Taking extra time on spellcasting

[oma]

Is the rule of taking extra time to cast a spell considered acceptable for spellcasting purposes to get a bonus on a casting if there is no rush for the magic user?

[tbone]

I'm pretty sure there's no published allowance for that in DFRPG books.

If you have GURPS Magic, there's a rule "Optional Rule: Alternate Magic Rituals" (p. 9) that introduces a bonus for extra time. Only to a minor degree, though: +1 skill for double casting time, and that's it.

[Mr_Sandman]

The “Time Spent” section in DFRPG Exploits explicitly says it doesn’t apply to spell casting.

In GURPS, besides “Alternate Magic Rituals”, there’s also the optional rule for “Ceremonial Casting” which takes 10 times as long, but allows helpers to contribute to the energy cost, and adding extra energy gives a skill bonus.

[Polkageist]

Barring a meaningful cost of failure, if the spell skill is reasonably high enough (15+, or 18+, up to you) and it's in the more zoomed out portion of the story like travel or downtime then I'd let the spell success be assumed.

For example, in a recent game the druid would use various spells to accelerate their progress through the wilderness, and I would note that for them to be down FP *IF* an unexpected encounter occurred but for the sake of keeping the pace going I would assume a success on the spells as the spell skill was high enough.

When the stakes are high or it's in combat-time, I'd keep to the rules (magic doesn't get a bonus for extra time taken) but when it's in the broader scope it's ok to move things along.

I take a similar eye to non-magical skills as well, though I tend to use those more for gauging the tone of the scene based on the success/failure of those. And because there is more support for taking extra time with those kinds of skills it's appropriate to make the cost of an assumed success be more time passed.

[tbone]

Originally Posted by Mr_Sandman

The “Time Spent” section in DFRPG Exploits explicitly says it doesn’t apply to spell casting.

Yep, good catch.

I think it'd be interesting to try allowing "Time Spent" rules with spells! Some overall tweaks would be in order: reduced casting time should also use "Time Spent" (so -50% casting time is no longer a freebie for high skill; it'd mean a -5 penalty). Gestures might follow "Optional Rule: Alternate Magic Rituals". And so on.

Could be interesting. The most likely effect, I'd think, would be somewhat as Polkageist suggests: spells cast when time isn't an issue will more or less reliably succeed, thanks to that readily available bonus of up to +5.

Players will be players, though, so test with care... One possible limit on abuse: the maximum bonus for time spent could be limited to spellcasting talent, e.g., limited to +3 for Magery 3 or PI 3.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by tbone

Yep, good catch.

I think it'd be interesting to try allowing "Time Spent" rules with spells! Some overall tweaks would be in order: reduced casting time should also use "Time Spent" (so -50% casting time is no longer a freebie for high skill; it'd mean a -5 penalty). Gestures might follow "Optional Rule: Alternate Magic Rituals". And so on.

I did something related to this in GURPS Locations: Worminghall (not a DF book!). It wasn't possible to get a bonus to spell rolls from time spent. But it WAS possible to get a bonus from Symbol Drawing: +1 per 2 point margin of success. And Symbol Drawing gave bonuses for time spent: +1 for 2 seconds, +2 for 4, +3 for 8, +4 for 15, and +5 for 30. So statistically, spending 30 seconds sketching a diagram on a wax table would give you +2 to +3 of effective skill with a given spell.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Off the cuff: a +1 for every shift in units of time: instant to seconds (minimum of 1), seconds to minutes, minutes to hours, hours to days, and days to weeks. That gives a +5 to a spell that can be cast instantly normally. Breaking down the spell in 8 hours of time for concentration seems fine.

[mburr0003]

Originally Posted by tbone

I think it'd be interesting to try allowing "Time Spent" rules with spells!

I allow it and I've played under GMs who allow. The most "fair" feeling way is to apply the time increase to the Base Time to Cast and then any Time Reduced by Skill to the resulting new time to cast, or (and this is my personal preference) disallow reduced time by skill... since after all they are doing a full ritual. Oh, and they do need to be doing the whole"ritual" nonsense, so loud chanting, exaggerated gesturing, footwork, etc. No "I sit and silently stare at my nemesis from across the bar for several minutes casting Death at skill 25..."

Or also like to disallow reduced cost entirely (they're jumping around, waving their arms, and loudly chanting for longer after all), but I also liked a game where I allowed extra reduced cost if it takes the skill to a new cost reduction level. Both ways have felt "right" it just depended on the campaign's feel.

For a gritty, low power game, I stuck to no reduced time by skill, no reduced cost; for a 125 point DF game I stuck to no reduced time but allowed reduced cost, and I saw several combat castings extended out by 5 to 10 seconds to hit those magic cost reduction marks, but mostly it was a mere doubling or tripling of time to edge a spell up to 16 (or sometimes higher) to help break resistances.

Outside of combat there is rarely a risk to taking longer, which is why I prefer to avoid the 'reduced cost", but it did fit well in that lowbies DF frequently increasing the risk of being interrupted in combat.