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Old 02-13-2013, 10:39 PM   #11
Genesis
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Default Re: Somatic and Verbal Components

Quote:
Originally Posted by munin View Post
-10% might be reasonable if they can use almost anything wandlike as a wand (chopsticks, chair leg, etc.), and amounts mostly to "Enemies can deprive you of this necessary material component".

Not really. Every limitation you've listed is valid for a very reasonable and common concept, and legitimately limits the player in how they can use their ability (at least, if the GM remembers to give them challenging situations).
well, the real crock was people wanting to claim their wand and also their robes and also their hats on every single ability. These things aren't generally so personalized as to be worth gadget limitations - in any event, I condensed everything down into "active components," which include all gestures incantations and the like, "trappings," which includes wand and robes and whatever else, and "material ingredients," which are consumed. So my PCs will generally get -20% from Magic and Skill roll, with somewhere around -30% more in those three categories pretty easily. Anything more than that is where I start to get skeptical.

The thing is, if you've got to bring your stuff, you've got to bring your stuff - there's a swiftly diminishing barrier to each additional bit of kit. Yeah, it's one more thing you can be deprived of, but the second isn't as burdensome as the first, and the third isn't as burdensome as the second. Same goes with ingredients. Being able to move freely and speak freely are obviously two different things, but an enemy in a position to impede one is often in a potion to impede the other - the second element is not as much of a limitation as the first.
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Old 02-14-2013, 06:09 AM   #12
Bruno
 
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Default Re: Somatic and Verbal Components

I broke down a big table of Spell Components, along with laying out the actual implications of taking the limitation (to justify the prices I put on them, or if you want to look at it the other way around, the prices are appropriate to the consequences ;)
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Old 02-14-2013, 06:52 AM   #13
Genesis
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Default Re: Somatic and Verbal Components

I quite like that table, it's a good breakdown. When I was first writing up this setting I was using a lot more of those sorts of components. The limitation nerf was introduced both for my own sanity and to set hard limits on the point break folks could get for things being onerous - the setting is sort of mages-as-superheroes, and I don't want to encourage undue hinderance on the powers. That said, I also houserule FP costs to be a much bigger break than they are by RAW - I'm trying to encourage one flavor of things and discourage the other, although I've been finding the propensity for players to take "all of the above, -80%" as the end-point limitation choice.
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