Questions about Magery/Spells, etc.

[Regulus_Outrider]

I am trying to implement my house rules on Magic and ran across a hitch. I'm probably missing something basic but:

In my house rules Magery controls which spells you can use, and how much energy can be put into them, but does NOT give a plus to the skill roll, which is instead granted by a separate College Talent.

My question, where exactly is Magery being added to spell rolls? I can't seem to find it in either the Basic or Magic data files...

[Farmer]

In Magery itself (the advantage) if you open the properties and scroll down you'll see the "Gives Builder" section and you'll see where it gives +1 per level to ST:Magery and ST:MageryBase and SK:Thaumatology

One of either Magery or MageryBase will be what's giving the bonus to the spells (and the other I imagine is used to check having enough Magery for your defaults).

So if you want those to be generated elsewhere, copy these to that new Advantage and remove from Magery.

I'm sure Armin will provide a more specific answer but it should be along these lines if you want to test.

[Armin]

(Thanks, Farmer. Note: You do have to click the Show all fields checkbox at the bottom of Edit Traits to see the Gives Builder for traits.)

In the early days of GCA, things were a bit simpler, and the Magery advantage just gave +1 to Spells, and I was happy. But lots of folks used aspected magery, and that needed adjustments, so Eric (IIRC) rewrote things to be a bit more comprehensive, which is also a bit more complex. Now, Magery gives +1 to the Magery attribute, and that attribute gives bonuses to each college, and there are attributes for each college to keep track of the Magery level for each college separate from just Magery, for those aspected folks. But the majority of the work is in the Magery attribute.

(To be honest, I'm not sure what MageryBase is for, as it doesn't seem to be used anywhere.)

So, a couple approaches are possible, I think, depending on what you mean by the "controls which spells you can use'.

1) You can remove the gives() from the Magery advantage (or maybe just keep the +1 to SK:Thaumatology if that still applies). Then do the college bonuses I mention below.

2) You can leave the Magery advantage as it is, and remove the entire gives() text for the Magery attribute. That'll leave everything working as it does now, and just remove the bonus to all the colleges' spells from Magery, so you can do the college bonuses as I mention below.

You'll then want to use your separate College talents to give bonuses to the various spell colleges, such as +1 to CO:Body Control. If you also give bonuses to the Magery X attributes for needs() handling, that'll avoid needing to change those spells to need your individual college talents, also, unless your changes are even more extensive.

Hope that helps.

[Farmer]

Originally Posted by Armin

(Thanks, Farmer. Note: You do have to click the Show all fields checkbox at the bottom of Edit Traits to see the Gives Builder for traits.)

Ah, good tip. I rarely remember making those sorts of settings - more set and forget.

[Regulus_Outrider]

Thank you,
I now have at least some ideas what to do. Just
need to fuddle around at this point.
Still curious about the difference between Magery and
MageryBase stats, and why you need both Maybe I'll
Figure it out during my attempts.

[Armin]

Originally Posted by Regulus_Outrider

Thank you,
I now have at least some ideas what to do. Just
need to fuddle around at this point.
Still curious about the difference between Magery and
MageryBase stats, and why you need both Maybe I'll
Figure it out during my attempts.

Ignore MageryBase, I don't think it's used any more.