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A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

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I still think it works better to only have it as a rough guideline. We do need some different titles though, since this isn't westerosi nobles where everyone gets taught about everyone else all his life by a Maester. The only reason this works out is because it's somehow normal in Westeros that Ned Stark knows political details of Dorne, otherwise he would have no idea why house Dayne should be more or less important then house Glover.

There is a reason the real world feudal systems had many different ranks. Martin skimping on world building there is not a good argument for this being sane or normal.
 
Helo89 said:
I actually would prefer more stratification in our mage orders. Firstly, its added motivation to move up the ranks as it were. Secondly, because having Lord Glover have the same title as Lord Stark when both have wildly different levels of influence is where Martin's world building fell down, in my opinion.
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Agreed. The system lends itself well to that.
 
Azel said:
Thing is that spell levels are pretty different across some classes.

Furthermore, Knight isn't really a noble title of the Lord -> etc. line, since you can become Lord without having been a knight and can be a knight all your life without ever becoming a Lord. Knight is the odd one out that is based on deeds instead of birth like the other titles.

And I would really prefer to make a proper difference between researchers, war mages and crafters. You've said yourself that you want this to create little boxes for people to put casters in and speaking with Leila over the same things you spoke with Vee about is not going to go over that well. These two are vastly different aside from their respective power, much like how Stannis, Roose Bolton, Petyr Baelish, Gregor Clegane and Loras Tyrell are nothing alike.

Edit: Lastly, I want to give people a clean way to gauge how screwed they are when they annoy someone. Insulting the Grand Enchantress is probably not nearly as hazardous as getting on the High Warlocks nerves.
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The spell levels being different is by design. A more martial caster who doesn't get their 4th level spells until level 16 should be trying to get knighted, not earn their advancement through magical study.

The mage estates is pretty much all earned as well, since it's based on magical achievement, so having ranks based on level of achievement makes sense to me. I'm also not sure how many casters would be able to reach the 4th level of spells never seeing battle, mostly being a crafter or research. So most of those would be Mage level, who we can sell as a mix between a maester and a magical craftsman (which is what most "mages" will do most of their life). Most people who hit Wisdom level would have seen battle, even if they didn't prefer it.
 
Just got an idea.

With the Day of Blood ritual we know that all mundane tree saplings within the range of effect are grown instantly via the ritual's magic. Why not try the same with Weirwood saplings? They wouldn't have enchanted effects, of course, since they weren't the focus of the sacrifice, but we would have a hell of a lot more weirwoods. And around them we can plant more mundane trees.

I'm kind of iffy on whether this will work at all, but I've got my fingers crossed that DP allows it so long as none of us expect anything special out of the extra weirwoods. I just feel like it'd be a great piece of flavor for the Children of the Forest to have their own miniature forest of weirwoods in the midst of the many more mundane trees we plant for them.
 
Duesal said:
Just got an idea.

With the Day of Blood ritual we know that all mundane tree saplings within the range of effect are grown instantly via the ritual's magic. Why not try the same with Weirwood saplings? They wouldn't have enchanted effects, of course, since they weren't the focus of the sacrifice, but we would have a hell of a lot more weirwoods. And around them we can plant more mundane trees.

I'm kind of iffy on whether this will work at all, but I've got my fingers crossed that DP allows it so long as none of us expect anything special out of the extra weirwoods. I just feel like it'd be a great piece of flavor for the Children of the Forest to have their own miniature forest of weirwoods in the midst of the many more mundane trees we plant for them.
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If we can get a ready source of Weirwood saplings, we can also start planting them ALL OVER THE DAMNED PLACE. Other continents, other planes, etc. :evil:
 
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Goldfish said:
If we can get a ready source of Weirwood saplings, we can also start planting them ALL OVER THE DAMNED PLACE. Other continents, other planes, etc. :evil:
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We have a ready source of weirwood saplings--two full-grown Heart Trees. ;) All we have to do is take cuttings of them then they sprout roots with relatively little problem. It's just that they take way too long to grow, so we speed to process up via blood sacrifice.

But yeah, I want to plant weirwoods everywhere. We should get started planting a bunch where the Children of the Forest want to make their new home.
 
Goldfish said:
If we can get a ready source of Weirwood saplings, we can also start planting them ALL OVER THE DAMNED PLACE. Other continents, other planes, etc. :evil:
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It would also increase the Old God's power, since even if Weirwood trees don't give us mechanical bonuses, with a carved face, they should still let them observe.
 
It would be fitting that the ancient weirwood would be surrounded by "new growth" weirwoods. I'm not sure if we need to do the day of change ritual at all though, we might just need to de-petrify the ancient weirwood. It's a bit unclear so we'll likely need to spend a day poking the old tree or performing the day of change ritual (we also have a nice laundry list of "small" projects this month and next month that will likely only take a day or two, like settling the children, finishing the wall's library upgrade, Xorn delivery, and the festival. That's pretty nice compared to all the 7-10 day adventures we have hanging around Viserys's neck).
 
Diomedon said:
It would be fitting that the ancient weirwood would be surrounded by "new growth" weirwoods. I'm not sure if we need to do the day of change ritual at all though, we might just need to de-petrify the ancient weirwood. It's a bit unclear so we'll likely need to spend a day poking the old tree or performing the day of change ritual (we also have a nice laundry list of "small" projects this month and next month that will likely only take a day or two, like settling the children, finishing the wall's library upgrade, Xorn delivery, and the festival. That's pretty nice compared to all the 7-10 day adventures we have hanging around Viserys's neck).
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I think the petrified Weirwood tree would be a perfect subject for our first Day of Change ritual. Its existence is the result of a Nat 100 roll according to DP. That means it is special.

It might be one of the oldest Heart Trees on the planet once we de-petrify it.
 
Goldfish said:
I think the petrified Weirwood tree would be a perfect subject for our first Day of Change ritual. Its existence is the result of a Nat 100 roll according to DP. That means it is special.

It might be one of the oldest Heart Trees on the planet once we de-petrify it.
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Yep. A Heart Tree right out of the Dawn Age. I wouldn't be surprised if a Tongues effect on that thing covers the entire Stepstones.

Another thing--the Winterfell wards are tied to their Weirwood Heart Tree. We could potentially tie our Imperium Fortress' wards to this Heart Tree.
 
I prefer Battlemage over Warlock as well, if we're going for some kind of title which signifies of martial prowess tied with magic. Also does not add confusion with the PC class of pact makers that already exists.

And yes, while something that clearly screams "badass magic user who fights shit" might sound scarier to the locals, the thing is, if someone titled Battlemage rolls up to their new posting, or announces to the local governor that they are an Imperial Battlemage, great, everyone knows their credibility is good when they offer their assistance with a problem, because institutional backing has made it clear that this person knows how to kill stuff with magic.

If, however, they are not trying to scare the locals, they just introduce themselves as "Wisdom Firstname Lastname".

Though I doubt it would make much difference. For all they know anyone that knows magic, from cantrip slinger to 9th Circle meteor summoner, is just as terrifying to come across to the average layman.
 
Duesal said:
Yep. A Heart Tree right out of the Dawn Age. I wouldn't be surprised if a Tongues effect on that thing covers the entire Stepstones.

Another thing--the Winterfell wards are tied to their Weirwood Heart Tree. We could potentially tie our Imperium Fortress' wards to this Heart Tree.
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Holy shit yes. Wide area tounges.

And maybe a wide area skill boost effect? That sounds the most useful to me imo.
 
BeepSmile said:
Holy shit yes. Wide area tounges.

And maybe a wide area skill boost effect? That sounds the most useful to me imo.
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One effect for us (Tongues, which should at the very least cover the entire island, this is a tree from the fucking Dawn Age), one effect to help grow the Children's forest (Plant Growth), and one last effect yet to be decided. I feel like it's a huge wast to have an area-wide skill boost as one of the effects. We can stick that on a normal Heart Tree, and we don't really need it to be area-wide. This one's too special.

EDIT: I also want to make guardians of some kind for the Children's forest at some point. Maybe a Stone Golem and a few other things.
 
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Duesal said:
One effect for us (Tongues, which should at the very least cover the entire island, this is a tree from the fucking Dawn Age), one effect to help grow the Children's forest (Plant Growth), and one last effect yet to be decided. I feel like it's a huge wast to have an area-wide skill boost as one of the effects. We can stick that on a normal Heart Tree, and we don't really need it to be area-wide. This one's too special.
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An island-wide Tongues effect would be great, but that is being seriously optimistic. It's not a super high level spell, but it the area alone, and making it a constant effect...that's a lot of power.

If we're aiming for the sky, I was hoping to maybe give the Heart Tree the ability to regulate SD's weather to a certain extent, preventing all of the natural extremes (hurricanes, heat waves, etc) and blocking weather control spells which could be used against the island to devastating effect, such as the Control Winds and Control Weather spells. That's being super optimistic, too, but I still think it would be less mystically taxing than island-wide constant Tongues.
 
For one thing, the magic would only have to activate when weather swung too far in one extreme or another, rather than having to be constantly active and exerting influence over the whole island.
 
Goldfish said:
An island-wide Tongues effect would be great, but that is being seriously optimistic. It's not a super high level spell, but it the area alone, and making it a constant effect...that's a lot of power.
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And to that I direct you to this:
DragonParadox said:
The questions you ask next do not receive as pleasant an answer: only time can make the holy places of the Old Gods grow in scope that one blessing might cover more land. However if one was to use a truly ancient weirwood for the Heart Tree the blessings would indeed spread further.
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The older the weirwood the greater the range. And not only is this the single oldest weirwood on the planet except maybe Bloodraven's Heart Tree, but this is also the result of a nat 100. I'm very optimistic for an island-wide range for the magical effects.
Goldfish said:
If we're aiming for the sky, I was hoping to maybe give the Heart Tree the ability to regulate SD's weather to a certain extent, preventing all of the natural extremes (hurricanes, heat waves, etc) and blocking weather control spells which could be used against the island to devastating effect, such as the Control Winds and Control Weather spells. That's being super optimistic, too, but I still think it would be less mystically taxing than island-wide constant Tongues.
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Eh, I mean, we're wholeheartedly planning on growing hundreds of weirwoods wherever we can, and also setting up the magical Heart Trees that give magic in exchange for a steady stream of sacrifices. And we regularly give powerful sacrifices. And we're planning on binding a Landwarden via Heart Tree. I'd say we're in a good position to ask for that island-wide Tongues effect.

Besides, we're basically going to be returning one of the oldest Heart Trees in existence from the dead. Remember how the greenseer's memories and souls dwell in the roots of the weirwoods? That's going to reconnect with the Old Gods and give them quite a hefty power up right before the Long Night.
 
... It would be game breaking, but divine insight over the island.

Imagine the boost to craft skills.

Actually, if one takes out all the skill boosts except heal, knoledge and craft, then SD might even avoid tearing itself apart with +'s to social, pickpocket, appraise and the like.

Here's a big deal for me though: if the tounges effect cam help people learn the language if they want to try.

A costant tounges spell could be a crutch that weakens people linguistly speaking if they never have reason to actually learn the language if we're not careful.

Enhanced language learning effect might be worth adding, if there is such a thing, or if the OG can whip somethimg up.
 
BeepSmile said:
... It would be game breaking, but divine insight over the island.

Imagine the boost to craft skills.

Actually, if one takes out all the skill boosts except heal, knoledge and craft, then SD might even avoid tearing itself apart with +'s to social, pickpocket, appraise and the like.

Here's a big deal for me though: if the tounges effect cam help people learn the language if they want to try.

A costant tounges spell could be a crutch that weakens people linguistly speaking if they never have reason to actually learn the language if we're not careful.

Enhanced language learning effect might be worth adding, if there is such a thing, or if the OG can whip somethimg up.
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DP would kneecap the Divine Insight thing right off the bat. He'd have everyone who wants to benefit from it offer up a minor blood sacrifice or serve the godswood for a month, and at that point we're better off just putting it on a regular tree.
 
Would The constant tongues have some negative effects on developing children? I imagine learning a language is much harder if everything anyone says makes sense.
 
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