[Martial Arts/Thaumatology] Magical Styles for Martial Arts styles

[Gnome]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

It would be better to avoid spells and instead focus on powers if you wanted something fast enough for combat. The turn required to cast standard spells in combat could be deadly against mundane fighter who focused on actual combat skills. The spell is cast at the end of the last second of concentration, not the end of the last turn of concentration, which means that people who go after you in the combat sequence can interrupt anything but a Blocking spell.

There is also the question of the FP economy. Not only can the delay caused by casting spells be deadly, the FP cost could be deadly as well. For example, Vigor costs 2 FP per +1 HT per minute, meaning that a fighter that spent 10 FP to gain +5 HT would likely be so exhausted that they would die in combat before the minute was up.

If I wanted to have a martial arts style that used the standard system, I would focus on Blocking Spells that require only Magery 1 and a few spells at most in order to increase utility. For example, I would probably have a magical martial arts style include one of the following chains:

Ignite > Shape Fire > Defect Energy

Apportation > Deflect Missile > Catch Missile > Return Missile

With deflect energy, the mage would deflect lasers. With return missile, they could reflect bullets. Without having to worry about missile attacks, the martial artist could focus on melee combat.

I think you may not have noticed an important change from GURPS 3e. Spells in 4e take effect as soon as you're done concentrating (at the end of your turn).
Also, I'll mention here one of the most important and often forgotten spells: Delay. This spell allows you to do something similar to the "charms" of other magic systems, which is to say you can "pre-cast" your buff spells (like Vigor) and trigger the Delay when the action starts.

Having played many campaigns with standard magic, I can assure you that it's more than fast enough for combat if used correctly. Plenty of powerful offensive spells have a one second casting time, and with sufficiently high skill, you can learn to cast a few key spells for no energy in one second. For example, with Create Animal-20 you can create a wolf in one second for no energy. With Mental Stun-20 you can throw stun spells at your enemies all day (and if you're a martial caster, you can then proceed to pound the stunned foe with your staff--in DF games the party typically has some Weapon Master sword-swingers that will take care of that part for you).

If you can learn a few spells at 25, you're in godlike territory. Great Haste at 25 means that in one second, for a mere 2 energy, you can give yourself Altered Time Rate and turn into an ultimate fighting machine. Sleep at 25 means that you can put enemies to Sleep in one second for no energy! The list goes on and on.

And then of course there are the Blocking spells, chief among them being Blink. This spell is insane in the hands of a fighting wizard. Try Blinking behind an enemy during their turn, while they're attacking you. Now you're starting your next turn behind them...
And don't forget to buy Blocking Spell Mastery (Blink) so that you can Blink multiple times per turn!