I ran a game last week and the players approached a small unknown village on a tiny island..as they drew near to the entrance and with the villagers steadily eyeing them... two village girls, each on either side of the growing crowd of onlooking islanders began a native, tribal dance in palindrome. One started at the beginning of the (20 second or so) routine, and the other started at the end doing the same movements but in reverse from the end of the dance toward the beginning. until they both reached the midpoint of the little routine then their movements synced up until they both came to a simultaneous close. The conclusion of the little dance triggered a spell casting. (in this case a type of a tribal version of a protective, Ward spell) The spell cast is irrelevant to some degree, I'm interested in the "who and the how".
On a practical level, I generally find dance in D&D (and IRL) lame so this was an attempt to add some potential depth to it, any time it comes up in game!!
Im sure, I am not the first to think of it, but I haven't seen it anywhere else. But in summary, I imagine the weave as a kind of a thin firmament or something akin to a thin sheet of plastic wrap (only in 3 dimensions) overlaying the world. In theory, one could grab this layer of plastic, pull it, twist it, fold it, tie it in a knot, squeeze it into a bubble etc.. and, if they do these actions in a certain way and at a certain interval, magic is released/in the form of a spell. Hence the dance, is as a learned sequence of movements that can affect the weave, without any magical training or background and completely ignorant of Class. In other words if someone/anyone does the movements correctly, the weave responds accordingly. The concept can be applied to other learned sequence of movements, kata in martial arts come to mind. A monk that has learned the 23 Constellations kata should be able to manipulate the weave to unleash a designated spell regardless of ki.
Mechanics. On a bare bone level, a spell is being cast with just a somatic component the difference is its being cast by anyone that knows the sequence of this component. There are a number of spells in various editions that can be cast with only a somatic component, but I haven't seen any that operate in this manner. Important to note, I'm not creating any new spells, simply a different way of triggering existing spells by learned-folks regardless of Class. In that regard, I'm doing the following:
-Limiting the somatic-invoked magic to protective or defensive spells intended before battle, or as a non-combat related cantrip. ( it would look ridiculous if someone just started dancing or doing air karate in the middle of combat......almost as ridiculous as a bard that starts bellowing!)
-Learning the sequence of movements or kata to unleash it should take time (x hours or days to learn) its not a lesson + short rest kinda thing.
- they are rare, take more than a lifetime to develop from scratch, and must be taught, ie someone cant study or roll to learn a martial art-kata to cast fireball from scratch on their own, if one does not exist, it could only be taught by the group that perfected it for generations. These movements need to have been tried, honed and practiced for hundreds, if not thousands of years to figure out the weave manipulation. However, after a people have developed one the correct movements, they can teach it easily (although it will probably be a closely guarded secret among that specific group and not easily or freely given)
-Effects are immediately killed by casting of Dispel Magic, which rights the weave by straightening and smoothing that plastic sheet
Lastly, lm also toying with this type of somatic-only spell with a disassociated verbal/audio component. Using my dancing island girls as an example, what if their somatic movements were joined by the stereotypical tribal, drumming found in island stories. (Assuming certain drum patterns and cadences provide an verbal/audio only casting that could similarly affect the weave in some minor way) The girls did not initiate the audio component of drums, so its not their spell cast) but what if the drums when paired with the somatic movements of the girls have an intensified or new effect (intended or unintended) In this sense, manipulating the weave becomes a multi-person/party affair perhaps coordinated...perhaps not. How would it go down, if the girl's dance was intermingled with an unknown drumming-weave manipulation of another tribe?)
The beauty of all of this is..... the players have no idea what is happening. They are stepping into a strange village, monastery, etc thinking they are being welcomed with dance, drum and performance only to discover later their doom was being laid right in front of them before they fully passed thru the front gate. ....or if they play it right, they could all walk away a newly learned kata of protection.
If anyone knows of anything like this please point me in the right direction!! also looking for folks to critique, poke holes in logic or operation ! or just generally give me your thoughts.
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