Vancian Magic

[David Bofinger]

I was wondering how you'd do Dying Earth-style Vancian magic in TFT. In Dying Earth spells had to be memorised, squatted in the memoriser's mind causing mental stress, could be used once and were then forgotten.

I think a natural way to do it would be:

• Characters learn spells as usual.
• Learning a spell allows you to memorise it by reading from a book.
• Memorising a spell reduces the wizard's adjusted IQ by 1.
• All the IQ tasks like perception and willpower checks use adjIQ.
• Casting a spell costs no ST.
• When you cast the spell you forget it.
• When you cast the spell you get the adjIQ back.

A few ambiguities and unanswered questions:

• Do you need adjIQ equal to a spell's IQ requirement to memorise a spell? I think probably yes.
• Do you need adjIQ equal to a spell's IQ requirement to cast a spell? I think probably yes.
• Can you forget a spell and recover the adjIQ without casting it? I think probably yes.
• Can you memorise several copies of a spell? You never see anyone doing this in Dying Earth, but it's not clearly ruled out either.
• How do you pay the per-turn cost of a spell?
• How long does it take to memorise a spell?

Some interesting consequences:

• Wizards would have to start with weaker spells and finish with strong ones as their adjIQ recovered.
• Wizards wouldn't be as useful as scouts, since a lot of the time they walk around with low adjIQ.
• Wizards wouldn't increase their fragility as they cast.
• Wizards might use a wider variety of spells.
• Wizards will need to bring their spell books with them.