Houserule Proposal: Wildcard College Magic

[sonofether]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Zerribuchus (125)
Please note that while it doesn't raise overall skill level, its worth putting extra points in a skill so that you can learn the additional spells -- the system is about raising skill level and learning new spells at the same time. Its also worth pointing out that this mage struggles with new colleges until the proper number of points are sunk into them or unless they have IQ+Magery = 18, not 17. On the other hand, sinking more spells in one college can allow the IQ+Magery sweet spot to be a good deal lower.

I'm not sure if I like this or not, and I can't speak to its balance -- that wizard up there seems a little strong for 125 points... but it does achieve the desired goal of encouraging specialists. Its also strongly tied to the college system. for different specialists you may need to use different colleges.

The 'One spell from 10 Colleges' requirement on gate and metamagic is very painful in the system. Above, I just ignored it. A 5 or unusual background for access to 'higher' magic would work just as well. Also, statements have been made to the effect that the prereq system is NOT a balancing component of magic.

Is it particularly unbalanced? I expected it to be a little bit stronger, but not broken.

I agree that things like Teleport become more expensive. Instead of an unusual background, what about a suggestion to drop "must know X college requirements" in some fashion, such as subtracting 5 or dividing by 2? Or maybe it's okay that high magic is more expensive when other things are a little more powerful?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by sonofether

Is it particularly unbalanced? I expected it to be a little bit stronger, but not broken.

I agree that things like Teleport become more expensive. Instead of an unusual background, what about a suggestion to drop "must know X college requirements" in some fashion, such as subtracting 5 or dividing by 2? Or maybe it's okay that high magic is more expensive when other things are a little more powerful?

Magic is already relatively unbalanced. This is not especially worse. An argument can be made that you shouldn't be allowing magery to stack with wildcard skills, but its not as clear cut as if it was a standard talent.

Its been both stated that prerequisites are not a core part of spell balancing, and that spells should not be available to all comers -- some restrictions should be in place. Requirements to know X number of spells from a single college are not a problem at all. The 1 or 2 from 10 colleges is a problem because this system encourages generalization and that requirement mandates generalization. I'd substitute something else entirely, such as a 12/24 points in a different college, the unusual background, or knowing two/four different colleges of magic. Or just waiving it. The iconic character who uses the ritual magic system is able to just ignore the prereqs (other than the fact that they form the basis of his skill penalty). This system is similar enough that I find the prereqs a technicality when they are about mandating broadness.