Magic in Eradain

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Magic in Eradain has variations with some subtle impacts to normal game play.

Eradain is a low magic world where treasure is about one tenth "normal" loot. Money is not easy to come by but prices remain the same. Top tier magic items are +3 and anything above that is likely considered an artifact. Most mortal player races will reach a maximum of 7th level and manufactured magic items reflect this. Ancient artifacts have a full power range of magic up to the highest levels, thus an Ancient magic cache may have magic that includes spells of higher than 4th level (normal max for 7th level characters).

In exchange for low level magic, possibilities are opened by use of Incantation Magic. This is meant to make room for more powerful magics being cast by temples and religious orders, etc. An example is the Summoning of the Wild Hunt. This ritual is used by The Circle to punish for transgressions against the gods and their priesthood. Other examples include the enchantment of Foundry Stones, which are sources of elemental power used by the Angharad as a substitute for burning wood or coal. Stones for other elements are used for a variety of purposes, but have limited use before they are exhausted. Incantations may also be created by players and may be used for a variety of purposes. Examples of things that I have required an incantation for are the creation of a +1 magical item, and the discovery of the activation word for an iron cobra.

Creatures which are summoned are in all ways normal but are spirits that dissipate upon death (a druid summons guardian spirits to die in battle, not actual animals). Familiars and special animals are spirits which may be summoned back again (or a totally new familiar) by following the same routine for obtaining a replacement.

Because Eradain is mostly played without traditional alignment, certain magic is impacted by this (See House Rules for Alignment). In particular items like holy weapons are based primarily upon religion. A holy sword under one pantheon of deities would be an unholy sword to a different pantheon.

This impacts religion as well. Most deities have a sphere of influence reflected in their available domains and priesthoods contains members of all types of temperaments and motivations (the full range of alignments) as long as they are following the tenants of their religion. Most deities are known to have both light and dark sides and their priesthoods reflect this.

Eradain has unusual properties in regard to summoning and any extra dimensional travel to or from the plane. Some planes (those in "close proximity") can be reached by standard magic (which is mostly out of the hands of mortal player races who reach maximum level at 7th), but reaching other planes may require bolstering by artifact level magic.

All raise dead magic will result in the loss of a constitution point. Magic which can block magical raises are as common as raise dead magic. For example, casting a variation of raise dead could be used to permanently block a raise dead.