Staff Spell Item Prerequisites

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Bicorn

I actually kind of like spells that have restrictions that are there for symbolic rather than gameplay-related reasons; GURPS rules often tend to be rather, well, Generic. Adding peculiar limits to magic can make it more flavourful.

You could go further by adding a carrot to the stick. Give each sort of wood, animal bone, etc. a list of spells that get a +1 when cast through a wand or staff of that material.

[David Johnston2]

Of course the truth is, it wouldn't be very useful to make a staff out of iron in reality. Mage staffs are useful for extending your reach. Iron is too heavy to be used that way unless you're superhumanly strong. Swords are way shorter so the only real effect to having a staff spell on a sword is that you can use both hands to cast...and still have a sword.

[Polkageist]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Of course the truth is, it wouldn't be very useful to make a staff out of iron in reality. Mage staffs are useful for extending your reach. Iron is too heavy to be used that way unless you're superhumanly strong. Swords are way shorter so the only real effect to having a staff spell on a sword is that you can use both hands to cast...and still have a sword.

Yep, which is why mechanically it's not a sword. If you really drive the system out to its generic endpoint then the staff spell item is really a vehicle for the 'Magical Assistance Item' enchantment that has clear enumerated abilities. "Reality" is subjective to the imaginary world that's been created, so magic makes it act, feel, and be like a "normal" staff because under the hood in this world of books and dice it's a staff. The question isn't so much whether or how an iron staff would be hard to use or make, but why the staff being made of iron is important to the appearance, flavor, or style of the item and/or its user. Magic makes it lighter, heavier, weaker, or stronger as necessary for it to be the 'staff' as outlined in the book, no more no less.

The idea of giving different materials bonuses is really interesting, beware of golf-bag syndrome of a mage carrying around a selection of magical sticks made of various materials needed for their casting. Or maybe do so, if that's the theme: a tool-mediated magic system where having the right implement made of the right material gives a real boost to the casting. As much as a fighter needs the right kind of sword, hammer, or axe to do their choppy job, a mage needs the right ruby wand, silver knife, or bone flute to do theirs.

[RyanW]

If I ever do another standard magic system wizard, I might give him as a staff a light club (broadsword skill) with a basket hilt, and base his fighting style on singlestick.

[Bicorn]

Originally Posted by RyanW

You could go further by adding a carrot to the stick. Give each sort of wood, animal bone, etc. a list of spells that get a +1 when cast through a wand or staff of that material.

Ooh, good idea.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by RyanW

If I ever do another standard magic system wizard, I might give him as a staff a light club (broadsword skill) with a basket hilt, and base his fighting style on singlestick.

I keep toying with a Cleric/Swashbuckler that uses two short spears and Weapon Fencer (Spears) Perk...

[Culture20]

Originally Posted by RyanW

If I ever do another standard magic system wizard, I might give him as a staff a light club (broadsword skill) with a basket hilt, and base his fighting style on singlestick.

A saber bokken!

[Polkageist]

Or a Maasai rungu, and make the knob of the club something unusual like a skull or a crystal sphere

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Dalin

This leads to a potentially interesting campaign world where wizards effectively have mystical umbilical cords that they can channel magic through. That bit of rope dangling from the ceiling might not just be leftover from a former chandelier; it may be a channel to the wizard who owns the place. Scouts may sneak forward to lay a wizard's rope as close to the conclave of cultists as possible. Powerful wizards would have invisible, nearly unbreakable ropes. I can imagine a lich lining the walls of its dungeon with staff-ropes so that it could sit in its impregnable control chamber and cast spells anywhere in the complex at short range.

Of course, if I remember correctly, the default Staff spell doesn't limit the staff to be usable by the caster only, so a sloppy wizard might end up getting zapped in reverse by a savvy opponent.

It's not formal rules, but I always like the idea that an aspiring wizard has to make his own personal Staff, and nobody else can ever use it. I see it as part of the rite of recognition that yeah, now you're a full Wizard with whatever rights appertain.

Originally Posted by maximara

The logic kind of breaks down when you start getting into the higher TLs. Plastic comes to mind especially that super-strength polypropylene as durable as steel they have been working on.

Oil and gas are "once living" materials and certainly qualify.

I would tend to get around that by house-ruling that it has to be wood (I tend not even to accept bone), and that you have to get it from a certain kind of tree that's suited for the role. Some places might have groves of that kind of tree growing, and harvest branches periodically for staves. It might incorporate jewels and stuff, of course.

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

All of this talk led me to thinking about a hypothetical wizard who lost an arm and had a mechanical replacement arm made of various metals by thankful dwarves/gnomes/whatevers (the fantasy counterpart to a cybernetic arm).

Would the wizard be able to use the inorganic mechanical arm for touch spells or to extend his reach?

A proper answer to that would very likely be "It depends".

In my personal case, my decision would probably be 'no'.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Um... a bone or a chunk of dead wood is most certainly non-living, it's just derived from something living (I would generally classify the results of flesh to stone as organic stone, and note that stone to flesh only works on organic stone).

If you don't like the magic part, a sword quenched in blood is also derived in part from a living being.

There's an inspiration: what if a magic staff has to be made of magical wood, wood that is still alive as part of the staff? Every so often a mage's staff would need to be submerged in a water/soil bath and exposed to sunlight...