What magic system that uses some form of power points (e.g. casting spell x costs 3 points) is your favorite?

[nogray]

I tend to like (mostly) various editions of the Talislanta magic system, which uses a casting roll with an increasing penalty (iirc, -1 per previous spell cast that day, but if you critically succeed on the casting roll, that casting doesn't increase the penalty). It also divided spells into categories of effects (movement, attack, defense, summoning, etc.) at which each type of magic (crystal magic, (each element) magic, general "sorcery," necromancy, etc.) had different facility. In-fiction you had a lot of spells that each did one precise thing, but in-game, you were creating your own spell by adding range, area, duration, etc. to modify the casting roll.

Basic GURPS magic isn't terrible, with each spell being a skill and costing fatigue (and a spell roll) to cast.

 

[Voadam]

I loved the psionic point system of 3e/3.5e.

Me too.
Powers cost points depending on their power levels and can be upcast for more points. Sits comfortably alongside the vancian casting system. Also has lots of non-point options with things like the psionic focus mechanic so it is not necessarily limited to just points.

 

[SteveC]

It’s not a good answer, but…

It's not a good answer, it's a great answer! With Hero you can mix and match multiple magic styles in the same game all under one rules set.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It's not a good answer, it's a great answer! With Hero you can mix and match multiple magic styles in the same game all under one rules set.

Which is what I’ve done with it, more than once.

I had a Fantasy HERO campaign that was cut short, in which the PCs were essentially all HEROized versions of D&D classes. And not just from one edition, either. It required a little extra effort on my part helping the players, but it worked fine.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

What, no one's going to mention Rolemaster? It was one of the earliest games to use a true power point system (as opposed to one that paid casting costs with an attribute like T&T's or TFT's Strength), and no matter how clunky the system might be the sheer variety of critical hit charts for every kind of magically-induced injury you can inflict is pretty impressive. Also avoids the hit point bloat issues 5e seems to suffer from, since you can have all the concussion hit in the world and it won't help if that acid bolt just landed an "E" crit and melted your spine.

Certainly my favorite power point system for its wildly varied results alone, even if I'd just as soon never play the game again.

 

[dbm]

What, no one's going to mention Rolemaster?

Post #8…

 

[Staffan]

Savage Worlds is fairly neat in that it has basic rules for arcane powers in the core book (with different ways of accessing those powers that are basically just flavor), but then offers a multitude of variants on top of those basic rules in various setting books (both general genre like "Science Fiction Companion" or specific settings like "Deadlands". The basic rules remain the same – a bolt cast by an SFC Hard-light Controller will act much the same as one cast by a Deadlands Huckster, but one will likely be a hard-light force-field "punch" Green Lantern-style, and the other will take the form of a magically conjured card thrown with explosive force, Gambit-style. But different arcane backgrounds will have different things added on top of that. The hard-light controller has the option of keeping a shield up on one hand makes stealth almost impossible but that lets them spend power points instead of Bennies (a meta-currency that's not exactly rare, but neither is it abundant) to reduce incoming damage, while the Huckster can Deal with the Devil in order to play a hand of poker with some nebulous demonic entity in the hopes of powering something normally beyond their ability.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

FWIW, I think any mechanical framework that simultaneously supports multiple “magic” systems within a setting is a good thing because it supports a narrative that there’s many paths to supernatural powers. A character could believably try to pursue various conduits of eldritch ability in order to forge their own path through the world, and possibly even pass that knowledge on to others.

In a sense, a mystical journey akin to Bruce Lee and his creation of Jeet Kune Do.

 

[Corinnguard]

The Elementalist class from Purple Martin Games' Manual of Adventurous Resources: Complete for Level Up uses spell points for its' spellcasting feature. The class uses spell points instead of spell slots because of the way it channels raw elemental energy. An Elementalist's power is raw and unrefined, therefore it requires them to take care to shape that energy into actual spells.

The class is a half-caster. 1st-level spells for them cost about 2 points while 5th-level spells cost them about 7 points. It also costs them spell points to augment their elemental blast feature. They start out at 1st-level with 2 spell points and go as far as 22 spell points by the time they reach 20th level.

 

[Edgar Ironpelt]

The Fantasy Trip, or rather my homebrew based heavily on The Fantasy Trip, with fatigue-St costs for spells. One point I particularly like is that the St cost to cast a spell isn't rigidly fixed to the Intelligence-stat requirement to learn it.

One point I particularly dislike in the stock TFT rules, and have worked to house-rule away, is the annoyingly short duration of most spells and the very high costs of trying to keep them going for any decent or reasonable length of time.