Drawing END for the surroundings

[Michael Hopcroft]

If a wizard or super can replenish or supercharge his END pool from the surrounding "mana" or a smilar universal energy source, how do you model that ability? And since END cost is one of the most potent balancign measures for strong magic of extreme superpowers, how would a character with the ability to do so be controlled in a campaign context, so they don't run amuck using extreemly magic at whim?

[Fox1]

Re: Drawing END for the surroundings

 

Sounds like an END reserve to me with a careful eye turned towards both the total END in it and the REC return.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Drawing END for the surroundings

 

Well, this may or may not reflect what you have in mind, but one method I came up with in response to a request on the boards a couple of years ago was a "non-recoverable" END Reserve. The request was for a magic system fueled by a reserve of "mana" which was recharged through time-consuming rituals. The reserve could be increased without limit as often as the appropriate rituals were performed, but using any mana to power a spell would drain the reserve until the rituals could be performed again.

 

My suggestion was to give spellcasters an Endurance Reserve without buying a Recovery for it, and apply the "Never Recovers" Limitation from Charges to it (-2). That way when points of END from the Reserve are expended, they're "permanently" gone.

 

Then you define a process by which the character can recharge the Reserve by buying new END for it. This can involve time spent in rest or meditation, appropriate rituals (perhaps requiring a successful Skill Roll), gathering and processing of rare materials, being in a specific location and/or at a specific time, sacrificing living creatures, or anything else you prefer that requires some effort and preparations. On completing these requirements the character receives Experience that can be used as Character Points only to buy more END for the Reserve. With the base cost of an END Reserve plus the Limitation bonus, that works out to 30 END for every 1 XP.

 

Since the size of the END Reserve is being directly increased, it can continue to grow as long as the wizard/super continues to feed it points, so he or she can save up enough to fuel truly humongous expenditures of power. However, once the Reserve is exhausted it will require time and effort to build up again, so the character will either have to husband his END use so that it lasts, or be willing to exhaust it on something really vital and suffer the ensuing weakness. Moreover, since the GM defines how the Reserve is replenished he can make the process as easy or as difficult as desired, or arrange the circumstances of a particular adventure such that the character can't do what's needed to "recharge" until the adventure is concluded.

 

Anyway, that's one approach. I hope there's something there you can use.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Drawing END for the surroundings

 

I don't know how much this applies, but...

 

In my Rifts conversion, I've decided that ley lines are made of END that can be used for spellcasting. Most magic users buy their spells with the +1/4 Advantage that allows them to choose where the END for their spell comes from (in this case, their own END Reserve, or the ley line's). Doing this allows them to almost always Push their spells near a ley line. The fact the ley line is there is just part of the campaign world. The character makes use of it with an Advantage on his Spells.

 

In addition to the advantage, spellcasters can also buy extra REC for their own reserves that only apply at a ley line, and may also buy Healing or Aid END that can only be used near a ley line (for the supercharge effect of sucking up energy quickly, and they tend to use the ley line's END to fuel the Healing).

 

Outside of such a campaign, I'd suggest the absobing mana as just the SFX of the REC of an END Reserve, and the ability to supercharge Aid END.

[Citizen Keen]

Re: Drawing END for the surroundings

 

I'd buy REC (either for END or an END Reserve) with the -1/2 (or -1/4, if the GM isn't going to monitor it much) limitation REC Only Up to Local REC Limit.

 

If you don't have it already, go grab a copy of Fantasy HERO, an excellent resource for dealing with the idea of ambient power sources.

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: Drawing END for the surroundings

 

Try an endurance reserve with a transfer that lets you add more than the total size of the pool to it, and then have fade rate from that transfer not be bought up (so that supercharged mana will evaporate if not used) (that should help balance it), and also require any expeniture of "turbo mana" to be matched by an equal amount of "regular" endurance, so that if they over dose on the turbo mana, they'll knock themselves unconcious

[Black Rose]

Re: Drawing END for the surroundings

 

I'd buy REC (either for END or an END Reserve) with the -1/2 (or -1/4' date=' if the GM isn't going to monitor it much) limitation [i']REC Only Up to Local REC Limit[/i].

 

If you don't have it already, go grab a copy of Fantasy HERO, an excellent resource for dealing with the idea of ambient power sources.

 

I have to agree with the good Citizen here. Like Fantasy HERO suggests, you might want to throw some additional bennies-pennies (benefits and penalities) on top of the REC rate to reflect ; Succor or Suppress the spell effect, maybe have a list of effects to pick from based on the environment. I'd advise making the "altered mana" areas few and far between, so the effect stays interesting. Alternately, you can come up with a number of small effects (-1d6 effect, -1/4 advantages, altered visual effects, etc), and make the "altered mana" areas a bit more common.

[TheEmerged]

Re: Drawing END for the surroundings

 

If you're willing to apply an END value to surroundings, your best option would probably be an END to END Transfer with a -0 "healing" switch (doesn't fade, can't exceed maximum).

 

Another option for a slightly different effect would be to apply Expendable Focus to REC, possibly in a graduated fashion (+5 REC for an easy item, +5 additional for a not-so-easy item, +5 additional for a hard item, etc). I won't get into my usual argument/tangent as relating to putting limitations on END Reserve