Is it too easy to cast powerful spells with RPM?

[qchap]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Cap skill levels at X and then charge a UB to go beyond.

Yes, it could work too, thanks!

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

I'm not sure what you're asking at this point.

The thread was started because I wasn't sure if it's really so easy to gain such a high skill or I was missing something. Now I know that it is easy, and it is a problem (at least for me). So then I was just discussing how to fix it and now it's kinda solved.

[Aldric]

I was double checking the numbers, but I must have missed something. To get a Path skill up to 20 using only the RPM book, you would need Magery 8, Thaumatology and a Path skill (both VH) at 20 and most likely Ritual Adept. Even buying the path skill up from default (max 12?) still ends up around 200 points.
Quite an investment for a typical 150 point character, even a DF one would have to sacrifice almost everything else for it, ofc 500+ points characters could afford this and more.

Swapping 4 points of Magery for a 5pt talent that also raises the cap of a path shaves 20 points, which is significant but not really game breaking.

So, yeah, what did I miss ?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Aldric

Swapping 4 points of Magery for a 5pt talent that also raises the cap of a path shaves 20 points, which is significant but not really game breaking.

So, yeah, what did I miss ?

It shaves a lot more than 20 points. qchap's example is having a Talent that grants +1 to each of Path of Energy and Path of Magic, so let's compare a character with Magery 8, Path of Energy 20, and Path of Magic 20, against one with Magery 4, Talent 4, Path of Energy 20, and Path of Magic 20. Both pay the same amount to get to Magery 4 and their Path skills at 16, so we'll start from there.

The first character needs to pay [40] for +4 to Magery, [16] for +4 to Path of Energy, [16] for +4 to Path of Magic, and finally [16] for +4 to Thaumatology (Path skills cannot exceed Thaumatology), for a grand total of [88].

The second character pays [20] for Talent 4... and is done. That's a savings of [68], nearly half a [150] character's budget. Granted, it wasn't cheap to get everything to 16 to start with, particularly on top of Ritual Adept, but this may just mean the Talent route is something a [150] character can achieve, while the Magery route is out of reach. Something I forgot to mention above is that the special benefit for the Talent also bypasses needing to keep Path skills equal to or below Thaumatology (but only for the bonus bestowed by the Talent).

Of course, the first character also has the ability to increase all other Path skills to [20], but if all you're interested in is Energy and Magic, Talents get things done a lot cheaper. Of course, you can also get cheaper still by buying Limited Magery (and Ritual Adept, for that matter), such that it's only usable with Path of Energy and Path of Magic (which, again, is an option in Pyramid #3/66, IIRC).

[Aldric]

I see, what I was missing is the fact that the talent is supposed to raise both the cap and the skil. 22 vs 5 is quite the difference for every single point a caster wants to boost his selected path.