[Thaumatology/Powers]Help Needed On An Energy Reserves Based Ability

[TheGnome]

I been working on converting my fantasy world in to 4th edition rules and I could use some input.

There is in my world a kind of spell caster called Fire Magi (not to confused with pyromancers who use fire magic). Fire Magi can store mana into them selves for later use. They can store any amount of mana but the levels will start to effect their state of mind and it may make it difficult to tap into the energy safely. Mental problems that may form can be anything form overconfidence to megalomania. The danger of tapping the energy is that at high levels the mage can lose track of which energy is stored mana and what energy is his (Fatigue and Health). It is not unheard of a Fire Magi casting a powerful spell and accidentally turning his bodily mass into energy for the spell. Safe to say the mage dies but the spell is spectacular. On even rarer occasion they have been know just to lose control of the energy and turn into a ball of fire with not even ash left.

Now here is the problem. I know this would be an Energy Reserve limited to spells only but there is no limit to the amount of energy that can be put in just a growing level of penalties that would lead to the mage's doom. Here's what I want I need to figure out how to build it.

1. You can store energy up to the level of your Fire before any penalty is taken. (Fire is the name of the ER stat)

2. If your at least 1 point over your Fire level you need to make a Will check at a penalty equal to the amount over. This check must be made at the time you went over and each time you add to it. If the check is successful then there is no penalty other than you may be easily detected by mana detecting senses and spells. Note that at twice you Fatigue score you may show physical signs like glowing eyes. If failed then a mental disadvantage will manifest. The mental disadvantage should be hubris based and equal to the number of points one is over on his Fire level. The Disadvantage will vanish once the excise Fire is burnt off. Critical Failure will give a permanent Mental Disadvantage or may take current Fire score in dice of burning damage.

3. Each time the mage attempts to use his Fire and if his Fire is over its level then a Body Sense check is made at a penalty equal to the amount over his Fire level. If successful then the energy is taped with no difficulty. If failed then the mage uses his Fatigue and HP instead of his Fire. Critical Failure the caster uses his health only. If ether failure kills the mage then he is Unweaved the spell works but has all of the mage's Fire, Fatigue, and HP.

So any ideas folks?

[nick012000]

Affliction (Linked, Resistable w/ Will, Self Only, Highest-cost Hubris-based Disadvantage, Variable, Uncontrollable, Permanent (Until extra EP are expended)) + Affliction (Linked, Self Only, Advantage: Energy Reserve w/ Unreliable (Body Sense skill), Permanent (Until extra EP are expended), Variable) + Energy Reserve.

There we go. I think that covers everything. I'm not going to calculate how much that'd cost, since I don't have access to my books right now.

And yes, that means that it's dramatically more expensive than it would be without the possibility for a hubris-based disad when you use it.

[simulatoralive]

If it were me building this thing, I'd try modifying the Threshold-Limited Magery rules from GURPS Thaumatology.

Instead of adding to tally when you cast a spell, treat it more like an unlimited energy reserve with nasty consequences to over-filling. You would of course want to build a custom calamity table to go with it.

Hrm. This is giving me interesting ideas...

Out of curiosity, where does the energy come from in the first place?

[TheGnome]

Originally Posted by simulatoralive

Out of curiosity, where does the energy come from in the first place?

Fire Magi turn themselves into living Powerstones. They use meditation to regain energy. They can also use Recover Energy spell to refill it.

[Refplace]

I also would use the Threshold magic rules for this. Be less work to tweak and more liekly to get the feel you describe here.

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by TheGnome

3. Each time the mage attempts to use his Fire and if his Fire is over its level then a Body Sense check is made at a penalty equal to the amount over his Fire level.

A really interesting idea, but this has nothing at all to do with what the Body Sense Skill does.

[Anaraxes]

Pay for the ER as a "stack" of ERs, with successive layers involving more disadvantages and thus being a bit cheaper. Say you buy up to 20 ER normally. The next 10 come with Supernatural Features (the glowing eyes). The next 10 come with Overconfident. Then Impulsive, etc., up to Megalomania. Limit the disadvantages as "Only while ER charged", and ignore them for disad limit purposes.

[TheGnome]

Originally Posted by The Benj

A really interesting idea, but this has nothing at all to do with what the Body Sense Skill does.

Your right that was a miss type I meant Will.

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Pay for the ER as a "stack" of ERs, with successive layers involving more disadvantages and thus being a bit cheaper. Say you buy up to 20 ER normally. The next 10 come with Supernatural Features (the glowing eyes). The next 10 come with Overconfident. Then Impulsive, etc., up to Megalomania. Limit the disadvantages as "Only while ER charged", and ignore them for disad limit purposes.

Or better, use Temporary Disadvantage for this.

As for the OP request, being able to store an infinite amount of energy costs infinite points, there is no easy way around this. Decide the the disadvantages that each level is going to impose, and create the following meta-trait:

ER 1 (Special recharge)+
ER 1 (Special recharge,Temporary Disadvantage: Supernatural Features)+
ER 1 (Special recharge,Temporary Disadvantage: Supernatural Features, temporary disadvantage: Overconfidence)+...

and so on

You, you're going to hit the -80% on limitations pretty soon, so it's obviously not going to be worthwhile to keep limiting oneself thus, but I would round up only at the end, so there's a little incentive in going this way.

[TheGnome]

Ok here is what I came up with after taking all your guys input. Bare in mind that there is many other details about my world's metaphysics that is not covered here.

Fire Magus

15pts + 5pts/lvl

Through spell and training you have become a living powerstone. You gain a new stat called Fire starting at level 1. Each new level cost 5 points. Fire represents the amount of mana you can store in your body safely but you may store more at a cost.

Using Fire
You can use your Fire emplace or with other sources of energy for casting spells (channeled, fatigue, HP.) To tap into your Fire you must make a Will check. If your current Fire is greater than your current Fire level then you take a penalty to your check at -1 per point over. If you fail your check then you pull from your fatigue and then your HP respectively. If you critical fail your check then you pulled from only your HP. Failing or critical failing is known as being Burned. If the caster dies from being Burned then he can only be brought back to life by a god!

Gaining Fire Points
The Fire Magus gain points of fire by three main ways.
1. Meditation in a place that mana can be found. This requires a full hour and a successful Meditation check to enter a trance and 10 minutes to gather the energy. The amount is 4 points in high, 2 point in normal, 1 point in low, and 0 in none. At high and normal mana areas the magi can choose to take less than listed.
2. Feeding the Fire spell. (see below)
3. Drawing in the leftover energy from a cast spell instead of grounding it. Instead of grounding the magi makes a Thaumatology check at -1 per point (the magi may chose to prolong this action and only do a number of points each turn). If successful the energy is safely added to the Fire pool. If failed then the energy dose 1d burn damage per 5 points of total point left. Critical failure results in permanent loss in HT at the rate of 1 point per 5 points of energy left.
The magus can choose to gain more energy than his Fire level but doing so is risky.

Playing With Fire
If a magi gains more Fire than his Fire level he must make a Will check. The penalty to this check is equal to his current total of Fire over his level he has and the amount he wishes to add. If successful nothing adverse happens but he may manifest tells of the power he holds (unless a critical success is rolled). The ‘tell’ may be anything from glowing eyes to a halo of crackling energy (use unnatural appearance). If the check is a fail a hubris style mental disadvantage is temporally gained as the caster become drunk with power. These disadvantages will fade in 2d days after the magi drops back down to normal levels.

Killing the Fire
The magus may choose to ground out the excess Fire in him. A Thaumatology check is made with a penalty equal to the amount of energy to be grounded. Success grounds the energy safely. A critical success allows the magus to lose as much energy as he wishes. If the magus fails then no energy is grounded. If the roll is a critical failure then the magus is takes 1d per 5 points of energy burning damage.

Feeding the Fire

Special

This spell works identically to Recover Energy but it recovers you Fire pool and not your fatigue.

Cost: None
Prerequisites: Recover Energy