Thanks VladD. Good questions, and some I ain't thought of. Here are some answers.
The double cost of 8/25 on employment probably means you can double your level as a mage. Since there are no spell lists to be developed (right?) I'd go with 33 DP in that and cast fireballs at lvl 4, lightning bolts at lvl 5 and Lord mindmastery at lvl 10, starting my own little kingdom...
But remember, the DP costs are not set. I may increase them. Still debating. Additionally, that 33 DP would be more than one-third of all your DPs. Won't have many for other skills needed.
- How about overcasting?
Somewhat differently. For spells above your level, the first five levels over are tripled in PP cost. And they keep tripling each set of five. On Onaviu, if you take yourself to negative PPs, you may die, instead of passing out.
Example: You are 5th level and want to cast an 8th level spell. It would cost you 14 PP instead of 8 (5 + (3 x 3)). If you were to cast a 12th level spell, it would cost 38 PP (5 + (5 x 3) + (2 x 9)). And it just gets worse.
In other words, you can overcast if you want, but keep in mind how much it may cost. And, there is the ESF to consider...
- How would you calculate the costs for casting spells? Will a lightning bolt cost 10 PP, or is there some different system to keep track of that?
Spells of a level equal to or less than your level will cost 1PP per level of the spell. Same as for RMFRP, I think. It has been so long since I used the RM spell RAW. On our world of Udava (1984-1998), we used a system totally different.
- How would the mastery skill affect overcasting?
It would not. Mastery effects the caster's ability for creating the spell effects. The more Mastery skill, the less chance the spell effects may backfire. Example: If casting a Heal 10 spell which normally heals 10 hits, the caster using Mastery could actually get more healing effect from the spell. If the caster rolled a result of say 70% on the maneuver table, s/he would only get 70% of the effect (i.e. -
heal only 7 hits instead of 10). However, if the caster rolled a result of say 155%, then the Heal 10 spell would heal 15 hits instead of 10. I am creating special maneuver tables for the Mastery skill since none in RAW exist to get the effects I want. Mastery will also work on the range, AOE, #targets, etc. of a spell effect also. However, I have also made a method where casters can double the range, AOE, #targets by spending PPs. Also, if the roll is fumbled bad enough, instead of healing hits, the caster may actually cause damage.
- how would mastery skill affect normal casting?
See above.
- If the spell caster may use unlimited imagination in his casting, what will be the controls?
Not totally sure I completely understand this question, but... If you imagine a spell to kill a person, would it work? Probably not. All person's
natural survival instinct, regardless of whether they know the spell is being cast or not, would give them one hellacious bonus against something so all-encompassing. Is that like something you meant? Also, AOE plays a big part. If you try to affect too large an area with one spell, you may burn out, which is not nice. Still working on the effects of burn out. But they will not be pretty.
- Giving spell casters so much power, how will you keep non casters happy?
Yes. It takes a minimum of 4 or 5 rounds for a caster to cast a spell/power. And that is for a spell the caster knows. For a spell that must be "ad libbed" on the spot, it will take even longer to cast. Unless the caster has prepared ahead of time and "hangs" some spells equal to SD score divided by 20, rounded down. Or, the caster can scribe spells on scrolls or in a book for later use. In other words, it takes time to word the spell and then cast it. Basically, this could amount to several rounds of armsman combat until the power user is ready to end it.
But remember, that is for a caster who is
not prepared. If prepared, then, ...
Also, should have posted a link to my site that delves a bit deeper into the power.
However, remember that the pages pertaining to the power are somewhat old and have not been updated since about August last year, when first written. The javascript that lists each page's last modification date is not working properly. Have to get around to figuring out to get it to work properly. Or, just get rid of it? Also, I wanted feedback here so I can get questions/problems answered/fixed before updating the pages.
Of the PowerYou will also notice that you can get back to the home page and browse other stuff I have written. But that is OK.
So a big part of this is the question of how granular Mastery is. If it is separate for each spell list, that is one extreme. It will discriminate casters into more types and require more expenditure of DP. If there are only 3-6 different types, there will be more similarity between casters and less DP to be spent.
True. But that is the point. Power is power. There are no different types of power. Just different ways of using it. An animist/druid would focus into using power to aid and use nature. A sorceror would focus into using power to destroy or pervert what naturally exists. In a sense, such could be looked at as creating specialized spell lists. However, since there is only one form of power, it does not prevent an animist from learning control of the elemental force of Earth by creating their own Earth Law list. In another sense, one could say that a power user is actually an Arcist that can build their own spell lists.
Other examples: The
rhadhamaerl and
lillianrill in SRDs The Land both use the same power: Earthpower. However, they have focused their use of the Earthpower into stone and wood, respectively. Also, read Chris Paolini's "Inheritance Cycle" (the one started by
Eragon). Power is power, or if preferred, magic is magic. It all depends upon the words and thoughts that create the effects of the power/magic,
NOT whether it is Channeling, Essence, Arcane, and the caster is a Cleric, Magician, Arcanist, etc., etc., etc.
It all depends upon how the power user desires their spell to work. For instance, even if I wanted a Fire Bolt spell, my wording and thoughts can actually call forth a small bullet of magma from within the earth. Although one could say it is actually an Earth Bolt, it also very, very hot. Yes, I know, poor example, but it is an example of how I could define a Fire Bolt compared to another's definition actually being a bolt of fire/plasma. Probably be more accurate to call it Magma Bolt, but as said, it is an example of how different persons could define a spell using the same name.
rmfr
