Charm List [RPM]

[AlexanderHowl]

Imagine that you have a character with Magery 4 and Thaumatology-16, allowing them to maintain 20 charms as conditional spells. What type of conditional spells would a practitioner have as charms if you were playing the character or running the character as a GM? Let us keep the maximum energy to 60 points in order to avoid effects that are too unlikely to have been created.

A couple that I think would be useful would be the following:

1. A charm that would give a character Charisma 5 for 39 energy (Lesser Control Magic [5], Lesser Strengthen Mind [3], Altered Trait: Charisma 5 [25], Duration: 1 hour [3], Weight: 300 lbs [3])

2. A charm that would transform visible light to infrared light within an area, plunging it into darkness for 10 minutes for 44 energy (Lesser Control Magic [5], Lesser Transform Energy [8], Area: 100 yards [20], Duration: 10 minutes [1]), Range: 100 yards [10])

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

1. A charm that would give a character Charisma 5 for 39 energy (Lesser Control Magic [5], Lesser Strengthen Mind [3], Altered Trait: Charisma 5 [25], Duration: 1 hour [3], Weight: 300 lbs [3])

That's workable.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

2. A charm that would transform visible light to infrared light within an area, plunging it into darkness for 10 minutes for 44 energy (Lesser Control Magic [5], Lesser Transform Energy [8], Area: 100 yards [20], Duration: 10 minutes [1]), Range: 100 yards [10])

You'd need to add Bestow a Penalty, Vision rolls to determine the total penalty the darkness is giving to those in the area.

[AlexanderHowl]

Why? It is an implied consequence of a transformation. You no more need to pay for the penalty than you would have to pay for the Alternate Form to transform a human into a frog. Anyway, a -10 to vision would cost 512 energy, meaning that it would be impossible to create darkness if you also had to pay for the penalty.

[Varyon]

Due to the ease with which an RPMist can buff himself and his allies during downtime, I've always felt a common charm would be an area-effect dispel - Lesser Control Magic (5) + Lesser Destroy Magic (5) + Area Effect, 3 yard radius (2) + Meta-Magic (var). Whatever you spend on Meta-Magic dictates how powerful of a ritual you can destroy with it; it may be worthwhile to spend an additional point of energy to exclude yourself. For a character with Path of Magic 16 and Magery 4, you'll probably want to make use of sacrifices, Decanic trappings, places of power, etc to boost energy and reduce cost; pumping all your Mana Reserve (12 energy) and FP (I'll assume 10; you actually use 9, for 3 energy) into the ritual, sacrificing a pig (for 10 energy), and using enough Decanic trappings for a 10% discount while staying within your Safe Threshold for energy gathering allows for up to a 44 energy ritual. That's enough to dispel a ritual (or conditional) worth up to 32 energy (31 energy if you design it to exclude yourself), and it works on all rituals within its area of effect. Bonuses from a workspace or Place of Power can boost your Safe Threshold, letting you pump more energy into Meta-Magic. If you can get a +5 skill bonus - say from using a +2 Grimoire with a Good Workspace (+1) in a +2 Place of Power - you can manage up to a 111-energy ritual, which will target rituals worth up to 99 energy (98 if you design it to exclude yourself).

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Why? It is an implied consequence of a transformation. You no more need to pay for the penalty than you would have to pay for the Alternate Form to transform a human into a frog. Anyway, a -10 to vision would cost 512 energy, meaning that it would be impossible to create darkness if you also had to pay for the penalty.

Because you usually get what you pay for. The author himself said that the costs for Bestows a Bonus/Penalty were a bit much. I always use the flat costs from MH5.

[AlexanderHowl]

Yes, you are transforming light into infrared, so you are getting what you pay for. If you transform oxygen into chlorine gas, you do not need to pay for a separate toxic attack, it is just a consequence of the transformation.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Yes, you are transforming light into infrared, so you are getting what you pay for. If you transform oxygen into chlorine gas, you do not need to pay for a separate toxic attack, it is just a consequence of the transformation. If I tranform a human into an elephant, I do not need to pay the energy for an elephant template, as that is a consequence of the transformation.

No, if your spell does damage you pay for damage. You can rule otherwise but that's not how it works unless your GM says different. If you transform a subject and it's under their control then, you must pay for alternate form as an altered trait. Really, (and PK and I chatted about this a lot) any physical transformation into another thing should add Altered Traits. The Transmogrification spell in RPM lacks it (and that was one of my spells) and I wish I had hewed more closely to the guidelines for it. Hindsight and all.

[AlexanderHowl]

The rules explicitly say under Transform that you do not need to add Alternate Form as an Altered Trait when using Transform, presumably because the target stays transformed until the duration ends. If I want to transform myself into an elephant for 10 minutes, I only need to have 45 energy for the ritual ((Greater Transform Body [8] + Duration: 10 minutes [1] + Mass: 10,000 lbs [6]) × 3). Add a Lesser Control Magic [+5], and you have an awesome little charm for the list since it is only 50 energy total.

[zoncxs]

Why are you adding mass? It is an implied consequence of a transformation.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

The rules explicitly say under Transform that you do not need to add Alternate Form as an Altered Trait when using Transform, presumably because the target stays transformed until the duration ends. If I want to transform myself into an elephant for 10 minutes, I only need to have 45 energy for the ritual ((Greater Transform Body [8] + Duration: 10 minutes [1] + Mass: 10,000 lbs [6]) × 3). Add a Lesser Control Magic [+5], and you have an awesome little charm for the list since it is only 50 energy total.

If it's under your control - and your example probably would be - you pay for the Alternate Form. See Sylph Form for an example of this on p. 50 of GURPS Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic.