APG Requires a Skill Roll Variant in Spell Design

[Armitage]

Has anyone experimented with using the variant Requires a Skill Roll rules from the Advanced Player's Guide in spell design, specifically for spells that vary with the caster's skill and power?

 

e.g., you have the Lex Magisterium version of Lightning Bolt from Fantasy Hero.

 

Lightning Bolt: Killing Attack - Ranged 6 1/2d6 (100 Active Points); OAF Expendable (Very Difficult to obtain new Focus; rune-carved, shaped piece of meteoric iron; -1 1/2), Requires A Roll (Magic Skill roll; -1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4), Damage Varies Based On Caster's Rank (1 DC per Rank; -0), Range Varies Based On Character's Rank (25" per Rank; -0). 28 Real Points.

 

Instead of buying the spell at it's maximum Active Points, you buy it at the base level and increase its power with the Enhanced Success variant of Requires a Skill Roll.

 

Lightning Bolt: Killing Attack - Ranged 4d6 (60 Active Points); OAF Expendable (Very Difficult to obtain new Focus; rune-carved, shaped piece of meteoric iron; -1 1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4), Requires a Roll (Magic Skill roll, Power gains +10% Active Points per one the roll is made by to a maximum of +50%; -0). 20 Real Points.

 

With 60 AP, the roll effectively adds +1 DC and 50m Range (in this case) per one the Skill roll is made by, to a maximum of 90 AP.

It creates a similar effect to the original Variable Effect spells while keeping the Active Points at a more affordable level, which would be a significant issue if using a Power Framework-based magic system. It doesn't have the original's potential for a novice wizard to cast a 1 DC version of the spell, but is a starting wizard likely to have a 100 Active Point spell anyway?

[Hierax]

Re: APG Requires a Skill Roll Variant in Spell Design

 

I was thinking of something similar to what you are but combining both Enhanced Success and Reduced Failure (H6e.APG.145).

The APG system is a great idea but since I like symmetry I was considering using the Enhanced Success logical progression but applied/extended it to the Reduced Failure to widen the range of effect variety using the 1/2 modifier versions mirrored to get up to a +/- 50% and/or the 1/4 modifier versions +/- 25% effect (it didn't make sense to me to have the Success vary and the failure be a flat number):

 

RSR (-1/5 AP, Enhanced Success: +10% per 1 roll made by to max of 150%, Reduced Failure: -10% per 1 roll failed by to min of 50%; -0)

 

i.e.,:

 

• Succeed by +5 (or more) = 150%
  
• Succeed by +4 = 140%
  
• Succeed by +3 = 130%
  
• Succeed by +2 = 120%
  
• Succeed by +1 = 110%
  
• Succeed Exactly = 100%
  
• Fail by -1 = 90%
  
• Fail by -2 = 80%
  
• Fail by -3 = 70%
  
• Fail by -4 = 60%
  
• Fail by -5 (or more) = 50%
  (or better yet to continue the progression right down to 0%)
  

or

RSR (-1/10 AP, Enhanced Success: +5% per 1 roll made by to max of 125%, Reduced Failure: -5% per 1 roll failed by to min of 75%; -0)

 

i.e.,:

 

• Succeed by +5 (or more) = 125%
  
• Succeed by +4 = 120%
  
• Succeed by +3 = 115%
  
• Succeed by +2 = 110%
  
• Succeed by +1 = 105%
  
• Succeed Exactly = 100%
  
• Fail by -1 = 95%
  
• Fail by -2 = 90%
  
• Fail by -3 = 85%
  
• Fail by -4 = 80%
  
• Fail by -5 (or more) = 75%
  (or better yet to continue the progression right down to 0%)
  

I was also looking at doing the 1 less level of Limitations as +/- 20% going up to +/- 100% but that would be a total of 2 less of Limitation and wasn't likely to work out as it's pretty hard to get a RSR up to -2 to start with and I didn't want it as an Advantage. Maybe think about that more later, I dunno.

 

Anyway, with Hero System chunky granularity this sort of thing would probably work best at a 50 AP, 100 AP, and/or 200 AP baseline.

 

FWIW, my initial idea with this was to go with the 10% version for a Mandrin-like "10-Finger/10-Ring Thaumaturge of the Ring" (uses Multiple Foci Limitation) so that each -1 the roll was was missed by was essentially 1-finger or 1-ring less of effect value, but also wanted to allow for a symmetrical success progression.

 

For your Lightning bolt, I think this sort of thing would work well too, going from the RKA 4d6 baseline but with a range of 2d6 to 6d6.

 

If you wanted to go with a non-random rank/level-based thing like Lex Magisterium, you could use Standard Effect for the Skill Roll and just have different ranks/levels of Mages have different skill levels, then there would be variety over different spell-casters but consistency for each spell caster if you didn't want a randomly varying power level each time the same wizard cast the same spell.

 

I dunno, is that helpful? Is this the sort of ideas that you're looking for on this?