Topic: Power's Master questions

[providence13]

Does anyone have experience using this as a separate List?

Can you only have one power storage item at a time?
Or can you have one Power Storage (temporary) and one Create Store (permanent); 2 stores?

This spell List is about storing PP for later and draining other's PP.

I make extensive use of General Effects Items for PP Adders in the game but I wanted to use something like this. The descriptions just sound a little wonky..

[markc]

  Can you provide a book and page #. My RM brain fu is lacking a little today.
Thanks
MDC

[Kristen Mork]

My take is that you can at most one power store in existence: either a temp store (using Power Storage) or a permanent one (using Create Store).  Although, based on my recent experience, having both would hardly be unbalancing since the former is short term only.

[providence13]

markc: Power's Master-Arcanist Base List, ArCo pg 71.
I'm allowing this as a separate List that doesn't require Tap Source from yet, another List. (The original use is a caster would have to spend PP to draw a small amount of PP from an item created with PP that required PP to temporarily hold PP..)

Peter, that is what I'm thinking too. Even if you wanted both similarly named temp and perm PP stores, you still have to put the PP into the crystal. The Temp isn't going to help you that much. 

I'm thinking of allowing both, but wanted to hear how it went with other GMs.

[markc]

  I do not have any experience with the list but as to the question about balance IMHO it depends on how valuable PP are? How easy is it to store PP for later use? Is there a problem regaining PP during an adventure? Does it provide the PP users with too much "power" over non casters? ETC.
  IMHO the above can only be answered by the people playing in the game as all games are different.


  I have done the opposite that you have described above. In that I have allowed access to spells way above a persons level/Rank at normal casting cost. This makes PP vary valuable to those that have this ability and the generally seek ways to increase their PP's.
 MDC

[providence13]

My magic system is as follows..

You cast at Rank in the List (use Rank instead of lvl).

Anything that has a "/lvl" designation is now "/PP". So if you cast a 5th lvl spell that has a 1min/lvl duration, you get 1 minute for your 5 PP. If you want, you can spend 1PP/additional minute up to whatever you can spend.

This eliminates overcasting. You are able to cast the spells you know. Less likely chance for your head to explode. Each spell List will have a different Casting lvl based on Ranks in that specific List.
 
This system eats PP left and right. The PC's have PP Adders, but I don't use Multipliers; there is one fractional multiplier, but that's it.

Having this spell List would be only a marginal advantage. In fact, it would just put the Mystic on par with the rest of the party.

This changes Power Perception: +1ft/PP used in the spell.
SCSM: +1/PP over minimum required for casting.
Spell Fumble: If a spell fumble, -1 on spell failure chart/PP over minimum required.

Extra PP help your chance of casting a spell and if you fumble they exacerbate the fumble. Extra PP also make more noise that can be detected.

[markc]

 Then I might just change the PP Dev Progression to allow for the rule changes you have made. This would increase every spell casters power points but then IMHO it is needed to maintain balance.
  You might also let the player buy a Talent that increases his PP or adds PP at level development or after a suitable "Mystical Event". I have PP Talents that add +1 PP/Rnak, +2 PP/Rank, etc with different costs than the books and this may also be a great way to go for your game.


 I love the changes and have included some of them in my game I also have thought many times about the adding 1 PP options to various spells and IMHO it is one of the scaling techniques that I see for spells in a spell list.
 Yes the cost can get high but then you are altering the base spell's parameters until you can master the higher rank spell.


 I also use Spell Mastery as a free level gain for your option above based on the amount of points in the skill. This has allowed for more powerful lesser skilled casters and unique variances in professions, PC's and NPC's. I am torn between having the max be between +4 ranks/levels and +5 ranks/levels for the high limit of the Spell Mastery skill.
 Using my rule above would also cut down on the PP required for spell casters of various professions based on how much DP they sink into the skill. I also do not allow a lot of SM use outside of the adding free ranks/levels to lists as it makes the skill to powerful instead I like to think of scaling effects for the spells and have the spell casters find, create or learn then on their own. This is somewhat easy based on my game setting but maybe harder to implement in some game worlds.     


Does that help any?
MDC

[providence13]

I do a similar thing with Magical Languages.

MLang must be taken in that specific List (more tightly controlled than just a MLang of all Fire Lists)
MLang can increase the Affects of the spell, act as a few PP, or increase the apparent Level/Rank of the spell, if the DR is made, increase the BAR or decrease opponents RR!

So with Magical Languages, Magic Ritual and Spell Mastery, there are ways to save PP when casting. I'm just going to add a few more options. RM is all about options.

[markc]

 I gave this a lot of thought last night do to the fact I did not sleep much or maybe I did not sleep much do to giving it a lot of thought.


 ...But IMHO there is going to be a greater need for PP as your level increases for increasing the duration of spells and the other factors that you also chose to modify by adding PP to increasing a base increment (such as range, area of effect, targets and/or # of effected targets.). So here are some options I thought about...
1) Change PP Dev
 a) base it on profession instead of race to give the purer magic professions an edge.
 b) change it to something like 10/15/10/5, so there are more PP to help with your PP spell factors at higher levels.
2) Speed up PP regen by...
 a) changing base PP recovery time
 b) change recovery time by meditation skill
 c) different recovery time for PP spent to modify base spell properties.
3) Herbs...
 a) Herbs that do # 2 above in some way. With or without addiction factor or side effects. But then again an herb with the quick PP regen feature that provides a full days worth of calories can make for some very fat casters in a hurry.
 b) Herbs, veg, potions, food, etc that store PP in some way and when you eat them you gain those PP.
4) Items...
 a) Items that reduce the casting cost of specific spells or provide some free factors for duration, range etc per day.
 b) PP store items
 c) PP multipliers for spell factors only (place limits again for specific spells, spell lists, etc.)
 d) Just plain old PP multipliers to help out the need for PP's but use fractional multipliers.
5) Free PP Factors...
 a) By profession level ie you get your level x2 free pp factors per day to use on spells for pure and hybrid casters and your level x1.5 for semi-spell casters and no free PP factors for pure arms (or your level for pure arms)
 b) By Spell Mastery in list, again maybe using a multiple as above or make a chart that defines you get a specific number of options when you reach a specific skill score.
 c) By list type so base lists you get X free options, open lists you get (X-Y) free options and so forth
 d) By spell mastery rank with each rank providing a free option or each rank in a range providing a free option for a spell rank range. So SM ranks 1-10 provide a number of free options for that list to be used for spells of rank 1-10, and SM free options of rank 11-20 provide options for spells of rank 11-20. This would provide for a max of 10 free PP options in a specific  rank range.


 I think that was it but if I remember any more I will post them.
MDC   

[providence13]

More thoughts on Power's Master..

Drain Power I, III, VI and True:
1. Do these spells allow the caster to use the PP? I think it does, but it's not explicitly stated.
This spell is similar to Evil Arcane Power Leach, Power Drain. The 'Leach version requires concentration and has 10ft range where Power's Master has touch. How can you touch someone for minutes without raising questions?

2. Why is the RR mod for Drain Power progressively easier? -30, -20, -10 and no mod for Drain True. I assume that the faster PP are drained, the easier it is to resist. But the spells are higher lvl, so it might just cancel out.

3. Why does Power Manipulation from Open Arcane (Power Storage I, II, III and IV) have a longer duration? The Arcane Base List is 1hr/lvl and the Open Arcane version is 1day/lvl. In my game I'm going to split the difference and have all Power Storage spells to last 24hrs. I think this is a good compromise for a temporary PP holder.

4. Why is there a Tap Source spell? IMHO, this spell is cumbersome and unnecessary. As I stated above,
"spending PP to draw a small amount of PP from an item created with PP that required PP to temporarily hold PP" can be eliminated with Attunement. This skill works for items, places, etc, even people in my game.

More issues to come.