Quote:
Originally Posted by David Johansen
There are a lot of weird prerequisites in GURPS Magic.
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I'd agree with your assessment. There is one other possibility to take into mind here...
First, there was GURPS FANTASY 1st edition. That is when SJGames gave us our first unified magic rules system for use with GURPS.
Then there was GURPS MAGIC 1st edition.
Then there was GURPS MAGIC 2nd edition 1st printing.
Then there was GURPS MAGIC 2nd edition 2nd plus printings.
Then there was GURPS GRIMOIRE
And finally, we get GURPS MAGIC for 4e.
Between 1st printing and 2nd printing of GURPS MAGIC is when they added the boilerplate about not being able to use magic to influence enchantments.
GURPS GRIMOIRE's spells were introduced after the requisite paths were already written in stone (so to speak) for the spells in GURPS 2nd edition spell list. Any spells they introduced in GRIMOIRE had to use the pre-established requisite chain even if it would have made more sense to change the requisite chain to include Grimoire Spells intermixed with GURPS MAGIC spells.
Then - GURPS MAGIC for 4e left most things as far as requisite chains - unchanged, despite the opportunity to perhaps FIX things so they made more sense.
In the end, any GM has the option to rearrange things to suit themselves. They can also change spell descriptions to suit them such as Charge Powerstone not quirking a powerstone with a crit failure. One can also simply rewrite their requisite chains, or even the energy costs for spells. Me? I've reworked the spell for Earth to Stone to exclude the (To Metal) aspect, and made it so that you can cast the spell one of two ways. The original method has a time duration of 10 hours instead of permanent. You can work with earth/stone in the same volumes as given in the original spell. If you cast the spell as a permanent enchantment, it will permanently change earth to stone in units of POUNDS per casting instead of cubic yards per casting.
Enlarge? One can only increase the side modifier value for anything enlarged to a maximum of your Magery value. So, magery 3? You can increase an object's size modifier by +3. Got Magery 8? Increase it up to a size modifier of +8. And so on and so forth.
If the requisites are weird, change them.
Me? I have Summon Lesser Demons (with an attending lower energy cost). I also change my demon descriptions so that one demon might have one college Magery at +10. An imp of the same type of demonic influence might have Magery 1 for Earth spells. Those make great gold hunters and such...
But - that's just me and my campaigns - not RAW, but then again? I never liked what was done with Magic for 4e in the first place.