Livin

Ancient
Herald of the Dead
Ashen_Ring
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OG 2020
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Old World
Harbinger
Mar 20, 2019
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The question of how magic might be presented in the ghoul class came up and I think it'd be cool to see what ideas everyone might have for that.

My thoughts for the lore behind how they could be capable of it is that there are shamans that worship the spirit that turned them, being granted ways to incorporate the magic of this world and twisting it into something usable for them.

When it comes to equiping magickally oriented weapons like a spell book, wands, and staffs I have a few thoughts on how they could be converted into something more appropriate for ghoul.

-Staffs don't need that much to be adapted, maybe allow them to add a crude melee extension to its bottom since their so tall that what we'd call a staff would appear as a walking stick to them.
-Wands could be grafted or fused to the bottom of their forearms with the projecting end sticking out from the bottom of the palm (picture the wrist blades from assassin's creed).
-Spell books could have their words of power lifted off the page and burned into their flesh, that flesh rotting off like in the concept art as you unequip said book.

As for what kind of minions or drones they might generate I've got an idea that might work, SHRUNKEN HEADS. I can't be the only one that remembers that B horror movie from the 90s. Picture numerous shrunken heads hovering around the ghoul with some being responsible for healing, others casting destruction spells and what ever else.

What do you envision for the ghouls that focus on magic?
 
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How is a ghoul going to use a spellbook? Can they even read?

I imagine the Ghoul has magic in the forms of buff and debuffs, not active spells like throwing a fireball or lightning. Maybe some spells to enhance speed, damage, and health. Or even something that would stun or frighten enemies.

Ghouls are one of the classes furthest from magic, so I can't see a Ghoul that specializes in it. I do like the shrunken heads witch doctor idea. Could be a cool skin idea.
 
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How is a ghoul going to use a spellbook? Can they even read?
Like I suggested earlier, the words of power are lifted from the pages and burned or carved into their flesh and they are able to call upon the power from there through reflex. Basically a ghoul equipping a book would look like this.
hulu-books-of-blood.png

Its like Scar from fullmetal alchemist, dude has no knowledge of alchemy but is able perform it through ritual markings on his arms.

images.jpg
 
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It may be as simple as the ghoul is a conduit for the magic its creator imbues upon it. In the story the ghoul has absolutely no control over the magic, it just triggers when it does things that ghouls do, because the lich or whoever designed the magic to trigger when those things happen.

That'd be a good in story explanation for ghoul players using magic for their ghoul characters.
 
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That's an interesting discussion.

Ghouls are at the farthest end of the magickal spectrum because their creation involves a transformation of a human body and an association of a spirit. Thus, physical and essence. Well, technically Revenant and Wight are still more geometrically distant, but we can understand it like that.

However, all classes can focus on all attributes. That means a Ghoul can specialize in magick just as anyone else. But when speculating on the Revenant skills long ago, I came to the conclusion that all powers have to be closely related to the character's lore (differently from what I wrote in said thread) and the powers and capabilities they are already known to have.
So firstly, I'd say that all magickal manifestations coming from the Ghoul would happen through his eating and transformative habits.

It might be the case that Ghouls wield weapons, I don't know. I find it more likely that they use their claws and jaw alone, but change their bodies depending on their specializations, and maybe add contraptions to their body parts that improve their capabilities.
I don't see the Ghoul wielding staves or reading books. It may even be that his supernatural vision does not allow him to read (though that would be restrictive, I don't think it will be the case), so a book could be useless to it, other than as food, perhaps. I don't think it's far fetched to imagine that Ghouls eat non-organic things as well, just likely with a lesser use for them, but I will ignore this possibility completely and just focus on organic things, especially enemies.

There will surely be supernatural and magickal entities that the undead will fight against, so the Ghoul will have them as potential food. What if your character has to learn magickal powers by eating magickal creatures? Remember the Will-O'-Wisp in Of Liches - 1? What if the Ghoul were to eat that thing? I imagine that he would gain at least temporary magickal capabilities of some kind. And I think that's what a magickally specialized Ghoul would focus at.

I believe that a magickal specialization would allow the Ghoul to either maintain powers attained from eating magickal entities for longer, or to use them to a greater extent, or both. It is also quite possible that a combination of essential and magickal specializations could lead to transformations of its body to wield magickal entities as part of its own body. Let's say the Ghoul manages to eat and absorb a fire elemental... would that allow him to breathe fire? I imagine this is where his magickal specialization lies.
 
So... ghoul eat spellbook, ghoul vomit fireball?

Jokes aside I don't really see ghouls using magical implements to cast magic in it's natural form but we do know that ghouls are shapeshifters. I would not be surprised if a ghoul can actually take a human form to read a spellbook or if just grows an eye on a fleshstick to read spells with if he needs it.
 
Eating a spell book to gain it's power, can't say that it is unheard of