Rolling for spells

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Shaldlay
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Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2022 10:20 pm
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Rolling for spells

Post by Shaldlay »

Hey, I've been playing with an idea in my head about how to have a rolling system for magic

While I understand the appeal and mechanical simplicity of having the old Vancian Magic system, I've never personally been a fan of it. I'm a Lord of the Rings fan who enjoys strange, dangerous, and soft magic systems. I've never liked the idea that a magician can just lose a spell because their brain wasn't "gooder enough at thonking". I've enjoyed how magic works in Lord of the Rings and Star Wars (the OGs and some of the Prequels) where the use of it was taxing and tiring. The primary examples I use for both are the fact that Gandalf is exhausted not by fighting the Balrog, but by casting spells against him, or Luke sweating like a mad man when trying to use the force for the first real-time in Empire Strikes Back while training with Yoda.
I also am not a fan of the fact that swinging a sword is somehow riskier than literally twisting reality and physics to your will.

They are as follows:
When casting a spell, you still have spell slots, but instead of them being hard limits, they are more an indication of how much magic you can deal with before it starts negatively affecting you.

-You still have spell slots in a way, in the form of Magic Points (or MP for short). MP is decided by multiplying the available number of spells you have by the spell level they are in, adding the points gained by the other slots. For example, a level 4 Magic-User with 2 first-level spells, and 2 second-level spells would have a total of 6 MP {(2*1)+(2*2)}= 2 + 4 = 6. With every spell cast, you subtract that spell's level from your MP. So when that 4th level Magic-User casts his 2-level spell, he would have 4 MP at the end. You still roll here, with a DC of 10 against your Int check, however, failure merely means you miss and nothing happens. You don't even have to subtract anything, it's considered a free-miss if that makes sense. The idea is that at this stage, the magician would still have enough energy to control a spell if it didn't work correctly.

-When you reach a point beyond your magic points, you begin risking having to face ill effects (more on this later). When you cast beyond your limit, you must make an Int check. For every spell cast, you add that spell's level to a collection of points I will just call Spell Points (or SP for short). SP grows the more you cast, so for example, casting a 1st level spell results in you adding 1 to it, resulting in an SP of 1. If you cast a 3rd level spell afterward, you add 3 to the SP, now having an SP of 4. When you roll for the spell, the DC or CC for the check is 10+SP you have. You must roll equal to or greater than the DC.

-If you still have some extra MP when you are casting a spell of a higher level than your MP worth, you just subtract the extra points from your SP. For example, if you have 1 MP, but want to cast a 3rd level spell, you have the same risks as if you were casting without the extra, however, you get to remove 1 from the SP, resulting in your DC being a 12 rather than a 13.

-When you miscast, you face possible consequences for your misfortune. I use the Corruption of the Shadow system from Adventures in Middle-Earth in my games, and in the case of a miscast, you gain a level of corruption. In the event of a 1, you both have the spell backfire, as well as gain perminate levels of corruption equal to the spell's level. :shock:

What do y'all think of this? My main concern is with the MP system rather than slots. I have an idea of what to do if it turns out that slots are better, basically being that anything outside of the slots available to you must use the SP system.

Love to hear y'alls feedback! :D
“Why are you stopping?” ‘Breakfast’ “You’ve already had it.” ‘We’ve had one, yes, what about second Brekfast’
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tkdco2
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Joined: Wed May 18, 2022 1:35 pm

Re: Rolling for spells

Post by tkdco2 »

Pretty good! I used the MERP rules for Corruption. In a nutshell, inappropriate use of power (GM's discretion) tends to draw attention from Sauron or another powerful evil being. MERP didn't include rules for atonement and removing corruption points, so I used the WEG Star Wars rpg for removing Dark Side points.
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