Magic variant - powered by life force and some other points

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

So powerful Mages need to be evil? If they're all going to eb NPC villains you don't need elaborate rules like this.

You can get quite a lot of energy from a bull or a horse. You don't need to sacrifice people.And sacrificing animals isn't evil, under most moral systems.

Edit: But the arguments have swayed me. Maybe this is a bad idea. Maybe only the first energy point needs to be HP (that's -30% according to Thaumatology). Maybe it's not needed at all. I'm removing the Missile spells, so wizards will need some other way to affect people at bowshot distance.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Anders

You can get quite a lot of energy from a bull or a horse. You don't need to sacrifice people.And sacrificing animals isn't evil, under most moral systems.

You generally get a lot more energy out of a human, however - a heavy warhorse (HP 24, IQ 3) produces 72 energy, while an average human produces 100. And some moral systems would consider killing an animal in a manner that spoils it from having the corpse used for anything else (you mention it becoming inedible, but I'd go a step further and have the sacrifice render its skin, bones, fur/feathers, etc all unusable) as at least a little evil (roughly akin to hunting an animal for sport and then just leaving the corpse to rot). As with people, it's less problematic if it's something that you can't safely harvest anything from anyway, like a rabid animal. But, yeah, animal sacrifice can certainly be a way to go.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Varyon

But, yeah, animal sacrifice can certainly be a way to go.

I wouldn't be sure of that. Making the death of a living being be the foundation of all your magic strikes me as something that will not end well.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Anders

. I'm removing the Missile spells, so wizards will need some other way to affect people at bowshot distance.

Removing Missile Spells is unlikely to be consequential. You need high Magery, large energy sources and strong fighters to punish anyone who wants to focus everything on nuking the mages first to make Missle Spells at all useful.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

I wouldn't be sure of that. Making the death of a living being be the foundation of all your magic strikes me as something that will not end well.

The death of living beings is the foundation of the bulk of my calories, and that's worked out alright so far. Sacrificing sapients is typically considered evil, and sacrificing animals certainly can be, but that latter isn't as guaranteed as the former. It would be up to the setting creator if sacrificing animals is considered evil (and with Anders being the setting creator, if he says it's not evil in the setting... it isn't).

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Varyon

The death of living beings is the foundation of the bulk of my calories, and that's worked out alright so far.

At least in this respect we may be fortunate that magic isn't strong in our world. In a world where magic was strong it might have more power to backlash on you than cholesterol (and probably no statin equivalents either).

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Sacrificing sapients is typically considered evil, and sacrificing animals certainly can be, but that latter isn't as guaranteed as the former. It would be up to the setting creator if sacrificing animals is considered evil

The best explanation I've seen for sacrifice being evil/not evil is the concept that the sacrifice has to be imbued with a strong positive emotion such as love, not just by the sacrificer but by the larger community. A selfless and beloved leader sacrificing themselves for the good of their people would be a Good sacrifice. Killing an expensive animal is Neutral. Kidnapping and killing a beloved pet or a person, especially an innocent or young one, is generally Evil.

Likewise, the amount of power released by the sacrifice depends on the amount of emotion imbued. Offing some random pigeon that nobody cares about (except the pigeon, of course) releases minimal energy, although perhaps there's a bit of extra power if the sacrificer invests their own strong emotions in the act, such as sincere devotion to a god or sadistic glee. The willing sacrifice of a powerful and widely-beloved person, especially if they embody other mystical traits, gets you maximum mojo. That's why virgin princesses are such a big deal for your average cinematic devil worshipper.