Topic: Learning Spells Variant

[Nejira]

Been tinkering a bit, I wanted the spell learning process to be less "all or nothing"-ish. So here are my attempt to make it more individual. Not sure I want to keep the automatic baselist part, but I am gonna use these rules for a campaign where spellcasters only have four baselists so felt it was fair to give them something extra.

So without further ado:

As normal the character learns a portion of a spelllist by first spending development points as per standard rules in Chapter 3 in Spell Law. Instead of deleting the points spend the character makes a note of how many ranks are purchased. These ranks only apply within each portion of the list, so should be noted separately on the character sheet.

The spells of the characteŕs baselist are learned automatic as the character picks up the spelllist. No check are needed, and the character knows all the spells listed within the known portion of the spelllist. EG: Phillip knows the B portion of the Fire Law spelllist, so he has learned all the spells found from level 1 to 10 on that list.

The spells on other spelllists, however, are not learned automatic as the character needs to find each spell and learn to cast it. Note that the character still needs to spend development points to learn portions of the spelllists, before he can learn the individual spells found within.

To check if the character can learn a given spell simply take the points put into learning a portion and convert them to skill ranks. Then add the rank bonus to the characteŕs ME bonus, and subtract 5 per spell level above the characteŕs own level. EG: Phillip (a level 7 mage) knows the B portion of the Spirit Mastery spelllist and has spend 15 development points in doing so. 15 development points buys Phillip 15 ranks in the Spirit Mastery list with a rank bonus of +60 to which we add Phillips ME bonus of +20, for a grand total of +80 bonus to learn any spell found within the Spirit Mastery spelllist from level one to ten.

Now if Phillip wants to learn the Lord Sleep spell on the list́s level 9. Because the spell is two levels higher than Phillip he suffers a -10 penalty on his learning check.

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

Question: Why not just use one of the existing options that equates buying a rank with learning the spell from that level from that list.

i.e. You buy 7 ranks in a list, you know the list to 7th level.

Then you, as GM, decide which lists are available to learn and which are not (i.e. you can then dole out lists in magical tomes and let them be learned from those and other sources).

[Nejira]

Good question. The players would like a system where you could find a spellbook with single spells and not entire lists to add to your own grimoire, and I would like a system where it was more based on the points put into learning than luck. Why you use the same points twice, to encourage players spending more DPs and not relying somuch on a lucky roll to gain a list for a handful of DPs.

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

Learning single spells outside of lists -- IMO, this should be much more costly than learning a spell of a list.

When you learn a spell list, you are starting with the basics of theory and working up into practical applications (i.e. the spells), and everything that you learn before aids in learning the higher level material.

You want something more points based and less luck based. Then you should definitely look at option 2.2 in RMC Spell Law. With it, there is no luck involved. You buy 3 ranks in a list, you know all spells on that list to 3rd level.

Now, a quick and dirty way to allow both the learning of lists (via Option 2.2) and to also allow the learning of a single spell without learning the lesser spells would be based on Option 2.2 and work as follows:

1) In order to learn a spell at given level without learning the spells that come before it, the character must spend at least 1/2 of his normal spell acquisition cost for each level below the spell to be learned. And he must also pay double the normal cost of one rank to learn the specific spell. This represents the caster learning enough of the underlying principles to be able to learn the spell in question.

For example: Joe the Mage wants to learn the 6th level spell Fire Bolt without learning the other lower level spells. Under Option 2.2, Joe has a spell acquisition cost of 2/*. This means that Joe will need to pay 1 DP (half of 2) for each of the the first five levels of the spell list. He can then pay double the full price for the 6th level spell (4 DPs). If Joe comes back later and wants to learn the 3rd level spell from that same list, then he only has pay double the normal cost of 1 rank since he already learned the principles that have applied.

Yes, this would mean that Joe pays a little extra to learn a spell list this way, but the choice becomes his, as he could just learn the entire list normally and save a few DPs.

[Nejira]

Maybe using option 2.2 is just a better way. Come to think of it, using my metode would probably result in players nickpicking the good spells while leaving out the others.

Btw, when did "Joe" become a mage? 

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

After his stint as war correspondent

[Winterknight]

Nice.  Have a laugh point.