Mythic Earth - Question for RW regarding Draining Magic

[genshou]

On pg. 10 of Elements of Magic - Mythic Earth, you present an optional rule called Draining Magic which appears to show some promise. However, when I was looking at it I noticed that an increase of 2 ranks in a magical skill negates 2 points of Strength burn, but every 2 levels of a spell increase the amount of burn by an average of 2.5. Was this done intentionally? I must admit that having a 20th-level, maxed-out caster take an average of 7 points of Strength burn for casting a level 23 spell (12d4 averaged to 30, minus 23 for the spellcasting ranks) has an intereseting flavour appeal, but was that your goal when making this rule, or should it scale properly as per an option such as 1d3 per 2 levels instead of 1d4?

 

[RangerWickett]

It was actually inspired by similar rules in Grim Tales. The point of that optional rule is not to keep the same power level. It's meant to make magic more dangerous. So a spellcaster with 23 ranks in a skill is only really safe when he casts spells of 12th level or lower (6d4, meaning that 1 in 4096 times he'll take 1 point of Strength drain).

Of course, the book was geared primarily toward being used at 10th level or below. High level spellcasters have always been very powerful, but I had more room to wiggle and make things fun at low level. So a character with 13 ranks could probably cast 8th level spells without too much risk, which is about the same way it is in the basic rules: If you cast a spell of your highest normal level, you've got a good chance of failing, but if you cast something 5 levels lower than your normal limit, you're usually safe.

 

[genshou]

It was actually inspired by similar rules in Grim Tales. The point of that optional rule is not to keep the same power level. It's meant to make magic more dangerous. So a spellcaster with 23 ranks in a skill is only really safe when he casts spells of 12th level or lower (6d4, meaning that 1 in 4096 times he'll take 1 point of Strength drain).

Of course, the book was geared primarily toward being used at 10th level or below. High level spellcasters have always been very powerful, but I had more room to wiggle and make things fun at low level. So a character with 13 ranks could probably cast 8th level spells without too much risk, which is about the same way it is in the basic rules: If you cast a spell of your highest normal level, you've got a good chance of failing, but if you cast something 5 levels lower than your normal limit, you're usually safe.

The only problem I see with this is that ability burn takes days to heal, and it has a more negative impact on a character than the standard rules. I'd prefer that ability burn heal at a faster rate, which I just may use as a house rule in my "Fantasy d20" Mythic Earth game. Just trying to figure out how it all works out mathematically and noticed that curious little fact. Thanks for clearing that up.