Acrobatics (Agi): climbing, balance[, dodging attacks]
Athletics (Agi/Brawn): running, jumping, swimming, riding, etc.
Awareness (Per): noticing things
Business* (Clv): running a particular kind of business.
Charm (Clv): making people like you. seduction, gossip and diplomacy.
Craft* (Clv): making things
Digging (Brawn): digging burrows rapidly.
Endurance (Brawn): physical toughness.
Etiquette (Clv): hobnobbing with the upper classes
Intimidation (Brawn/Drv): scaring others.
Intuition (Magic): noticing subtle magical things
Leadership (Drv): leading folks
Medicine (Clv): treating injuries and illnesses
Melee Weapons* (Agi/Brawn): melee combat [includes Wrestling and Unarmed as specialties]
Missile Weapons* (Per): ranged combat
Perform* (Clv): entertaining folks
Persuasion (Clv): convincing people of things.
Psychology (Per): reading people's emotions and truthfulness
Reaction (Agi/Per): initiative and fast reactions
Resolve (Drv): mental toughness. [includes Resist Magic?]
Scholarly Lore* (Clv): technical stuff including written languages
Stealth (Agi): sneaking around
Tactics (Clv): combat strategy
Thievery (Agi/Per): pickpocketing, picking locks, sleight of hand
Traps (Clv/Per): rigging and disarming traps
Traveller's Lore* (Clv): area knowledge including local language
Wilderness (Per): wilderness survival, animal lore, navigation and predicting the weather
[Resist Magic: should resisting a spell depend on your Magic rating or just your Drive stat? I could see it going either way.]
[Wrestling: unarmed combat... maybe just a specialty of Melee Weapons? The only problem there is having the high Agility wrestler automatically kick butt... but there could be some house rules for always adding Brawn to it, too, or something, so that high Brawn is even more important than normal when wrestling.]
[Acrobatics could include Evasion, rather than making it a separate skill. Then good climbers and folks with good balance would also be good dodgers. Dunno.]
[Incorporate Thrown Weapons into Missile/Ranged Weapons? Or should there be a separate skill for folks who throw knives well but are lousy archers? Using specialties can probably take care of that.]
A few potential ideas:
Heavy Weapons: you must suffer a penalty die to either attacks or parries (your choice) each turn.
Medium Weapons: you can make an attack and 1 parry without a penalty die.
Light Weapons: you can make an attack and 1 parry and the parry actually gets a bonus die.
Secondary Weapon (must be Light and you cannot be wielding a Heavy weapon): you can make an extra parry without a penalty die. You can also choose to attack with it instead of parrying with it. This gives your opponent a Penalty Die to their Parry rolls since they have to avoid both weapons but the damage done is based on your Secondary weapon.
Shield (Light or Medium weapons only): you can make an extra parry without a Penalty Die and you may even receive a bonus... but the shield will encumber you.
I'd like to trim down the Skill list to the point that it's easy to come up with Extras for them all... restrict it mostly to adventuring skills and combine the esoteric ones into specialties of more generic skills like "Craft" and "Perform". Probably add more Edges that change your non-specialized rating to 3/4 instead of 1/2 skill.
So, what's the big downside of Sorcery? Why is it banned? Some options...
1. Requires sacrifices.
2. Makes it easier for demons and such to cross over to the physical world (possibly something like 1 extra demonic attack in the area per year per point of sorcery). Makes the area where a sorcerer lives more hazardous.
2.5 Leaves a tiny hole in the universe at the spot where you used it. For about a year or so, it's easier for demons to pass through at that location.
3. Demons eat magic... sorcerers weaken the magic of other mice in the area, increasing the incidence of forsaken.
4. Messes with the caster's head in a major way.
5. Releases general bad karma, causing crops to fail, miscarriages, accidents, etc. These are caused by super-tiny malign spirits escaping through the gap.
6. Risky- mishaps always involve demons crossing over or the caster going nuts.
7. General unpleasantness... since it involves spirits and darkness, folks just assume that it's icky. That kind of implies that in an enlightened area, though, sorcerers will be just another kind of mage, which probably isn't appropriate.
Hm. So, for right now... let's assume that the Sorcery Extra means that you know how to project tendrils into the spirit world... a process that is unnatural and leaves holes in the barrier between here and there... causing Things From The Other Side to be better able to push through. Even benignly-used Sorcery tends to be hard on your neighbors. With a Black Bargain, you could even become a Font of Sorcery, whereupon your soul touches the spirit world and rips holes in the barrier wherever you go... but your effective Magic rating is increased, especially for sorcerous spells.
That would leave us with the normal spells being:
I could almost fit spells into 3 groups of 3 this way...
3 physical: manipulate, shape and spark.
3 mental: enthrall, compell and whisper.
2 spiritual: scry and glimpse.
plus 3 internal Kenshar ones: Self-Discipline, Self-Control and Self-Direction.
Hm. A third spiritual one and I could say that each Extra gives you 3... but then mages would be exceedingly expensive unless I say that Mastery lets you master all 3 as well.
Possible 3rd spiritual spells:
Another option is to throw out the groupings and say that each Wizardry Extra gives you your choice of up to 3 spell-skills. Then it would take 3 Extras to acquire all spells and 9 more to master everything. That's a total of 12 extras, with a total cost of 78 * 2 = 156 XP without even buying the skills (15 each for 9 skills, adds +90 for a total of 246 XP... at 5 per session, well... that's a lotta sessions-- about 50-- of spending it on nothing but magic).
Spycraft let you master groups... like mastering all Physical, all Mental or all Spiritual.
Another thought- you could have a Physical Magic skill with specialties of Manipulate, Spark and Shape. Then you'd only spend a flat +5 to be fully good at the other two and it would only take 1 Extra to master all 3. That's probably too cheap. 3 skills at +5 costs 45... plus 6 Extras... 45+42 = 87 XP to master all magic.
Then "Sorcery" would probably be a single Extra that let you use sorcerous effects like creating cold... immediately expanding on most of your normal skills. Kenshar sorcery would probably involve Astral Projection.
Mastery could also first give you mastery of 1 of the set of 3... the second Mastery picks up the other two. That would cut it down to 9 Extras (minimum 90 XP) to master all magic.
Hm...
Wizardry: pick 3 spells that your character can learn. You can leave one or more unselected now, if you desire.
Mastery: pick a specific spell. You master it. Can be taken once per spell category.
Expanded Mastery (requires Mastery of a spell and a rating of at least +1 in at least one of the other two spells in the same category): You master all of the spells in that category that you know.
Then you'd still potentially have Unique Spells (weird, sorcerous rituals that are each their own skill).
Adlibbing spells: if you have at least one Wizardry extra and you want to try and cast a spell you don't know, you can try... but you have to Focus, take 1 Fatigue and 2 Penalty Dice. The Risk also climbs to 3.
So, taking 3 spells in a single category would be cheaper to master... one Extra to take all 3, one to Master one, then one to Master the other two. 3 Extras.
If you wanted one spell from each category, it would be one to learn them, then 3 to master them... 4 Extras.
Or I could just leave it as 1 Extra per mastery and you'd need 12 to master all magic... but that's probably too gross. After all, mastering all magic is pretty worthless when everyone else actually buys skills.
Sorcery could be just one additional Extra... gives you those spiffy extra powers for each spell-type.
Once you have a Sorcery rating of +1 or better, you can take skills in controlling spirits?
Hm. Should non-sorcerers be allowed to try and hold-at-bay demons and such? I don't see a good reason why not, really. So what sorcerous effects are strictly sorcery?
In the old list I had Enthrall, Lure, Tether, Whisper, Glimpse and Banish. Of those... Glimpse, Lure, Whisper and Tether seem like the sort that would be forbidden magics.
The wizardry list was Influence/Compell, Manipulate, Illusion, Scry/Delve, Shaping and Spark.
So, let's generalize a bit...
Enthrall: place target in trance-like state, lets you manipulate their emotions. Replaces "Influence".
Compel: lets you forbid actions and (on overwhelming successes) force them. Works best when holding foes or creatures at bay.
Manipulate: still does TK.
Whisper: lets your words and/or thoughts be carried to the target and back again. Partially replaces Illusion. The advanced lets you bargain with dark gods.
Scry: lets you study an object or search an area. Absorbs the old Delve spell.
Shaping: lets you change an object's physical form. Very slow, draining and requires complete concentration.
Spark: still covers fire, light and lightning. Possibly includes cold and darkness as well? If so, characters should probably be naturally inclined to one or the other, with a -10 to doing the opposite.
Glimpse: lets you scry the future, past or find distant folks. Advanced might allow you to inflict horrific hallucinations on people by letting them see into the spirit world.
Let's do "evil" counterparts...
I'm vaguely unsatisfied with the current spell split-up. Having a hard-and-fast divide between Wizardry and Sorcery works, but doesn't really fit the genre... I couldn't see Cassandra not being able to figure out how to drive away a spirit with a little time and study.
And what's the real division between "acceptable" magic and sorcery? I want a strong rationale for why even the typical mage would look at a book of sorcery and feel uneasy... it should be dangerous, alien magic. Perhaps even stolen powers...
I might not have a sorcerous version for all spells, though... what would "spiritual TK" do? I mean, I could lump something in, but I can't really see it... other than grabbing "lumps of spirit-stuff" and pulling it into the physical world. I suppose you could use it to force spirits to manifest?
High Sorcery involves bargaining with the dark gods for power. Such bargains tend to maim the sorcerer in some fashion, as the gods demand a "token" by which to work their powers upon them. An ounce of flesh, as it were. You can bargain away your limbs, your eyes, your loved ones, your sanity or your free will (by promising service in the god's name).
Sorcery could well get a special rating like a skill, except that you buy points with dark sacrifices rather than XP. Thus, the higher it currently is, the harder to increase it. It would also represent how much of a hold the shadow world has on you.
That could even mean that sorcery skills run off of your Sorcery stat, which normal people don't have. But I kind of like the idea of Sorcery and regular spell-casting being related in some fashion, even if it's just that you add your Sorcery rating to all spell-casting rolls.
If all "sorcerous effects" are dependant on black bargains... hm. How would that work?