Magic Aptitude tweaks

[jmurrell]

I am currently working on a fantasy setting. I am using spell-based* magic somewhat reorganized. The colleges are grouped into nine elements that are in turn organized into three spheres.

Magic Aptitude is usually limited to one sphere, with a rare few having universal Magic Aptitude.

So, a couple of questions:

Accessibility to one third the colleges would be a 10% limitation. What would be a countervailing enhancement? Solitary ceremonial casting perhaps, any others?

How to price access to all three spheres? I want it to be all or one, two out of three not being an option.

One option is to have to buy Magery 0 (only, higher levels only have to be purchased once) separately for all three spheres. I see two problems with this. I don’t like limiting Magery 0 given what little it does. And I want universal mages to be rare, 10 points may be too cheap for PC’s.

Another option is to charge an UB, maybe 15 – 25? Thoughts?

Thanks in advance, J.



*Yes there are other options but I’m not great at on the fly improv, and I’m tired of the ‘discussions’ with some players. I’ll probably adapt energy accumulating though.

[Keampe]

My suggestion for this would be that whatever is standard in your world should have the standard price and whatever is unusual should be adjusted.

So, one "Sphere" aptitude would be standard, if I understand correctly. Universal would require an enhancement. Depending on how useful it is you could quite easily double the price.

One other option would be to require a different magical aptitude for each Sphere, with the caveat that if they want more than 1, they're buying all three. This makes universal mages much more expensive and allows them to have different aptitudes while being able to work them all. I'd cap the highest at twice the lowest to prevent the putting of a small amount of points in one just to get strong in two.

- Shane

[Say, it isn't that bad!]

Since you want "universal mages" to be rare, from the sounds of it, that sounds like Unusual Background.

[lvalero]

What would be a countervailing enhancement?

You might as well say that this -10% discount is a "bonus pool" to buy magical perks. Or to buy more Energy Reserve.

[jmurrell]

Originally Posted by Keampe

One other option would be to require a different magical aptitude for each Sphere, with the caveat that if they want more than 1, they're buying all three.

I considered this but think 30 points per level is too expensive.

Originally Posted by Say, it isn't that bad!

Since you want "universal mages" to be rare, from the sounds of it, that sounds like Unusual Background.

Yep. The question is how much. My off the cuff estimate is 15 points.

Originally Posted by lvalero

What would be a countervailing enhancement?

You might as well say that this -10% discount is a "bonus pool" to buy magical perks. Or to buy more Energy Reserve.

That's an interesting idea. So each level of MA gives you one magical perk. Might be a bit fiddly though.

J