07-10-2018, 09:00 PM | #11 |
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
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Re: Decreased Mana Costs as an advantage
Oh, okay, I thought I might have been wrong.
I think it's still fair, and gives a really good reason to focus on a college that doesn't come up enough in default magic. |
07-10-2018, 09:12 PM | #12 |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: Decreased Mana Costs as an advantage
I'm reluctant to allow it but the -40% seems ok. The FP cost reduction is the primary reason I or anyone I know improves skill and becomes more the only reason after 16 for most spells.
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07-10-2018, 10:53 PM | #13 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
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Re: Decreased Mana Costs as an advantage
Quote:
More skill == more spells maintained while still maintaining and effective skill of 16. More skill == greater ability to deploy area spells in unusual situations (target 'the siege beast' location 'somewhere out there' situational 'on the other side of this wall'; done at -15, got 25 skill; its still worth rolling) More skill == greater effect (ST 60 DX 30 phantom that needs to take 20 points of damage in a single hit to be killed and no rule of 16 on the disbelief; yes please) Extra- more magery == greater potential effect (ball spells allow you to charge your magery per second for three seconds, beam spells your magery damage, etc). Energy/maintenance cost is for the most part 'cheap' compared to the above factors (power items play into that, but powerstones are a thing in a non-DF game and carrying /swapping out a large stack of 6 point powerstones is not unreasonable and will cover most spellcasting situations). I'm not sure I'm going to be walking away from this telling my players 'sure you can take 'all spells cost less' for 10/level; but at least it seems a pretty reasonable value given the normal application of additional skill, Last edited by starslayer; 07-10-2018 at 11:01 PM. |
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07-10-2018, 10:57 PM | #14 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: Decreased Mana Costs as an advantage
Quote:
A skill of 20-21 is usually sufficient to mitigate most of these penalties. The primary advantage of having Spell skill over 21 is the time and cost reductions.
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Eric B. Smith GURPS Data File Coordinator GURPSLand I shall pull the pin from this healing grenade and... Kaboom-baya. Last edited by ericbsmith; 07-10-2018 at 11:03 PM. |
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07-10-2018, 11:22 PM | #15 | |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: Decreased Mana Costs as an advantage
Quote:
That is 15 in a regular game, 20 in a high powered game. When pricing the limitation value I wont to cover as much of the circumstances as may come up. In my experience most mages will have a signature spell or maybe a combo they buy up and the rest they are happy with a 15 skill. Buffers may work on a few they like to keep up, but thats not that common. Thats worth 20 points (5 *4) per spell so this limited magery should be around 20 to 40 points. Your trading multiple spells at less energy vs. a better signature spell. To low and its too cheap and effective, too high and you look for other options. 30 pints seems good to me, 10 points way too low.
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My GURPS publications GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits; GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits; Pyramid articles. Buying them lets us know you want more! My GURPS fan contribution and blog: REFPLace GURPS Landing Page My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items) My GURPS Wiki entries |
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07-11-2018, 04:48 AM | #16 | ||
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Decreased Mana Costs as an advantage
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Quote:
Just the same, successfully casting resisted spells at 10 yards is a lot more useful in my GURPS tactical combat experience than yours seems to indicate.
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07-11-2018, 08:25 AM | #17 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Decreased Mana Costs as an advantage
Certainly from the GM's side of the screen, NPC spell casters very much want to start casting at 10+ yards because PCs tend to close the distance terrifyingly fast and then murder happens. But if it's a resisted spell, that imposes really high penalties, and tends to result in a wasted effort. Entomb can be completely free but if you're casting at an effective skill of 9 you're not going anywhere fast.
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07-11-2018, 10:42 AM | #18 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Re: Decreased Mana Costs as an advantage
I've been leaning towards making the "skill based" energy discounts for spells depend on CPs spent rather than actual skill level (so with 2 CP in a spell, you get a 1 FP discount, at 4 CP you get a 2 FP discount, etc.), and with that system the college "bang" skills provide explicit broad based cost discounts for colleges, and then I can extrapolate backwards from 1 college magery and swag it to ... something like this:
Reduced Mana Cost (10/30/+40 CP) Spells cost 1 mana point less than usual for 10 CP, 2 mana less for 30 CP, and 3 less for 70 CP (40 more for each additional level). This is not cumulative with the skill based discount - use the higher value. Half cost to apply this to a single college, two thirds to apply it to 2 or 3 colleges. One thing I like about this implementation is that it makes a small discount cheap, but steeper discounts hurt. It seems like that sort of trait. (High levels look to be dangerous to game balance, whatever that is.) |
07-11-2018, 12:43 PM | #19 |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: Decreased Mana Costs as an advantage
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07-11-2018, 07:06 PM | #20 | |
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
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Re: Decreased Mana Costs as an advantage
Quote:
Should it stay at 40/lvl indefinitely? I wonder where a good cutoff would be, or when each level stops being that much better than the last. |
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