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Old 09-10-2017, 10:39 AM   #5
Fred Brackin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: [Magic] RPM, Paths, Realms - So many variants, but which one to choose?

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
if you want "mage" to be a combat role, Path and Book magic won't easily serve you.
Unless you allow the ritual adept advantage native to that system. That can cut time down to 1D6.

I've thought that Path/Book(Effect Shaping) with maxed out Ritual Adept would actually be the best system for modeling Stephen Strange in Gurps.

The best question to ask is "Do you want Magic to have the MSTF quality?". "MSTF" in this case means "More Subtle Than Fireballs". Bill apparently does which makes Path/Book a strong choice for him. MSTF is a natural condition for Path/Book.

By contrast, RPM will happily make you Fireballs. As a fully flexible system it will provide anything the GM doesn't forbid.

It's sounding like what you want is sort of the opposite where magic is cast only in emergencies. What I recommend for that is actually "vanilla" Magic with Threshold possibly with a Threshold set as low as zero.

In a case like that the PCs will almost always save their Magic for real emergencies though they may preferentially save it for post-battle healing instead of combat spells.

I'll warn you that if you forbid healing spells altogether your players might avoid Magic and spend their pts on defense abilities and Very Rapid Healing.
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