Quote:
Originally Posted by Shostak
I understand that, but it doesn't allow for characters who need more than one Sphere for their magic--like weather workers.
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I though each Sphere was its own skill. So each Sphere's magery would apply to castings involving that sphere even though multiple spheres are involved. Thus, the weather mage
would benefit from having levels of magery over multiple spheres.
Under my modified system, the PCs are still paying points for their casting ability. I intended for them to buy a universal Magery 0 which is worth 5 points. To actually cast even basic spells in a given sphere also requires at least 5 points. Therefore, the PCs end up paying 10 points just to have a base attribute of 10 under my modification of the system. I think this is a balanced approach. But gaining new verbs
and a +1 for only 5 points seems broken to me.
As an aside, having attributes of 10 for free is not unbalanced, even for magic use. With a base attribute of 10, a character has to invest 1 point to obtain a 50% chance of succeeding with
Easy skills even for average adventuring tasks (or a +0 modifier). Their odds rapidly get worse as you throw harder tasks at them. According to the Basic Set, skills that govern magic skills should be Hard or Very Hard skills. Meaning you would need to spend 2 to 4 points per skill to get them to atr +0. Under most magic systems in GURPS, this would mean you have a 50% chance of your spell failing and draining you of 1 FP.
In short, having an attribute of 10 is free because a character will suck at tasks involving that attribute unless they buy up high skill. Floating to other attributes is a much better way to emphasize skill levels than capping attributes at 10.