how to make Sorcery Maledictions operate like Regular Spells
 

The approach in Sorcery to emulate regular spells seems to be using Malediction 1 +100%

B106 requires:

can target any victim you can see or otherwise clearly perceive

Regular Spells are more flexible than this per B239:

work best if you can touch or see the subject
If you cannot touch or see the subject, there is a further -5 penalty

Explanation in middle col of two ways to use the -5 unsighted/untouched attacks make it clear you don't need to "clearly perceive" a victim at all: "name a target location" or "name a subject".

Basically we could call this the "George clause" because all you need to think is "around here somewhere" to attempt it, and it will get him no matter where he is, subject to whatever range penalties apply.

This seems like Detect [30] (All Life) enhanced with Cosmic: No Roll Required and Long Range 2 (increase speed/range to no penalties) except with some kind of "retroactive amnesia" penalty where you forget whatever information Detect provides to you immediately after the spell is cast (because while your spell found them, you did not).

Per PP30's "Instead of the target getting amnesia for the next few minutes, it applies to the last few minutes." precedent, I'm thinking that Aftermath: Amnesia could be used to wipe the last 10 minutes of memories instead of the next 10 minutes.

That's too long though so I'm not sure how you'd reduce the duration of Aftermath to merely 1 second. Maybe just apply "reduced duration" limitation to decrease the value of the Aftermath limitation?

I might be wrong in thinking Cosmic:NRR is necessary...

PP70 defines "Feature: Uses one roll with combined Teleportation distance penalties instead of two rolls with separate penalties." as a feature for Affliction/Warp for example...

I think maybe you would take Link+10% to activate Detect+Affliction together via one concentrate maneuver? That could be cheaper than taking Reduced Time +20% on Detect to make it a free action. +10% on Affliction 1's base 10 cost is merely 1 point, compared to the 3 points it would be to get another 10% on Detect [30]. Plus that better represents how it is not used alone.

I might be shortsighted here though.... "sense all humans including Fred and Daphne" doesn't allow you to "Sense only Fred" or "Sense only Daphne" so maybe this actually requires Modular Abilities for Detect which are rearranged instantly to conform to whomever you want to target for your Affliction?

In that case Detect (1 person only) is probably Rare (5 point cost) so +100% Long-Range 2 (remove penalties) and +10% Link balanced by -10% Resistible works out to a required cost of 10 points...

100 point cost for Modular Abilities base... B48 lists detect as both Mental and Physical so I'm not sure if you'd need the +50% for Modular Abilities allowing physical traits or not... when would you be obligated to make Detect into physical?

B71 only requires 1 second. Rather than Reduced Time I'm thinking you could more cheaply take Link +10% so that it still takes 1 second (not free action) to rearrange the Cosmic Power points, but that is done concurrently with using your Affliction?

(I'm assuming here a Concentrate or perhaps a Concentrate is used for the "one second per ability" since this form of Modular Abilities sounds Mental like Super-Memorization, whereas I could see merely a Ready needed for Chip Slots)

B106's wording doesn't seem to imply the need to buy Link+10 a 2nd time for Afflict if I want to pair both using Modular Abilities and Detect with it. Although I'm not 100% sure this is legal because MA>D would need to be consecutive activation and Link is intended for simultaneous activation.

It would probably be fine if the Affliction cost more than 1 turn to use (1st second link activates Modular, 2nd second link activates Detect) but could create a problem for Afflictions which take only 1 second to attack with.

regarding the base Detect (1 person only) should this be cheaper than 5 points? That is "sorceresses" after all: multiple people. Would you get the -80% limitation reducing it to a perk?

That could make it more affordable since then it'd only cost +100-80=+20% (6 points)

Re: how to make Sorcery Maledictions operate like Regular Spells
 

Just let Maledictions work like Regular spells. That seems to be the intent.

If that seems like too much, call it a +50% cosmic. Twisting the system into pretzels with some crazy Detect build isn't going to give you a balanced point cost anyway.

Re: how to make Sorcery Maledictions operate like Regular Spells
 

Its really more like turning straight Malediction into Telesend without the range bonus, so maybe +20%.

Re: how to make Sorcery Maledictions operate like Regular Spells
 

Telesend gives enough detail to know location?

I was wondering whether or not to take the vague -50% limit on detect

Re: how to make Sorcery Maledictions operate like Regular Spells
 

Telesend modifiers let you contact people you cant see but are familiar with so added to Malediction works similar to what was requested.

Re: how to make Sorcery Maledictions operate like Regular Spells
 

I see what you mean.

Though since it's an attack and communication, maybe there should be an increase similar to the 'communication abilities only' version of insubstantiality vs the all-in version of affects substantial?

Re: how to make Sorcery Maledictions operate like Regular Spells
 

I don't think that I've seen blind casting done in the wild, ever. On my experience players tend to be leery of the blind casting due to the added chance of critical fails and the crit fail table that GURPS Magic has.

So, if I was to add the blind casting options to Malediction, I'd also add nasty results with crit fails, or then charge more for the added utility.

That said, however, Malediction says "Your attack is not a conventional ranged attack; it works more like a Regular spell (p. 239)." and regular spells have that choice. You could read this as meaning that Malediction already has that option.

Interesting.

Re: how to make Sorcery Maledictions operate like Regular Spells
 

I feel like this would be +50% modifier. It adds a new option for a player at the table, which is coordinate location use of Malediction. This isn't unlike Warp which allows Blind to do the same thing.

+50% would also be the same price as a Cosmic rule that lets you ignore part of what is written in a description of an advantage, and in this case you're changing the "clearly perceive" part of the advantage.

I think people should be allowed to buy Reliable to get around the -5 modifier, however, just like Warp.

Anything that adds action options to a player should cost points. At the end of the day, points are just buying the player more options! Of course, if every Malediction is going to have the above in the campaign, then I would say just handwave it in and not bother with the modifier. Points are only useful relative to the rest of the game IMO.

Re: how to make Sorcery Maledictions operate like Regular Spells
 

I've done it in emergencies. The case I recall was a Banestorm troll, which had a darkness field around him, and a party member inside it fighting him. Blind casting Major Healing was worthwhile at that point, since I knew what the maximum range would be.

Re: how to make Sorcery Maledictions operate like Regular Spells
 

So, to clarify on my original reply:

• I'd be inclined to simply allow targeting a specific hex you can't see with the hope that there's a valid target there, at the -5 penalty for Regular spells. No further modifiers to the base ability needed.
• If that was unacceptable, I'd say to treat it as a weird variation on Overhead, +30%, in that it lets you bypass barriers. On one hand, unlike Overhead, a ceiling won't protect the target; on the other hand, you've got a -5 to hit them. It (very roughly) balances, probably.
• I probably wouldn't just allow blind-targeting by name, e.g. 'Bob, wherever he is' by default, but that does feel like something you could justify with Cosmic, +50%.
• I wouldn't charge +80% for both, I'd include the blind hex-targeting option as well as the blind person-targeting option together in the single Cosmic, +50%.