GURPS Magic: The Least of Spells

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Prepare Game as a regular spell, so a SM+4 dead Dragon will cost 10

Given a SM+4 dragon is about the size of Shamu and likely weighs 6 tons you won't get far if it's 1 energy per 10 lbs

A 1200 lb steer is going to be an issue.

A Least version might be more likely for something smaller and more specialized. Rabbitskinner or Chickenplucker might be more apt.

[hal]

Originally Posted by William

I am greatly amused by Dramatic Departure. I can think of one serious use -- if you're Unkillable and will reform elsewhere, it would certainly have a tendency to convince unknowing assailants that you are thoroughly dead. But really, I much prefer to have this spell be learned by utter drama queens who, if they have to go, are d*mn well going to go out in style.

I've always wondered - how do you learn/practice a one use spell that only works when you're dying?

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by hal

I've always wondered - how do you learn/practice a one use spell that only works when you're dying?

You memorize the words and gestures, but don't practice them. Sort of like you can drill on how to arm a scuttling charge but don't actually blow up your ship a few times to make sure you got it right.

[Emerikol]

I missed this but I am going to get it.

I'm keenly aware of the desire to separate powerful wizards/mages from lesser magic. I suppose one option is just put a lot of magery prerequisites on many spells. These lesser spells then have a lower requirement.

I'm not totally satisfied though with this approach. It's kind of why I was toying with a limit on the amount of FP you could spend in any second on magic as equal to your magery. That way if you have 1 magery and really want to cast just one spell that is a bit higher cost, you might keep boosting your skill in that one spell really high so the FP cost goes down.

I didn't originally present my option as what I said above but I've refined the idea and what I said above is basically what it amounts to in practice.

[hal]

Originally Posted by Kromm

You memorize the words and gestures, but don't practice them. Sort of like you can drill on how to arm a scuttling charge but don't actually blow up your ship a few times to make sure you got it right.

While I like your analogy - I suspect that we're going to run into a minor problem of sorts...

Someone who self-trains with the spell via some sort of book, makes a mistake in pronunciation, does't realize he has it wrong, and over the years finally tries to make such a dramatic exit, only to discover he had it wrong all these years.

At least with the scuttling charge, you're not responsible to also insure that the charge is not a dud. ;)

On that note - I have to admit that this product (which I never knew existed until yesterday, and purchased today - has given me food for thought.

[Kromm]

*shrug*

I don't really see points in spells as having anything at all to do with learning and practice. They're just investments in various words of power; you could find out about those overnight, but without a certain je ne sais quoi (unspent points), they don't stick . . . Honestly, that's the only way I can justify sinking points equivalent to years of practice into a one-trick incantation. I find the idea that 16 points in Fireball represents the same time investment as 16 points in Physics to be laughable!

So, spells that you never cast once but know at high levels aren't an issue for me. I just meta-game them into existence.

If you insist on a bookish approach with study and practice castings, then yeah, you could run into conundrums. But you can safely assume I don't insist on that in anything I write. That's doubly true of The Least of Spells, which I see as being basically the magical equivalent of memes and life hacks, not something book-learned.

[Tymathee]

Assuming the stereotypical introverted wizard who prefers independent studying of magic, 16 points in Fireball would require 6,400 hours of studying, or about 267 days. This is before taking into account Magery reducing learning time of course. A Magery 3 wizard independently studying would be learning that in 4,480 hours of study, or about 187 days. So intense learning could be expected of someone trying to just learn one spell.

For the typical DF game, you might want to waive the realism in favor of the more abstracted and arbitrary sudden fast-growth learning that's appropriate for the genre... like, I know people turn their noses up at DnD'isms, but it's all for the sake of the dungeon crawl experience.

The Least of Spells seems like they'd be especially appropriate to fast learning, no harder than picking up any other everyman life skill at least.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by hal

While I like your analogy - I suspect that we're going to run into a minor problem of sorts...

Someone who self-trains with the spell via some sort of book, makes a mistake in pronunciation, does't realize he has it wrong, and over the years finally tries to make such a dramatic exit, only to discover he had it wrong all these years.

Ah, but there's a certain tingle when you just practice the words and the gestures. The magic begins to gather but lacks the igniting spark which is your desire to carry out the magic.

[Kromm]

I truly believe that if it's ever justified to give a meta-game concept significance in the game world – e.g., treating points as good karma, divine favor, spiritual readiness, or cosmic potential – then it's for acquiring supernatural capabilities. As such, the idea that having adventures, doing heroic stuff, and generally making waves in the universe lets you accumulate the potential to work new magic isn't all that weird . . . call it some version of "like attracting like." GURPS Power-Ups 5: Impulse Buys goes pretty far down that road, using points to change the world in often-miraculous ways, so why not miraculous learning while we're at it?

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by hal

I've always wondered - how do you learn/practice a one use spell that only works when you're dying?

While being magic almost any answer is okay including Kromm's even ;-), I think you can handle it using a bookish study approach.

If you want a magic system where study and practice are important, you could claim that certain aspects of the spell are a trigger (your death) and the other aspects are different. So you could practice similar spells with triggers and similar spells with the other effects. When you make a science out of magic, you do what scientists/engineers often do.