[Magic][Advantages] Wild talent variant magical insight

Eifgur · 06-18-2010, 07:37 AM

Hi all, first post on this forum.

I'm planning to play a magician in a fantasy campaign. The background is that he comes from a family with lots of powerful magicians but his mother broke with the family and he has now grown up in a small community in the wood far from the urban areas.

He will start with only a small numbers of spells and not much of "book learned skills", but I want him to be a natural magician.

I have thought of a variant of "Wild talent" but needs help with the cost and if it will destroy the game balance?

Every time he cast a spell and rolls a critical success 3-4, he gets an insight in magic and gets to select a new spell, within the same school, preferably a spell that the spell he originally was casting was a prerequisite for and can try to cast it. If he succeeds, he gets to learn the spell.

What would be the cost for this advantage?

Wild talent has base cost 20 points. If you can learn the skill it is +25% and you get -20% for magic only. How dose "only on a critical success" affect the cost?

/Niklas

munin · 06-18-2010, 08:55 AM

You say "...every time he casts a spell...". Will "only on a critical success" replace Wild Talent's once-per-game-session drawback, or is it in addition to it?

If the former, critical successes usually occur multiple times per game session (especially with high skill), so I'd guestimate trading the drawbacks at +300%. But really you should just purchase multiple levels and live with the per-game-session limit.

If the latter, then this is a simple Accessibility calculation (p. P99). Critical successes occur between 1.9% and 9.3% of the time (depending on effective skill), so I'd be conservative and call it a -35% accessibility.

Eifgur · 06-18-2010, 10:11 AM

Thanks Munin

I will go with once per session, since we normally only play for 4h. :-)

With base cost of 20 and -20%, -35% and +20% would give a total of 13, if my calculations aren’t completely wrong.

06-18-2010, 07:37 AM	#1
Eifgur Join Date: Sep 2009	[Magic][Advantages] Wild talent variant magical insight Hi all, first post on this forum. I'm planning to play a magician in a fantasy campaign. The background is that he comes from a family with lots of powerful magicians but his mother broke with the family and he has now grown up in a small community in the wood far from the urban areas. He will start with only a small numbers of spells and not much of "book learned skills", but I want him to be a natural magician. I have thought of a variant of "Wild talent" but needs help with the cost and if it will destroy the game balance? Every time he cast a spell and rolls a critical success 3-4, he gets an insight in magic and gets to select a new spell, within the same school, preferably a spell that the spell he originally was casting was a prerequisite for and can try to cast it. If he succeeds, he gets to learn the spell. What would be the cost for this advantage? Wild talent has base cost 20 points. If you can learn the skill it is +25% and you get -20% for magic only. How dose "only on a critical success" affect the cost? /Niklas

06-18-2010, 08:55 AM	#2
munin Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Vermont, USA	Re: [Magic][Advantages] Wild talent variant magical insight You say "...every time he casts a spell...". Will "only on a critical success" replace Wild Talent's once-per-game-session drawback, or is it in addition to it? If the former, critical successes usually occur multiple times per game session (especially with high skill), so I'd guestimate trading the drawbacks at +300%. But really you should just purchase multiple levels and live with the per-game-session limit. If the latter, then this is a simple Accessibility calculation (p. P99). Critical successes occur between 1.9% and 9.3% of the time (depending on effective skill), so I'd be conservative and call it a -35% accessibility.

06-18-2010, 10:11 AM	#3
Eifgur Join Date: Sep 2009	Re: [Magic][Advantages] Wild talent variant magical insight Thanks Munin I will go with once per session, since we normally only play for 4h. :-) With base cost of 20 and -20%, -35% and +20% would give a total of 13, if my calculations aren’t completely wrong.