GURPS Dark Sun Conversion

[Jürgen Hubert]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Going on with the topic:

I think that preserving/defiling should work with "threshold magic." But changing the catastrophes to work with taking further steps along the defiling route towards the (insert name of undead creature that comes from doing too much defiling; I forget what its name was, and how exactly it worked with defiling...). Basically, the more you defile, the more the taint tends to build up in you.

Possibly giving each terrain a certain amount of mana that can be safely drawn per second. Either take the time to gather by spreading it around, or simply over-gather and wipe out several hexes (and risking picking up points towards a disadvantage).

I've been thinking about this as well. One issue is that there are differing explanations between the two boxed sets when precisely you drain the energy from the plants - during the preparation of the spells, or during the casting. Personally, I think it would be neat if both options were possible, for defilers - this makes them more versatile and sneaky, and thus it's harder for preservers to show that they are different than those vile defiling bastards.

So here is how it works for preservers: They have an Energy Pool (with a base point value of 3 points per level, as usual). It comes with the limitation "Preparation Required" - for each point of energy they want to recover for it, they need to spend some time in natural surroundings, depending on just how fast they recover energy as described in the Recover Energy spell. Since this always takes at least one minute per energy point, and thus the time they do this will usually be at least 10 minutes or more (depending on the size of their Energy Pool), I will make this a -30% limitation, bringing the cost to 2.1 points per level.

Preservers start out with an Energy Pool of 15 worth 32 points (well, technically it's 31.5 rounded up). From this we subtract the Secret (Possible Death) disadvantage, which is worth -30 points, so they only need to pay 2 points for this.


Defilers have two options. They can draw upon the Energy Pool at any time, but it counts as a Nuisance Effect with a -4 reaction penalty and it's obvious too, for -25%. Furthermore, it strains the body, costing either 3 FP or 1 FP and 1 HP, for a further -15% and a total limitation of -40%. They can also meditate somewhere in peace and quiet like preservers. In that case they can gather energy four times as fast as an equivalent preserver would, thus reducing the Preparation Required limitation to -15%. But they still have the Nuisance Effect, so the limitation for that is still -40%. Thus, Defiler Energy Pools cost 1.8 points per level.

Defilers start out with an Energy Pool of 17 for 31 (or 30.6, rounded up) points. After subtracting their Secret, this is reduced to 1 point. At the GM's option, players of defilers might take appropriate "creepy" disadvantages like Disturbing Voice or Uncanny Features even after character creation and exchange their points for additional levels of Energy Pool.


Preservers can also use either defiling option at any time - which might be very tempting as it allows quick access to needed energy. However, this is not worth any additional points since it is a trap leading down to defilerdom. For every 20 points of energy a preserver uses in this way to power spells, he gets a -1 to the casting rolls of all non-defiling spells. The GM might allow this penalty to recover over time, possibly by requiring extended quests into pristine wilderness areas while not using any magic at all.


How does this sound?