[RPM] Cost/Balance of <<Effect>> or <<Path + Effect>> Only?

[Klark]

On Ghostdancer/Christopher Rice's blog, a lot of his RPM guides include a specialized or limited form of Magery or Ritual Adept. The -40% discount for limiting an advantage to a single path seems fair, but I'm curious if that -40% would work for Magery or Ritual Adept limited to a single spell effect like Sense or Destroy. It seems thematically appropriate to allow this (i.e. a mage that focuses on detection and analysis), but if there's a mention of it anywhere I missed it.

Assuming that there's nothing wrong with including <<Effect>> Only, -40%, what would you guys recommend for an advantage limited to a single Path and Effect? -60%? The one thing I'm worried about is that some Path/Effect combinations are much more broad than others, meaning those combinations will be restricted less but recieve the same amount of point back. I understand that there's not much you can do if players pick something horrendously suboptimal like Sense Crossroads Only, but there are still issues with options like Restore Body Only (a tempting choice for adventurers on a tight points budget) being significantly more restrictive than something like Create Matter Only (a combination with countless uses). Aside from a list of "combinations A+B, C+D, and E+F are worth more," I don't know how to tackle this.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Klark

On Ghostdancer/Christopher Rice's blog, a lot of his RPM guides include a specialized or limited form of Magery or Ritual Adept. The -40% discount for limiting an advantage to a single path seems fair, but I'm curious if that -40% would work for Magery or Ritual Adept limited to a single spell effect like Sense or Destroy. It seems thematically appropriate to allow this (i.e. a mage that focuses on detection and analysis), but if there's a mention of it anywhere I missed it.

In a word: yes. For now, you could probably equate a specific Path with a specific Effect. So Magery (Sense only, -40%) would cost 6 points a level and would be useful only for spells that included a Sense effect. I wouldn't let a player include a Sense effect in every single spell he does however, that smacks of munchkinism.

Originally Posted by Klark

Assuming that there's nothing wrong with including <<Effect>> Only, -40%, what would you guys recommend for an advantage limited to a single Path and Effect? -60%? The one thing I'm worried about is that some Path/Effect combinations are much more broad than others, meaning those combinations will be restricted less but recieve the same amount of point back. I understand that there's not much you can do if players pick something horrendously suboptimal like Sense Crossroads Only, but there are still issues with options like Restore Body Only (a tempting choice for adventurers on a tight points budget) being significantly more restrictive than something like Create Matter Only (a combination with countless uses). Aside from a list of "combinations A+B, C+D, and E+F are worth more," I don't know how to tackle this.

There is a resource coming out that will be far more useful, but again, you could do it like this. Some effects are going to be more useful than others - this much is true for RPM. You as the GM are going to need to say "No you can't have this, sorry" if it bothers you that much. I originally said about -35% for a single path, but I used it in game and it didn't feel worth it. So I raised it to -40%...but...I'm starting to think it might have been worth -35% and will probably use that.

[Klark]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

So Magery (Sense only, -40%) would cost 6 points a level and would be useful only for spells that included a Sense effect. I wouldn't let a player include a Sense effect in every single spell he does however, that smacks of munchkinism.

I was under the impression that if a spell included anything outside of the "X Only" limitation, it wouldn't receive the benefits of the advantage.

And looking through the effects again, more limited effects like Sense or Restore have lower energy costs than Create or Transform. A Restore Body specialist might not pay less for his advantages than a Create Matter specialist, but, going by the basic effect costs, his spells will cost significantly less on average. That means that he can get by with a lower skill level, effectively getting points back from his specialization anyway.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Klark

I was under the impression that if a spell included anything outside of the "X Only" limitation, it wouldn't receive the benefits of the advantage.

Yeah, that's one way to do it. But I don't like punishing people for specializing. For example, if a character were casting a magical landmine spell with a Greater Create Matter + Lesser Sense Mind to damage only sentient targets, I'd definitely allow them to use their mana reserve...but sense the spell uses two effects and Path of Matter is going to be lower than Path of Mind, it sort of sidesteps "always being able to use my better skill," which is I think the problem.

Originally Posted by Klark

And looking through the effects again, more limited effects like Sense or Restore have lower energy costs than Create or Transform. A Restore Body specialist might not pay less for his advantages than a Create Matter specialist, but, going by the basic effect costs, his spells will cost significantly less on average. That means that he can get by with a lower skill level, effectively getting points back from his specialization anyway.

That's kind of the point of specializing. Some things are simply going to be a better deal in the right circumstances. Restore guy is going to be able to heal and fix stuff willynilly - but he needs something to fix or restore. Create guy can just work with nothing and get just about any tool he needs for any situation.