Spells I have an issue with

[Anders]

Recover Energy is just a weird spell. It should be an advantage. Maybe 5 points for the skill-15 version and 10 points for the skill-20 version.

[Anaraxes]

Mages are pushed toward dabbling in healing because in games, they're generally associated with adventuring parties, whose members tend to get injured a lot. And few players want to sit around healing naturally for weeks.

Recover Energy is a must have (to the point where you might as well put it in Magery 0 and note the rule change there). But moving it to some other College, or eliminating it, wouldn't keep mages from continuing to dabble in healing.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Mages are pushed toward dabbling in healing because in games, they're generally associated with adventuring parties, whose members tend to get injured a lot. And few players want to sit around healing naturally for weeks.

Recover Energy is a must have (to the point where you might as well put it in Magery 0 and note the rule change there). But moving it to some other College, or eliminating it, wouldn't keep mages from continuing to dabble in healing.

There's something to be said for niche protection. Someone who wants to build a pyro mage might be inclined to put Fire College Only on their Magery - except then such a character is crippling their ability to recover FP, by not allowing for Recover Energy. Certainly the party generally needs some sort of unrealistically-fast healer, but there are other options there (a potion-maker, a mage specializing in the Healing college, a priest of some sort, etc). It's reminiscent of the issue with Path of Magic in RPM - pretty much every mage needs that as or tied with their highest Path, due to needing it for Charms and Conditional Rituals (and to a lesser extent, restoring their ER). I'd say it would probably work better if Recover Energy is either a "neutral" spell (one not associated with any College, and thus available to any mage regardless of restrictions on his Magery) or, better, just use Anders' suggestion of making it an Advantage, roughly comparable to Fit/Very Fit.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Someone who wants to build a pyro mage might be inclined to put Fire College Only on their Magery - except then such a character is crippling their ability to recover FP, by not allowing for Recover Energy.

Actually, it doesn't. Recover Energy is a special case under One College Magery, per p. B67.

I agree Recover Energy would make more sense as an advantage of some kind. It dates from early in the history of GURPS, when doing everything with skills was a visible line of development, and I suspect it's been retained because rebuilding the whole spells-as-skills magic system is such a big job, and it doesn't seem worth breaking compatibility with smaller changes.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Actually, it doesn't. Recover Energy is a special case under One College Magery, per p. B67.

I agree Recover Energy would make more sense as an advantage of some kind. It dates from early in the history of GURPS, when doing everything with skills was a visible line of development, and I suspect it's been retained because rebuilding the whole spells-as-skills magic system is such a big job, and it doesn't seem worth breaking compatibility with smaller changes.

When I'm working with the standard system, I like to treat recover energy as a skill with no prerequisites rather than as a spell. even when I'm using broader systems like the ritual magic skills with penalties equal to prereq counts. Though now that you say it, I agree: it probably should be an advantage, not a skill. 5 points, maybe?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Though now that you say it, I agree: it probably should be an advantage, not a skill. 5 points, maybe?

5pts is the cost of Fit which includes a +1 to all HT rolls, recovers FP ls9ot to physical exertion as well as spell casting and doesn't rely on mana.

No more than 3pts and it might be a Perk.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

5pts is the cost of Fit which includes a +1 to all HT rolls, recovers FP ls9ot to physical exertion as well as spell casting and doesn't rely on mana.

No more than 3pts and it might be a Perk.

I'm pretty confident Fit explicitly doesn't work for recovering FP lost to spellcasting.