Magic-based Power Skills: How do you use them?

[Yamo]

Question for the GMs:

Most magic-using Fantasy HERO characters I've seen have at least one Power Skill tied-in to their spellcasting ability. Usually called Magic, Faith, or something similar. Obviously, these often serve as the basis for Required Skill Rolls relating to the character's spells, but what else do you allow and encourage them to be used for in terms of "power stunts?" Given the following scenarios, where would you draw the line?

1. Cantrips. Incredible minor spells with no real combat application or measurable "power." These tend to be useful mostly for narrative purposes, as they either let character do things with no tangible effect on their environments whatsoever (like blowing colored smoke rings, making eyes change color, etc) or do things that they'd normally be able to do anyway in more interesting ways (starting campfires with a wave of a hand, making pancakes flip themselves, etc).

2. New Advantages. The wizard needs his Firebolt spell to roast that dragon NOW or he's toast (literally). He requests a Magic Roll to apply Armor Piercing to the attack just this once.

3. Entirely new, minor Powers. The wizard is trapped in a cell. Through the bars, he can spy the skeleton key that works the lock dangling from a hook on the wall not twenty feet away. He doesn't have anything resembling a Telekinesis spell, but he figures that a Magic Roll for short range 1 STR TK just this once isn't too unresonable.

So what do you think? What would you be comfortable allowing? And what other ways besides these (if any) have you used magic Power Rolls for?

[Fitz]

I'd consider allowing a Magic (Power) skill roll, modified by -1/10 Active Pts in the power, to Push an existing spell effect -- just like using an EGO roll to push STR.

I'd be reluctant to allow it to create new spells on the fly, though I could maybe be convinced if the character had some xp spare and put forward a decent justification. The example you give of changing the SFX of an existing spell would fall into this category -- if the character wants to be able to vary the spell's FX, I'd be fine with that as long as s/he doesn't mind paying the xp to give the "Variable SFX" advantage to the spell and can put a good case for allowing it.

I'm big on getting my players to convince me; I find that insisting on the verbalizing a reasonable justification for their new skills and/or powers helps to mitigate against the tendency to just grab abilities because they think they might be neato-keano. It works more amicably than just saying "No, you can't do that because I, the Almighty GM, say so".

[Lord Liaden]

In the old, unenlightened days pre-FREd ;) , what's now called the Power Skill was pretty much relegated to RSR Limitations, but I'm looking forward to a couple of players in my new campaign who have taken it for their character's powers - the challenge to their and my creativity should prove interesting.

In the particular cases you raise, for (1) I'd prefer that the player have bought some type of Cantrip spell for this sort of thing. A small Cosmetic or Minor Transform with lots of options would cover most of the things that a Cantrip can do, with maybe variable Change Environment and Images to fill in the rest. Very few spells would be needed, none of them expensive.

For (2), I wouldn't let the wizard add new Advantages to his spell to increase its usual damaging ability, but I might let him use its sfx in an unusual way. Let's say the wizard wants to try using the flaring light from his Firebolt to blind the dragon long enough to escape. If he made his Power Skill roll and successfully targetted the dragon's head, I'd allow him to roll as if the bolt was a Flash of the same Active Points, in addition to its normal damage.

As for (3), I wouldn't allow a TK effect if the character has nothing close to that in his repetoire; but if he has any kind of spell which does Knockback, I'd allow him to make a Power Skill roll to try to knock the key off the wall and toward the cell (at a penalty, of course).

[Killer Shrike]

In the case of a Magic VPP, it would depend on how they bought the control cost. I commonly used skill rolls for each distinct type of magic 'school' and required the applicable skill be used for a laundry list of things, including adding new spells of a type to a spellbook, creating new spells, when analyzing Magic using a Detect Magic ability, etc. A lot of players also opted to take a second small 'Cantrip' VPP which was didnt have a spellbook limitation based on the school skills to do cantrips on the fly.