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It's all Jack Vance's fault
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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8805222" data-attributes="member: 6877472"><p>I liked Earthdawn's system. You have a limited amount of available "spell matrices" that you could insert a spell into. Doing so took time, and changing out spells on the fly required a difficulty Spellcasting test. Spells required a Spellcasting test to succeed. While a spell was then at-will, powerful spells required you to attach "threads" to them to grant them power. So a powerful attack spell like Earth Darts would take two turns to fire off; one for the Thread Weaving test, and then the Spellcasting test on the following turn.</p><p></p><p>Further, Spellcasting tests were based on one attribute (Perception, as I recall, since Earthdawn didn't have Intelligence), but their effect was based on your Willpower.</p><p></p><p>As you gained more experience ("Legend Points") and advanced in levels (called "Circles"), you could gain abilities to add more spell matrices, put multiple spells in a matrix, pre-weave threads to a matrix, and increase the effect of your Willpower rolls for spellcasting effect.</p><p></p><p>Further, thread weaving was required to attune to magic items.</p><p></p><p>You started with a set number of spells known, and to learn new spells, you had to find a Grimoire.</p><p></p><p>All in all, it dispenses with "fire and forget" casting, while still remaining balanced, and not giving players access to all spells at once.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 8805222, member: 6877472"] I liked Earthdawn's system. You have a limited amount of available "spell matrices" that you could insert a spell into. Doing so took time, and changing out spells on the fly required a difficulty Spellcasting test. Spells required a Spellcasting test to succeed. While a spell was then at-will, powerful spells required you to attach "threads" to them to grant them power. So a powerful attack spell like Earth Darts would take two turns to fire off; one for the Thread Weaving test, and then the Spellcasting test on the following turn. Further, Spellcasting tests were based on one attribute (Perception, as I recall, since Earthdawn didn't have Intelligence), but their effect was based on your Willpower. As you gained more experience ("Legend Points") and advanced in levels (called "Circles"), you could gain abilities to add more spell matrices, put multiple spells in a matrix, pre-weave threads to a matrix, and increase the effect of your Willpower rolls for spellcasting effect. Further, thread weaving was required to attune to magic items. You started with a set number of spells known, and to learn new spells, you had to find a Grimoire. All in all, it dispenses with "fire and forget" casting, while still remaining balanced, and not giving players access to all spells at once. [/QUOTE]
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