[Thaumatology]Nymdok's Sorcery

[Nymdok]

Id love some (constructive/analytical) criticism on the following which is meant to be similar, but not identical, to the Sorcery of the Belgaraid/Mallorean in Edding's books.

I would especially like input on the Flexible Enhancement.

Sorcery is Ritual Magic with the Ritual Magic(Core) skill level being the upper limit for one IQ/H skill for EACH college. The college skills do not default to the core.

Sorcery is:
Magery
Based on (IQ+Will)/2 (+20%)
No External Sources (-15%)
Limit 3 Colleges, No Meta (-20%)
Flexible (Can add up to Sorcery+1 modifiers to any spell 'on the fly' as long as result is net 0% at no penalty) (+40%)


Thanks in advance,
Nymdok

p.s. This follows from this post and Ill probably post my end result wizardy soon.

[thulben]

I have but two questions:

1. How are you modeling the Word of "The Will and the Word"?
2. Why limit to only 3 colleges?

[Nymdok]

Originally Posted by thulben

I have but two questions:

1. How are you modeling the Word of "The Will and the Word"?
2. Why limit to only 3 colleges?

1. I was worried about syntatic magic being a pain and not really what Eddings meant, so we'll leave 'The Word' as a special effect (0 points).
2. Looking to keep the costs down for the players. Its a restriction I may lift later by letting them buy it off.

Directly what I was looking to model from Eddings was the flexibility of magic that doesnt always come through in codified/skill spells. I figure by abandoning grimoires, and moving to spells as techniques instead of skills it will allow sorcerers more flexibility vs Mages and Wizards. Allowing them to use the Limitations/Enhancements from BS/Powers should also enhance that flexibility.

Nymdok

[thulben]

Originally Posted by Nymdok

1. I was worried about syntatic magic being a pain and not really what Eddings meant, so we'll leave 'The Word' as a special effect (0 points).

It's been a long time since I read those books, but I don't specific words doing specific things (as in syntactic magic). Specifically, I vaguely remember a scene in which Belgarath and Belgarion were investigating someone who had "stumbled" across magic (as Aldur had required his acolytes to do if they learned of them). Belgarion busts down a door with something like "In!" and Belgarath says something to the effect of "you need better style". So, this implies that the word itself is unimportant, but its presence is. What is important is that you focus what you're doing; the Word just serves as a trigger for that focus. That was rather long-winded, but suffice it to say that the Word is important to the flavor of this type of magic.

Originally Posted by Nymdok

2. Looking to keep the costs down for the players. Its a restriction I may lift later by letting them buy it off.

Fair enough. I just thought it odd that there's be that limitation on everyone since quite a few of the characters were proficient in many things (or at least spells from multiple colleges).

[Nymdok]

Originally Posted by thulben

... So, this implies that the word itself is unimportant, but its presence is. What is important is that you focus what you're doing; the Word just serves as a trigger for that focus. That was rather long-winded, but suffice it to say that the Word is important to the flavor of this type of magic...

Agreed, but I dont honestly know a good way to do that.

The Song limiter (Basic Set) is -40% off and not really what Im looking for as it implies that to maintain a spell, the Sorcerer would have to keep singing.

For single shouted word (the kind you could speak in the last second of casting) I think that Nuissance effect BS p. 113. I think "Must shout a word loudly" (-3 to stealth skill or +3 to Per to detect) is worth about 10%.

Sound about right or is -5% a little closer to it?

Nymdok

[thulben]

Originally Posted by Nymdok

For single shouted word (the kind you could speak in the last second of casting) I think that Nuissance effect BS p. 113. I think "Must shout a word loudly" (-3 to stealth skill or +3 to Per to detect) is worth about 10%.

Sound about right or is -5% a little closer to it?

Nymdok

I think it's a little more than a nuisance . Consider that a mage with this advantage can be rendered ineffective by being gagged or otherwise silenced. This is "I can't use magic at all!" as opposed to "I'm deep behind enemy lines and if I use magic, they'll know where I am."

[Nymdok]

Originally Posted by thulben

I think it's a little more than a nuisance . Consider that a mage with this advantage can be rendered ineffective by being gagged or otherwise silenced. This is "I can't use magic at all!" as opposed to "I'm deep behind enemy lines and if I use magic, they'll know where I am."

Yeah but a mage needs to be able to talk and move his hands to cast anyway(Depending on skill level). Limiting this to one or the other seems trivial.