Mage Blade

[AlexanderHowl]

I do not believe that anything from Pyramid was technically RAW, as the stuff from Pyramid did not have the rigor of the books (digital or physical) because it was not formally play tested. It should probably be considered equivalent to the house rules that people post here unless it was included in later supplements (even then, they would usually be equivalent to cinematic rules, highly optional rules that changed game balance by quite a bit). As it stands by the stuff that is RAW, the stuff that made it into the books (digital or physical), I do not believe that I have seen a single instance of substituting attributes for damage purposes.

Anyway, the standard 'substitution' for damage by RAW is the ST-Based modifier, which is a +100% enhancement and only applies to crushing, cutting, impaling melee attacks. Of course, it is not that much of a stretch to combine ST-Based (+100%) with Based on Will (+20%), though that is +120% in modifiers, but it would only apply to crushing, cutting, and impaling melee attacks (it probably would not be too unbalanced to allow it for other types of attacks though, especially with Based on Will). In that case, it would still cost quite a bit even with No Wounding.

A simpler build would be to allow mages to purchase Innate Attack with up to a maximum dice of damage equal to (Will/4) plus Magery. Thus, a character with Will 15 and Magery 3 could purchase a melee Innate Attack with a maximum damage of 7d-1. They would still need to pay for it though.