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Spell Side Effects


Steve

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When constructing a spell, what sort of interesting Side Effects have you seen used in write-ups? I'm looking for ideas I can use to limit spells.

 

I developed a magic system where spellcasting created penalties to further spellcasting. I modeled this with a Change Environment that gave penalties to the caster's magic skill roll.

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A side effect that does damage to the surrounding environment. the sfx is pulling the magic energy from the surrounding environment and a failure at spell casting steals the energy from the plants, animals and natural features in the area rather than the ambient magic as was intended.

 

A side effect that drains Body or another characteristic from the spell caster, essentially stealing his/her life force. buy down the return rate to 5pts per day both to increase the active point cost of the side effect so that it can remain relatively low dice in effect and also so that the drain matters and the spell caster will be motivated to not fail spellcasting. i imagine that this will help limit the amount of unnecesary spell casting in the game as the more you cast, the more chances that a failure and thus a potential loss of characteristics may happen.

 

A side effect that is the spell itself at the same active points but directed at the caster (or at something else if the caster was the target)

 

A side effect that is straight up damage (including body damage) which represents internalizing the spell energy in a bad way.

 

A side effect that drains the caster's spells or pool, reducing the caster's power for a time or (if the drain is big enough) completely deny the caster of magic power!

 

A side effect that consists of a variable power pool that is under complete control by the GM so that when the spell casting is failed, the GM gets to determine exactly what effect occurs based on the points in the power pool. great for GM's who like to keep things fresh and interesting.

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