Quote:
Originally Posted by PK
For a spellcaster in a con game, there are some basic guidelines:
1. Have a maxed-out list of conditionals prepared ahead of time. "You have the following spells ready to cast, once, by simply pointing and saying the right magic words: <list>. You carry the following charms (tiny bamboo sticks) that you can give to anyone, which cast the listed spell when broken: <list>," and so on.
2. For sages and other slow casters, that's probably all you need. For a witch, in-game spellcasting is going to be a thing. Pick 4-6 useful, low-cost spells and take Ritual Mastery for them. Include a simple description: What they do (in simple English) and the energy cost, nothing more. Make it clear that #3 (below) applies to these spells.
3. Add a note that the caster can attempt any spell, but it'll take longer (for adepts: "but it will take several combat turns, and possibly a few minutes"; for others: "but it will take several minutes and is thus not an option in combat") and should leverage the caster's best Paths . Don't bother explaining any more than this; if someone wants to cast a spell on the fly in play, it's your job as GM to give them a reasonable estimate of how wise the decision is ("You have skill 13 and you want to give everyone in NYC Precognition? Um, no, I wouldn't recommend attempting that.") and then to do the work for them.
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Again, PK beat me to it.
In my GenCon 2013 adventure, I had a Sage character, which I outfitted with a list of charms that he could hand out or use during combats. I also told him that he could attempt to cast any spell he could think of outside of combat and that I would help him figure out how to do it.
As it turned out, the sage used his ability to prepare for, and strongly contribute to, the successful conclusion of the adventure by coming up with a ritual on his own. I used my RPM app to calculate the cost on the fly. It took only a couple of minutes to work through what effect the sage wanted, determining the cost, and another minute to run through the rolls needed to successfully cast the ritual. It worked very well.