Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Poking at Four "Flavors" of Magic (Variations of Realm, RPM, or Incantation)

AlexanderHowl · 02-11-2021, 11:58 PM

I am not quite getting the point of the entire thing. RPM tends to overwhelm the other systems, especially as point totals increase. Due to the massive CP expenditure associated with Realm magic, it tends to severely lag behind RPM for the same CP of characters.

For example, let us take a 400 CP character. A RPM mage can take IQ 20, Magery 6, Ritual Adept, and all ten magical skills at 18 for 325 CP. They are not only master magicians of note, they have energy reserve 18 and 24 conditional rituals, they are also cinematic supergeniuses that are capable of handling most tasks.

Conversely, a Realm magician in a 9 Realm/6 level schema cannot even get IQ 12, Realm 3 in all Realms, and skill 10 in all of the Realms for the same cost as the RPM mage. Now, a Realm mage could specialize in a couple of Realms, but they do not have an energy reserve or conditional rituals, so they will likely always be falling behind the RPM magician when they expand beyond a couple of Realms.

02-11-2021, 11:58 PM	#4
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Re: Poking at Four "Flavors" of Magic (Variations of Realm, RPM, or Incantation) I am not quite getting the point of the entire thing. RPM tends to overwhelm the other systems, especially as point totals increase. Due to the massive CP expenditure associated with Realm magic, it tends to severely lag behind RPM for the same CP of characters. For example, let us take a 400 CP character. A RPM mage can take IQ 20, Magery 6, Ritual Adept, and all ten magical skills at 18 for 325 CP. They are not only master magicians of note, they have energy reserve 18 and 24 conditional rituals, they are also cinematic supergeniuses that are capable of handling most tasks. Conversely, a Realm magician in a 9 Realm/6 level schema cannot even get IQ 12, Realm 3 in all Realms, and skill 10 in all of the Realms for the same cost as the RPM mage. Now, a Realm mage could specialize in a couple of Realms, but they do not have an energy reserve or conditional rituals, so they will likely always be falling behind the RPM magician when they expand beyond a couple of Realms.