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Old 11-26-2020, 09:20 AM   #1
Anders
 
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Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Default Path Magic without Paths

Thaumatology gives us Path Magic, which is a system of rituals that have a more folkloristic feel about them. No fireballs, but the ability to kill your enemy with a doll, a few pins and one of his toenails.

Has anyone tried to do "Path Magic" but without the Paths? Where you simply buy the rituals as Hard or Very Hard skills? Something more akin to the default spell system.
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Old 11-26-2020, 01:06 PM   #2
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Path Magic without Paths

That sounds inefficient and ineffective. The rituals are worthwhile because multiple rituals default to Paths, and they are not usually useful enough to learn as their own skill (especially as a VH skill). Anyway, a VH magical skill for Path Magic would be Path of the People, which does not require a core skill and generally possesses a dozen basic but useful rituals (I usually include any ritual that defaults to any other Path at -0 in Path of the People, usually at a default of Path of the People-3).
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Old 11-26-2020, 01:09 PM   #3
Anaraxes
 
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Default Re: Path Magic without Paths

Paths and Books are just organizational methods for spells. I would have liked to have called that system "Ritual Magic", except that Basic already preempted that term for what I'd call Spirit Magic (B218, the Ritual Magic skill, is specifically about invoking spirits thanks to its 3e Voodoo origin, not necessarily any magic involving rituals in the sense of lengthy processes involving tools and materials and so on).

So, Path/Book Magic where mages can pick any spell they like (or think up) any time they have a free CP is basically a setting using Book Magic, except that (1) all Book skills are equal to the base Ritual Magic skill, which is to say they don't really exist; and (2) Books are so common and easy to get that you can know any spell you like with trivial effort and cost. Or if you like, all spells are in one Big Book of Magic that everyone learns. If spells are harder to find, then that's the same as making the appropriate Book harder to find.

The practical distinction is having one skill (Ritual Magic), of which all other spells are techniques, rather than two skills (Ritual Magic and (generally multiple) "Path-name" or "Book-name", the second of which has all spells in that path/book as Techniques.)

As far as point balance goes, getting rid of the second skill is the same as getting 6 free levels in the skill to offset the standard -6 default from Ritual Magic -- so, 24 free points. (So you might even call Ritual Magic as a Wildcard skill, though it doesn't do much on its own other than serve as a base for individual spells-as-techniques.)

If magic has some coherent structure where mages have facility in related spells (the Fireball wizard is actually able to light a candle or heat water for tea, unlike, say D&D, where they could be completely unable to do any other fire magic than just great balls of fire), then you've got either Book Magic where the authors like to collect spells by those themes, or Path Magic where something like "Fire" is a Path. Narrow specialists are cheaper than generalist mages, because that 24 points to cancel penalties is per Book / Path -- but if there are no Paths, or there's just one Universal Path, then there's no extra cost for the additional breadth.
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Old 11-27-2020, 10:15 PM   #4
dataweaver
 
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Default Re: Path Magic without Paths

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anders View Post
Thaumatology gives us Path Magic, which is a system of rituals that have a more folkloristic feel about them. No fireballs, but the ability to kill your enemy with a doll, a few pins and one of his toenails.

Has anyone tried to do "Path Magic" but without the Paths? Where you simply buy the rituals as Hard or Very Hard skills? Something more akin to the default spell system.
As others have mentioned, the names are messed up: what Thaumatology calls “Ritual Magic” is all about Paths, and what it calls “Path Magic” is all about Rituals.

Yes, I do think there's room for a “Path Magic” variant that uses H/VH skills to represent individual Rituals. To convert a Ritual to something skill-based, use the suggestions in Magical Styles for setting prerequisites, but using the Path Magic default penalty as if it was a prerequisite count.
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Last edited by dataweaver; 11-29-2020 at 07:29 AM.
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