EoM: Thoughts on spell duration and effects

[NeonWolf]

Watching a commercial for Snow White I got to thinking that the sort of magic you read in fairy tales or other fiction does not work well currently with any game magic system I've seen. So I thought I'd toss out a few ideas and see what people thought.

Most of the magic we see is generally of a very short term nature. What if the magic could have it's duration extended, or even area of affect expanded by increasing the SP cost and casting time. This could lead to a "curse" of changing a person into a frog for years. But the spell might take days to cast, and use up all of the caster's SP during that time.

To got even further with this curse idea. HOw about flaws in the spell? The cursed frog can only be changed back by a kiss. An expanded area of effect could have the flaw of being donut shaped and thus not attacking those nearest to the caster.

So what does everyone think?

 

[scholz]

Different Take

This wouldn't cover all your cases. But I was thinking of an effect the system seems well suited for. I was thinking of the idea of feeding Magic Points into active spells.
If a spell is active, the player could after having cast it, feed a certain amount of Magic Points into the spell to keep it active. There might be other requirements for this effect baed on circumstances.

1. If the spell effect is within the basic range of the spell, then the caster need only expend a Standard action to add to the duration. Each equivalent MP expenditure adds the normal duration on top of existing duration, even if done before the duration expires.

2. If the spell effect is outside the range of the spell, but the target is still visible. The the MP cost is doubled and the casting time is a full round. This also applies to using scrying to 'see' in the target (unless line of sight is normal range).

3. If the caster has rested and recovered magic points since casting the spell, the casting time becomes one minute and the Magic Point cost becomes treble the normal cost. (For use in Sleeping Beauty type cases).

This could be a normal spell power, require a specialize feat, or be a secondary use of the Extend Spell Feat. What do you think?

Steve