Everyone Can Do Magic: A Classless Magic System

 This magic system uses the typical GLOG spellcasting using Magic Dice (MD), but in a rather unconventional way. Rather than gaining MD and spells as part of your class progression, gaining either is entirely diegetic. You gain MD from close interactions with the supernatural, and learn spells similarly, often in ways involving lost or forbidden knowledge. The spells are written with D&D-type games in mind (ability scores, actions, HD, hitpoints, rounds, Saves) but it should be fairly easy to adapt and bolt on to pretty much any system.

 

How MD Work

 

If you're uninitiated in the ways of the GLOG, here's how Magic Dice work: You have a pool of d6s. When you cast a spell, you can choose to roll up to as many MD as you have, with a minimum of 1. The number of dice you roll is [dice], and their total is [sum], which are often used for the power or effect of the spell. Dice that roll 3 or below are returned to your pool, and dice that roll 4 or above are expended until you get a full night's sleep, when they return to your pool. Your spellcasting is not always reliable. If you roll doubles, you roll a Mishap. If you roll triples, you gain a Doom. Below are the default Mishaps and Dooms, but you can always rule that players should roll on a Mishap table or gain Dooms that are more befitting the sort of spells that they cast. There are many, many Mishaps and Dooms out there from various wizard schools and such.

Mishaps (1d6)

1.  Take 1d6 damage.
2.  Take +1 damage from all sources for the next hour.
3.  Cannot cast spells for the next 1d4 hours.
4.  Deplete one MD.
5.  Take 1d4 damage and gain a painful, permanent scar in a prominent location.
6.  You summon a random supernatural being as per the summon spell. It's not happy.

Dooms

1.  Lose the ability to cast spells for a day.
2.  Lose the ability to cast spells for a week.
3.  Permanently lose the ability to cast spells.

 

How to Get MD

 

You can only gain MD from any given method once, and ideally each method should only really be available once. At your DM's discretion, you may be able to start with an MD in exchange for a -5 to an ability score of your choice.

• Dig up a witch's bones and eat them
• Drink a ghost
• Burn a blessed holy book
• Make a deal with a (or The) devil
• Fast for 21 days beneath a rowan tree
• Eat a berry of a rare and poisonous bush - and survive
• Get bitten by a vampire-elf
• Spend time living with the fairies or nymphs

 

Spells 

 

Below are some example spells. They all have some sort of cost or risk involved, and include a possible method of learning or otherwise obtaining the spell.

Bestow Curse

Casting Time: 1 action

Duration: [dice] years

Cost: Roll 1d12. If it's under or equal to the number of times you've cast this spell previously, you turn into a toad. You maintain your sentience and magic, but no magic can ever change your shape again.

How to Get It: Curse your mortal foe, who you must hate with a burning passion, to the worst fate you can imagine. You must do this to their face. Alternatively, curse someone with your last breath (as you go to 0 hp, before you roll Death and Dismemberment.

A creature you can touch must Save vs Magic or become cursed for the duration. Choose one of the following options: 1. They can only speak in rhymes, 2. They can only walk backwards, 3. Animals will either run from them or attack them on sight while yowling loudly, 4. They become infertile, 5. They're always in shadow, even if they're standing outside on a sunny day, 6. Any product of their profession has a 3-in-6 chance of being non-functional or spoiled. If you cast the spell with at least 4 MD, it lasts indefinitely.

 

Chain Lightning

Casting Time: 1 action

Cost: Save vs Magic or lose 1 Cha permanently

How to Get It: Read the scribblings of a madman in blood on scraps of human skin. You forget this spell each time you cast it and must reread the scribblings to learn it again.

[dice] + 1 creatures are struck by a bolt of lightning hopping from one to the next, the first of whom must be within 60' of the caster, and all the others of whom must be within 30' of the creature prior to them, must Save vs Magic. On a failed Save, each creature takes [sum] damage.

 

Cure Disease
Casting Time: 1 hour
Cost: Rare herbs endemic to the area where you learned the spell, which must be burned

How to Get It: Study under a village witch for a month.

A creature who you can minister to and who is currently diseased makes a Save vs Disease with a [sum] bonus. On a success, the disease is cured.

 

Mantle of Awe

Casting Time: 1 action

Duration: [sum] rounds

Cost: Permanently lose 1 Wis

How to Get It: Defeat a supernatural being (this includes spellcasters) in a contest of will.

 

You cloak yourself in an aura of supernatural dignity and strength. All creatures of your choice within 30' must Save vs Fear or flee and not enter that range for the duration. At the start of each round, you may make a Proclamation, which lasts for the duration (i.e. "You cannot pass!" or "This door will open."). Creatures and objects who can hear you (they do not have to understand you) must Save vs Magic to disobey or counteract this Proclamation, and they may only Save against a certain Proclamation once. If you make a new Proclamation, the old one ceases to function.

 

Song of Slaying

Casting Time: 1 action

Duration: [dice] minutes

Cost: Unless heavily drugged, Save vs Magic or lose 1 Int permanently.

How to Get It: Destroy the crippled berserker's old foes, then study with him for a week.

 

For the duration, you have +[dice] to-hit, +1 damage, +1 AC, and become very skilled at wrestling. You cannot do anything other than slay your foes, but you may cooperate with your allies towards that goal. If one of your allies damages you or interferes with your slaying, they are now a foe. 

Speak With Animals

Casting Time: 0

Duration: [dice] hours

Cost: A deer pelt painted with runes, hung on a tree

How to Get It: Eat the heart of a Questing Beast.

 

For the duration, you choose [dice] classes of animals (in the taxonomic sense, i.e. mammals, birds, insects, arachnids, or cephalopods) to speak with. You can talk to these animals and they will understand you, and you will be able to understand their communications as if they were speaking. Their intelligence is not increased and they are not automatically friendly to you. 

 

Speak With Dead

Casting Time: 10 minutes

Duration: [dice] minutes

Cost: Incense, a small blood sacrifice, and cypress ash. The caster must Save vs Magic, allowing an evil shade to slip into the world on a failure.

How to Get It: Read a forbidden grimoire. You cannot ever forget this spell.

 

You can converse with a humanoid corpse. The corpse may or may not be particularly cooperative or helpful, and certainly won't be too inclined to help you if you killed it. You can, however, force the corpse to answer [dice] questions. 

Starlight Lance

Casting Time: 1 action

Duration: [sum] rounds

Cost: [dice] * 2 hitpoints

How to Get It: Become a warlock of the Lords of Shadow and Star

 

You launch a javelin of hard light at a target within 120'. The target must Save vs Magic or take [sum] damage and be launched backwards [dice] * 10' to the ground or until they hit a wall, where they are fixed in place for the duration. Each round they are fixed in place they may Save vs Magic, escaping once they have succeeded [dice] times. The javelin casts light in a 10' radius.

Vampiric Touch

Casting Time: 1 action

Cost: Roll 1d12. If it's under or equal to the number of times you've cast this spell previously, you lose all your morals.

How to Get It: You must be holding the skull of a spellcaster who has murdered someone in cold blood.

 

One creature you can touch must Save vs Magic or take [sum] damage. You regain hitpoints equal to the damage dealt.

Werelight

Casting Time: 1 action

Duration: [dice] hours

Cost: A pinch of iron filings mixed with ground corundum.

How to Get It: Hold a staff granted to you personally by an archmage.

You create a light which hovers over your shoulder. It casts light within range, although you may dim it to cast light within a smaller radius of your choice at will, as well as brightening it up to its maximum radius.

Wild Shape

Casting Time: 1 action

Cost: Each hour you remain in this form, you must Save vs Magic with a penalty of -2 per hour or remain in this form forever.

How to Get It: Decipher the runes on the crumbling, overgrown standing stones.

You turn into an animal of no more HD than [dice]. You keep your mind, but you can only use abilities that make sense for the animal form you assume. You can only speak languages that your original form and your wild shaped form share. All damage and injuries are reflected between your original and wild shaped forms at the beginning and end of the spell. You can end the spell at any time you wish. 

 

Word of Death

Casting Time: 1 action

Cost: Roll 1d6. On a roll of [dice] or below, you've attracted the attention of Death herself. She's not happy with your abuse of power.

How to Get It: Seek out the ancient lich-hierophant in his crypt. Crack his skull open. Fill it with blood, wine, bronze, and rowan berries. Boil it over an unholy flame for seven days and seven nights. Drink the concoction, and Save vs Death. On a failure, you die. On a success, you learn the spell.

A creature who can hear you and who has no more HD than [dice] must Save vs Magic or die. 

 

How to Be a Wizard 

 

So you've got some magical power, learned some spells, and now you want to be a real wizard. Well, first off, you should get a staff, or something like it. While you hold some sort of focus for your magic (a staff, rod, or wand; a ritual knife; a cauldron; a mortar and pestle; a crystal ball; that sort of thing) that is personally significant to you as a symbol of your power, you have a +1 to [sum], and people will be far more inclined to believe you're a mage. Secondly, start acting like a wizard (from Middle English wys, "wise"). Be careful with your words; never say anything you aren't sure is true, for words have power. Gather as much knowledge as you can, and only disburse it at need. Strive to never be incorrect. Some good tips as to the type of knowledge you might aspire to and the sort of persona you might attempt to emulate can be found in this excellent class.