more dynamic magic

[kamikazzijoe]

I'm working on a magic centric campaign and one thing I want to do is to make magic far more prevalent in the world so that just about everyone in the world has some skill. I also want to increase magic's utility so that every combat action the players lean on using a spell or magic enhanced weapon (like a battle magi swinging a sword). I want to make magic more like the hare and less like the tortoise. To do so i'm doing a couple of things. First everyone is getting more ppe to start with (probably double the base starting amount). Second PPE regen is being sped up. After 3 hours of rest, every hour after that the players recover 10% of their base. 3rd as the characters go up in level they'll get to pick favorite spells and overall upgrades (yeah I tend to powerful games I know). I certainly welcome any comments on this setup. I haven't played it yet so it'll be interesting to see where my players take it.

3. favored spell (we always start magic users at 3rd level, habit from the good ol' days when you got two spells a melee if you were lucky)
4. enhancement
5. favored spell
6. favored spell
7. enhancement
8. favored spell
9. favored spell
10. blank
11. enhancement
12+???? (I'll have years to think about this one so I'm not worried)

Favored spell:
1. 20% ppe off
2. raised to 40% ppe off
3. raised to 60% ppe off
4. +20% chance of success on all Rifter 31 upgrades
5. raised to +40%
6. raised to +60%
With two of the above applied:
1. reduce casting time by 1 action (or double the ppe channel on this spell)
2. automatic success for 1 type of Rifter 31 upgrade
With three of the above:
1. cast while restrained or silenced
2. reduce casting time 2 actions
3. cut Rifter 31 upgrade ppe penalty by 50% (i.e 100 PPE spell that can upgrade to 200 or 300 now becomes 150/200.

Enhancements:
1. Increased PPE (50% or 100% of starting)
2. +2 on spellpower needed to save
3. +3 to save VS magic
4. Increased PPE recovery
5. Favored combo (allows players to chain two spells modified with favored status together for increase bonuses, taken again allows 3 spells)
6. physical attunement: choose from the following +6 to a physical stat, +???SDC, or +natural armor rating
7. Open another school of magic. IE dolphin or fire elemental magic.
8. ingrained spell (first time taken player permanently sacrifices 10% of spell cost and can cast spell once a day for free, second time take 30% more to cast once an hour, taken 3 times cast at will sacrificing ??% more) I’m still thinking on how to balance this for certain spells
Combo example: Wizard has favored thunderclap and invincible armor both with only -20% ppe cost. He cast thunderclap with 20% off on his first attack. On his second attack he starts casting his armor and completes on his third attack costing him -40% ppe.
2nd example. -20% ppe on thunderclap, -40% and – 1 attack on invincible armor, and -20 ppe on meteor. First action cast thunderclap -20%, second action cast invciple armor -60% and one attack faster, third attack cast meteor for -80% and one attack faster

[Library Ogre]

A couple suggestions if you want people to use magic more, and dynamically.

1) Adapt the Chi combat rules to deal with pure PPE combat. Let people simply fling around the raw energy, describing it how they like, but not doing physical damage... instead, incapacitating the other person.

2) Take a look at the numbers on your PPE recovery; just looking at it, it seems like it wouldn't be that impressive, except at higher PPE levels.

3) Make some spells more or less "innate"... if you can throw spells at all, these are simply things you can do with your PPE. Suggestions include Blinding Flash and Manipulate Objects.

[kamikazzijoe]

One thing I'm looking at doing with a player thinking making a mystic knight is make his lightening natural ability more like the force lightening and variations from Force unleashed.

[dark brandon]

One thing I have thought about is removing PPE and spells completely. Making spells innate and a skill.

The downside would be PE burn. The more difficult and powerful the spell, the greater the skill penalty involved. A failed skill roll means the spell goes off, but PE is burned in the process for every 10% missed by.

Spell levels equal to the player is a straight roll
Spell levels lower than the players level gain a +10% bonus to cast
Spell levels higher than the players level impose a 10% penalty.

Increasing a spell cast time adds a +10% bonus per action
Decreasing a spell cast adds a 10% penalty.

Casting at equal level of the mage is a straight roll
Casting at a lower level adds a +5% bonus to the skill
Casting at a higher level imposes a 5% penalty to the skill.

For example, a 3rd level mage casting Armor of Ithan at 3rd level in 1 action would be a straight roll
same mage casting AoI as a 5th level mage in 1 action would impose a 10% penalty
Same mage casting AoI as a 5th lvl mage in 1/2 action would impose a 20% penalty.
same mage casting AoI in 2 actions at 1st level would increase the skill by 30%

Mages wouldn't know "spells" per se, but would literally create spells on the fly (or basically have all spells avalible to them at 1st level). The mage can learn spells, and in that case any time they cast that specific spell, they gain a bonus to that skill. Bonus should reflect how/why the mage learned the spell. Learning it from a moderatly powerful mage may only grant a +10% bonus. But finding the spell in an old tome in a dungeon may increase that spell skill to 30% or higher.

If a mage reaches 0 PE, he collapses and is unconcious. PE is returned through rest.

[kamikazzijoe]

One thought I've been tinkering around with is for each mage to pick a power stat (like IQ for the bookworm mages) that provides bonuses to spells. Though the burn seems like a good idea to mix in except I'm thinking like burn 3 stat points to get 40 ppe off the next spell or double your level or something similar. Burn all your IQ and collapse into a seizure. Methinks this has quite the potential.

[kamikazzijoe]

So here are my opening thoughts for burning stats as part of magic combat:
Recover 5% PPE 1 point

Reroll save 3 points
Autopass save 5 points

Negative ppe aura
5 points give 75 ppe
10 pointes gives 200 ppe
Used offensively to burn opponents ppe is 7 and 12 points respectively

+1 spell power 1 point
Negate save 7 points (neutralized by a defensive autosave)

Dispel
Ambient affect 3 points
Penetrate active affect (like imperv to energy 4 points) I hit him with fireball and add the penetrate to it. The fireball hits and the impervious to fire is gone. IF the fireball misses then it stays up.

Increased damage (power stat = the focused attribute like IQ for the mage)
1 point = 1 powerstat
5 points= 10 powerstat
10 points = 10 powerstat and maximized damage from spell itself

Defensive action (allows character one attack instantly out of order to prepare a defense or take a dodge etc) 4 points


I'm still thinking through penalties for burning your stat points and recovery. I think for simplicity sake I'll leave it at a 50% and 10% threshold as well as 0.