Nine Magic Dice Sorcerous System

I am working on some classes that are intended to be taken on top of the four default class templates you can earn normally. A conceit I am building around is the idea that you will grow more freakish and inhuman as you level up. No +2 attribute points per level past 5 while otherwise staying the same for you. If you want to exceed the peak of human performance you need to become an ogre or a dracula or something of that nature (you can also potentially skip learning things and take these classes first to become a creature of raw monstrous might without finesse). This also means sometimes getting a few extra MD on account of your potent supernatural physique. You'll almost certainly end up with at least four, maybe more, in long-term play or high-level starts. So, I am taking the default MD system, dooms, mishaps and all, and reshaping it to my needs.

(Note: I am veering towards a copper standard or even just bartering between peasants. Gold is a big deal.)

Premise

Spells are not creatures in this world, but systems of knowledge and the expression of one's own Numinous essence, their soul. Particularly powerful or Un-Worldly creatures can do this without effort, as naturally as breathing. These are Daimons, or the Living Dead, or just some kind of weird inexplicable blessing that happens sometimes to some things, and of course that which we would classify as Godly. These are called Miracles.

You do not do that, or if you do you are pushing your boundaries. You are a Theurge, a keeper of secret lore who channels the meager motes of your soul into artificial miracles, not through the raw force of your spirit but through a delicate and dangerous dance, shaping your soul just enough that it can endure the potent forces of magic and direct them somewhere useful. Your practice is called Gnosis, and you are often called a Magus. Gnosis is something anyone can learn, but is terribly dangerous and expensive. Lay magic, or hedge magic, is the domain of what one would call a witch, a spellblade, a scholar, a dalliance for the nobility. You go further. At great cost, you have warded yourself to the forces which would tear you apart, and so reached a power few can grasp.

System

There aren't spell slots, but spell points. A character's total spell points are MDx[sum of INT+WIS+CHA]/5, 4, 3, and 2 for every template you have in a Theurgic class (round result down), representing the depth and breadth of your soul plus your training in the art. Not only do cloistered intellectuals gain magical prowess, but those who see and understand the world around them benefit as well. As your mind broadens, so does your Theurgic potential. Spells cost the MD invested in them. Nine MD= nine points. consumables and equipment can give points, but not MD. Strength of spirit isn't something that can be bought.

Dooms and Mishaps

The same as normal. Two of the same number is a mishap, three is a doom. Yes, this means that past a certain number of dice, these become guaranteed. By default, four duplicates are a doom, five are a doom+mishap, six and seven are two dooms, eight is two dooms+mishap, nine(!) is three dooms simultaneously.

Any Theurge will suffer terribly if they cast spells with such high numbers of MD, unless they possess techniques, objects, or sacrifices by which these penalties may be absorbed.

In addition to some methods outlined below, some Theurgic class templates will limit or negate dooms and mishaps. The listed techniques are ones available to any such class, and others besides.

Methods of Casting

Theurgy may express itself in multiple ways, but the most common are the following.

Numinous Channeling

The closest thing to a miracle you can do. You gently tease your soul into the right shape, concentrating deeply. You might gesture with your hands or arms, you might twitch, or whisper. Unless someone is paying attention to you, you can do this stealthily.

However, this takes time. For each MD invested past 1, another turn must be spent doing nothing but this (some spells may demand minutes, hours, days, or weeks of channeling instead, for their effects are subtle, nuanced, and complex). If you take damage, suffer a condition like fear, stun, or sleep, or are moved against your will, roll MD equal to the turns spent channeling so far. The spell does not go off, but all dooms and mishaps apply. Otherwise, roll as normal.

Numinous Augmentation

Channeling may also be supplemented with an augmentation. Augmentations influence your channeling and "break" dooms. A single doom is turned into a mishap, two are turned into three mishaps, three are turned into six. While they do not make magic completely safe, these techniques do not cost money either, and usually when things do go terribly wrong the effect is centered on the magus and not those around them. Most magi use Numinous Channeling in conjunction with an Augmentation.

One can trial and error their way into Numinous Channeling, or learn by observation, but Augmentation must be learned from another Theurge. It is a skill refined by generations of study, and not lightly shared. Thus plenty of individuals can use lower-level magic, but anything higher tends to be gatekept.

Scriptural Augmentation

You trace sigils in the air, glowing and crackling, growing more complex the longer it takes. If anyone can see your position, this will give you away immediately. This is seen as the most civilized form of Augmentation, one available only to thinking beings which possess the capacity to understand linguistics. If your hands are prevented from gesturing, treat it as an interruption as per Numinous Channeling. Magi must have their hands cut off to lose this augmentation.

Verbal Augmentation

You add your voice to your channeling, your tone distorting and echoing, booming from your features. You will likely be heard by whoever you are targeting unless they are quite far away. When non-sapient creatures use this, it comes out as clicks, hisses, roars, not quite language but unmistakable when you hear it. If your voice is muted, treat it as an interruption as per Numinous Channeling. Magi must have their tongue cut out to lose this augmentation.

Physical Augmentation

Your gestures exaggerate, your entire body dancing, writhing, leaping, pacing. You must move 5 feet per turn you cast, and you cannot step in a space you stepped in last turn. You can theoretically do this silently, but anyone who sees you will know something unnatural is afoot. Un-Worldly beasts can also cast using this method, and often do, writhing spasmodically as they curse their enemies. Most people in the Known World do not use this, and the ones that do are from the southern tundras. If are stilled or forced to step in a square you stepped in on your last turn, treat it as an interruption as per Numinous Channeling. Magi must be dismembered to lose this augmentation.

Focusing Implement

For 10 GP, you can create a Focusing Implement. At its simplest form it is a stave, wand, orb, etc, but the most complicated are gigantic alembics, observatories, and orreries (it is for this reason that Theurges so often build towers). At its default price, it reduces casting time by one turn, to a minimum of casting it within a single turn. For each additional turn you wish your locus to negate, add a 0 to its cost, and have it take up [casting turns negated]x2 inventory slots. If it cannot be fit in a person's inventory, it requires a wagon, or may even be completely immobile. 

If it is destroyed, roll MD per the amount of turns it would negate. Anyone within [casting turns negated]x10 feet of it will be affected by whatever dooms or mishaps are rolled. Focusing implements can be stolen, sold, given away, lost, inherited, etc. Most wandering magi find an implement before they can buy one.

In addition, you can indeed have more than one. If so, you may choose which to use. You may carry a hefty 1000 GP contraption with you for powerful spellcasting and a 10 GP wand tucked in your boot for an emergency, for example.

Charms

A charm is a general term which encompasses beads, paper dolls, shrunken heads, vials of particular fluids, or just about any kind of strange artifact which has been imbued with Gnosis to absorb a negative effect of magic. Each takes one quarter of an inventory slot. Most cost 1 GP (variable depending on rarity and demand), and negate 1 mishap before being destroyed. 5 GP worth of Charms negate a doom. They may also be spent to reduce the effect of a spell targeting you at a cost of 1 GP worth for the first MD, 2 for the second, 4 for the third, and so on, also being destroyed upon use. They may be found among Theurges and common folk alike, though peasants can rarely afford them. If you see a random merchant selling charms for SP, consider rolling a 1d6. On a 6, it actually works. On a 4 or 5, it works 50% of the time. If they're selling them for copper or its equivalent it is 100% a scam, or maybe a 1-in-100 chance.

You may wonder, if Charms are so expensive at negating dooms, why would people use them and not an Augmentation? The answer is that Augmentation is, as said, gatekept by theurgic cabals and individuals. If you are a rich noble or self-taught Theurge, gaining access to a school of Augmentation may be out of your reach. But what cannot be learned can be bought, so you toss GP around to buy your way out of annihilation. It also allows for magic to be cast stealthily, as raw Numinous Channeling does not immediately draw attention, and with Charms to soak the drawbacks, one can safely use powerful spells if they have gold to burn.

Ritual Sacrifice

Using another's soul to power Theurgy is the swiftest and most notorious method. Using a special ceremonial weapon, or projectile, or executioner's contraption (flashy and rich magi use radially-arranged guillotines or the like). Check the highest HD that is sacrificed in the ceremony. At 1, a single mishap is negated, at 2, two mishaps, at 4 a doom or 2 mishaps, at 8 2 dooms or 4 mishaps, at 10 3 dooms or 6 mishaps. The doom/mishap negations may be allocated as appropriate in the event of rolling 1 doom and 1 mishap and so forth. Following that, check the total number of HD. At 1, 1 turn of casting time is negated. At 2, another, at 4 another, at 8 another, and so on.

Theurges who use sacrifice are rightfully viewed with deep suspicion. The ones who exist within the law are subject to heavy restrictions and rarely if ever operate outside of the support of a realm, either as sanctioned mass-executioners or the rulers themselves. As it requires no wealth to utilize, it is used by poor and desperate lands, and poor and desperate people, or simply those too callous to care. 

Extras

A few other terms related to Gnosis.

Noesis

The skill pertaining to the theoretical study of magic without casting it. Magical historians, scholars of occult lore, so forth. It may be taken as a skill, but must be tied to a particular specificity. Those who know a lot of scholarly stuff about Gnosis are called Noetics. Noetics who do not practice Theurgy as respected in scholarly circles but often mocked by practicing magi (even though many of them were once mere Noetics themselves). 

Goeteia

This is scholarly term denoting the act of summoning, binding, or treating with Un-Worldly powers so they can do magic for you. Most Theurges know a bit of Goeteia, but plenty of Goetics (as they are called) don't do any Theurgy at all. Most Goetics are associated with Oneirians, but those who speak to the restless dead (typically spirits) or commune with daimons also quality. It particularly has implications towards intangible spirits (or beings who may make themselves so), for as purely numinous creatures they may be called across great distances without concern for Worldly law, and thus most accessible to use.

Artifice

The art of using machines created by Theurgy, or designing them. Clockwork technology specifically is often referred to as such, being the most common form of high technology in the Known World. Only Miracle or Gnosis can produce the exceedingly potent mainsprings that power many clockwork contraptions, and building lay machinery around them to draw out their potential, and the creation of such mainsprings by a Theurge, are both considered Artifice. Most golems are half Artifice, and half Theurgy.

Example of Play

Pyre-Collector Zvelt, notorious wielder of flame, decides to cast fireball at 4 MD. He levels his Focusing Implement, an orichalc wand inlaid with rubies, and chants loudly as he shapes his Numen, voice drawing the attention of the entire skirmish. Luckily his fellows are used to this and keep his opponents from closing the distance to him, cutting off charges and targeting bowmen. As he spent 10 GP on his fancy Implement, he casts the spell after just 2 additional turns, but regrettably rolls a Doom. However, because he used Verbal Augmentation, this doom is turned into a mishap, one which would have resulted in some unpleasantness had it not subsequently been absorbed by 1 of his 3 Charms (paper talismans with pre-fall script daubed in blood). All such points resolved, the spell goes off without a hitch, expending 4 of his 19 Spell Points. He could spend another two turns blasting again, but his fellows are pretty ragged. Instead, he aims at the nearest enemy and casts fireball at 2 MD, which goes off immediately.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think one of the most interesting things to me about casters is the actual casting element. I have always enjoyed the style of mage where big spells are difficult and time consuming. I think a real scary spell should need time to cast, and give people the opportunity to disable the caster. I intend for them to be able to do some spell slinging at lower MD levels (even the weakest focusing implement doubles the MD you can instantly cast), but anything more than that and you will need prep time, body shields, or some other advantage if you don't want to be taken out. It also means confronting an enemy army and seeing glowing lights and booming voices outside the range of your weapons is terrifying because you know they are about to do something ridiculous. 

Ideally, the system I'm going for is that at lower levels you can be slinging magic missiles and other stuff fairly easily, but anything more will be as devastating as it is hard to pull off. A magician knows when to fall back and plan ahead, and if you're caught out you can't magic nuke your way out of it. And when used by enemies, it can add time or strategic pressure to a combat scenario. The villain is standing on the podium, their voice echoing across the great hall, arcane forces gathering around them. Between you and them is their trusted bodyguards. You have eight turns to dispatch them, get past them, or bring the whole place down. Good luck.