I like magic to be either excessive anime electrofluorescent hyperkinesis or horrid baroque darkness. Mr. Logan Knight has the latter just about covered, but I think my players would be a little traumatized by the sort of body horror he does so well, so I have written up a couple of substitute charts, with a minor aim of making a more folklore-y Magic-User. 

Psychic TV album art

1. Thousands and thousands of bats
2. Gravity is reoriented for d6 rounds; whichever way the 6 is pointing is the new down.
3. The Sun fades away, becoming an immense red rimmed eye for the rest of the day. You can see it staring at you no matter what, even if you are inside or underground or are otherwise blinded. The Eye’s cyclopean regard fills you with guilt; once an hour every hour until sunset, you must Save vs Paralysis or spend a turn describing 10 terrible thing you have done that you have not yet described.
4. The full Moon rises and begins to sing. Animals begin to act aggressively and with vicious cunning, madmen become violent and adept at escape, monarchs begin to plot invasion, and the general populace is driven to fear, paranoia, and despair. The tides are erratic and extreme. Lasts 2d4 weeks.
5. The Stars flare to life in the sky, then vanish. Navigation by night becomes impossible, roads lead astray, and currents lead .to strange seas. Lasts 2d4 weeks.
6. The caster begins aging 5 years an hour. When they reach 100 years, they die, and an infant crawls from their body’s clothing. It continues to age at the same rate until it reaches 20. Same character, same memories.
7. A random spell you know scuttles out of your mouth, transforming into a monster with twice as many HD as the spell has spell levels. Determine its abilities and appearance using the LotFP Summon spell. You cannot cast the spell until you defeat it.
8. Your hands detach from your wrists and scuttle away, and new hands grow in their place. For the rest of the day, every time you cast a spell, the same thing happens. The hands remain animate until destroyed, and will do their best to make terrible mischief.
9. You spend d6 rounds coughing up a glistening black fruit. If you eat it, you spend 2d6 rounds coughing up two more fruit. If anyone else eats it, their eyes will roll into the back of their head and they will make a prophecy promising disaster.
10. A thunderous voice narrates everything you do, say, or think for the next d4 hours.
11. Everything with a mouth present must Save vs Magic or vomit slick red fish for d4 rounds.
12. A black tree erupts from the ground in front of you. If anything dies in the presence of the tree, the tree sprouts a hard, spiny fruit with the creature’s soul inside.
13. You into a small stone idol. You can still see, hear, and cast spells, as well as speak with anyone who holds the idol. Once a day, you must attempt a Save vs Magic to turn back.
14. Dozens and dozens of classical statues erupt from the ground up to their shoulders, making it difficult to walk, and begin to scream, making it difficult to hear.
15. For the next d4 days, every time you attempt to speak, including to cast a spell, you must Save vs Paralysis or instead deliver a lengthy and discursive monologue on (1: bean cultivation 2: the daily schedule of an emperor who died thousands of years ago 3: the spiritual beliefs of spiders 4: the life cycle of the cherub 5: the various manias, phobias, a perversions of the nearest, most powerful monarch 6: the correct method of preparing, storing, and administering a heretofore unknown and spectacularly deadly poison 8: famous fish poets 9: the dangers of breathing 10: the magical properties of cheese)
16. You are now wanted for (1: theft 2: murder 3: witchcraft 4: embezzlement 5: arson 6: public nudity 7: antisocial behavior 8: assault 9: sedition 10: trespassing) in the nearest town, city, or settlement, even if such a crime was impossible.
17. It starts raining sticky black tar.
18. A spring opens up beneath your feet. Its water is sweet and clear, and every time someone drinks from it, they age one year.
19. Terrible Gift
20. Terrible Gift

1. You turn white hot, then detonate, dealing d6 damage per character level to everything within 50 feet
2. You have been spurned by the Earth itself. All animals within 100 miles of casting will do their best to kill you.
3. You will cast d10 random spells in sequence, one right after the other, from lowest spell level to highest spell level, with random targets. These still use Cataclysm points, and you must Cast the Bones as normal.
4. You melt into a puddle of clear water. It is impossibly deep, and dark shapes can be seen stirring in its depths. They don’t seem very friendly.
5. Everything goes dark. If you or your allies manage to produce a light, it is flickery and tenuous. The darkness is filled with singing things with soft hands and pale faces.
6. The immediate area pinches off from greater reality like a piece of dough. You have an hour to find a way back or this demiplane will join up with a reality Somewhere Else.
7. Some major deity or spirit has noticed your magic use and declared you anathema. All promises, obligations, and contracts with you are now void, and anyone who aids you is considered an enemy of the Church. An angel/archon/spirit of said deity appears and tries to destroy you and your allies.
8. You know that a malign spirit has bribed one of your party members; if they kill you, they will gain an experience level immediately.
9. A shadow version of you is born. Its attributes are the opposite of your’s. If you have a 3 in an attribute, the shadow version’s is 18; if you have a 13 in an attribute, the shadow version’s is 7. It wants to kill you, and it is willing to play the long game to do so.
10. You are perfectly, perfectly still. When your allies examine you, they see that you are actually hollow, and that your skin and hair are part of a paper thin shell. If it is broken, incredibly powerful acid jets out.
11. There is a piece of chalk in your hand. You sketch a door on the nearest flat surface. It is real, and leads into some sort of cave. You walk in and do not come out. Your allies can hear slithering noises from beyond the threshold.
12. You slump to the ground, dead, and all of your known spells go off at once.
13. You have awakened the dead. All graveyards, necropoles, crypts let loose the interred.
14. You lose all Cataclysm points. A golem, animated from the available materials and with a number of HD equal to Cataclysm points lost, comes to life and tries to kill everything.
15. The sun does not shine on anything in a 5 mile radius of the caster. The exist in a great circle of darkness.
16. A small cracked opens up beneath your feet. You can feel heat rising up from it. It is the beginnings of a volcano, and will rise height by 50 feet a minute and erupt when it is mountain sized. Run.
17. You are now a cat. Roll a new character.
18. Your mind is consumed by a malign spirit, which then inhabits your body. It is a level 20 Magic-User and has Big Plans for this new body.
19. Lose a character level and gain a Terrible Gift. If this drops you below level 1, you perish and will return as wrathful, ghostly version of yourself.
20. The next creature or person you kill with magic rises again with an extra HD and full HP, but still bearing the wounds that killed them. Killing them again will give them another HD and so on and so on.

1. Your head turns into that of a (1: tiger 2: jackal 3: crow 4: cobra 5: crocodile 6: baboon). If you have a tiger head, you can speak Feline. If you have a crow head, you can speak Bird. If you have a cobra or crocodile head, you can speak Reptile. If you have a baboon head, you can speak Primate.
2. Your lower body turns into that of a (1: tiger 2: jackal 3: fish 4: serpent 5: spider 6: crocodile)
3. You are subject to a vision of the Land of the Dead. Your skin becomes ashen. You take d6 damage/minute in direct sunlight, but you can bring false life to the fallen. By spending a number of Cataclysm points equal to a creature’s HD, you can reanimate it to do your bidding. This only lasts until the next sunrise, at which points the creature crumbles to dust.
4. You can create a concoction from your blood that gives the drinker all of your Terrible Gifts but this one for d6 hours. This requires dealing d12 damage to yourself.
5. When your GM is rolling your Cataclysm points, for every d6 of HP you sacrifice, you gain d6 additional Cataclysm points.
6. Your form is fluid. Every time you wake up, your physical appearance and voice change. You re-roll Charisma every day, and there is a 50% chance that you changed sex.
7. Everyone within shouting distance hears your voice as a rasping whisper, no matter how loud everything else is. There is no way to stop this.
8. If someone says your name, you know where they are. If you say someone’s name, they become aware of your attention.
9. Your heart stops. You are treated as Chaotic/undead for purposes of Clerics, Turning, and holy water, but you do not need to eat, sleep, or breathe.
10. For every secret you know about a person or creature, they take a -1 penalty to saving throws against your spells. For every secret a person or creature knows about you, they receive a +1 bonus to saving throws against your spells.
11. For every gift or favor a person or creature accepts from you, they take a -1 penalty to saving throws against your spells. For every gift or favor you accept from a person or creature, they receive a +1 bonus to saving throws against your spells.
12. When you are struck by a silver weapon, it reduces both your HP and Cataclysm pool.
13. When someone swears an oath in your presence, you can expend a number of Cataclysm points. If they break that oath, they take damage equal to the number of Cataclysm points used. You cannot break any promise or oath you make.
14. You can gift others with a number of Cataclysm dice, allowing them to cast spells. In return, they can give you a number of HP, points of any Attribute, or improve any of your saving throws by worsening theirs by the same amount. This must be voluntary. You can set conditions or time limits to this transaction. Once the time limit is up or a condition is met, the transaction immediately ends.
15. You can buy and sell things like memories, senses, souls, and dreams.
16. You cannot cross the threshold of a home without being invited or cross running water without being carried.
17. You can counter magic. When a Magic-User of any sort casts a spell in your presence, you can negate it by expending a number of Cataclysm points equal to the spell’s cost. Roll once on Chaos Reigns and once on Utter Disaster when you do so.
18. If you invest a Cataclysm die in a common animal, you can see through its eyes. If you invest two dice, you can influence its behavior, as well. You can withdraw the dice when your GM rolls your Cataclysm pool.
19. You don’t have a reflection or a shadow.
20. Your teeth are sharp and venomous; if you bite something, it must Save vs Poison or take 2d6 damage.

Patrick Stuart’s post about mining newer editions for ideas has been rattling around my head for a while.

Magic Item Creation

Pathfinder magic item are intimidating, and LotFP’s research rules are that combination of risky and complicated that my players would probably never try.

Magic-users can make magic items. They do so by sacrificing spell slots. They can only sacrifice one spell slot per item. The numerical stuff is easy; a magic sword has a bonus to attack rolls equal to 1+half the level of the spell slot. A magic suit of armor has a bonus to AC equal to 1+half the level of the spell slot. For fussy effects like water walking or flaming weapons, I’d say if the effect can be roughly duplicated by a spell, then it requires the sacrifice of a spell slot 1-2 levels higher. A perpetually glowing lantern requires a 2nd level spell slot because Light is a 1st level spell, whereas a burning sword might require a 4th level slot, since Fireball is generally 3rd level.

It takes a number of weeks equal to the spell slot’s level to make an item. It does not require continuous labor, and can be halted and resumed later. Magic-Users can reclaim sacrificed spell slots by disenchanting the item, which takes the same amount of time it took to create the item. However, spell slots in destroyed or stolen items are just lost (barring a lengthy adventure, I’d imagine)

I like the idea of summon spells working the same way, rather than summoning a bunch of random monsters for a few rounds or punching holes through reality in an apocalyptic display of incompetence. Magic-Users, once they learn the name of a spirit, can summon it when they a preparing their spell for the day. They sacrifice a spell slot, and the spirit has an experience level equal to the slot level. The ally lasts until it is reduced to 0 HP or is banished. Magic-Users can banish summoned allies and regain their spell slot whenever they prepare spells. Banished or spirits previously reduced to 0 HP can be summoned again, though they may resent summoners that bring them to harm.

These rules give item creation a Sauron feel, especially when it comes to make things like Rings of Spell Storing. Magic-Users can become a lot more powerful, but they are betting that they will not lose access to their equipment. I also might include a Horrible Side-effect table if this makes magic items to gadget-like.

And here is the not-Runepriest. I briefly thought about doing an Ars Magica style magic-user transplanted into a DnD style game, but wanted something weirder.

Occultist, a class for LotFP

HP, Saves, and XP as Cleric

Occultists learn Words of Enochian, the heavenly tongue spoken by angels and used to build the world. Anything said aloud in Enochian comes true. Thankfully, Occultists are imperfect practitioners of the art of Creation. As such, they face the following limitations:

• They can only learn Enochian nouns. Knowing the word for a thing in Enochian means you can create it from nothing.
• They can know a number of Words equal to their level.
• They can manifest a number of Words equal to 1+half level. They can unravel anything they have created at any time.
• While Occultists can create living things, such creatures are nearly mindless, acting only to obey the commands of its creator.

Objects created by a speaker of Enochian are always perfect exemplars of their kind. Just because something takes multiple words in English to describe doesn’t mean it does in Enochian. Things created by the same word always appear and operate exactly the same. Occultists can manifest Words as often as they like. They must hear or read a Word in Enochian to learn it.

Occultists roll on the following table to find out what Word they start out with. The DM figures out how they learn more.

1. Sword
2. Peal of Thunder
3. Flash of light
4. Stag
5. Magnetic field
6. Rope
7. Ember
8. Cloud of moths
9. Plate mail
10. Brace of six knives

I suspect half the fun of Occultists is how they get along with Clerics. Are they like children left alone in a cosmic garage, drilling holes in the walls with heavenly power tools? Or just a different flavor of priest?

There are a crazy number of magic statues in Isle of the Unknown, so I want to have several different location replacements to make things more varied. Having dozens and dozens of graveyards is a bit much, even for an awful zombie island.

Tree by blmiers2 on Flickr. Creative Commons license.

A single tree has 1d6 pieces of fruit/usable pieces of wood/doses of sap. Fruit goes bad in 3d6 days, unless somehow preserved.

1. Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: transplant stolen from an abandoned paradise. Whoever eats its fruit can choose to become a Chaotic Level 1 Cleric, keeping all of their other attributes and abilities, but never again leveling up in their old class.
2. Tree of Life: another tree snatched from the First Garden. Whoever eats its fruit no longer ages, naturally or magically, but can still die from sickness, violence, and poison. They will be hated by all holy people and creatures.
3. Skull Peach Tree: peach tree planted on the site of a terrible massacre. Bears large, succulent fruit with pits shaped like human skulls. If eaten, the peaches causes 24 hours of temporary undeath (Curing magic harms, harming magic heals, sunlight deals d4 damage a round, Turn Undead works, and non-sentient undead ignore unless attacked). The pits are valued by sorcerers of all sorts.
4. Wormwood is a fruit-bearing tree on the Isle of the Undead. It is a supernaturally powerful purgative; whoever eats its berries is beset by sweating, weeping, and vomiting (lasts d20 rounds, no save). However, it also removes all poisons and tainted food from the victim’s system, even if they have already begun to take effect.
5. Ebon Apple Tree: Completely, perfectly matte black apple tree. Whoever eats this apple can make a Saving Throw against the next hostile spell cast on them. If it would allow for a saving throw anyway, they can make two.
6. Sin Fig: fig tree with a tap root reaching down into Hell. Eating one of its figs causes d6 damage to Wisdom, and an equal increase to a single random attribute that isn’t Wisdom.
7. Spitefruit: pale green fruit with a bitter, stringy pulp. Resents being eaten. Those who do so have the fruit’s personality take up residence in their brain. It performs petty crimes when they sleep.
8. Greater Driftwood: piece of driftwood brought to false life with necromancy. Instruments made from its wood can attract or repel the undead, especially the drowned.
9. Jackal Pear: eating a Jackal Pear turns a person’s head into that of a wild dog. Does not interfere with speech; gives them an acute sense of smell but a sensitivity to sound.
10. Tree of Idol: Grown up around a pagan idol. Someone who possesses a part of the tree can ask the heathen spirit a question about (1-Necromancy; 2-Vampirism; 3-The History of the Isle; 4-Dragons; 5-The Old Gods; 6-Nature) but there is a 1 in 6 chance it will tell a destructive lie and a separate 1 in 6 chance it will demand recompense.
11. Mandragora: Planted on the grave of a criminal. Screams when cut. If a doll is carved from its wood, it will serve as a loyal, if barely sane, familiar. Its consciousness is formed from a dead man’s id. Name (1-Phfuck; 2-Plop; 3- Corn Nut; 4- Diggum; 5-Chico; 6- Chicken Dinner)
12. Dark Mulberry: its berries are unremarkable, but silk produced by the worms that feed on this tree has a shadowy, dim quality, giving those who wear it a +1 to Stealth rolls (or +15% if you aren’t using an x in 6 system)
13. Ootalisk Cedar: Cultivar from  the Fossil City of Ootalisk. A mask fashioned from its wood allows the wearer to speak an additional language; each tree is associated with a different tongue.
14. Tenebrous Myrrh: produces a dark incense beloved by liches and vampires. Went burnt, this tree’s resin creates a rich black smoke that smothers all light it touches, regardless of intensity or source.
15. Acanthus Gum Tree: its sap is as addictive as it is dangerous. Every time after the first time someone has consumed acanthus sap, they must Save vs Poison or be addicted. Once addicted, they lose 1 point of Strength and 1 point of Wisdom for every day they do not consume at least 1 dose of acanthus sap. Every time someone consumes the sap, they recover lost attributes due to withdrawal, and must Save vs Poison or be changed by the drug, gaining +1 cumulative to AC and -1 cumulative to Dexterity as their skin becomes gnarled and bark-like. If their Dexterity reaches 0 they turn into an Acanthus Gum Tree.
16. Rose Tree: Plucking a rose from this tree summons a Knight of the Rose (Level 5 fighter, platemail, longsword). The summoner can give the Knight a single task, which they will carry out unerringly, but if they die in the line of duty, the will return as a far more dangerous Knight of the Thorn to extract revenge upon their former master.
17. Suntree: a tree killed and then reanimated with unsavory magic. Produces chloroplasm, a substance that can bring the wounded and ill back from the brink of death. Has many exciting side effects.
18. Petrified Tree: trapped inside ever petrified tree on the Isle is a skeletal sage, who, if rescued, will truthfully answer a single question out of gratitude. Aside from this, they are all terribly wicked, and capable of the greatest of perfidy.
19. Revenant Grove: Circle of twisted black trees. Anyone buried amongst them will rise again as a cruel and powerful wight.
20. Barrow Tree: enormous redwood planted over a barrow. If killed or removed, the ancient king or queen buried inside will break free from their bindings and attempt to reform their kingdom. 

Not a huge fan of the magic statues from the Isle of the Unknown. They start to feel a same after a while, especially because there are so many of them. So I am replacing them with several different kinds of locations, the first being graveyards.

by Zdzisław Beksiński

The dead and buried
1-90: 2d100 regular humans
91: d1000 regular humans
92: 2d12 demons
93: 2d10 dragons
94: d10 members of a race of antediluvian giants
95: d6 demigods
96: d20 infamous murderers
97: d4 wicked sages
98: 2d6 martyred saints
99. 2d100 empty graves
100. 2d100 zombies, trapped in their coffins 

The atmosphere
1. Hideous Gothic confection: spikes and gargoyles and gurning cherubs, lots of mist
2. Uncanny. Gaunt angels with too many limbs, eyes and hands and mouths carved everywhere. Quiet voices on the wind.
3. Orderly. Smooth gravestones on a manicured lawn.
4. Decrepit. Illegible and crumbling gravestones, partially dug-up graves, scattered bones.
5. Verdant. Grass, flowers, creeping vines, trees.
6. Withered. Packed, dry ground. Dead trees. Blowing dust.
7.  Religious. Crosses everywhere, church in the center. Statues of angels and saints.
8. Occupied. Houses among the tombs.
  
What lives unlives is loose in this graveyard?
1: Pack of wolves, living with a commune of feral huners.
2: Magic-users training to become bona fide necromancers
4: An assassin cult
5: A merchant from the Lands of the Dead, with his spectral guards
6: Grave-digging bandit gang
7:  A Vampire and its charmed servants
8: An adept Necromancer. 1 in 6 chance they have established themselves and started raising the graveyard’s inhabitants.
9: A Warrior-Priest(ess) and a cult of fervid followers, guarding against looters and witches
10: Roll twice. They’re fighting!

What is important here ?
1. A necromantic source of power, unclaimed and quiescent
2. A gate to the Lands of the Dead, hidden in a mausoleum
3. A chest with d6*1000 pieces of gold, guarded by vicious ghosts
4.  A noble, kidnapped and placed in suspended animation until the ransom is paid
5.  A garden of black and purple lotus
6.  A single dose of a cure for vampirism
7.  A book explaining how to escape the Isle of the Undead
8.  A spell that banishes the souls of the dead permanently
9. The deed to an abandoned estate
10. A powerful war golem, waiting for a new master

What’s under this tombstone?
1-90: A body
91. A coffin filled with buzzing flies
92. A body, its head replaced with a birdcage containing a live crow
93. The body of the last NPC you talked to
94. d6*1000 pieces of cursed gold
95. A spellbook
96. A Vatic Mummy
97. d100 human hands
98. A deep shaft with a ladder
99. A young man or woman, alive. Theirs is the name inscribed on the tombstone, but they have no other memories,
100. Lich!