhound, able to follow a specific trace, talk to your dm. Probably have to increase the difficulty check, but it’s totally do able. If you need to try to figure out the reason an object works the way it is, there is almost always a skill for that. Disguising yourself to hide a feature, such as silver hair that reflects sunlight can be bluff, thievery, or stealth, while catching the deception can be perception, insight, or even your own stealth check to try to catch a look when they don’t see you.
In the end, the combat mechanics of 4th edition are designed to allow everyone to shine without having to break the rules, but it’s still YOUR storytelling and ingenuity that will make the tales for years to come.