Need feedback on my heavily modified magic system

Qhaysh · 01-31-2011, 10:36 PM

Ok, so... it's a lot of stuff and I haven't really written it down in a concise text yet, so I'll just paste stuff from my working documents.

I used a lot of stuff from Warhammer, as I'm very fond of the flavour of magic in that setting.

Mana:

+ Regular mana is non-aspected
+ Qhaysh is Raw Magic
+ Dhar is Raw Magic (with some nasty side-effects)
+ Mages' mana pools store regular mana, but mages may buy ER (aspected mana, -20%)

General:

+ All mages suffer double the encumbrance penalty on spellcasting rolls. (as per Thaumatology p 28)

+ All mages use the Alternate Magic Rituals (as per Magic p 9). Human mages must always use at least softly spoken incantations or one-hand gestures.

+ Sorcerers have very strong and intuitive grasp of spellcasting. As such, they may buy the Unusual Background (Sorcerer) [10]. This allows the character to acquire the Wild Talent advantage, with the following modifiers: Emergencies Only -30%; Retention, +25%; Spells only, -20%.
A few of the more powerful sorcerers can whip out spells in any circumstance, not only in emergencies. This increases the UB cost to 15 pts, and removes the need for the Emergencies Only limitation on Wild Talent.
Spells learned this way are treated as skills, even for elves. In the case of humans, they may skip the usual prerequisite chain.

+ Mages cast spells using mana stored within themselves. The maximum amount of mana they can store is equal to (HT + Will)/2. The maximum size of a mage's mana pool is (HT + Will + (Magery x 5)), which must be bought up from the base level at the usual cost for ER (3/level).
Non-mages also have a mana pool, calculated in the usual way, which may be used (amongst other things) to power magic items. Reducing this pool below the calculated base gives a penalty when resisting magical effects. The penalty is equal to the number of mana points forfeited (e.g.: someone who reduces his mana pool from 12 to 10 has -2 when resisting any magical effect).

+ Mages may cast spells with mana drawn from the environment, instead of their internal reservoir. This is a special kind of Ceremonial Magic. Casting times are multiplied by 10, and the mage suffers a penalty to his spellcasting roll equal to the spell's cost. Evidently, there is no bonus for skill spending mana above the spell's cost.
Maintaining spells cast this way still costs the regular amount of mana.
[ALTERNATIVE] Use the extra-time rules, but instead of gaining a bonus to skill, reduce the spell's mana cost by an amount equal to the bonus (TWICE THE BONUS?). The mana cost reduction from high skill still applies. [ALTERNATIVE]

+ [UNFINISHED] Mages may, in emergencies, channel mana from the environment in order to refill their own internal reservoirs. This is done through a VH spell (SKILL?) that basically turns FP into mana, probably on a one-to-one basis. [UNFINISHED]

+ Mages may distend their own mana pool, in order to cast larger and/or more powerful spells that require more mana. This uses the extra-effort rules; the percentage increases your maximum mana pool for one minute. You may spend extra FP to give a bonus to the will roll. Each extra FP spent gives you +1 on the Will roll. You can keep it distended for longer periods, but doing so requires one further Will roll for each extra minute.
This is mostly useful when channeling ambient mana.

Races and Arcane Spellcasting:
- Elves: the elven mind, having developed along with magic for millenia, is very well-adapted to magical thinking. Therefore, elven mages use IQ + Magery as basic attribute for magical skills.
Elves also have a more intuitive grasp of magic, thus, they use the ritual magic rules. Hard Spells are treated as Average Techniques; Very Hard spells are treated as Hard Techniques.

- High Elven Magic: High Elven Mages can also fiddle with spells easily, and may use the spell enhancement rules "on the fly". This requires a UB of yet-undefined cost (think of it as Trained By a Master for spells).
They may also buy High Elven Magic Spells, which are bought as powers.

- Perks:
+ Elven Combat Casting: elves may buy this perk in order to apply the magery enhancement "Casts without Encumbrance Problems". The first level of the perk allows the +30% version (penalty is equal to encumbrance), the second level allows the +50% version (penalty equal to half the encumbrance), the third and last level allows the +80% version (no encumbrance penalty at all). Only mages trained in the Elven War Wizard Style may buy this perk.

- Humans use ((10+IQ) / 2) + Magery as their basic attribute for spell skills, as the human mind fails to grasp magical principles intuitively. Furthermore, they must learn spells in the given order, obeying prerequisites as given in the book. Finally, College Skill acts as a cap to spells in that school.
Humans, however, have minds that are much more plastic. As such, they can use Modular Abilities with super-memorization. They may memorize any spell they wish, regardless of other spell prerequisites (non-spell prerequisites, however, must still be met). Memorized spells act instead as average techniques of a College Skill, with a default of - (spell's prerequiste count).
Memorized spells work as rotes more than complete knowledge, so humans use IQ + Magery for spells stored with Super Memorization.
Given the clear superiority of the memorization method, most mages rely on memorization rather than actual learning. Dedicated mages may study a few spells from their college, but usually no more. Only the most brilliant minds master many spells, and these are usually the ones to go into history as spell inventors.

- Archmagi: Human archmagi are masters of one (sometimes more) winds of magic. As such, they may use the spell enhancement rules "on the fly", albeit only for spells of a lore they have mastered as archmagi. (think of it as Trained By a Master for spells).
They may also buy High Magic Spells, which are bought as powers.

Qhaysh · 01-31-2011, 10:38 PM

Any and all feedback is welcome. Just please bear in mind that this is my first attempt at a heavily-customized magic system, and it's still a work in progress. Also, English is not my first language, so there may be quite a few mistakes lying around.

~~Peter Knutsen~~ · 02-01-2011, 05:51 AM

I can't go into details of the GURPS Magic system, but two things:

1. Are you sure the UB cost, of 10 and 15 CPs respectively, for being a Sorcerer, isn't too high? Is it really needed to balance things?

2. Have you considered to replace the +25% Retention Enhancement on Wild Talent, with +??% or -??% Retention Mandatory? In that case, every use of Wild Talent costs 1 CP, which radically changes the dynamic of the advantage. (I don't know whether Retention Mandatory is an Enhancement or a Limitation, but itmay have been discussed on here before)

01-31-2011, 10:36 PM	#1
Qhaysh Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: alocal	Need feedback on my heavily modified magic system Ok, so... it's a lot of stuff and I haven't really written it down in a concise text yet, so I'll just paste stuff from my working documents. I used a lot of stuff from Warhammer, as I'm very fond of the flavour of magic in that setting. Mana: + Regular mana is non-aspected + Qhaysh is Raw Magic + Dhar is Raw Magic (with some nasty side-effects) + Mages' mana pools store regular mana, but mages may buy ER (aspected mana, -20%) General: + All mages suffer double the encumbrance penalty on spellcasting rolls. (as per Thaumatology p 28) + All mages use the Alternate Magic Rituals (as per Magic p 9). Human mages must always use at least softly spoken incantations or one-hand gestures. + Sorcerers have very strong and intuitive grasp of spellcasting. As such, they may buy the Unusual Background (Sorcerer) [10]. This allows the character to acquire the Wild Talent advantage, with the following modifiers: Emergencies Only -30%; Retention, +25%; Spells only, -20%. A few of the more powerful sorcerers can whip out spells in any circumstance, not only in emergencies. This increases the UB cost to 15 pts, and removes the need for the Emergencies Only limitation on Wild Talent. Spells learned this way are treated as skills, even for elves. In the case of humans, they may skip the usual prerequisite chain. + Mages cast spells using mana stored within themselves. The maximum amount of mana they can store is equal to (HT + Will)/2. The maximum size of a mage's mana pool is (HT + Will + (Magery x 5)), which must be bought up from the base level at the usual cost for ER (3/level). Non-mages also have a mana pool, calculated in the usual way, which may be used (amongst other things) to power magic items. Reducing this pool below the calculated base gives a penalty when resisting magical effects. The penalty is equal to the number of mana points forfeited (e.g.: someone who reduces his mana pool from 12 to 10 has -2 when resisting any magical effect). + Mages may cast spells with mana drawn from the environment, instead of their internal reservoir. This is a special kind of Ceremonial Magic. Casting times are multiplied by 10, and the mage suffers a penalty to his spellcasting roll equal to the spell's cost. Evidently, there is no bonus for skill spending mana above the spell's cost. Maintaining spells cast this way still costs the regular amount of mana. [ALTERNATIVE] Use the extra-time rules, but instead of gaining a bonus to skill, reduce the spell's mana cost by an amount equal to the bonus (TWICE THE BONUS?). The mana cost reduction from high skill still applies. [ALTERNATIVE] + [UNFINISHED] Mages may, in emergencies, channel mana from the environment in order to refill their own internal reservoirs. This is done through a VH spell (SKILL?) that basically turns FP into mana, probably on a one-to-one basis. [UNFINISHED] + Mages may distend their own mana pool, in order to cast larger and/or more powerful spells that require more mana. This uses the extra-effort rules; the percentage increases your maximum mana pool for one minute. You may spend extra FP to give a bonus to the will roll. Each extra FP spent gives you +1 on the Will roll. You can keep it distended for longer periods, but doing so requires one further Will roll for each extra minute. This is mostly useful when channeling ambient mana. Races and Arcane Spellcasting: - Elves: the elven mind, having developed along with magic for millenia, is very well-adapted to magical thinking. Therefore, elven mages use IQ + Magery as basic attribute for magical skills. Elves also have a more intuitive grasp of magic, thus, they use the ritual magic rules. Hard Spells are treated as Average Techniques; Very Hard spells are treated as Hard Techniques. - High Elven Magic: High Elven Mages can also fiddle with spells easily, and may use the spell enhancement rules "on the fly". This requires a UB of yet-undefined cost (think of it as Trained By a Master for spells). They may also buy High Elven Magic Spells, which are bought as powers. - Perks: + Elven Combat Casting: elves may buy this perk in order to apply the magery enhancement "Casts without Encumbrance Problems". The first level of the perk allows the +30% version (penalty is equal to encumbrance), the second level allows the +50% version (penalty equal to half the encumbrance), the third and last level allows the +80% version (no encumbrance penalty at all). Only mages trained in the Elven War Wizard Style may buy this perk. - Humans use ((10+IQ) / 2) + Magery as their basic attribute for spell skills, as the human mind fails to grasp magical principles intuitively. Furthermore, they must learn spells in the given order, obeying prerequisites as given in the book. Finally, College Skill acts as a cap to spells in that school. Humans, however, have minds that are much more plastic. As such, they can use Modular Abilities with super-memorization. They may memorize any spell they wish, regardless of other spell prerequisites (non-spell prerequisites, however, must still be met). Memorized spells act instead as average techniques of a College Skill, with a default of - (spell's prerequiste count). Memorized spells work as rotes more than complete knowledge, so humans use IQ + Magery for spells stored with Super Memorization. Given the clear superiority of the memorization method, most mages rely on memorization rather than actual learning. Dedicated mages may study a few spells from their college, but usually no more. Only the most brilliant minds master many spells, and these are usually the ones to go into history as spell inventors. - Archmagi: Human archmagi are masters of one (sometimes more) winds of magic. As such, they may use the spell enhancement rules "on the fly", albeit only for spells of a lore they have mastered as archmagi. (think of it as Trained By a Master for spells). They may also buy High Magic Spells, which are bought as powers.

01-31-2011, 10:38 PM	#2
Qhaysh Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: alocal	Re: Need feedback on my heavily modified magic system Any and all feedback is welcome. Just please bear in mind that this is my first attempt at a heavily-customized magic system, and it's still a work in progress. Also, English is not my first language, so there may be quite a few mistakes lying around.

02-01-2011, 05:51 AM	#3
~~Peter Knutsen~~ Banned Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Europe	Re: Need feedback on my heavily modified magic system I can't go into details of the GURPS Magic system, but two things: 1. Are you sure the UB cost, of 10 and 15 CPs respectively, for being a Sorcerer, isn't too high? Is it really needed to balance things? 2. Have you considered to replace the +25% Retention Enhancement on Wild Talent, with +??% or -??% Retention Mandatory? In that case, every use of Wild Talent costs 1 CP, which radically changes the dynamic of the advantage. (I don't know whether Retention Mandatory is an Enhancement or a Limitation, but itmay have been discussed on here before)