Re: [RPM] High Energy Cost spells (Example Body of Shadow)
 

I'm a pretty competent GM and can think on my feet really quick, but having that 3rd choice just made things really annoying.

Re: [RPM] High Energy Cost spells (Example Body of Shadow)
 

Ya know, another way to do Body of Shadow - and I don't necessarily recommend this - is to use the disadvantage form of Shadow Form rather than the advantage one.

Shadow Form can be either a 50-point advantage or a -20-point disadvantage. The disadvantage version is different in that the user has no control over it and thus they're stuck in the shadow form until the duration ends - and thus can't really do much interaction with the world. That would shift the spell from 350 points to 120 points, even leaving it as two Greater effects.

Re: [RPM] High Energy Cost spells (Example Body of Shadow)
 

I considered this when creating the spell, but I liked having it as advantage more. Still - this remains entirely workable. You could even call it "Greater" and "Lesser" Shadow Form if you really wanted.

Re: [RPM] High Energy Cost spells (Example Body of Shadow)
 

This is a good example of one big issue I have with RPM. A spell that requires Altered Traits is almost always several times as expensive as those that don't. Creating a bubble of air around a character lets them breath underwater quite cheaply (and can easily extend to others with Area Effect) while giving them gills is far more expensive. It's also usually cheaper to use Bestows a Bonus than to grant an advantage with the equivalent benefit. I think this is part of why spells like Body of Shadow seem so disproportionately expensive.

How gamebreaking would it be to reduce the energy cost of Altered Trait effects, down to maybe 1/2 or 1/3?

Re: [RPM] High Energy Cost spells (Example Body of Shadow)
 

Yeah, Altered Traits (Advantage) is probably the most expensive modifier in RPM. I'm not sure how to fix that.

Re: [RPM] High Energy Cost spells (Example Body of Shadow)
 

I've tried 3 points for both advantages or disadvantages (use the absolute value of the trait) - but it didn't work well. I've mucked with it in a few other ways, but it always screws things up pretty badly.

Re: [RPM] High Energy Cost spells (Example Body of Shadow)
 

Also note that transformations between Paths are inherently pricy: 16 energy for the base Effects alone, before bringing anything else into the mix. If it’s a Greater Transform, that’s good for a ×5 multiplier right there, for a minimum cost of 80 energy. On top of that, Transforms usually involve bestowing or removing a meta-trait, which ups the cost further.

Some possible house rules to bring the cost down, some of which can be used in concert:

• No matter what the Transformation is, never count more than one of the pair of Effects as a Greater Effect. This could drop the aforementioned 80 points to 48 points.
• Make Transformations a special case: they always count as a single Effect; but it costs an extra (guessing) 2 energy if that single Effect uses two Paths. So a “Transform Body to Energy” Effect would cost 10 energy instead of 8. Instead of 80 points base for a Greater Transform, it would only be 30 points.
• Or just have it count as a single Effect, with no price inflation; if you’re highly skilled with both Body and Energy, transforming between them is no harder than converting light into sound or a man into a pig. The 80-point Greater Transform would only be 24 points.

• Sometimes, Altered Traits is pricy because the Advantages involved are arguably overpriced. I personally don’t consider Insubstantiality to be worth its price, and generally tweak it so that it costs half as much. If you’ve got some sort of energy form, this could reduce your energy cost significantly.
• Consider dropping the cost of Altered Traits to 1 energy per point, regardless of whether it’s an Advantage or a Disadvantage that you’re granting; all that matters is the magnitude of price or value. The rationale is that you can often get a similar result without altering any traits at all; that is, much of the energy cost for the altered trait is already incorporated into the basic cost of the Effect.
• Or be extremely conservative about using Altered Traits, reserving it for cases where you can’t justify the underlying Effect doing what you want.
• Never itemize the individual traits granted; just come up with a single lump-sum total of all traits granted, both positive and negative, and base the Altered Traits energy cost on that. So if the Advantages and Disadvantages being added balance out, the total cost of Altered Traits is zero. This only helps if there’s a mixture of advantages and disadvantages involved. (This also may not be a house rule so much as a clarification.)

Re: [RPM] High Energy Cost spells (Example Body of Shadow)
 

On your last point. That would be true if the Altered Trait was an Altered Form so seems fair. But to reduce munchkinism and too cheap disads I would think use the absolute value of the difference between advantages and disadvantages would be better.

Re: [RPM] High Energy Cost spells (Example Body of Shadow)
 

Dataweaver: Altered Traits costs 1 energy per point already for advantages, and 1 energy per 5 points for disadvantages.

Re: [RPM] High Energy Cost spells (Example Body of Shadow)
 

While there certainly can be metaphysical reasons why transforming a man (living mammal) into a pig (living mammal) is easier than transforming a man into a "living shadow," regardless of the level of skill in the relevant Paths, I typically agree with this. The way I handle it is, if a single effect clearly should use two Paths, you simply do it as a single Spell Effect, using the lower of the two Path skills involved. For example, my Feeding Bolt is a single Greater Transform Body/Undead, because the bolt harming the target and healing the caster is a single effect, and Undead is really only included due to the specific metaphysics of my setting (notably, the spell by Ghostdancer that I more-or-less copied from was simply a Greater Transform Body effect). If there are two separate effects that are closely related, and both are arguably Greater, I'll let them get by as one Greater and one Lesser - the Positive/Negative Energy Bolt/Blast/Blade rituals from that same post are examples of this.