GURPS Magic Flavor

[martinl]

Originally Posted by Kenneth Latrans

Would you allow someone to buy two separate one-college mageries to get, say, Healing and Light or Plant and Fire?

That was the intent, yes.

I can see up to three colleges being workable at those prices, as much as I'd grumble about being made to pay through the nose, and four happens to be about as many as my character concepts have ever called for.

The idea is mostly to discourage extreme and boring generalization that seems so common and point efficient in GURPS mages, while encouraging specialists who solve every problem with fire (or demons, or plants, or whatever).

This would tend to make specialists more magery focused and generalists more IQ focused.

This would also tend to make the crazier spells (high Magery requirements) the domain of specialists, while generalists are dabblers limited to less mighty magic. Also a feature. (Opening a college at M0 only costs 3 pts after all.)

Restricting the ability of mages to see most magic auras for 5 pts is also a bonus.

Originally Posted by ericthered

unless of course youwhat to make a gate mage or a meta magic mage. I suppose you can just pay the unusual background to not have the prereqs though.

Actually, while discouraging gate and meta spells was not a deliberate goal, I'll certainly take it as those things are disruptive.

In any case, it is just a thought. These days I sort of prefer Magic Powers to Spells anyway.

[Gnome]

Originally Posted by martinl

I have considered only allowing one-college Magery in the past, as an even blunter instrument.

I considered that. In my game I wanted mages to have some general utility and also a solid selection of skills. I was mostly just trying to avoid super-generalists. I was also worried that One-college mages wouldn't be that effective, though I was proven wrong there by a PC who used Light and Darkness Magery to great effect even though I disallowed the best spell in the college (Invisibility of course). Hide combined with a decent Stealth can do the job just as well in many situations and is maintained by the hour.
I bet a game with only single college mages would be really fun. You might end up with multiple wizard PCs as the party strives to cover all the angles...

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by martinl

Actually, while discouraging gate and meta spells was not a deliberate goal, I'll certainly take it as those things are disruptive.

In any case, it is just a thought. These days I sort of prefer Magic Powers to Spells anyway.

gate, certainly, but it requires a bit of work by the GM to set up anyways unless you allow time meddling (heaven help you then).

Metamagic is interesting if you don't have much magic to go with it: The ability to merely manipulate existing magic can be an fun challange. Its when you combine it with the generalist that it becomes nasty.

[simply Nathan]

Personally if someone came to me with a one-college meta mage or a one-college enchanter who makes his living on powerstones, staves, and the occasional Arrow of Accuracy or Puissant Pickaxe I would waive the out-of-college spell prerequisites. Likewise waiving the Earth spells as a prerequisite for Cleansing on a one-college healer (and by extension the Plant spells as prerequisites for those).

[Kromm]

I will point out that GURPS Thaumatology: Magical Styles gives extremely detailed guidelines for altering spell prerequisites and moving spells between colleges, along with examples. The goal is to enable the GM to restrict wizards to logically related spell lists without falling back on the rather blunt and arbitrary colleges of GURPS Magic. If you want a guild of Gate wizards or Meta-Spells magicians, that's easily arranged.

Obviously, if you're inclined to see GM pronouncements as "blunt and arbitrary," then you won't like Magical Styles any better . . . but most gaming groups are capable of accepting that fine-tuning content to the game world isn't an issue of arbitrariness, but rather one of consistency and world-building. Like everything else in GURPS, Magic is a tool kit that's intended to be pared down to fit the GM's vision of the campaign, not a list of things to which everyone who buys Magery is automatically entitled. It outright states that not all spells will exist in all settings, and that some may require steep Unusual Backgrounds even if they are allowed. You only get to claim limitations on Magery when you voluntarily limit yourself to a subset of the spells in the campaign.

[martinl]

Originally Posted by Kromm

I will point out that GURPS Thaumatology: Magical Styles gives extremely detailed guidelines...without falling back on the rather blunt and arbitrary colleges of GURPS Magic.

No argument. But sometimes a hammer applied immediately is a better plan than a scalpel applied over the course of a week.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by martinl

No argument. But sometimes a hammer applied immediately is a better plan than a scalpel applied over the course of a week.

Understood. My argument is mostly that you want to make that judgment relative to how long you'll have to live with it. That hammer is great if the shack you build with it only has to stand for a week; the scalpel is better if you're carrying out surgery that could buy someone another 40 years of life. In gaming terms, if your campaign is going to run for a few dozen to a few hundred sessions, it's worth the afternoon it takes to move a few spells into tiers. For a pickup game or a one-off, though, I agree that's a waste of time.

[doulos05]

OK, I said I would post my styles here for critique/input. Here's my first one, let me know what you think.

Red Mage: 11 points
Pre-requisites: Magery 1 (Magery 2 for practitioners wanting to become an Igniter)
Required Skills: Soldier, Staff, Thaumatology
Required Spells: Ignite Fire, Shape Fire, Create Fire, Extinguish Fire, Smoke, Fireball, Recover Energy
Perks: Frightening Side Effects (Any offensive Spell on the list), Improvised Magic (Red Magery), Staff Attunement, Power Casting (up to 2 levels), Missile Spell Mastery, Kindle, Spell Variation (Fireball, Explosive Fireball, Flame Jet, or Body of Flames)

The first level within the order is Acolyte. Acolytes are free to learn all spells within the Acolyte list. They must learn all spells in this list before they may become Keepers of the Flame. *Note, Recover Energy is a placeholder for a specialized version I'm working up in another thread here that recovers solely from nearby fires.
Acolyte: Ignite Fire, Shape Fire, Create Fire, Extinguish Fire, Smoke, Fireball, Recover Energy

Keepers of the Flame are the second level within the order. They may learn all spells on this list and must learn 3 of them to be considered an Igniter.
Keeper: Fire Cloud*, Explosive Fireball, Heat, Burning Touch, Deflect Energy, Flame Jet

Igniters of the Flame are the 3rd tier within the order. They may learn all spells on this list and must know at least 15 spells before they can be considered Masters of the Flame.
Igniter: Fireproof, Resist Fire, Flaming Weapon, Flaming Missiles, Flaming Armor

A Master of the Flame can embody fire itself, a dangerous opponent on a battlefield. He is able to learn the following spells.
Master: Breath Fire, Body of Flames

Thoughts?

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by doulos05

OK, I said I would post my styles here for critique/input. Here's my first one, let me know what you think.

Red Mage: 11 points
Pre-requisites: Magery 1 (Magery 2 for practitioners wanting to become an Igniter)
Required Skills: Soldier, Staff, Thaumatology
Required Spells: Ignite Fire, Shape Fire, Create Fire, Extinguish Fire, Smoke, Fireball, Recover Energy
Perks: Frightening Side Effects (Any offensive Spell on the list), Improvised Magic (Red Magery), Staff Attunement, Power Casting (up to 2 levels), Missile Spell Mastery, Kindle, Spell Variation (Fireball, Explosive Fireball, Flame Jet, or Body of Flames)

The first level within the order is Acolyte. Acolytes are free to learn all spells within the Acolyte list. They must learn all spells in this list before they may become Keepers of the Flame. *Note, Recover Energy is a placeholder for a specialized version I'm working up in another thread here that recovers solely from nearby fires.
Acolyte: Ignite Fire, Shape Fire, Create Fire, Extinguish Fire, Smoke, Fireball, Recover Energy

Keepers of the Flame are the second level within the order. They may learn all spells on this list and must learn 3 of them to be considered an Igniter.
Keeper: Fire Cloud*, Explosive Fireball, Heat, Burning Touch, Deflect Energy, Flame Jet

Igniters of the Flame are the 3rd tier within the order. They may learn all spells on this list and must know at least 15 spells before they can be considered Masters of the Flame.
Igniter: Fireproof, Resist Fire, Flaming Weapon, Flaming Missiles, Flaming Armor

A Master of the Flame can embody fire itself, a dangerous opponent on a battlefield. He is able to learn the following spells.
Master: Breath Fire, Body of Flames

Thoughts?

Scary. Effective, and would remain so at TL4 and well into 5. Black power would magnify their threat. Especially the Other Side's black powder.