Urban Fantasy Magic System Baseline

[Ndreare]

So I am thinking about putting together an urban fantasy setting heavily inspired by Dresden Files.

 

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A Wizard will have an incredible amount of power if prepared or when acting proactively. However when acting reactively the wizard will have only a few incantations to draw on. To represent this power in Hero terms all magic will draw on one of two intelligence based power skills; Rituals and Incantations. In additional the wizard may have science & knowledge skills for different types of magic or styles to work as complimentary skills. Such as understanding physics, chemistry or being exceptionally good at fire magic.

Ritual magic is wide and varied in nature. A wizard using rituals can do amazing feats of power. Not all wizards are created equal and there are three basic levels of power. However power alone is not enough and even a powerful wizard will need to have the skill to safely channel such awesome powers.

The wizards talent has the following limitations witch apply to both the control cost and the powers in the pool as a single limitation called Ritual Magic -4; [RAR: Skill Roll -1/2, Major Side Effects -1/2, Extra-Time -1-1/2: Minimum of 1 minute , Concentration throughout ritual -1/2, Gestures throughout ritual -1/2, Incantations throughout ritual -1/2, Limited Power: Magic Sympathies -1/2.]

 

15 Wizard - Lesser Talent: Variable Power Pool, 9 base + 60 control cost, (39 Active Points); all slots Ritual (-4)  

 

25 Wizard - Full Talent: Variable Power Pool, 13 base + 125 control cost, (76 Active Points); all slots Ritual (-4)  

 

40 Wizards - Major Talent: Variable Power Pool, 23 base + 175 control cost, (111 Active Points); all slots Ritual (-4)  

 

The second type of magic called incantations is the less subtle and more vulgar art. Incantations are limited by the wizards will and skill. The maximum total real points a character may have in incantations in equal to the characters Ego. The maximum total active points a wizard may have active in incantations at any given time is equal to skill times 5. All incantations must have requires a skill roll with a penalty of -1 per 10 active points. However if the characters effective skill is 13 or higher no roll will be made to speed up play.

 

There are a few limitations to be considered for all characters in this setting.

The maximum skill levels or combination of skill levels a character may have without exception is +5. This is for both combat and non-combat skill levels.

Not all wizards have incantations, but all wizards are required to buy the Wizards Gift for 15/25/40 points respectively.

Labs and assistants are super common for aid in casting and multiple wizards can work together on powerful rituals allowing each to perform a component of a compound spell. For example one wizard can perform the clairvoyance, another character performs the mind scan and a third character performs the attack allowing three characters to work together in a single ritual finding, targeting and attacking.

The player’s characters do not have to be wizards.

 

However a wizard may the following talent, but the talent may only be selected once.

10: X Talent; The wizard receives +3 to rituals and incantations only to offset active point casting penalties with a narrow area of power, such as one of the schools of magic. Built as +3 Rituals (6 points) and +3 to Incantations (6 points) = 12 points with the -1/4 limitation only for X. This talent does not count against the limit of no more than 5 levels used on a single roll. This is done to encourage caster to have a "flavor".

 

Other supernatural beings will exist in the world, with a default write being exactly as they are written in the Hero System Bestiary 6th Edition. Individuals may have more or less talent. However those other supernatural beings will be much less frequent that in the Dresden verse as the focus of the game will be political maneuverings between wizards. When those beings show up it will in almost all cases be because a Wizard summoned them.

 

 

From here I plan on letting the Hero System rules themselves and the individual designs of characters be what seperates the powers of others. For example The followers of Forte's School of Magic may have learned their incantations in the form of multipowers, moving powers around as needed. While The Eastern School of the Jade hand may have learned simply how to make oneself invulnerable.

 

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So with all that said any feedback on something I should consider or not consider?

 

[Ndreare]

I am thinking the following are reasonable skill modifiers for rituals based on the feel i want for thaumatology.

 

Sympathetic Objects

+3 Strong representation of effect desired (Example: a weapon that has actually taken a life to represent violence)

+2 Major representation of effect desired (Example: a weapon that has been used to represent violence).

+1 Minor  representation of effect desired (Example: a house hold knife to represent violence.)

+0 No symbols

 

Multiple Symbols.

+0 1 Sympathetic Object (see above)

+1 3 Sympathetic Object (the power of threes)

+2 5 Sympathetic Object (the five elements)

+3 12 or 13 Sympathetic Object (the completed cycle or moons of the year)

 

Times and Seasons

+1 Midnight

+1 Noon

+2 Within the 1 hour window of the full moon

+3 Lunar Eclipses & Occultations during the climax

+X Planetary  Eclipses & Occultations +3 per planetary body in alignment during the climax

 

Places of Power

Some locations are themselves considered sympathetic to certain types of magic and provide from +1 to +4 to casting rituals appropriate to their sympathies. For example a cemetery will be highly sympathetic to attempts to speak with spirits, a church would be highly sympathetic to protection and warding magic. The culture involved will highly affect this. For example East Asians may find Jade to be sympathetic to magic, while Western Europeans may feel iron is antithetical to magic.