[RPM] Misc Questions
 

I have a number of random ideas about RPM I want to ask about.

• Do you think it would break anything if the ban on spells increasing spellcasting ability was lifted, and instead any such spell simply costed 10x as much?
• Do you think it would benefit or hurt balance if any spell with a duration took up one of a players "Conditional Spell" Slots?
• Do you think it would be balanced if players were allowed to buy additional Conditional Spell Slots for 1 or 2 CP apeice? Should they cost more, or would it be unbalancing to allow it at all?
• Do you think it would negatively affect balance if players were allowed to make permanent changes, such as lead to gold or flesh to stone, with some spell effects? Would an additional energy cost based on the increase in value be sufficient to balance it? If not, is there anything that could balance such a thing?
• Would it be sensible to allow players to make Spell Focuses as magical tools that give them bonuses to casting specific things using the "2 CP per +1 to skill" found under racial skill bonuses? Should this be allowed to circumvent the path skill cap?
• Suppose I wanted all of my mages to have an "Axis" that all their magic was oreinted around. This might be something simple, like "Fire", or something more complex, like "Duty". When casting magic that directly affected or manipulated their focus, they had no penalty, but when casting magic that affected unrelated things, they worked at -5, and when working on things directly opposed, they worked under a -10. How wouls you advise that I price this? The guidelines under limited are rather vague, and while the categories listed for create and control look more accurate, they don't cover everything and I'm not quite sure how to convert them to Limitations. Each "Axis" Would need to be very throughly defined, obviously- You can't just say fire, you'd need to specify "The creation and manipulation of fire". That'd mean you'd have no penalty to start and manipulate fire, a -5 penalty to do anything else, and a -10 penalty to put out fire or manipulate anything that's likely to put out fires.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Yes. It would. If you *must* do it, add a flat+30 energy bonus and all associated effects are automatically considered Greater effects.

Explain further please.

Depends on the setting, but 1 slot for for 1 point is fair. Also, see here.

RPM doesn't do permanent stuff, as you know, if you must have it a Duration of "Permanent till dispelled" is worth about 18 energy. See Variant Durations in Thuamatology (p. 242) and Conditional Termination (Thuamatology: Ritual Path Magic, p. 18)

That's a interesting thought. It really is. I'm working on "Path focusers" right now that do something similar to this. Right off, I don't see any issues.

That's probably a quirk, yes, it's hefty penalties, but you can avoid them for your choosen style. Maybe consider using the rules from Wizardly Weaknesses (Thuamatology, p. 22)

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Having all ongoing effects take up a spell slot keeps mages from going and buffing their entire party up the wazoo. That's not necessarily a problem, but I've seen people complaining about it before, and from my analysis of RPM it's certainly possible if players choose to do so.

As for duration, well, it doesn't have permanent effects as written, but I feel that for some settings it would be appropriate to allow such in certain situations.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

This feels very optional rule-y to me. So that's how I'd present it.

Ditto

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Yes.

Sorry for the short answer, but it's possible to "bootstrap" your way into some absolutely ridiculous situations if you allow this. Just by alternating relatively low-energy Lesser Strengthen Magic and Greater Strengthen Magic spells, even a non-adept would take less than a day to become infinitely powerful. Adapting GD's suggestion that all such spells are expensive and automatically Greater effects will prevent the most obvious and broken abuses, but still leaves room for many subtle ones.

Allow this at your own peril. :)

Ouch. Thing is, any spell that isn't instant has a duration, so that's going to hurt casters significantly. Maybe if you counterbalance this by significantly bumping up conditional spell slots -- to make it fair, I'd give casters slots = (Thaumatology * 2) + (Magery * 4) . . . though that raises the issue of "now they can have soooo many conditionals hanging."

Naw, that's fine. In fact, it should never be too expensive; the conditional spell limit is the easiest and safest thing to mess with when it comes to RPM values. I recommend a leveled perk:

Extra Conditionals

If the caster has Magery 2+, each level of this perk adds his Magery to the number of conditional spells he can have on at once. That is, his limit becomes Thaumatology + Magery + (Magery * Extra Conditionals).

Otherwise, add the perk level to the number of conditional spells he can have on. That is, his limit becomes Thaumatology + Magery + Extra Conditionals.

The GM must decide how many levels of this perk are available. In most campaigns, three levels is reasonable.

Realistically, that has the potential to seriously unbalance your game world. I'd use the rules for the Create advantage: The player has to pay 1 character point for every $(campaign starting wealth)/10 worth of stuff created. On top of that, the Duration modifier for the spell should be at least +80 (roughly 30 million minutes, which should make sense to anyone with PU4: Enhancements).

No and no.

If you allow enchanted items that directly raise Path skills, they should cost whatever they cost -- for example, if the caster has Path of Chance [8]-13, then raising it further would cost the normal 4 points/level.

Circumventing the skill caps shouldn't be free. I have an article in the queue about this, so suffice to say that if you treat it as a leveled perk for each Path (that is, it costs 1 point for every +1 above the normal skill cap per Path) you'll be okay.

So, like an anti-Higher Purpose (Tradition)? Interesting. This is a pretty significant drawback. I think the simplest way to model it is with a Vow (Cast Traditionally) [-10], with the caveat that you have to have at least 20 points invested in magical traits to take it.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Hey, does anyone know what a ritual for Resurrection would be under the RPM system?

What Paths, modifiers, energy costs, etc. are involved?

Thanks.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

See Prehistory for a RAW raise dead spell.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

You can see this post as well for examples of what were eventually published.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Hmm, but what about a Mass Resurrection effect? What would need to be added for that?

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Probably just the Area of Effect to cover it.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

How does one do Explosive missiles spells in RPM? It says that a misslie spell that's explosive has double the listed damage, but how do you determine the radius and the rate of decrease? Innate attacks use the explosive modifier, with one level having damage be divided by 3*dist, two levels dividing by 2*dist, and one level dividing by dist. Does explosive missile damage use one of these, or do you buy an area of effect under normal RPM rules and deal full damage to everything within it? Or should you just buy one of the explosive modifiers? It says not to get modifiers for area effect and such, but it doesn't mention explosion.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

But it with the appropriate level of Explosive Effect.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Also, for missile spells, should one use Enhancements with range modifiers or the usual RPM range modifiers? The usual ones just seem a bit odd.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Enhancements. The only reason to buy Range the usual way is to form your missile spell in somebody else's hand.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Suppose you want to give a sword +1d burning damage on hit. Is it better to buy that as Innate Burning Attack (Follow-up, melee weapons) or as Bestows a bonus, using the partial dice equivalency to convert +x into yd? For example +4 bonus on melee damage would be 1.2d, rounding down to 1d.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Since it's burning damage you'd had to give it a Innate Attack. Unless, of course, the sword has burning damage naturally.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

You can use RPM to grant an innate attack? How so?

Also, can you use RPM to modify weapons? For instance, you want to make the warriors sword more effective against ghosties and want to add 'Affects Insubstantial' to it (as well as say a Moderate Bestows a Bonus - Against Ghosties)

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

By using Altered Traits. But I (as a GM and content creator) use it only when casting a damaging spell would be innapproate. For example, I would never allow a spell to granted Altered Traits, Burning Attack instead of casting "fireball." Some instances (and this is one of them) I ignore that. Burning weaponry is a classic sort of spell.

Yes, but it really does call for GM judgement when this is or isn't appropriate.

The way I've done it is to simply figure out the cost of the weapons damage. If it would cost 20 or less to cast as a spell using the Damage modifier then enhancements added to it cost +1 energy per +5%; if it's 21 or higher it adds the enhancements cost in energy. So if a spell costs 20 or less then Affects Insubstantial costs +4 energy - if it were to cost 30 energy then this would cost 6 energy. This is also one of the only times I would permit Duration on a spell that uses the Damage Modifier. It's not breaking anything because you're not adding damage - you're adding a modifier to the damage.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

my main problem with buying it as a follow up innate attack is that that seems much too cheap. as a follow up, it costs 4 or 5 energy per die, depending on whether or not you have follow up be +0% or -20% for (Melee attack, reach C, 1). This means you can add +3d for a mere 12-15 energy plus duration, effects, and greater effects multiplier. This seems a little too powerful. But if you buy it as a bonus turning the numbers into dice, it seems to cost about what I feel it should.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Doesn't seem particularly cheap when I ran it through (I have a character who may use it)

Coooooold Steel: This adds 3d burning (intense cold) damage to a steel weapon. It also causes spiffy vapor trails as the water in the air freezes in its wake.

This Casting: Greater Destroy Energy (5) + Lesser Control Magic (5) + Duration, 10 minutes (1) + Altered Trait, , 3d Burning followup (15). 78 energy (26×3).

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

You could also do it this way: to add a plain Jane "magical" bonus to a sword's attack use Strengthen Matter and Bestows a Bonus. To add a form of energy do the same thing - but use Create Energy. Honestly, I don't have a issue with Innate Attack like this, I do limit the dice of damage to whatever the maximum is in the setting (so about 4d for most games) and that seems to deal with the munckinry. It also occurs to me that you could use the method for conjured weaponry as well. To do that you'd need Create Matter (to create typical version of whatever weapon you've conjured) and Bestows a Bonus to increase the bonus to hit, breakage, damage, etc. For weapons made of energy you'd do the same thing except add Create Energy.

It's not really adding as much damage as you think. You still have to hit with it, and it still has to go through their DR. BTW, you can't have Follow-Up and Melee Attack on the same Innate Attack - Melee Attack would be included in the spell. If you were building everything as a advantage - yes, but the way you are proposing - I'd say no.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

You need "No Incendiary" on that Burning Attack unless it's some sort of crazy "cold fire" which can start fires.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

I don't remember seeing No Inciendiary, where or which book is it?

It shouldn't raise the cost very much I wouldn't think though

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

It's a Missing Damage Effect from Powers (p.102) and is worth -10%

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

That is pretty damn cheap, especially because by the rules I'm using for DF, that's a lesser effect. Compare with

Fireball
Greater Create Matter [6] (Explosive Fireball) Lesser Control Magic: cast as charm [5]
Damage: External 4d+2 Explosive [5]
Enhancements: Explosive 1 [10]
Cost : 78 (26*3)

This might do 4d+2 to one target once, assuming you hit with it, and might do some percentage of that to nearby enemies. That spell could do 3d a whole lot of times, depending on how often you attack (and hit) with it.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

You're going to need to figure out what's going to work when you go into specific setting territory. While I appreciate Langy (he's a wonderful chap) - I do not agree with his assumptions for using ritual path magic in DF. That said, going by those guidelines I'd use my alternate method and use Bestows a Bonus, that should keep high levels of damage restricted suitably (anything over +4 is going to be stupid expensive).

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Why don't you want to use RPM with DF? It's somewhat more complicated than DF usually uses, but that's easily enough worked around - just insists that all wizards take "Grimoire or ritual mastery required" on their magery.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

I didn't say that. I said...

In other words: I would have done it differently. That's all. :-)

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

oh... Alright, fair enough.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Of course, that brings up the question of how would you do RPM in dungeon fantasy?

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

That...would take too long to explain and type.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Fair enough.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

PM!

Though I have a few ideas lol

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

I'm not being dismissive here. So don't take it that way. I'm under the gun for some other content right now and what I would do would take a LOT of time to explain - besides someone else already leaked something a while back... it's vaporware at best at this point. :-)

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

*Leaves to fire up the Atmospheric Condensator*

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

You can do some amazing things with RPM. Check this out:

Wall of Ice
Greater Create Matter [6] (To make Wall of Ice), Lesser Create Energy [6] (To make it freezing)
Damage: External Crushing 2d [4]
Enhancements: Persistent, Rigid Wall, Extended Duration x3 [24]
Damage: External Fatigue 1d [0]
Enhancements: Follow Up [0], Hazard, Freezing [4]
Area: 10 yards [8]
Range: 10 Yards [4]
Duration: 10 Minutes [1]
Greater Effects: 1 (x3)
Cost: 53*3: 159 (174 as charm)

Creates a wall that has DR 6 and 1 HP. Anyone who touches it takes 1d fatigue damage with the freezing enhancement.

This brings up the question: when buying external damage for a wall effect, should I multiply it by 1, 2, or 3? I'd guess 1, becuase it's not a missile or an explosion, but I'm not sure.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

That works. But a few notes. Unless your intent is to cause damage - you only need to determine the Subject Weight (how much the wall weighs) and then use the guidelines on p. B558 to determine it's HP, DR, and any other effects. You'll also need to make a Path roll for a "stable" wall (or no roll if you have actual skill to do so (e.g., Engineer (Civil), Prospecting, Architecture. etc.).

You might need to do a little bit of research, for specific weights of matter (but not too much). Assuming you want a wall of 1" thick mild steel (which weighs about 0.2836 lbs per cubic inch and is 14,400 cubic inches per hex) this would be 4,083.84 lbs. and would cost +6 energy for a wall that filled 1-hex (DR 56 & HP 60 per hex).

If you DO want it to cause damage (like your Wall of Ice spell), use the Wall enhancement - but ignore the normal rules for the Area Effect enhancement and use the Area of Effect spell modifier instead. I'd nix the Extended Duration enhancement for damaging walls and instead allow Duration to be bought (which again, this is one of the only circumstances I'd allow that) - but I'd require all damage bought to use the Internal Damage guidelines. So damaging walls do 1d (+1d per +4 energy) and it...

• Permeable: Causes damage to anyone who crosses it, but it can be traversed normally.
• Rigid: Impedes movement and the wall has DR 3 and 0.5 HP per die of damage per yard (rounded up after you find the total length of the wall).

This way it keeps damaging walls from getting out of hand - after all a clever caster could just add Mobile to his wall for +6 energy/Basic Move +1 and move it around on the battlefield... This all assumes +6 energy for the Wall enhancement itself (or +12 energy if you can form your wall into shapes like domes, battlements, etc.)

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Those are pretty much the same rules I used, except I bought duration as an enhancemnet instead of a spell modifier. For rigid walls, how do you determine whether it's supposed to do damage or not? This one deals damage as a follow up to anyone who touches it, would it not be a damaging spell if I had it the other way? That would have it still do damage to anyone who crashes into it.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Rigid walls only do damage if someone slams them. I'd build most such walls the first way - and damaging walls the second. That's just me of course.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

What is a good way to carry charms around?


What happens if a charm gets broken unintentionally? (say the wizard fell and it got smashed, or the enemy whapped it)

Im thinking of casting charms on say Pretzel sticks or something that seems like it could be Fast Drawable and still DR 0 (or maybe little sticks)

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

There are so many it would be impossible to list them all. A few done in my games. The player has...

• ...carried his charms around as ceramic charms on a charm bracelet (whoa, that's meta).
• ...carried her elixirs in smokeable form in the guise of cigarettes in a special case.
• ...has used snack food (M&Ms, gum, etc.)
• ...tattoos (which is where the idea for tattoo charms came from).
• ...used strips of parchment, like a mezuzah.

It breaks. Triggering a charm requires conscious thought and act. Unless you've got it so that it goes off when you break it...then it goes off and the spell happens.

I've used Fast-Draw (Charms) to cover all manner of physical conditional spells - it's like Fast-Draw (Elixir) - but covers all manner of objects imbued with magical power.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Jaina and Joe are fighting

Jaina the Witch readies a Charm (she doesn't have fast draw Charm)

Joe (who does not like Jaina) sees that Jaina has a Small, DR 0, breakable object in hand

Joe, knowing that Jaina does not like him, figures that the small, DR 0, breakable object, is a Charm, and that it is something he would not enjoy being hit by

Joe being 1 yard from Jaina with a broadsword thinks it would be really swell to hit said Charm and trigger the spell to hit Jaina instead of him

Any way he can do so? Does he need to know the exact specifics of it? What if Jaina when she drew the spell said 'Joe, this is a Dehydrate spell that will hit you with Greater Destroy Matter for 6d+1 internal toxic at a range of up to 10yds, and hehe, its against your Wil or HT and your armor won't help!' What if she was lieing and it was actually a buffing spell she had meant to cast on herself?

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

If the charm is meant to cast when broken, then hitting it with a sword will set it off in her hand. Otherwise, nothing happens (except possible injury to Jaina's hand).

In order to bluff in such a way, it's time to roll and hope it works.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Pretty much what Nereidalbel said.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

When you create a charm, you must specify the trigger and behavior of the spell. You don't get to just say, "I make it as a charm" because that isn't enough info. All of these trigger/behavior combos will produce different results if the charm is broken accidentally:

• "When I break this charm, cast the spell on whoever I'm pointing at." (Safe, but you can't give the charm away.)
• "When the charm is broken, cast the spell on whoever the bearer is pointing at." (Pretty common phrasing.)
• "When the charm is broken, cast the spell on the area around the charm." (Charm grenade!)
• "When the charm is broken, cast the spell on the last person to damage the bearer." (Revenge, even if unconscious.)

And so on. If you're always specific, you should rarely have to wonder what happens if a charm breaks under unusual circumstances.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Something that might be fun for "cheap" charms might be to add a "Magical Malfunction" for a energy reduction. Whenever the charm is broken, used, whatever - you need to roll 3d, on the magical malfunction number or higher it goes off and is bad (or at least highly inconvenient for you). Perhaps treat it as a botch equal to the amount of energy you reduced the original spell by. Hmmm. Maybe something like...


Malf. Reduction
12 -25%
13 -20%
14 -15%
15 -10%
16 -5%

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Ooh, heres a neat idea- allow players to skimp out on the energy costs for rituals, but have the GM add limitations such as that malf in order to make up the shortfall. For bonus points, don't tell them what the errors are.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

You have to be careful adding blanket modifiers to the final cost. I've covered this a bit in a submitted article - but this sort of thing requires strict GM oversight.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

One thing that I kinda want to do with RPM that I'm trying to express (Poorly) is familiarity. While I love RPM for the most part, encouraging people to come up with rituals they can do on the fly isn't a bad thing, but something about the lack of a Spell "Set" someone will typically draw from bugs me.

I kind of feel like Mages in the magic system I want to introduce for this setting, should have a list of perks for rituals and if you are casting something without the perk then it's a negative modifier for being unfamiliar.

I'm not exactly sure how to articulate this, so if that was confusing, my intent is to mimic the idea of the geniuses who figure out wonderful formulas for great spells that people mimic because they're awesome, and the people who just follow suit because creating a new spell is a bit more difficult.

It'd also kind of encourage players to use tried and true spells more often I suppose. And it'd also make things like books on spell formulas a bit more interesting IMO.

In a way, I suppose I'm saying, RPM is slightly TOO generic. I have no problem with Generic, I just like a bit more focus in a Mage if that makes sense.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Ritual Mastery is a useful perk for this, but admittedly that gives you a pretty short spell list; once you get to around a dozen perks, just buying a level of Natural Caster starts to look pretty appealing in comparison, and you end up with players switching back to being generalists again.

Grimoires are really where RPM handles the 'it's easier to use magic someone else has already worked out for you' aspect. Having half a dozen or so thematically connected rituals in a commonly available collection-grimoire is a good way to do this, I think. A book of five common spells at +2 costs $700, weighs six pounds, and is a big help to a starting wizard. Maybe throw together a standard 'apprentice book' like this for each Path or magical style you want to encourage in your setting and make them available at half cost or something.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

I like a limitation on Ritual Adept of "requires a mastered ritual (Ritual Mastery) and/or a grimoire." IIRC, it was priced at -50% to -60%, last I checked.

So, at least until they buy full Ritual Adept, they are forced to specialize.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

What I would do if I were you (if I'm reading what you are saying correctly) is not to charge a perk - but to use "Spell Familiarities" (see p. B169). So every two points you've spent in the skills listed under Natural Caster (GURPS Thaumtology: Ritual Path Magic, p. 12) garners you one spell that you are "familiar" with. Spells then give a Familiarity Penalty equal to (Number of Spell Effects x -2). So a character with 40 points in the skill for Natural Caster gets 20 spells he is familiar with and when he casts a spell he isn't familiar with he takes a penalty on his skill rolls of at least -2. You can eliminate these penalties by studying a spell for 8 hours (or less if you actually have Natural Caster). There, now you have a setting feature, no hacking involved, increase the number of Spell Familiarities and/or the penalty as you deem fit. Consider letting characters with Ritual Adept ignore these rules because they are the equivalent of someone with Weapon Master or Gunslinger (who never suffer familiarity penalties for weapons). Does that work for you? Or did I get it wrong?

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

I love it! Especially since the penalty becomes variable :)

As I said, every single person who has made an RPM character just maxes every single path and gets the "I can do ANYTHING" vibe going every session. And I hate to have tons of mitigators to magic because they are focusing on doing it. I don't like people to choose toys then have to tell them "You can't play with your toys you chose" too often.

There literally is very little difference between different casters, and there was little incentive to focus on a "Style" in my mind, but your options give more flavor IMO.

So I didn't want to stifle the idea of creatively coming up with a ritual, I just wanted to encourage a Subset your caster feels comfortable doing and less about wild cards all over a the game. That way 2 wizards sit at the table and they aren't clones of each other.

Basically to illustrate, it's a difference of:

Generic:

Focused:

Make people think a little more what could be applicable essentially.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Of course, an issue here is that grimoires are heavy, even if you've got a single rather-sizable collection. If I run something with RPM, I intend to steal the system from here, but with some modifications (namely, I'm going to have the "base weight" of +0 grimoires be based on the energy cost of the spell, allow for down to -2 improvised grimoires, and allow pages to be later added to or taken out of a grimoire).

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

:-)

This right here so is important to gaming in general that a lot of GMs don't even think about it. It's about the fun, not the game.


I've wrote some stuff to help with this and I've posted a lot of stuff on the boards as well. Though it's all over the place. PK has posted a lot of useful stuff too. Not to mention the myriad array of forumite material.

Hmm. Okay.

See, this is what my players like, the ability to be able to make magic "do as you will."

Though I do see the point of this.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

There's been a few threads about specializing within RPM. Specializing in the various Paths (so, for instance, Energy/Ice would be treated as Hard instead of Very Hard, and all other Energy would default at -2 --or whatever it is), special limitations on Ritual Adept, various Traditions.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

I really enjoy the Higher Purpose (X) which gives a bonus to X type spells, most of my characters take it, so they are better at X

Jaina for instance has

Magery 6
IQ 20
Path of Matter 18
Thaumatology 18
Other Paths 17
Higher Purpose Hydromancy 3

She will next upgrade her Path of Magic to 18 so it doesnt drag her Matter down in making Charms

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

The name of Higher Purpose sounds wierd in my opinion, I'd have called it something like Affinity.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

LOL. That's exactly what I call it. Sounds better doesn't it? I know why it wasn't renamed (that can cause problems that are best left alone).

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

In some ways I prefer 'Higher Purpose Cast Like a XYZ'

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Over the holiday break I trawled those threads heavily, along with the various PMs and emails I've received on the subject, and wrote a Pyramid article to help people make Ritual Path specialists. A lot of it is just advice and expansions for the tools already in place (Higher Purpose (Tradition), Ritual Mastery, optional specialties, etc.), and I also included some new rules and traits that make playing a specialist much more attractive.

I can't give an ETA, as building a viable issue of Pyramid requires a whole bunch of useful, cool articles, not just the one I wrote. But "some time before mid-2014" is a reasonable guess. (Again, note that I say "guess.")

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Next up, take a specialization in Path of Matter, for Water. Get Path of Matter (Water) at 19 (same number of CPs, but calculated at Hard instead of Very Hard) and Path of Matter (anything BUT Water) at 17.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Any thoughts on a 'Transfer Enchantment' spell?

For instance, Jaina has found a not very cool full plate helm, with a very cool darkvision enchant on it

She would like to put that enchantment on something else

The DM is half thinking it might be 'Greater Destroy, Control, and Create' Magic (for removing, moving, and deploying the enchant) but isn't sure

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Normally, I respond to Ghostdancer this way, but...

"SQUEEEEEEEE!!!"

:-)

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

This feels like a Greater Transform Magic effect to me. Maybe charge a number of additional points of energy equal to whatever the enchantment gives. So Greater Transform Magic + Altered Traits, Dark Vision. That ought to cover it quite nicely.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Well, since her Matter is already 18, dont want to lower it any

Also she needs her Thaumatology and Path of Magic to rise in sync with it, since Thaum caps stuff, and Magic is a cap on say, combat spells due to conditionals 'Hey, please wait a minute while I work up a nice Dehydrate badguys?'

Next purchase, Path of Magic to 18

Then, I'm up against my Magery cap so Matter and Magic can't go higher. So, if I get 10 points, I will be choosing between Magery 7, or potentially (our games house ruled available) 'RPM Talent', which is like Magic Magery, but for RPM (+1 to Spells (here paths) and Thaumatology)

If I buy Magery 7, I will want to raise Matter, Thaumatology, and Magic all to 19

Of course, this will probably all change depending on what random things happen between now and then

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

What about techniques and RPM? an yu buy off the penalties for Divinations, say, or for doing energy gathering rolls in less that then normal amount of time? It seems like that should require wildcard techniques, if allowed at all.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

I could get behind that. But I'd make it a Hard technique, require specialization in a specific form (sortilege, tarot cards, crystal ball, etc.), with a theoretically unlimited level - but you could never gain a net bonus. So if you had Dependable Divination (Tarot)-19, Path of Chance-14, and only suffered a -2 penalty your skill would still be limited to your Path of Chance skill - not your technique.

See here for PK's suggestion.


No, not required. Though a Wildcard technique would allow it's use with all spells.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

On the topic of potentially 'no added modifiers' spells, how would you do the Classic Warcraft 2 spell 'turn target into a sheep'?

Seems like would be Greater Transform Body, but would work it?

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Plus an affliction of some sort and the usual subject weight, range, etc.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Greater Transform Body. Add a Greater Transform Mind effect if the character mentally IS a sheep. This assumes the sheep template is 0 or less points. If not, you'll need to add Altered Traits, Whatever Template too. See Sylph Form in RPM for a worked RAW example of a transformation effect.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Alright, now thats a brutally expensive spell

But terribly amusing!

Jaina needs it

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

From my understanding, the reason that has two Greater Transform effects was that, 'Crossing between two categories requires a Transform effect for both Paths; e.g., to turn a tree into a stone pillar, use Greater Transform Body
+ Greater Transform Matter.' per page 8 of the book.

That would suggest that you'd need only a single Greater Transform Body, plus maybe Greater Transform Mind, as they're not crossing from path to path.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Yeah, that's a mistake. I'll adjust my post.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Can you use the energy reserve that comes with magery for other things? Say if you had created a magic item that had Requires FP, or a magical ability with Requires ER.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

As a strict by the rules reading, sure, it's still an Energy Reserve, RPM just has a special rule that you can use that ER 1-for-1 for spell energy instead of the usual 3-for-1 for sacrificing fatigue.

In practice, I tend to use a suggestion (I think by ghostdancer?) to charge 5 energy per FP/ER an ability would require, and allow the character to spend energy toward it from ER, energy accumulation rolls, HP and FP sacrifices, etc. just like casting a spell. (EDIT: Note, this is defined when the ability is created; it either uses FP or it uses magical energy; I'd probably charge extra if you could choose to pay whichever is more convenient.)

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

No and maybe. The energy in a mana reserve does not correlate directly to FP (see the description of Energy Reserve (Mana Reserve) in GT:RPM for more) so there's no way the energy would replace a FP cost. As to a magical ability with "Requires ER," it would depend on how that ability was set up. Energy Reserve (Magical) and Energy Reserve (Mana Reserve) are two similar but different things; you'd have to decide which kind your ability drew from.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

Canonically? No. Mana Reserve is used to fuel spells only. That said...

This is what I would do.

Yes, that's me. But keep in mind that rule of thumb is only used when converting other systems or rules sets over to use with Ritual Path magic for. For a trait that requires magical energy I might go with something like...

Variable

Your ability requires ambient magical energy to use. This is cost is variable and depends on the following:

Energy Required Limitation Value
10 or less -10%
11 to 25 -15%
26 to 40 -20%
41 or more -25%

For abilities that produce instantaneous effects (e.g., Innate Attack), you must gather this amount every time you trigger the ability.
For advantages that produce continuing effects (e.g., Flight), you must gather this amount to activate the ability for one minute. After this initial period you need only gather 1/5 this amount (per minute) to keep the ability active.

The values are probably off a bit and I'd probably tinker around with them later.

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

I personally have no issues at all with allowing the same ER to fuel all magicky things, such as magic items (from Magic Magic), Magic Magic Magic spells, Imbuements with the Magic PM etc

Re: [RPM] Misc Questions
 

The other balance issue (which I'd forgotten about while writing my earlier post) is that ER (Mana Reserve) and ER (Magic) have different regeneration methods: the former requires mana accumulation rolls but can be refilled in seconds, while the latter recharges at a steady 1 ER / 10 minutes.

I think that's a good reason to keep them separate, in retrospect. An ability that costs three points from ER (Magic) takes half an hour to recharge from, while an ability that costs three points from ER (Mana Reserve) needs maybe five minutes, and that's assuming the character is a non-Adept (otherwise, a few seconds.)