Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes
So simply being built out of Advantages is no guarantee of balance with respect to other systems and sourcebooks.
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This is true.
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One of the hidden conceits of the magic system since 1986 has been that in a fantasy game that amounts to "
Man to Man with spells and thieving," the comparison is between "cost of ST or HT (whichever determines energy points in your preferred edition), IQ, Magery, and lots of spells" and "cost of ST, DX, HT, and a few combat skills." Surprisingly, perhaps, that was fairly balanced for much of
GURPS' history; mages were about as good at magic and nonmagical IQ-based tasks as warriors were at fighting and noncombat DX-based tasks. What broke it was moving away from the hack-and-slash adventure of
The Fantasy Trip and toward actual roleplaying, which successive editions of
GURPS increasingly stressed. At some point, the balance tipped and the utility power of spells blew other things away.
Where advantage-based stuff like pre-Fourth Edition psi was borked was in the fact that it replaced the "three things that cost 10-20 points/level and some skills" model with "IQ, psionic power levels, and psi skills," which was a "one thing that costs 10-20 points/level, one thing that costs 5 points a level, and some skills" model. Psis were advantage-based all right . . . but the advantages were too cheap. Psi powers also offered literal replacements for a warrior's ST, and each had a few broad skills that covered the same territory as several spells for a wizard, at little or no FP cost. They were really out of whack.
Fourth Edition fixed psi by making it cost what it should, but I'll admit that we didn't fix the excessive utility of magic while we were at it. We probably should have. The trick lies in realizing that magic is differently broken and doesn't need the same fix as psi.
Personally, I think the biggest issue is with it being IQ-based and FP-powered. If all mages had to buy a Magical Aptitude attribute [15/level] and a Magical Power Points pool [3/level] up from 0, skill-based magic would most likely be fine. However, I doubt that a lot of gamers would appreciate having to pay 255 points for the classic IQ 14 + Magery 3 wizard to base his spells on 17, and another 30 points to have the equivalent of 10 FP for spells . . . and be left at IQ 10 for other purposes. I actually think that 285 points + spells for a spell base of 17, 10 energy points, and IQ 10 is more balanced than 115 points + spells for a spell base of 17, 10 energy points, and IQ 14; in fact I think it would make skill-based spells less of an uber-ability.