[Thaumatology] Powers as (Path/Book) Magic

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by oneofmanynameless

I guess I wonder at why you'd try to powers as magic instead of magic as powers, when the advantage system has a far more robust system for designing your own powers and abilities (or spells) to suit whatever concept the character has and Path/Book magic has a fairly limited collection of spells with no real rules for expanding on it.

A couple of reasons: First, it's an intellectual exercise that I won't know whether it's useful unless someone tests it; I do a lot of those. Second, it can give a different feel to the setting and game, and enable different playstyles, much the way spell-based magic can give a different feel from Magic as Powers, or Symbol Drawing Magic.

Yes, creating new rituals for Path/Book magic without using the Ritual Path Magic system is largely a matter of fudging (and I mostly don't use RPM, because I find it annoying and counterintuitive most of the time), but this isn't a huge problem, since GMs may each want to adjust the costs and limitations differently for their setting - e.g. in one setting, Fireball may be a casual low-effort attack that lots of mages use, and in another, it's quite hard to get working, and mainly the sign of a powerful specialized Fire Magus.