Harry Potter and D&D

4e is sometimes noted for its Wand Wizards.
But really the Wizards of Potterverse seem a combination of at-will with obligatory wand and various longer casting time magics ranging up to Ritual magics. Since muggles are so inferior - 4e might not actually be an appropriate starting point, heh. But assuming most muggles are just npc mooks and minions

I generally consider 4e very adaptable any ideas on how one might adapt it for this setting?

Lots of cantrips. In the world of Harry Potter, most of the magic is minor magical effects akin to cantrips.
The other thing I would go for is magic item creation. There are some wonderful magic items in Harry Potter. There should be a way for high level characters to create wondrous items.
Of course, many are mundane normal things in the muggle world enchanted to do amazing things - lighter that puts out lights, flying cars and motorcycles, pocket watch that bend time...
Another big thing setting wise would be the politics of the magical world - how they govern themselves and keep the magical world masked from the muggle world, also the conflict with those that see muggles as inferior and want to enslave them.
How they identify children with magic in the muggle world and bring them into the magical world and train them is also important. Magic being something like eye color or handedness or predisposition to heart disease or sexual orientation.
Might be fun to try and build it, you'd have to skew more toward ritual and utility magic and way from combat magic at the lower tier. Maybe have paths at upper tiers that move toward different things or maybe the magical abilities are based on feat trees.

Wait, hold that - talents for magical schools should be part of character creation - some wizards are just no good are certain things while brilliant at others. Their affinity with different schools of magic should relate to the effectiveness and level of "spells" achievable. I could see some randomness in this making for some very interesting characters.

TjD

I agree with Durriken, you need some way to craft utility magic items.
Also, some rituals are just like harry potter spells, so I'd add a houserule to shorten ritual casting times. Also, 3.5 had some pretty nice utility spells, so also look there if you want to play D&D in a Harry Potter setting.

A few spells already have their D&D equivalent.

Alohomora: Knock ritual, possibly homebrewed to have a shorter duration
Unnamed spell that blocks dissaparition: There's a ritual to do that.
Bubble-head charm: Water breathing (again, a ritual)
Deillusionment Charm: Invisibility
Episky: Any leader class can do this.
Expecto Patronum: Refluffed Turn Undead that only affects shadow creatures?
Finite Incantem: Dispel magic
Hover Charm: Levitate
Imperio: Domination, through some of the Ultra-domination powers from warlocks fit better.

There probably are some more, but I don't have time now.
PS: I almost forget to mention this.

Ooooh fun and funny link!

I am thinking some of it is beyond the speed of even a reasonably accelerated ritual... for instance I would do some reflavoring of skills for some of them
"alohamora" ? thieving based on int?

And that time turning is a "pure plot device"

Creating magical skills would carry the feel of the potter magic

I think most of the combat powers in 4e should get some utility potential, and the other way around.

Accio could be the utility spell we all know, but it could also be an attack power that deals force damage and pulls.

itaav wrote:

I think most of the combat powers in 4e should get some utility potential, and the other way around.

Accio could be the utility spell we all know, but it could also be an attack power that deals force damage and pulls.

if you look at the magic missile perhaps its just the mage hand used as a fist.

There already are cantrips that let you use arcana for diplomacy, intimidate and stealth, so I don't think it'd be terribly broken to allow it for other skills too. Alohamora would just be "Use arcana for thievery." Balanced, but still capturing the right feel.

itaav wrote:

There already are cantrips that let you use arcana for diplomacy, intimidate and stealth, so I don't think it'd be terribly broken to allow it for other skills too. Alohamora would just be "Use arcana for thievery." Balanced, but still capturing the right feel.

If you are going that route.
Wild Talent Master allows one to gain 3 psionic "cantrips" .... Adjust and allow 3 cantrips. (pic a attribute for them to be based on - Wisdom / Int /Char /Con) cause I want sorcs and warlocks to have cantrips..

Alohamora is just a subset of the theiving skill... there are several functions in thieving... I have a tendency towards making up additional magically flavored elements that go with other 3 main functions. Not sure if all the features of thieving will translate however we might branch a bit.

Thieving I have heard people sometimes use improvisationally to repair things... perhaps this could fuel Occulo Reparum effect - small objects such as glasses and pocket watches and the like.

Utility magic is pretty close to formalized uses of skills by an unexpected route and where you can invest in it to create greater effect.... ummm what if wwe had Arcane Practices?

Aren't these called rituals?   

itaav wrote:

Aren't these called rituals?   

ummm most martial practices are actually not like rituals... they are fast and use HS as there primary prices

Yes, but they were mainly made to let martial characters have their own rituals.
No kidding, the Arcane Practices idea seems interesting. I only have trouble seeing Harry Potter characters expend their own energy to fuel a spell.

Yeh I guess you are right on the energy expenditure...

Maybe they should have spell points? (Can't think of a better name)
They would mainly be used for Arcane Practices, but also have some side-uses. That way, they are both useful on combat-rich days and days focused on exploration and roleplaying.

Given how spells in Harry Potter are primarily at-will, or rituals at most, I think it's primarily going, to be Arcana Check vs. Fort/Ref/Will/DC.

If you need spell points, you might want to consider how GUMSHOE does it: your skill score represents your pool of points for that ability, and whenever you want to achieve something more than rudimentary, you sacrifice points from the relevant ability's pool and then roll to see if you got what you wanted. Having 0 in the pool is like having no training or ability in it at all.

Maybe you should make an arcana check against a specific DC, and if that succeeds, you can make an attack as normal? Maybe people who fail the arcana check still get to attack, but if they miss, something bad happens.

I kind of want to work through the various magics from the books/show.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spells_in_Harry_Potter

The use of chocolate implicates and underlying resource similar to healing surges... alah mana in similar function especially after healed/harmed by magics or undead attacks and similar. Chocolate induces what would be innocuous for kids parallel to certain real world bliss generating practices used in magic (orgies and frenzy for instance) ... making it almost realistic.

Garthanos wrote:

4e is sometimes noted for its Wand Wizards.
But really the Wizards of Potterverse seem a combination of at-will with obligatory wand and various longer casting time magics ranging up to Ritual magics.

I definitely agree - most of the spells used in HP seem like at wills. They tend to do magic on a limited scale, except for Dumbledore, Voldy, and the other really powerful wizards.

At-wills that took a couple of rounds 1 building up 1 launching - might be kin to encounter potency powers and maybe if you add a 1 round aftermath one could justify a daily.

An "almost" at-will magic system could be interesting... throw in some skills use for those utility wear and I think it could be fairly complete.

itaav wrote:

PS: I almost forget to mention this.

This fanfic is quite good.

I just purchased the first two movies at Walmart for my kids to watch, and my wife pointed out that they should read the books first, and, doggoneit, if she isn't right (again). So I got the first two books, and won't show them the second movie (they already saw "Sorceror's Stone") until they've read both books.