[RQ-Rules] RE: Wizardry

[Leon Kirshtein]

>each level of difficulty 
subtracts 5 percentiles from the chance of casting the
spell.

Hmm, I may be able to use that.

Leon
--- rq-rules-bounces at crashbox.com
<peter.brink at brinkdata.se> wrote:
> Hibbs, Phil skrev:
>  > I think to do D&D style wizardry in RQ, you have
to get away from
>  > magic Points. D&D wizards are more like
channeling wizards whereas
>  > magic points are essence, to steal a term from
Rolemaster (although
>  > that system bottles out on the concept
completely, as essence and
>  > channeling have access to identical power
levels). D&D wizards get
>  > more spells as they advance in skill, not as they
acquire more magic
>  > batteries. Maybe this progression could be
simulated by having a
>  > relatively high MP cost (comparable to spirit
magic), but have the
>  > spell cost only 1MP if a special success is
rolled, and zero for a
>  > critical. The justification here is that the
power for the spell
>  > is supposed to come from the material components.
>  >
> 
> Another way of doing it would be to adapt the
concept of formulaic 
> spells from Ars Magica. A formulaic spell is a spell
that the mage has a 
> description of (e.g. in the form of a recipe) and
has studied (that is 
> the mage has learned how to cast the spell without
any mnemonics or 
> props, although such things may increase his chance
of successfully 
> casting the spell). As long as the mage successfully
casts spells which 
> he can control, i.e. he has sufficient mastery of
the skill(s) required 
> to cast the spell, there is no magic point loss. If
he fails he must 
> "pay" the cost in magic points of the spell, if he
fumbles he must "pay" 
> double the cost. If he is casting a spell which he
really can't fully 
> control then he must pay the usual cost to cast the
spell, double the 
> cost if he fails and triple the cost if he fumbles.
Fumbling a powerful 
> spell that he does not fully control may kill the
mage.
> 
> The method to find out *if* a mage can control a
spell is made up of two 
> steps, first you calculate the effective spell
casting chance, then you 
> calculate the energy used. Each school of magic
(conjuration, 
> enchantment, etc) is a separate skill and each level
of difficulty 
> subtracts 5 percentiles from the chance of casting
the spell. The base 
> energy cost is equal to the difficulty level plus
any additional range, 
> volume, duration or damage the mage wants the spell
to have. Use the 
> tables in RQ Sorcery for calculating costs of range,
volume and 
> duration. Use the fire damage intensity table for
the cost of increasing 
> the damage. If the total cost is less or equal to a
fifth (20%) of the 
> effective spell casting chance the mage can fully
control the spell, if 
> the total is more than a fifth of the of the
effective spell casting 
> chance then the mage is casting a spell he has
trouble controlling.
> 
> An example: A Fireball spell is a level 3 evocation
spell. The mage must 
> subtract 15 percentiles from his evocation school
skill. The base cost 
> for a fireball that does 1 point of damage at 10 m
range is 3 mp. The 
> mage's evocation skill is rated at 60%. His
effective skill is 45%, so 
> he can control a fireball spell worth 9 magic
points. He could increase 
> the damage to 3d6 by spending another 3 points, and
he could increase 
> the range to 40 meters by spending two more points
and increase the 
> radius of the explosion another meter by spending
one point. The total 
> would then be 9 points, which the mage would be able
to control. If the 
> mage was in a tight spot he could add another point
on the damage 
> intensity and two more points to increase the radius
to four meters, but 
> then he would have to pay up 12 mp to cast the spell
(at 45%) or 24 if 
> he failed (which very well might kill him).
> 
> 
> /Peter Brink
> 
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