my magic system; what do you think?

[swobeas]

Hi!

 

I have spent the last weeks with thinking over my magic system for a quite low fantasy campaign.

Characters will start out with 35+35 points and the cost for STR will be doubled, because i think in fantasy to many things like damage, encumbrance and therefore DEF+DCV depend on STR.

I will play in the warhammer world but I won't use any conversions as the one from KillerShrike, I just want to use it as a great backround...

 

Here now the magic system I have thought of:

Game mechanics:

 

Spellcasters buy a VPP which grants them the ability to cast learned spells

VPP

-1: OAF: Wizard’s staff

-1/2: Concentration 0-DCV

-3/4: Extra Time; Full Phase

-1/4: Gestures

-1/4 Incantations

-1/2: Requires Skill Roll

-1/2: caster can’t wear armor

-1/2: cost’s END

-1/2: Side Effect ( EGO at -1 per every 2 points magic skill roll missed or gain 1D6 cumulative minor transform which counts against EGO not BODY. If the transform is complete a EGO roll is made. If successful a mild mental disorder is the consequence, like nightmares or talking during sleep, or pavor nocturnes, if not, the character has gained a neurosis like phobia, enuresis depression etc.)

-1 ½: character must learn the spell before he can use it.

 

I don’t bother with the standard limitation for VPPs that all active powers in the pool added up cannot exceed the pool total. Therefore if a mage has a 30 point VPP, he can still fly, have his force field on and throw a 6D6 EB. But casting new spells gets harder for every power you maintain while casting. Every magic roll is at –1 per maintained power while casting. Therefore the mage in the example above would be at –2 for his EB.

 

Spells may have additional limitations to these above which are still valid then (for example having a spell component or somethig else).

 

Learning a spell:

 

To learn spells a mage must first of all buy a KS in the appropriate school of magic, for example enchantment. If that is granted, no further points are needed to learn a spell, just time and a source of information of course… As a guideline I will use 1 day of learning per every 5 active points in the spell for a KS: school of magic roll, which must be successfull or nothing will be learned. The mage gets a +1 bonus to his KS: school of magic roll per every day spent longer than needed. He can try to learn the spell in a shorter period of time with a penalty of –2 per missing day. A good teacher can grant a bonus to the roll.

Rolling on the KS emphasizes specialization in a specific school, because then you can buy up your KS and then learn spells from that school faster.

For the schools of magic and for the spells I use the ones in the HERO Grimoire, courtesy of being a lazy GM.

The number of spells a character can learn is x2 the control cost of the VPP.

 

Overcoming the limitations

 

A mage can try to ignore limitations if he think this to be necessary, but then he gets a -1 to his magic skill roll for every -1/4 worth of limitation. This also means, that a spellcaster can try to cast completely new spells taking a -6 to his roll (the equivalent of the limitation “-1 ½: character must learn the spell before he can use itâ€.

 

 

What do you think about it???

[Ternaugh]

Re: my magic system; what do you think?

 

Looks fine, but the "Must learn spell" limitation should be on the control cost, not the individual spells, since it actually regulates what can be swapped into the pool. It also seems a bit high for a limitation, but that would of course depend on how much time exists between adventures. Typically, I have something like a couple of weeks to months between adventures, which would allow a typical spellcaster to learn just about any spell they would want at their leisure (assuming that they had the KS). I would probably give it something like the Requires Bulky Spell Book limitation (-1/2), or probably less, since the spells can't be taken away like a book can.

 

YMMV,

JoeG

[swobeas]

Re: my magic system; what do you think?

 

all the limitations listed are for the control cost.

 

-1 1/2 a bit high?

The last campaign we did was quite fast paced, the heroes had only on rare occasions more than 2 days between adventures. I don't think tat a mage could learn a spell during traveling, but maybe with a -3 on thr roll if he spends as much time as possible with his books?

 

Another reason for the -1 1/2 is that casting magic without the knowledge of the spell would be very easy if it just were a -1/2 limitation, then a mage could wield spontanious magic with only a -2 to his roll...