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Old 10-23-2018, 09:14 AM   #1
FeiLin
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Default A few Magic questions

1) How would I do minor changes to spells such as changing element (a Splashing Acidball instead of Exploding Fireball), changing range/duration. I'm guessing that it's perks that I didn't find, or are there limitations/enhancements for spells somewhere, or something else?

2) What's the thing about extending spells: if I cast for instance Shapeshift Other, is there a range the subject can escape beyond to not suffer having the spell be extended?

3) Some spells in Magic has an Item clause at the end of the entry; is that the only (RAW) way/items possible when enchanting or what do they signify? I'm guessing so, and the cost is the enchantment cost for quick and dirty, and slow and sure.
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Old 10-23-2018, 09:21 AM   #2
Fred Brackin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: A few Magic questions

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Originally Posted by FeiLin View Post
1) How would I do minor changes to spells such as changing element (a Splashing Acidball instead of Exploding Fireball), changing range/duration. I'm guessing that it's perks that I didn't find, or are there limitations/enhancements for spells somewhere, or something else?

2) What's the thing about extending spells: if I cast for instance Shapeshift Other, is there a range the subject can escape beyond to not suffer having the spell be extended?

3) Some spells in Magic has an Item clause at the end of the entry; is that the only (RAW) way/items possible when enchanting or what do they signify? I'm guessing so, and the cost is the enchantment cost for quick and dirty, and slow and sure.
1) See Thaumatology. It's explained there though it's an option and not as tandard thing.

2) I'm not sure what you mean by "extending". If you mean "maintaining" then no. If a spell gets successfully cast (where distance is a factor usually) then it's not a factor in maintaining the spell.

3) Items described in Magic are "standard" and can be found at least as easily as any other magic-based thing can be found. Variants are certainly possible but are a GM decision. The numeric cost in the entry is indeed how much energy is required for Q&D or how mucg time for S&S.
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Old 10-24-2018, 12:55 AM   #3
FeiLin
 
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Default Re: A few Magic questions

Thanks for the answers!

One last thing: where in Thaumatology does it cover minor changes of specific spells? To clarify, I've skimmed the minor spell variants, but it's mostly from a GM perspective, whereas I'm interested in this from a player perspective (i.e. a player wants to cast Splashing Acidball and wants to know what enhancements or spell variants are needed; not how I as a GM could setup new elemental colleges etc).
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Old 10-24-2018, 01:10 AM   #4
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Default Re: A few Magic questions

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Originally Posted by FeiLin View Post
Thanks for the answers!

One last thing: where in Thaumatology does it cover minor changes of specific spells? To clarify, I've skimmed the minor spell variants, but it's mostly from a GM perspective, whereas I'm interested in this from a player perspective (i.e. a player wants to cast Splashing Acidball and wants to know what enhancements or spell variants are needed; not how I as a GM could setup new elemental colleges etc).
I think he was referring to Adjustable Spells, p. 39 which lets you modify a spell by adding various enhancements. It wont change the underlying spell nature like fire to acid.
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Old 10-24-2018, 07:08 AM   #5
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Default Re: A few Magic questions

I think of the spell modifying system at mygurps.com. It isn't official, but its by a published Gurps author and I find both makes use of existing Gurps rules and is fairly simple to use.
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Old 10-24-2018, 08:48 AM   #6
Anaraxes
 
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Default Re: A few Magic questions

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Originally Posted by Refplace View Post
It wont change the underlying spell nature like fire to acid.
Still, it's pretty trivial to port one spell to a different college and just change its fluff text and special effects. Magic p14 has rules for inventing new spells, which balance guidelines are also useful for altering existing ones.

If "minor changes" are meant to be on-the-fly, done by some mage that's only put one point into one spell, and wants to use that one spell to command all the elements by changing fire for lightning for acid for stone for whatever, for Regular range for Missile for Area Effect, then you have a different problem. Spells are cheap, so a lot of those sort of changes might well be better handled as creating a new spell -- if not a different magic system to be more improvisational in the first place.
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Old 10-24-2018, 09:24 AM   #7
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: A few Magic questions

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Originally Posted by Refplace View Post
I think he was referring to Adjustable Spells, p. 39 which lets you modify a spell by adding various enhancements. It wont change the underlying spell nature like fire to acid.
Yes, that was what I meant.
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Old 10-24-2018, 10:02 AM   #8
David Johnston2
 
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Default Re: A few Magic questions

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Originally Posted by FeiLin View Post
1) How would I do minor changes to spells such as changing element (a Splashing Acidball instead of Exploding Fireball),
That is not a minor change. It's a new spell. Mind you I can imagine a meta spell called "exploding missile" that can be combined with an already existing fire or acid ball spell to make it explosive. It would be like Curse Missile.

Last edited by David Johnston2; 10-24-2018 at 10:06 AM.
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Old 10-24-2018, 10:06 AM   #9
Nereidalbel
 
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Default Re: A few Magic questions

Virtually all elements are covered by spells already, so, all you really need to do is justify to your GM why you should have a Charm Perk per elemental spell.

Another option is to use Imbuements on your spells, which is definitely subject to GM approval.
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