To what extent does RPM encourage/facilitate/prevent generalist casters?

[Humabout]

I still think a lot of it boils down to basic roleplaying and point-placement. If I take Higher Purpose 3 (Pyromancy), Pyromania, Path of Energy (Fire) IQ+2, and Thaumatology IQ+2, and then run around casting Fireball rituals at all of my problems, I'll have a specialist. Alternatively, I could put all of those points into Thaumatology, focus on using my off time to make lots of charms and elixirs, take Gizmo for my potions and charms, and run around pulling just the right spell out of my back pocket for each situation. Same system, two different casters and feels.

RPM is extremely versatile. That versatility makes for playable generalists and promotes generalism to a minor extent among all characters, but it hardly negates specialists.

[Gnome]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

I don't think RPM is as bad at it as GURPS Magic, though. But as I said earlier, I'm not sure how much less bad it is.

GURPS Magic mages are far more specialized than RPM mages. They can only cast from their limited spell list, and they can only learn spells they have the prerequisites for. If you want to force mages to specialize even further, you can give each college a prerequisite mundane skill as an "entry cost" (i.e. Animal Handling for Animal, Physiology for Body Control, etc.).

It's my impression that higher Path skills are very worthwhile in RPM, unlike in GURPS Magic where once you hit skill 15 you basically stop wanting to put CP into that spell, unless it's one you use really often.

I've played a large number of campaigns with GURPS Magic, and I can tell you there's huge incentive to raise spells to 16 and above; I've seen many players happy to do it. Between range penalties, penalties for spells on, and further bonuses at 20 and above, there's always a use for higher skill.

[Terwin]

Originally Posted by lexington

But the RPM caster only has the equivalent of DX15 if they intentionally do that. There are no mandatory advantages that turn you into a generalist. A default of -6 is very steep unless you have most casters running around with Thaumatology above 20.

Even with a Thaumatology of 30+, the path defaults are still 12, so any Thaumatology above 18 only increases the path caps, not the default.

I also asked earlier about Buying up from Default, and was told that for all purposes, the max Thaumatology default is 12, so you are not going to get all path skills at 15+ for only 1 point each unless you have an IQ 18+

(Oddly enough, the optimal number of points to spend on path skills for a generalist does seem to be 1 point each, as anything more would cost at least as much as +1 IQ)

[Pragmatic]

Originally Posted by Terwin

I also asked earlier about Buying up from Default, and was told that for all purposes, the max Thaumatology default is 12, so you are not going to get all path skills at 15+ for only 1 point each unless you have an IQ 18+

There's the Natural Caster optional talent, for 15 points per level, for 3 levels max. That's less than IQ, applies to some 16 skills (IIRC, book not in front of me), etc.

So you can skimp on three levels of IQ (a savings of 15 points), and maybe get by with an IQ of 15.

For what it's worth.