GURPS: How to develop Knacks in 4e?

[Rowan]

I remember knacks from GURPS: Magick 3e, and I thought they were neat.. basically turning spells into innate powers and such. But I notice it doesn't seem present in 4e. Their seems to be some kind of way to make knacks in 4e's Thumatology, but it doesn't seem to be the same as how it was done in 3e.

I'm basically trying to build a body of air spell Knack. And I'd like to try and get it as close to the spell as possible. I figured I'd just pick the body of air meta-trait, and add some limitations to it, but I'm not sure which limitations would be appropriate. So I was hoping for some suggestions on how to build it, and to what limitations might be best to pick.

Any help is appreciated, thanks. :)

[Gold & Appel Inc]

You could just buy everything as Advantages with the Magical -10% Limitation, or use Magic-As-Skills with 1-Spell Magery Perks.

[sir_pudding]

Try Charm Perks.

[Rowan]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

You could just buy everything as Advantages with the Magical -10% Limitation, or use Magic-As-Skills with 1-Spell Magery Perks.

Oh certainly. I know I could simply buy the Body or air meta-trait and slip on the Magical limiter and just go with that. What I'm looking for is tips for what limitations I might use in order to make it more like the knack spells from 3e. Also, I'm afraid I don't know what Magic-As-Skills with 1 point magery perks are. Where would that be located? What book?

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Try Charm Perks.

I'm not sure what Charm Perks are, Pudding. What book is that located in?

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Rowan

[snip] What I'm looking for is tips for what limitations I might use in order to make it more like the knack spells from 3e. Also, I'm afraid I don't know what Magic-As-Skills with 1 point magery perks are. Where would that be located? What book?

It shows up in DF 3 under Leprechauns and in Power-Ups: Perks IIRC.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Rowan

I'm not sure what Charm Perks are, Pudding. What book is that located in?

As is usually the case with perks, Power Ups 2 will do it. Page 19. May also be printed elsewhere. Thaumatology?

[dataweaver]

There's also a Pyramid article in #3/44 called From Skills to Advantages, written by Dr. Kromm; you could use that as a basis for adapting spells for use as Knacks; though as Dr. Kromm said in that article, the result is generally too cheap for what spells can do.

Another approach would be to take the "1 character point = 25 energy" equivalence used in Devotional Enchantment (Thaumatology p.54) and apply it to the spell's item cost: so an Air Vortex Knack would cost 48 points (1200 energy). This won't be at all balanced against the Advantages system; but it's quick and easy.

Conversely, if SJGames ever publishes GURPS Magic Powers, one thing I'd like to see them do would be to go through GURPS Magic and redo all of the Item energy costs to conform to the equivalent Magic Powers point costs.

[roguebfl]

GURPS Fantasy gives us Fixed magic instead. where you buy them like you would a spell, except using Magery (One Spell only -80%)

[PK]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

GURPS Fantasy gives us Fixed magic instead. where you buy them like you would a spell, except using Magery (One Spell only -80%)

Exactly. Fixed Magic is the way that Fourth Edition handles "magical knacks," assuming that you wanted to keep it tied directly to spells rather than using the power system. See GURPS Fantasy (p. 161) for full rules, but in brief, you buy Magery with the One Spell Only limitation (-80%), pay an additional 1 point per prerequisite*, and then buy the spell to whatever level you want (taking your limited Magery into account).

* These are found in GURPS Magic, but I recommend using the values from GURPS Thaumatology, as they're more accurate.

For example, I want to be able to have Create Servant as fixed magic (a "knack") rather than as a summonable Ally. It requires IQ 12 (which I have!), Magery 3, and a prerequisite count of 9. It costs 3 to cast, 1 to maintain, and I want to be able to at least maintain it for free, so I need it at skill 15 (IQ+3).

Magery 3 (One Spell Only, -80%) would cost 7 points. The prerequisite chain adds 9 points. And the cost to buy the IQ/H spell at IQ+3 (taking my Magery into account) would be 4 points.

So I write this as Fixed Magic (Create Servant-15) [20]. I roll against a skill of 15 to cast it and it costs me 2 to cast, 0 to maintain unless I'm summoning a skilled or brute servant.

[Stripe]

I . . . I never knew anything about Fixed Magic and often wondered how to do what the OP described. This thread made my GURPS day.