Magic questions - Vertical distance theme.

[Henchman99942]

Mana Pools are generally bigger than one hex. If your feet are in one, then anything in your hands or on your head counts as in one because your body acts just like the Staff spell. You could stand the little one you describe and still enchant a helmet worn on your head.

And what mana pool can you carry around? I have not heard of that. I thought they were tied to the ground.

In the world I described, my primary mana pools are all the same size because they are generated essentially identical geodes. I may have secondary mana pools that result from wave resonances between the geodes. And I may have zero mana zones where the interference between the geodes is totally destructive. But either way, I like the spherical model for mana pools. And I may even enjoy watching players try to scrunch their characters into very small mana pools. Maybe only pixies can make use of the very small ones if their whole body must be in it. That sounds like a lot of interesting 'effects'.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Henchman99942

And what mana pool can you carry around? I have not heard of that. I thought they were tied to the ground.

To my knowledge, the term "mana pool" as previously used in published Gurps material dates to the 3e book Magic Items I. There, "mana pool" is a super beneficial Powerstone Quirk possible for circumstances such as rolling a natural 3 on the first roll to enchant a Powerstone.

Such a mana pool normally raised the local mana level by 1 level in a 1 hex radius. There were examples of some that raised it higher or in a larger area such as 3 hexes but these were supposed to be extremely rare even among items that were already extremely rare.

Magic Items I also introduced the concept of a "mana basin" and those were geographic features. However they provided a set amount of energy to cast spells each day rather than affecting the local mana level. This description was included in the 4e Fantasy book.

There were no mentions of "mana pools" in the Fantasy or Thaumatology indexes.

Items that raise the local mana level (among other possibilities) are "reality shards" in Infinite Worlds.

So, I go back and re-read your posts and I see that you were using mana pool to mean something different but it appeared to me that you were using it as a standard term of art rather than an original creation.

Also, to my previous experience a "geode" is a rock and usually not that big a one that has pretty colors in layers when you slice it in half. You seem to be using "geode" to describe some sort of geological or geographical feature as well.