Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 04-12-2021, 02:36 PM   #11
kirbwarrior
 
kirbwarrior's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Magery

Quote:
Originally Posted by RogerBW View Post
A concept which I think John introduced me to which is still important in 4e is the "Mage Number": IQ + Magery - 2, or "the skill level I will get by spending one point in a normal spell". Given that anyone with more than trivial core-rules magic will have lots of spells, it's important to keep that number in mind when designing the character.
I do something very similar but IQM-3 because some spells seem to randomly decide to be VH. If IQM-3 is 15, that also means hard spells get to be 16 and thus very likely to succeed.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
IQ 14 is rather high, and I think as time has gone on it has become more acceptable to change the magery limit. DF changes the limit from 3 to 6, and I think a fair number of games follow suit. A mage with a bunch of spells often feels less problematic to a game than a mage who can learn any IQ-based skill on a whim.
I've largely dropped talent caps and that applies to Magery, too. There's a soft limit of 10, but more accurately I just generally don't want players to take attribute + talent above 20. So far it hasn't had any meaningful impact on how good mages are.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by cosmicfish View Post
While I do not think that GURPS is perfect I do think that it is more balanced than what I am likely to create by GM fiat.
kirbwarrior is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-12-2021, 07:14 PM   #12
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Magery

Uncapped Magery is particularly useful for concepts that don't call for the mage to be a old, learned loremaster (along the lines of Gandalf and D&D wizards). Magery's cheaper than IQ, so if the concept is just "magically powerful", but not "brainiac", then Magery's a cheaper way to get to high skill, so the builds aren't quite so compelled to toe the IQ 14 + Magery 3 - 2 line.
Anaraxes is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-12-2021, 08:21 PM   #13
kirbwarrior
 
kirbwarrior's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Magery

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
Uncapped Magery is particularly useful for concepts that don't call for the mage to be a old, learned loremaster (along the lines of Gandalf and D&D wizards). Magery's cheaper than IQ, so if the concept is just "magically powerful", but not "brainiac", then Magery's a cheaper way to get to high skill, so the builds aren't quite so compelled to toe the IQ 14 + Magery 3 - 2 line.
It's also why I like allowing for DX-based wizards. And HT-based ones with a UB (I think I use 30? HT-based wizards don't take magery and things that care about magery are dealt with differently).
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by cosmicfish View Post
While I do not think that GURPS is perfect I do think that it is more balanced than what I am likely to create by GM fiat.

Last edited by kirbwarrior; 04-12-2021 at 08:22 PM. Reason: I realized the beginning part was just repeating what I quoted
kirbwarrior is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-12-2021, 08:49 PM   #14
Fred Brackin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Magery

Quote:
Originally Posted by kirbwarrior View Post
I. If IQM-3 is 15, that also means hard spells get to be 16 and thus very likely to succeed.

.
It's not so much a raw success thing as a crit thing. Going from 15 to 16 doubles your number of critical successes and reduces your crit fails by 4x.
__________________
Fred Brackin
Fred Brackin is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 04-12-2021, 09:57 PM   #15
kirbwarrior
 
kirbwarrior's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Magery

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
It's not so much a raw success thing as a crit thing. Going from 15 to 16 doubles your number of critical successes and reduces your crit fails by 4x.
Woops, I meant to talk about criticals. Yes, absolutely this. And considering that TDMs don't apply to Magic, getting there with base skill is super important.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by cosmicfish View Post
While I do not think that GURPS is perfect I do think that it is more balanced than what I am likely to create by GM fiat.
kirbwarrior is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
advantage of the week, magery, path/book adept, variable energy access

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 07:49 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.