Magic System Idea - Thoughts?

**slaughterj** · Mar 11th, '03, 12:44 PM

I've been thinking more about various magic system designs, and I like ones in games I run to be structured so that magic isn't cast willy-nilly ("I cast my "Tie my shoes" spell!"), and isn't so common as to make one question the medieval state of society, i.e., so that disease/plague, famine/starvation, healing, travel, etc. are all still relevant. A number of suggestions have been made, from use of BODY, to Side Effects, to hard-to-obtain materials. Here's one I've been thinking about:

Make all spells cost LTE END on casting.

A few thoughts/clarifications:
- Award the lim, let the casters save the pts (magic can be costly, set up the lim at a set -1/2 lim value or some such, or calculate what sort of long-term Drain END effect it is equivalent to, and assign the lim value based on the proper level of Side Effects).
- This will make all "large" spells cast less frequently (have to rest up).
- This could be set up with personal END or in an END "Mana" Battery.
- At a base level, this would mean that if someone cast a Healing spell, they would be down in x END for several hours, so they won't be casting but so many at any point in time - the same goes for Cure Disease, Create Food, etc. - thus helping to maintain the medieval feel.
- Create some combat spells that are continuous in nature - costing END to maintain/use, but not additional LTE (which is only required on activation). (This is even easier to differentiate from "helpful" spells like Healing, etc., if those spells are only available for Divine practitioners.) Spells like Flame Bolt could be set up where the spell caster can fling a bolt each phase, paying the normal END, but are self-controlling because they aren't going to spend END very long to maintain it (i.e., can't fling bolts of fire all day). However, I'm still trying to figure out how to do this under the Hero system, since this isn't the same as the Continuous advantage (i.e., you have to hit each phase separately, using a new attack action, etc.), but it has been suggested to make such spells have a Magic Roll lim at half value for such effects.

Thoughts?

**PhilFleischmann** · Mar 11th, '03, 05:24 PM

I like it!

LTE is not a bad way to go. The -1/2 for the lim "Costs LTE instead of regular END" sounds about right.

Another way to do this is to just have all spells powered by an END battery, and limit the recovery of the battery.
"Only recovers while the mage is sleeping"
"Only recovers while the mage is meditating/praying/studying at 0 DCV in a quiet place"
"Only recovers once a day/week/month/etc."

Likewise, you could have partial limitations on the battery. F'rex: The first 10 END recovers normally, the next 20 recovers only while sleeping, and another 30 that only recovers with a rare/expensive/difficult/dangerous to obtain expendable focus and only during a full moon. This way, the mage always has access to a little bit of magic, but the more powerful stuff/more frequent use has to be budgetted carefully. He'll think twice about flinging around Bolts of Devastation if it means he's going to have to obtain a fresh dragon tooth to restore his power.

A long time ago I came up with an idea of VLTE - very long term END. Which works the same way as LTE, but over an even longer period. IIRC, it recovered every month. This actually has some basis in reality. If you run a marathon, that takes a lot out of you. You will still be at "reduced END" months later. This is why marathon runners in the olympics and elsewhere don't do too well if they had run another marathon a few months before.

Even though it may be realistic, it's probably too much bookkeeping to do for an RPG. How often is it really going to come up? But then again, if FH spells cost LTE, mages might gradually start to lose VLTE...

**mudpyr8** · Mar 11th, '03, 09:12 PM

My magic system uses LTE and is quite structured. You may find some useful ideas in it. I essentially went with -1/2 for LTE, but there are a bunch of other lims in effect as well.

http://www.tekhed.com/hero/magic.pdf

**slaughterj** · Mar 12th, '03, 06:11 AM

Thanks for the comments. Interesting site mudpyr8, similar use of the LTE concept. I think I might try fleshing it out for an AD&D-ish magic system (the Atlantean system actually), and see how it looks.

**mudpyr8** · Mar 12th, '03, 06:20 AM

By Atlantean are you referring to my Atlan Wizardry? If so, the adjective for the Atlan is atlan. And they are humans, although there is certainly a hint of Atlantean relationship. Or, is Atlantean from your world. Just curious.

I will actually be posting the writeup of the world this goes with. We're still extricating the d20ness from the manuscript which is about 69K words.

**mudpyr8** · Mar 12th, '03, 06:22 AM

One of the reasons I built the system the way I did was I wanted to be able to create a 50 pt mage. Using the normal Hero, no power framework system and maybe -2 ot -3 lims, this was very difficult.

At the same time I feel Multipowers result in spells that are just too cheap, so I wanted some balance. At 115 points the mage in the group is powerful, but no more so than any of the other characters.

**slaughterj** · Mar 12th, '03, 07:35 AM

Originally posted by mudpyr8
By Atlantean are you referring to my Atlan Wizardry? If so, the adjective for the Atlan is atlan. And they are humans, although there is certainly a hint of Atlantean relationship. Or, is Atlantean from your world. Just curious.

I will actually be posting the writeup of the world this goes with. We're still extricating the d20ness from the manuscript which is about 69K words.

By Atlantean, I mean the Atlantean trilogy produced by Bard Games (15 or so years ago), which included the Arcanum, Beastiary, and the Atlantean World (great world setting).

**slaughterj** · Mar 12th, '03, 07:37 AM

Originally posted by mudpyr8
One of the reasons I built the system the way I did was I wanted to be able to create a 50 pt mage. Using the normal Hero, no power framework system and maybe -2 ot -3 lims, this was very difficult.

At the same time I feel Multipowers result in spells that are just too cheap, so I wanted some balance. At 115 points the mage in the group is powerful, but no more so than any of the other characters.

I understand exactly what you mean - MPs seem to make each spell bought too cheap, plus they make adding limitations not very worthwhile - but spells tend to be a bit expensive on the point-buy as well.