-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
magic
A lot of spells in a lot of system default to being a magic gun. The idea here is not to discourage that, but to lump most of it into the Invocation Sphere, and have the other perform more interesting and flexible effects.
Spells with a numerical content, such as Damage, a Strength Bonus, et c., default to having a number equal to the spell level plus the caster's Intelligence.
Anything dealing with space, such as affecting a number of areas, or making a large items, defaults to affecting a number equal to the spell's level plus the caster's Wits bonus.
Broadly, spell levels should have a number of spells inversely proportional to their usefulness. Damaging an enemy is a very useful spell, so Invocation has only a few spells at each level. Conversely, Aldaron's level 2 has a massive number of spells, most of which will only be useful in a few situations.
Any magic system which allow permanent items threatens to turn a dark, or even coherent, fantasy world into a Steampunk land of fireball cookers, floating not-a-car disks, and in general strip the magic out of magic. The main ward against this for any campaign is to make sure nobody can generate unlimited magical items. The second tactic taken here is to make the spells useless for day-to-day tasks. The 'Confusion' spell and 'Flame Bolt' can be impressive, but there is very little one can do with them day-to-day. Aldaron and Conjuration provide unfortunate exceptions here.
Casters get a bunch of spells at each level so that they can have pointless spells. Various spells, such as Tensor's Floating Disk, or my own Imbue Soul don't have much use most of the time. Therefore they'll go unused, even when they could have been useful in just the right situation. Spell bundles allow players to say 'wait, I think I have just the right spell for this', in random situations. The memorization ability relies solely on the player's ability to memorize their own spells. I'm hoping to expand the spell lists a little so each level comes with a multitude of little spells.
Spells have enhancements for two reasons. The first is flexibility, and the second is a natural increase in complexity.
The BIND magic system cannot hope to rival the flexibility of magic systems such as Mage: The Ascension, where anything is possible, and spells can be strung together in creative ways. However, composing spells from a few different pieces allows for at least a little flexibility.
Enhancements also help scale complexity well. At first level, someone with Invocation has a simple spell - it goes pew and hits the enemy with fire. At second level, two enhancements are possible. If the mage takes two rounds to cast the spell then they can either make a massive fireball and hit multiple targets, or can make a super-destructive fireball. At third level, the last two combinations are instantly possible - fireballs and devastating flame attacks become instant damage spells. Meanwhile, the two can be strung together to make a large and potent fireball at +2 Damage, or the mage can summon fire inside a target's armour.
So invocation is easy for a new player, but has a little scope for moving parts and many spells at every level.
Player's spell lists need to be short at first so new players (or just new spell casters) feel comfortable with what they can do. The complexity level ramps up quite a bit, but players should find it easy to memorize large numbers of spells when those spells are mostly variations on each other.
For example, let's look at the total spells available when a character has access to the Fate sphere at varying levels:
- Spend a round uttering a curse to strip an enemy's Fate Points.
- Spend a round in prayer to boost a companion's Skill level by +1.
- Instantly curse an enemy to strip their Fate Points.
- Instantly grant a companion +1 to a Skill.
- Spend two rounds in prayer to curse many enemies.
- Spend two rounds in prayer to grant +1 to a particular Skill for all companions.
- Spend two rounds in prayer to ask for clues about upcoming encounters.
- Spend two rounds in prayer to heal a companion's Fate points.
- Instantly curse an enemy to strip their Fate Points.
- Instantly grant a companion +1 to a Skill.
- Instantly curse many enemies.
- Instantly grant +1 to a particular Skill for all companions.
- Spend 3 rounds in prayer to curse all enemies in surrounding areas.
- Spend 3 rounds in prayer grant +1 to all companions in surrounding areas.
- Instantly ask for clues about upcoming encounters.
- Instantly heal a companion's Fate points.
- Spend 3 rounds in prayer to ask for clues about the upcoming encounters of multiple people.
- Spend 3 rounds in prayer to heal the Fate Points of multiple companions.
- Spend 3 rounds in prayer to add +1 to any roll.
- Spend 3 rounds in prayer to save someone's Story Points.
By the time a spellcaster has access to a level 3 sphere, the total number of spells available is massive. However, the basic list of items to remember may only be 8 or so spells, most of which have already been used multiple times.