GURPS Thaumatology: Sorcery

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Smeette

Or can a prudent sorcerer switch out the 'last cast' spell with, for example, the classic "I ready Fireball" line, and then wait for their opportunity for the casting roll?

I'd say yes. Looking under the hood, the first turn is the time to reconfigure the Modular Ability pool to the new spell; the second turn is the turn to activate the new ability.

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

It is clearly stated on p. 10 that "Unlike the Missile spells of GURPS Magic,a sorcery missile cannot be “held.” It is cast as a Concentrate maneuver followed by an Attack maneuver [...]" That seems unambiguous to me.

The analog to the way Magic spells can be "held" the spell would be to take both turns (reconfigure and activate), rather than just one, and then be able to cast the spell instantly. That's ruled out by this quote. But that doesn't mean the reconfiguration is tied to immediate activation. For that, you'd need to make Sorcery a bit cheaper, as you're adding Immediate Preparation Required to the slot cost. You'd also have to eliminate the notion of repeat casting for consistency. There's nothing special about a ModAb slot used to hold an IA as opposed to some other ability that requires always using the ability after reconfiguration.

Besides, the munchkin answer if you insist on always having the Attack maneuver will be to simply waste a missile just to have the slot configured to their desired default.

[A Ladder]

Originally Posted by Smeette

As stated, Sorcery requires two Concentrate maneuvers. Do these have to be consecutive? Or can a prudent sorcerer switch out the 'last cast' spell with, for example, the classic "I ready Fireball" line, and then wait for their opportunity for the casting roll?

My gaming group follows the idea of whatever spell you last cast is considered "loaded". This spell requires only one Concentrate to cast. Switching spells takes one Concentrate manuever. So they have default "I load my Fireball" (or other spell they think will come in handy) whenever there is off time between scenes.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Smeette

As stated, Sorcery requires two Concentrate maneuvers. Do these have to be consecutive? Or can a prudent sorcerer switch out the 'last cast' spell with, for example, the classic "I ready Fireball" line, and then wait for their opportunity for the casting roll?

While the GM is within rights to insist that they be consecutive, for the sake of simplicity, there's no rule stating that they must be. So taking a second to "switch spells" in advance of a situation is legal. (Though if a spell lists a longer casting time, such as the "10 or 11 seconds" of Create Object, the first second of Concentrate is to switch spells, and the remaining 10 seconds do have to be consecutive.)

And is there room for a mechanism to cast multiple low-cost spells without going the full-cost simultaneous route described in the book? I.e. if a sorcerer is limited to 10 point abilities, could they cast and maintain two 5 (or 4) point spells? Maybe with some sort of Link enhancement? Or would this break something, either game mechanics or flavor?

The canonical way to accomplish this would be to craft a custom spell that is just two simpler spells joined together with the Link enhancement.

[Kalzazz]

Would Kuroshima's Weapon, Armor, Shield of Pure Magic from Pyramid Something (in the article about more fun stuff with imbuements) be Adaptable into Sorcery Spells?

I don't have books handy on phone so don't recall the specific article name

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Would Kuroshima's Weapon, Armor, Shield of Pure Magic from Pyramid Something (in the article about more fun stuff with imbuements) be Adaptable into Sorcery Spells?

I don't have books handy on phone so don't recall the specific article name

Pyramid #3/60. The way Sorcery works, it should probably be a Buff to grant you the ability to use them. Failing that, the 1 FP (or alternate cost) built into Sorcery spells would probably be per minute rather than per use, and arguably wouldn't give any actual cost reduction.

[Klark]

Could the Threshold-Limited Magic system from Thaumatology work for Sorcery? I don't mean can it work RAW, it obviously can, but more is it a good idea.

I like the mechanics of Sorcery (I'm a huge fan of spell casters having both the ability to improvise a wide variety of spells on the spot and also having a small set of powerful signature spells) and the campaign I'm planning on running is set up where Threshold makes more sense than casting from FP or gathering energy. However, Thaumatology describes Threshold-Limited Magic as being good for occasional big spells but severely limits mages in how many smaller spells they can cast. Since nearly every spell in Sorcery costs only 1 FP, and thus would add 1 to the sorcerer's power tally, everything counts as a small spell. The recovery rate is, effectively, your safe spells/day amount.

If I did end up implementing Threshold along with Sorcery, I think I'd go Threshold 15, Recovery Rate 8, and increase the Calamity bonus to +1 for every point above Threshold. I'd probably also have spells with a Full Cost of more than 30 or 50 cost 2 FP as well. Sound okay or should I look for another way to make this work?

[dataweaver]

For Threshold-Limited Sorcery, I'd be inclined to rebuild the Spells with the Corrupting limitation from GURPS Horror instead of Costs FP, taking note that the associated Power Corrupts section identifies the Threshold-Limited rules as a potential “Corruption system”. That is, the “Corruption points” generated by the Limitation get treated as Tally and resolved according to the Threshold-Limited rules.

(For the record, this is precisely the sort of situation that the Power Corrupts section and the Corrupting Limitation were written to deal with, save only for the “it’s evil!” flavor text.)

The main effect of doing it this way is that the amount of Tally produced by a Spell would be proportional to the point cost of the Spell; so larger Spells would generate more Tally. Without that — that is, with Spells costing 1 FP each regardless of size, Threshold-Limited Sorcery strike me as a bad idea.

EDIT: it's also worth noting that if you're willing to bend the rules a little, there's no reason why Corrupting couldn't be treated as a -5% Limitation, the same as Costs FP. This has the advantage of not actually having to recalculate any of the Spell prices. The amount of Corruption (or, in this case, Tally) generated is equal to the number of CPs saved, so it would be 5% of the unmodified cost of the Spell's underlying Advantages.

[Greg 1]

The Sorcery system looks like a nice adjunct to the ritual path system. The flexibility of ritual path magic means that there can be a lot of overlap in the powers of magicians from different traditions. A few unique "perfected spells" (sorceries) per tradition could help make traditions feel distinct.

[Klark]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

The main effect of doing it this way is that the amount of Tally produced by a Spell would be proportional to the point cost of the Spell; so larger Spells would generate more Tally.

Ah, I've looked at the corruption mechanics from horror a couple times, but always glossed over the limitation itself. I had no idea it scaled like that; it's perfect for what I want!

[simply Nathan]

Oh hey, an alternative magic system I might actually be able to get some use out of!

So now instead of just Magic Magic and Divine Favor, I'll have to think about Sorcery as well...