Sorcery: replacing fatigue cost with something else?

[weso12]

I'm working on a campaign setting where sorcery is an ability granted by a deity who's domain includes leisure and is generally opposed to strenuous activity, so sorcery costing fatigue doesn't make much sense, I'm just wondering if perhaps it would balanced to give those sorcerous empowerment Energy Reserve (magic) 10 for free and balance it with completely banning the use of fatigue for sorcery (essentially using the essence rules described for Magery in Gurps Thaumatology). Another solution I have floating around is perhaps replacing Cost Fatigue with Limited Use (10 times per day) and since sorcery uses alternate abilities make it so that those uses are SHARED among the spells the sorcerer knows. Are either of these solutions balanced?

[Bruno]

Energy Reserve 10 is 30 points.
"Costs ER Only" is an additional -5% kicker to Costs Fatigue.
If you go with that, that's balanced by the numbers.

[weso12]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Energy Reserve 10 is 30 points.
"Costs ER Only" is an additional -5% kicker to Costs Fatigue.
If you go with that, that's balanced by the numbers.

I'm think abouting but it seems a little over priced TBH basically adding a point tax to any one who plays sorcerer, espically since the Costs ER only -5% is gonna be ingored in total cost most of the time considering it's gonna be under alternate abilities.

Just because by the numbers it's balanced doesn't mean it's actually balanced removing the fatigue cost on socery spells should be balances "By the numbers" it's a horrible idea because the discount you get with sorcery is balanced by the fact that cost fatague -5% is no way in hell balanced.

[Nereidalbel]

Actually, all your powers costing FP is a perfectly valid excuse to avoid physical activity. "Sorry, can't go for a jog right now; I've poofed that plate to the kitchen and back 8 times today!"

[VariousRen]

Energy Reserve (Magic) doesn't come with all the problems that low fatigue does as you scrape the bottom. Your move and dodge aren't impacted, you don't have to rest quietly to regain your ER, and you have FP available for things that require it. You are also less vulnerable to FP draining attacks since you aren't using your own FP, and your ER can charge even if FP normally cannot (starvation or dehydration, missed sleep, ect). All told, I think the benefits of having an ER is pretty huge.

I would charge full price for ER, and limit the casters Sorcerous Empowerment with something like nuisance effect (can only use ER, -5%). Also remember that players will probably sell off their FP (and buy ER with the points), so it's not as expensive as it might at first seem to buy up 10 ER or more.

[simply Nathan]

Replace Costs FP with Unreliable or Fickle because your god is lazy, too.

[weso12]

Originally Posted by VariousRen

Energy Reserve (Magic) doesn't come with all the problems that low fatigue does as you scrape the bottom. Your move and dodge aren't impacted, you don't have to rest quietly to regain your ER, and you have FP available for things that require it. You are also less vulnerable to FP draining attacks since you aren't using your own FP, and your ER can charge even if FP normally cannot (starvation or dehydration, missed sleep, ect). All told, I think the benefits of having an ER is pretty huge.

I would charge full price for ER, and limit the casters Sorcerous Empowerment with something like nuisance effect (can only use ER, -5%). Also remember that players will probably sell off their FP (and buy ER with the points), so it's not as expensive as it might at first seem to buy up 10 ER or more.

I've been convinced that it's fair to just charge normally for energy reverse and considering the additional -5% for Cost Energy reserve is cannon i guess it's roughly as fair as it can go.

Originally Posted by simply Nathan

Replace Costs FP with Unreliable or Fickle because your god is lazy, too.

Interesting idea for another setting but not exacty fitting of my world, the society that worships her is dependent on magic for most for their society to function, so making the magic unreliable is bad idea.

[zoncxs]

How about changing it to energy gathering? Keep everything the same, but have spells require skill rolls to gather the energy from around you to cast. Lets make the new cost equal to the total amount of points for the spell (MAX) to 1/10 the cost round up (Minimum)

so an Air Jet spell would need 6 energy gathered to cast per level to cast. Make the rolls be IQ or Will + talent, or use meditation as well.

You would not be able to speed this up since its against the gods wishes, the best casters are super lazy, they have really high meditation skill :D

[khorboth]

Thaumatology has a number of alternate power sources recommended. One of them is exactly what you outlined initially. That book doesn't recommend charging extra for it if that's just how magic works. If there are multiple magic systems, then perhaps a cost is in order to balance the systems.

Yes, there are advantages. Having separate pools for physical and magical effort is a bonus. I'm not sure it's worth more than about +5, though. Mostly, what you're doing is adding a new attribute to spellcasters.

[mhd]

For the church of Jimmy Buffet, I'd go with some kind of cooldown period. Uses per day and Energy Reserves still can lead to some pretty strenous spell spamming, whereas just taking a time out from casting for a while seems more in line with such a gawd.

Or go with a reserve/threshold that has several caps on how easy it is to replenish it (e.g. ER 5 with regular fatigue mechanics, plus another ER 5 that requires some serious chilling/meditation/carousing).