WOIN OLD and Magic

[Darrius_Adler]

So I am super new to this system and I am trying to puzzle some things out. Reading the Flavoring Your Magic side bar, I can see where High Magic probably gets fairly nutty. I was considering a sort of half measure system and I am wondering if anyone has done something similar.

What I am considering is any spell with an MP cost equal to half or less of your maximum MAG (round down) is considered to be a spell you have mastered, and can cast freely with no expenditure of MP points. However, to be able to cast the spell for free, you still have to have MP points equal to the cost of the spell available in your pool.

Looking for feed back on if this would still be crazy strong or sort of a nice middle ground between rare magic and magic everywhere.

 

[Morrus]

I think you should playtest it and report back! I’d be interested to know too!

 

[Darrius_Adler]

I think you should playtest it and report back! I’d be interested to know too!

If I do get the chance to playtest it, it would not be for a while yet. Can't even claim this idea is entirely my idea. There is something similar in a game called Ghosts of Albion. Unlimited magic use for spells below your Mastery Threshold. Casting above that costs you until you are too tired to cast anything.

Was thinking someone else might have already tried something like this.

Hoping for a big book of monsters before I dive too much into the system. Such a book will help me grasp monster creation and balance a bit better. What I want to do will end up with many custom foes.

 

[Morrus]

You can find all the monsters in the online bestiary!

 

[dekrass]

I ran a game for a while with the High Magic variant. It makes spellcasters extremely powerful. Contingency abjurations quickly make the entire party nigh invulnerable to creatures of dice pools comparable to the party. Divinations and other utility spells are cast constantly and evocations are stronger than any weapons the warriors have. Overall it makes spellcasters outshine all of the other characters. It could be well suited to something like a Harry Potter campaign where everyone is a caster.

Restricting free casting to half MAG would probably reduce some of that. You'd likely still have divinations and abjurations cast constantly, making some skills and abilities from other characters redundant. I think spellcasters would be more powerful than everyone else due to their versatility, but for some groups that may be acceptable.

I'm currently using a variant for high magic simply having MP equal MAG time ten. Just having a limit prevents piling on contingencies and makes players choose between spending points constantly for utility spells or being a combat powerhouse. The MP may still be too high. I haven't seen anyone completely run out yet, but just having a cost seems to limit much of the really troublesome casting.

Good luck with your game.

 

[Darrius_Adler]

I ran a game for a while with the High Magic variant. It makes spellcasters extremely powerful. Contingency abjurations quickly make the entire party nigh invulnerable to creatures of dice pools comparable to the party. Divinations and other utility spells are cast constantly and evocations are stronger than any weapons the warriors have. Overall it makes spellcasters outshine all of the other characters. It could be well suited to something like a Harry Potter campaign where everyone is a caster.

Restricting free casting to half MAG would probably reduce some of that. You'd likely still have divinations and abjurations cast constantly, making some skills and abilities from other characters redundant. I think spellcasters would be more powerful than everyone else due to their versatility, but for some groups that may be acceptable.

I'm currently using a variant for high magic simply having MP equal MAG time ten. Just having a limit prevents piling on contingencies and makes players choose between spending points constantly for utility spells or being a combat powerhouse. The MP may still be too high. I haven't seen anyone completely run out yet, but just having a cost seems to limit much of the really troublesome casting.

Good luck with your game.

Hmmm, with the players I have also being completely new they may not grasp everything they could do with the power. Right now I am a bit fuzzy on the possibilities. Mainly what I was looking at here is a way in which the mages can't through max level destructive spells all the time but would also never have to resort to a bow or crossbow if they did not wish to.

From the sound of it you can cast a bunch of spells that trigger when conditions are met?

I may start with the standard ratio of MP and see how that goes first.

 

[dekrass]

The simplest way to prevent casters from resorting to crossbows is to make sure they have one of the magical attack exploits, like firebolt, arcane bolt, or icicle. Those are from the fire mage, ice mage, and mage respectively. The more combative casting careers have exploits that give them things to do in combat without MP. The exploits are comparable to weapons, but still have that magical flair.

 

[Morrus]

The simplest way to prevent casters from resorting to crossbows is to make sure they have one of the magical attack exploits, like firebolt, arcane bolt, or icicle.

Yep. That's exactly what they're for!