12-15-2019, 05:56 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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[Magic] A simplified version of the standard spell system
This works mostly as the spell-based magic system in the Basic Set 4e and GURPS Magic for 4e, with the following exceptions:
Thoughts?
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Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life. "The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates." -- Tacitus Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted. |
12-15-2019, 06:10 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Helsinki, Finland
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Re: [Magic] A simplified version of the standard spell system
What's your aim with this?
Making a spellcaster does become marginally easier, and the main drive for magical styles is pretty much lost.
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[/delurk] AotA is of course IMHO, YMMV. vincit qui se vincit |
12-15-2019, 07:31 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: [Magic] A simplified version of the standard spell system
Well, I wasn't thinking about magical styles, so that doesn't change anything (they're interesting, but aren't needed for every game). I think my main aim was to do away with long prerequisite chains, as well as making spell skills a bit more 'skill-like.' I suspect these were not my only aims when I started, but I'm not recalling others at the moment, as I started work on this some time ago (less than a month, I think, but long enough that combined with being tired a lot and having many other ideas, I'm not sure).
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Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life. "The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates." -- Tacitus Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted. |
12-15-2019, 07:56 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [Magic] A simplified version of the standard spell system
This seems fairly similar to Ritual Magic, replacing the variable penalty with a fixed (but typically higher) one, so it seems like it should work out alright. You may want to have individual spells be purchasable as Techniques of the skills they default to rather than only as individual skills. For example, Explosive Fireball could be purchased independently as a stand-alone skill, as a Technique to buy off the -2 from Fireball, or as a Technique to buy off the -6 from Fire College.
For Magic Styles, an idea that might work (given proper curation) would be to allow a Magic Style skill instead of a College skill, and possibly even have spells default to it at a better rate. Alternatively, you could base the penalty on the breadth of spells in the style; one that only covers a portion of the Fire College might have them default at -3/-4, while one that covers nearly every spell in existence might have them default at -20 or worse.
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GURPS Overhaul |
12-15-2019, 09:01 AM | #5 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [Magic] A simplified version of the standard spell system
Quote:
Generaly, given the usual IQ+Magery levels it will always be cheaper to buy a spell as a standalone than to buy it as a Technique of anything else. Fpr example, even if Explosive Fireball is an _average_ Technique based off of Fireball it would cost 2 pts to buy off the penalty from Fireball as compared to spending the 1 pt you did to get Fireball. Spells as Techniques isn't going anywhere as an idea for repalcing Spells as Skils _unless_ you are doing it to raise the cost of learning Spells.
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Fred Brackin |
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12-15-2019, 09:52 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: [Magic] A simplified version of the standard spell system
It is relatively easy for a character to purchase the College Skill and default from that spell. Basically, it is a much cheaper version of Ritual Magic because you lack a Core Skill that serves as a maximum on the College Skill. For example, an IQ 14 character with Magery 3 can purchase College of Fire-27 and default the entire College of Fire at skill 21/20 from that one skill (the build would cost 163 CP).
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12-15-2019, 09:53 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Aug 2018
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Re: [Magic] A simplified version of the standard spell system
Quote:
Speaking of "default" .. magic spells are among skills which can't be used at default (like the hand to hand combat ones) but what would you think of allowing them to be? If we compare Wizardly Dabbler (Magical Styles page 33) to Dabbler (Power Ups 2 page 16) having Hards at penalties of 6/5/4 works out to the pricing pattern of getting a bonus of 1/2/3 to default, implying that there would be a default of -7 to IQ for Hard spells. A lot more generous than how Thaumatology 38 treats "Spell Defaults" which is at least -4 even if the spell you're defaulting to is the only direct prereq (and casting/energy cost is double) |
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12-16-2019, 06:34 AM | #8 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: [Magic] A simplified version of the standard spell system
I don't think Prince Charon was using the word "default" in the sense of the GURPS term of art, but rather just colloquially, to say that usually / typically / normally spells wouldn't have a penalty.
Nothing wrong with the general concept of prereq count as an attempt to have an objective means to try to sort spells into a gradient of easier to harder without resorting to classifying them into "levels". But it runs into a lot of practical difficulties applying it to the actual spell lists, trying to actually count every prereqs down all the possible paths. The published count is notoriously inaccurate because it's hard. (You'd probably have to throw the spell list into a graph and let software do the counting.) A GM could instead just establish their own list of difficulty values for spells, maybe glancing at the existing count just to get a ballpark idea, and then tweaking from there as needed to suit themselves. |
12-16-2019, 08:23 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: [Magic] A simplified version of the standard spell system
There is something to be said about using a system similar to RPM where spells would be cast against the College Skill and College Skills would be limited by Thaumotology or Ritual Magic. In that case though, I would use the RPM rules to cap Thaumotology and/or Ritual Magic at (12 plus Magery) rather than having Magery add to skill, and I would also limit College Skill defaults (Thaumotology or Ritual Magic - 6) to a maximum level of '12', both to limit munchkins. In compensation, I would include the RPM rules for energy reserves and conditional spells.
Within the standard magic system, that would mean that practitioners would have one Core Skill and ~25 College Skills. A practitioner with Magery 3 could have a maximum Thaumotology/College Skills of '15', would have an energy reserve of 9 points, and could potentially have up to 18 conditional spells. I would have enchantments being magical gadgets though, as the system would otherwise be too open to abuse. |
12-16-2019, 09:05 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: [Magic] A simplified version of the standard spell system
This is correct. I probably should have been clearer, but it seemed obvious before I got an outside perspective on it. There are probably other things I should reply to here, but I'm tired, and confirming this seemed like a good idea.
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Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life. "The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates." -- Tacitus Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted. |
Tags |
magic system, spells |
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