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<blockquote data-quote="kengar" data-source="post: 717506" data-attributes="member: 3230">It's true, and it's a tough issue. The best solution (which is also the least &quot;defined&quot;) I've found is a game where a party doesn't need a spellcaster and that the player who really wants to play one is a good roleplayer and will work to maintain an appropriate feel the magic. Decipher's LOTR RPG is a good example of a game that relies on this somewhat.Bear in mind that CoC is a horror RPG. The whole point of CoC is to die horribly (or worse!) <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin&nbsp; &nbsp; :D"&nbsp; data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />The things I especially like about CoCd20's magic system in general is that:A) You learn spells one at a time, and finding things like old spellbooks is a BIG deal. Also, the study involved in learning a new spell is emphasized more.B) There is a *cost* to magic. You don't just fling it around casually. Mana/Fatigue point systems address this somewhat too.C) It moves away from the &quot;fire &amp; forget&quot; Vancian model. If you know a spell, and you haven't tapped yourself out casting it once, you can cast it again. To lose a little of the horror feel, simply ignore the SAN loss and make all ability damage temporary. Or change it to HP/subdual damage.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="kengar, post: 717506, member: 3230"] It's true, and it's a tough issue. The best solution (which is also the least "defined") I've found is a game where a party doesn't [i]need[/i] a spellcaster and that the player who really wants to play one is a good roleplayer and will work to maintain an appropriate feel the magic. Decipher's LOTR RPG is a good example of a game that relies on this somewhat. Bear in mind that CoC is a horror RPG. The whole point of CoC is to die horribly (or worse!) :D The things I especially like about CoCd20's magic system in general is that: A) You learn spells one at a time, and finding things like old spellbooks is a BIG deal. Also, the study involved in learning a new spell is emphasized more. B) There is a *cost* to magic. You don't just fling it around casually. Mana/Fatigue point systems address this somewhat too. C) It moves away from the "fire & forget" Vancian model. If you know a spell, and you haven't tapped yourself out casting it once, you can cast it again. To lose a little of the horror feel, simply ignore the SAN loss and make all ability damage temporary. Or change it to HP/subdual damage. [/QUOTE]

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