Arcane Lore for Ritual Path Magic

dataweaver · 01-01-2012, 10:05 PM

I'm considering a couple of tweaks for Ritual Path Magic. The one I'd like to present here is Arcane Lore.

The idea is this: in addition to the nine Paths that everyone has access to, there are also an open-ended assortment of Arcane Lore skills. Each Arcane Lore skill has its own focus: Earth, Air, Weather, Light, Good, Evil… if it would qualify as a 5 points-per-level Power Talent that's suitable for the Magic power source, it can be used as an Arcane Lore skill. Arcane Lore works exactly like a Path does, except that it has no default. I'm debating two other possible differences: reducing the difficulty to IQ/H due to the narrower scope of Arcane Lore (many, but not all, of them might be thought of as optional Specializations of Paths), and requiring a character who wishes to learn one to meet the requirements described under Hidden Lore (to emphasize the idea that Arcane Lore is exceptionally hard to find; but should it be? That might be good to help add magical secret societies to the setting; but it might be overkill).

One of the benefits of Arcane Lore is that it can straddle the divisions between the Paths: for weather-working, use Path of Energy to affect things like wind speed or electrical activity, and Path of Matter to summon rain, hail, etc.; or just use Arcane Lore: Weather for any and all of the above.

Thoughts?

01-01-2012, 10:05 PM	#1
dataweaver Join Date: Aug 2004	Arcane Lore for Ritual Path Magic I'm considering a couple of tweaks for Ritual Path Magic. The one I'd like to present here is Arcane Lore. The idea is this: in addition to the nine Paths that everyone has access to, there are also an open-ended assortment of Arcane Lore skills. Each Arcane Lore skill has its own focus: Earth, Air, Weather, Light, Good, Evil… if it would qualify as a 5 points-per-level Power Talent that's suitable for the Magic power source, it can be used as an Arcane Lore skill. Arcane Lore works exactly like a Path does, except that it has no default. I'm debating two other possible differences: reducing the difficulty to IQ/H due to the narrower scope of Arcane Lore (many, but not all, of them might be thought of as optional Specializations of Paths), and requiring a character who wishes to learn one to meet the requirements described under Hidden Lore (to emphasize the idea that Arcane Lore is exceptionally hard to find; but should it be? That might be good to help add magical secret societies to the setting; but it might be overkill). One of the benefits of Arcane Lore is that it can straddle the divisions between the Paths: for weather-working, use Path of Energy to affect things like wind speed or electrical activity, and Path of Matter to summon rain, hail, etc.; or just use Arcane Lore: Weather for any and all of the above. Thoughts?