Perk: Countermagical training?
 

Would being able to counter a specific spell you don't know with Ward be a worthwhile and balanced Perk? I'm thinking it would grant effective skill of IQ+Magery for the resisted spell.

Thanks.

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

Sounds balanced, given that the same point investment would get you the spell itself, if it was available, though at IQ+Magery-2.

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

If you're spending 1 point on a specific Perk, you might as well spend it on the spell.

If you're saying 1 point for a Perk to Ward all spells using the spell Ward, then sure, that'd be balanced, but you'd be rolling against your Ward spell skill, like when blocking any spell you know.

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

Actually, you can't just out and buy the spell, considering the prerequisite chains which can make spells that you just want to defend against pretty damn expensive to get. If you want to be a competent abjurer, you would have to pay craptons of points to get to spells which aren't in-character to use, but you would want to be able to deal with.

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

There's a magical perk that gives you this for a given magical style. I say that, if not using magical styles, one perk per GURPS Magic college would be suitable.

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

Ward doesn't require that you can cast the spell you're warding, only that you know it at skill 12.

Knowing a spell only requires a single point being spent, you can't cast it without the prereqs, but the standard way of being able to ward against say Fireball if you're a Water Mage, is simply by learning Fireball, one point.

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

You could always allow this for, say, 3 spells. You don't know these spells, but you learned the counters for Ward, Great Ward, or Counterspell. It's less powerful than familiarity in a rival magical style, which gives a similar benefit, and it's a bargain if you don't expect to learn those spells anyway.

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

I'm fairly certain you can't spend points on a skill you don't have the prerequisites for.

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

Seconded. Can someone call the question?

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

I'm positive of it:

However, there is a Perk in Power-Ups 2: Perks (p. 19) called Charms which allows you to bypass all prerequisite requirements (including Magery). This means spending 2 points, not 1, to gain access to the spell but using that Perk for the purposes of counter-magic seems perfectly legitimate to me (plus, it actually gives you the ability to cast the spell).

OTOH, the Perk to be able to countermagic a spell seems like a good idea. I think I'm with Kuroshima on this being an appropriate perk per college of spells.

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

I didn't find the specific perk unless you mean Magical School Familiarity which has the ability to Ward or Counterspell all the style's spells as one of its benefits. I agree that a perk that gives you the ability to Ward or Counterspell a whole college is probably balanced against Magical School Familiarity. Consider it stolen.

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

how many of such perk would be balanced? One or two? More than that would still be balanced?

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

That one, away from my PDFs ATM, so I didn't remember the name
You get one magical perk per 20 points in spells. As long as you follow this guideline, I would have no issue with you slowly taking all possible colleges with this.

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

Plus another style perk per 10 points in the style...so belonging to a style (in worlds that have them) can be worth it just to get the second track for extra perks...even tho the style will likely have a limited range of perks that they teach...

(so if you are a mage with 40 pts in your style...you would get 4 style perk slots...plus 2 general perk slots)

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

Yeah, should a style offer "Expert countermagic" for any college as a style per, then yeah, it would be possible to get 6 of such perks with 40 points in spells. The again, if you're playing with styles, then you should just use styles and magical style familiarity. If not using them, then no style will give you this perk, as there are no styles.

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

Hmmm...I can see a mix of both...for example Colleges that are outside of any of the Known Styles...(Healing or Necromacy or Gate whatever depending on setting).

Usually taking the style familiarity perk will be more efficent but I would not take the College Familarity perk off the board...

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

Heh, did that change?
(I'm a little far from my books and I always tailor magic to fit settings, not the other way around...)

The only thing I'd add to this, is that the perk should fit the setting, so if it's Colleges, Styles, or Aspects, it's more than fair to allow this type of perk as long as it's tailored by the GM to setting.

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

Not that I know of. That rule existed in Magic 2e almost exactly as written, except that the prerequisite spell needed to be at level 12 instead of one point (the level 12 requirement was switched out in GURPS 4e for one point).

Perhaps you're thinking of the rule that says that a non-Mage may learn spells that don't require Magery, but cannot cast them except in High Mana areas?

Agreed.

Re: Perk: Countermagical training?
 

Could very well be the rule I was thinking of, then again, often the settings I've run which have magic in them also have wards and counters, so as I said, I tend to make the magic fit the setting, I don't warp the setting to fit someone else's magic.