So many spells, so few points...

[mhd]

The magic system of my current campaign is a conversion, The original, being a very skill-heavy game in general, treated every spell as its own skill. Low skill levels were pretty cheap, so wizards had lots of spells. But most of them were still pretty specialized, with each academy devoted to one branch of wizardry (divination, combat magic, summoning etc.).

 

Most spells aren't that powerful (a fireball is very rare), and regeneration of mana points is closer to LTE than normal END. Yet to emulate some of the spells, I've hit close to 60 active points (telepathy and barriers are expensive in HERO).

 

As this isn't really the most superpowered game, starting points where 125. Which is perfectly fine for all the fighting types, and the more rogue-ish party members even had trouble spending their points without introducing elements that didn't fit with the background.

 

But, of course, a caster having about 20 spells he's reasonably proficient with would be quite expensive. So my starting situation was closer to some of the systems found in Fantasy Hero: There's a 10 point perk that allows you to cast (and serves as your basic endurance reserve), and everything else was just a 2+1 skill, like PS/SS.

 

That produced a pretty long skill list and high costs, so after some deliberation we switched to something a little simpler: One regular 3+2 skill per magical area (divination, healing, elemental fire etc.), plus a "spell familiarity" cost of one point. That made things a bit neater, your academy's specialty spells are now mostly one skill, so you can have that at a higher level than the universal spells or those you just learnt for adventuring. Sure, when you add a new spell related to something you know really well it starts out at nigh perfection, instead of you having to raise it over time, but that isn't necessarily bad.

 

But I'm worried that this doesn't scale that well, either, once the character visited enough academies and bought enough spells books to potentially learn a lot more than 20 spells...

 

So I'm looking for some ideas. Again, the system should at least try to fit the follow items:

 

- lots of spells known (elves: 10-20, wizards: 20-50+)

- specialization, i.e. your ability to cast a spell shouldn't just be determined by its difficulty/roll penalty.

- low point total

 

Some things I considered:

- lowering costs for the outliers regarding AP, so that a power framework might be viable (makes the spells rather useless, though)

- One power skill, but limit its value, then use skill bonuses to model specialization

- dropping the spell familiarities, so what you know is just handled in-game

- straight skill roll or skill penalties independent from the HERO rules (that would get rid of HERO's balancing, not good)

- One skill, mastery is defined by the power itself (i.e. there's not just one spell, but you increase the AP's over time -- that would require the players getting more involved, as I'm not going to do 5 versions of each spell in HD)

- Back to skill/spell, but make it 1+1

[bluesguy]

The goal I had in my campaign is to have a high fantasy campaign (fair amount of magic some it being very powerful), variations on the types of magic, and eliminate 'generic wizards' (everyone has magic missiles, fireballs, etc.).

 

Basic Info:

1. Each culture / race has their own style of magic.  You can only learn magic from your culture/race.
2. Magic comes in two varieties, something that anyone can learn (see rule #1) or a natural talent for magic (see rule #1).  If a character has a natural talent for magic they can become extremely powerful because their isn't a limit on how powerful their spells can become over time.  A person who wants to learn a spell or three is always going be less powerful than a character with the talent.

Game Mechanics:

1. Every character that wants to use magic has to buy the Power Skill and it is specific for their culture/race's type of magic.
2. Every character that wants to use magic has to buy some mage skills - some of them are specific for their culture/race
3. 'Non-Talent' mages
   • Learn a set of basic magic spells first - i.e. defensive, movement (if appropriate), and an attack. 
   • Are limited to a maximum AP cost (which varies based on culture/race and type of spells - defense/movement/offensive/summon/etc.)
   • Appropriate skill roll: -1 per 5 APs
   • Gestures
   • Incantations
   • Concentration (1/2 DCV)
   • Cost End to cast (At least; all spells cost end)
   • Consumable Focus
   • Side effect – almost always ‘physically injuring’
   • At least 12 real points spent in magic spells
   • Spells cannot be part of a power framework (Multi-power or Variable Power Pool)
4. Talent mages
   • Talent – Magical Affinity (10 points) - must be bought at character creation
   • Maximum AP is 3x the 'Non-Talent' mages ability
   • Appropriate skill roll: -1 per 20 APs
   • Gestures
   • Incantations
   • Cost End to cast (At least; almost all spells cost at least ½ end)
   • OAF – Staff, Wand, or Rod
   • Must have {Racial/Cultural} Talent Magical Affinity
   • Variable Power Pool (60 point control cost) - must be bought at character creation

Here is a link to my Obsidian Portal description.

 

Hope this helps.