Designing Magic Systems w/Fantasy Hero 6E: the "Spell" limitation

[Xavier Onassiss]

Color me confused....

 

I just got Fantasy Hero 6th edition, and I'm converting some 5th edition material. One thing I'm not seeing is the "Spell" limitation. Am I missing this somewhere? Has it been dropped, or replaced by something else? Or have the rules just changed?

 

Also, I don't have my old copy of Fantasy Hero 5E any more, so I'm not 100% sure if correctly recall all of the rules for the "Spell" limitation. What exactly was the purpose of this?

[Ndreare]

The spell limitation basically said you could not use maneuvers and every use of the spell is full power. I do not know if it is legal to post or I would just copy and paste it.

[Xavier Onassiss]

Good to know, thanks for that.

 

Was that in Fantasy Hero 5E? And does it appear in 6E?

[Chris Goodwin]

I found it in FH 6e, on page 276, top of the second column, referring to the paragraphs prior.

[IndianaJoe3]

It's in the book, just not in the index.  

[Xavier Onassiss]

Yeah, thanks guys!

 

After some serious rooting around (and locating my copy of FH5E!) I found that both books had pretty much the same language.

 

Now I have to decide if I really need this limitation or not.

[L. Marcus]

Heck, no!

[Asperion]

Now I have to decide if I really need this limitation or not.

The answer really depends on the GM. If he says it's needed then it's needed. If he says it's not needed then it's only needed if char requires it.

[bigbywolfe]

I almost started a thread to ask this same question, but searched first and found this one.  Thanks for the page reference. 

[bigdamnhero]

Now I have to decide if I really need this limitation or not.

Depends on the campaign and how you see magic working. In many fantasy magic systems, powers aren't as fast & simple as superhero powers, so "Spell" becomes a good shorthand for "follows the rules of magic as defined in the campaign rules."

[NuSoardGraphite]

Depends on the campaign and how you see magic working. In many fantasy magic systems, powers aren't as fast & simple as superhero powers, so "Spell" becomes a good shorthand for "follows the rules of magic as defined in the campaign rules."

This is a good guideline. the spell limitation could encompass the specific quirks and limitations of magic spells in the campaign setting that arent themselves a limitation (gestures, incantation, extra time, concentration etc) and this helps the GM customize magic for his setting, or even customize the rules for different flavors of magic within the setting.

 

One use for the Spell limitation could be that "dispel magic" only works on cast spells, not on natural magical talents or on magic items with permanent abilities built in to their construction. in this case, all magic that has the "spell" limitation would be vulnerable to being dispelled.

 

That limitation could also encompass a magic system which uses magical energy fluctuation in specific areas. magical abilities with the spell limitation would be affected by the magic level of the area in question and an area completely devoid of magic energies would nullify the use of any ability with the "spell" limitation entirely.

 

It's pretty versatile. depending on how limited it makes spellcasting, it could range from -1/4 to -2 (i would probably rank mine at around -1)

[Michael Hopcroft]

Sounds to me like you're collecting all the limitations of magic within your system, adding them up, and combining them into a single limitation at a single price that only needs to show up once on the character sheet. It sounds like the very best use for it may be as a limitation on a Multipower which covers all a mage's spells.

 

The problem remains one of the essential problems with FH: How do you make it attractive to play a non-mage in a campaign where mages are powerful and versatile. In a traditional game (assuming you want to play one), you want at most one magic-using character out of every three in an adventuring party (and maybe one out of thirty or forty in the world as a whole, or that subset which your players deal with). But at a certain power level mages are simply better at adventuring than everybody else -- to the point that a player may find it unjust not to get to play one.

[Ninja-Bear]

It sounds ro me that the spell limitation is roughly equivalent to real weapon limitation. Amd is probably as useful.