First, your total mana capacity is equal to your Drive plus your Mana Gathering skill. Some magic items do exist which can hold mana as well.
Spells are cast by rolling Knowledge + Art + 2d10 vs the casting difficulty.
| Power | Difficulty | MP Cost | Skill required to usually succeed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trivial | 5 | 0 | -5 |
| Minor | 10 | 1 | 0 |
| Major | 20 | 3 | +10 |
| Dramatic | 30 | 6 | +20 |
| Legendary | 40 | 10 | +30 |
Hm. Those difficulties might be out of line. Unless we add something like giving you a +1 bonus per extra MP spent, it'll be nigh impossible to get off the top level... or even the Dramatic. Let's try again...
| Power | Difficulty | MP Cost | Skill required to usually succeed | Minimum possible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trivial | 10 | 0 | 0 | -10 |
| Minor | 15 | 1 | +5 | -5 |
| Major | 20 | 3 | +10 | +0 |
| Dramatic | 25 | 6 | +15 | +5 |
| Legendary | 30 | 10 | +20 | +10 |
So a totally focused beginning character might be able to get +5 in Drive, Knowledge, Mana Gathering and a single Art. That would give him exactly 10 MP and a casting roll of +10... so if he took lots and lots of time for a +5 bonus and rolled a 15 or better, he could get off a Legendary spell. I might have to add a requirement that your skill has to be equal to the MP cost of a spell to cast it... then it would require a +10 skill before you could even attempt a Legendary spell.
| Power | Difficulty | MP Cost | Skill to usually succeed | Never botch | Always succeed | Minimum possible | Damage taken if you goof up | Typical damage inflicted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trivial | 10 | 0 | +0 | -1 | +8 | -10 | None | 1d6 |
| Minor | 15 | 1 | +5 | +4 | +13 | -5 | 1 | 2d6 |
| Moderate | 20 | 3 | +10 | +9 | +18 | +0 | 1d6 | 3d6 |
| Major | 25 | 6 | +15 | +14 | +23 | +5 | 2d6 | 4d6 |
| Dramatic | 30 | 10 | +20 | +19 | +28 | +10 | 3d6 | 6d6 |
| Legendary | 35 | 15 | +25 | +24 | +33 | +15 | 4d6 | 8d6 |
That's a little more complicated, since we've added in another category ("Moderate" spells). But the numbers seem reasonable. A starting mage who specializes could cast moderate spells most of the time even without adding in any bonuses for time spent or meta-skills. He could have up to 10 MP to play with, which would cover 3 moderate spells and 1 minor before needing to recharge.
I've also ended up increasing the damage dealt a bit... Even 1 MP spells should probably do more than a sword swing, especially if the range isn't impressive. A typical shortsword blow will probably do 1d6+2, after all.
Note that with the typical person having 14 HP, a 4d6 spell will usually take them out unless they resist it partially or completely. An 8d6 spell will probably take them out even if they only take 1/2 damage... and a typical person will never even partially resist a spell that powerful, because it's a target of 35.
Posted by Kiz at January 11, 2005 10:55 PMCommentsPost a comment