[Power-Ups] Magery (Universal, Cosmic, +???)
 

OK I've asked this a couple of times before from different angles, but never really got an answer before, this time however I think I've figured it out, or at least a partial answer.

So the question: How do I make a version of Magery that works for all magic systems? Well the thread title is what I worked out, basically I need advice on which level of Cosmic people think is applicable, +50% or +100%?

Some notes:
This applies to all version of Magery that function as a spell casting talent, that is increase skill level when casting, so it applies to the standard system, ritual magic, path/book magic, symbol magic and so on, but NOT to RPM as RPM doesn't work that way. However because of it's nature the Thaumatology bonus IS universal, so it would apply to RPM

This also applies to any other spell casting system that uses a spell casting talent approach, so it does stack with Power Investiture

Re: [Power-Ups] Magery (Universal, Cosmic, +???)
 

Usually, an universal ability is *5 (sometimes *10) the cost of a focused ability, depending of how many variant there are.

Given the cost of magery and the relatively low number of variants , taking each variant as AA is cheaper, assuming you are ok with only one of them being active at the time.

So, cosmic +100%(equal to up to 5 alternate) would be a fair price assuming you can only use one at a time.

If you mix several otherwise incompatible power sources, like magic and divine in some settings , cosmic +300% may be in order.

Absolutely universal magery, giving bonus no matter what or where, would be *5 cost but likely too expensive in most settings. Although it would probably be fair if it included RPM, Incantation and others.

Re: [Power-Ups] Magery (Universal, Cosmic, +???)
 

Absolutely what Celjabba said. I've done this for at least one of my campaigns in almost exactly the manner described (a bit spooky that). Works just fine. Oh, it works for Energy Reserves in the campaign too. They can get somewhat pricy, but are useful.

Re: [Power-Ups] Magery (Universal, Cosmic, +???)
 

An alternate ability Magery advantage costs ⅕, or 20% with the condition that you can only use 1 at a time, so I'd price universal at +50% per variant; in my campaign there are 3 total, so that would work out to +100%. I'd also say that for +300%, your Magery can be truly universal: Regardless of what strange dimension you find yourself in, you can learn its version of magic. In a dimension-hopping campaign, this would probably work best with a Modular Ability like Super Memorization for the associated skills/spells.

Re: [Power-Ups] Magery (Universal, Cosmic, +???)
 

So +1 to a lot of mental skills but only magical ones? That sounds like it slams against the problem with talent prices.

Re: [Power-Ups] Magery (Universal, Cosmic, +???)
 

It also include a few perk level abilities : raising skills cap, prerequisites from some spells, raising cap on spells effects, ... It varies a lot. So, talent pricing may not be right approach. Not to mention that it may not be restricted to mental skills. You could imagine a ritual magic system with casting rolls against dancing skills, for exemple ...

Re: [Power-Ups] Magery (Universal, Cosmic, +???)
 

Magery and most of its alternatives are simply variant Power Talents. Power talents come in [5/level], [10/level], and [15/level] variants, and Powers states that (emphasis added):

The emphasised clause to me seems to explicitly cover the case of “Magery that affects multiple magical systems,” and thus I price “Universal Magery” as [15/level] — though I do typically require an Unusual Background to take it.