Heroic Abilities for Magicians

[pachristian]

Inspiried by the "New Common Magic" post, here are some ideas of Heroic Abilites, specifically geared towards magicians. I adapted most of these from feats in d20 games:

Accurate Spell
Requirements: DEX 15+, Throw 50%
Hero Points: 10
Duration: 1 spell
Gives the caster a +20% chance to overcome a target’s Evasion with a spell.

Common Sorcery
Requirements: INT 15+, Manipulation 90%
Hero Points: 15
Duration: 1 spell
Allows the magician to apply manipulation skills to Common Magic.

Contingent (Spell)
Requirements: Equivalent of Grand Master in Cult or Order
Hero Points: 8 (may be bought multiple times)
Duration: Continuous until spell is used. Magic point is spent when spell is used.
The magician lays a spell upon himself. This spell is cast normally, but does not take effect immediately. Instead, the caster defines a set of conditions under which the spell will take effect. These conditions must be personal, something that the caster does, or which is done to him, but can include a broad definition. Examples include “When I speak the word “Swordfish””, or “If I am knocked unconscious in battle” or “If I fail to resist a Spell that would be resisted by a Persistence check.” (A certain amount of metagaming is permissible).
The magician does not begin to regain the magic points spent casting the spell until the contingency is activated and the spell takes effect. If the spell is a divine spell, the spell does not being to recharge until the spell is used.
Examples of Contingent spells might include a Teleport that takes the caster home if he is wounded in an attack, a Countermagic that automatically tries to negate any enchantments cast upon him, or a Cure Disease/Poison spell that automatically activates if the magician is poisoned.
The contingent spell ability must be gained for each individual spell that the caster wants to set up as a contingency. A caster can only have one contingency upon himself for each use of this ability.

Hold Concentration
Requirements: POW 15+, Persistence 75%
Hero Points: 10
Duration: 1 round
Allows the caster to make a Persistence check to retain concentration on a spell that he is maintaining in conditions that would cause him to lose the spell.

Overcome Persistence
Requirements: CHA 15+, Persistence 75%
Hero Points: 10
Duration: 1 spell
Gives the caster a +20% chance to overcome a target’s Persistence with a spell.

Overcome Resilience
Requirements: CON 15+, Resilience 75%
Hero Points: 10
Duration: 1 spell
Gives the caster a +20% chance to overcome a target’s Resilience with a spell.

Penetrating Spell
Requirements: Chosen form of magic (Common, Specific Theology, or Sorcery (Grimoire)) at 75%
Hero Points: 10
Duration: 1 spell
When invoked, the ability causes a spell to penetrate spell defenses as if it were 3 magnitudes higher than it actually is. Thus, a 4-point penetrating spell would overcome Countermagic as if it were a 7-point spell.

Piercing Spell
Requirements: Penetrating Spell, One form of magic (Common, Specific Theology, or Sorcery (Grimoire); different ability for each type) at 90%
Hero Points: 10
Duration: 1 spell
This ability stacks with Penetrating Spell. When invoked, the ability causes a spell to penetrate spell defenses as if it were 3 magnitudes higher than it actually is. Thus, a 4-point penetrating and piercing spell would overcome Countermagic as if it were a 10-point spell.

Silent Spell
Requirements: INT 15+, Chosen form of magic (Common, Specific Theology, or Sorcery (Grimoire)) at 75%
Hero Points: 12
Duration: 1 spell
The magician can cast a spell without speaking. This can be combined with Still Spell.

Still Spell
Requirements: INT 15+, Chosen form of magic (Common, Specific Theology, or Sorcery (Grimoire)) at 75%
Hero Points: 12
Duration: 1 spell
The magician can cast a spell without gesturing. This can be combined with Silent Spell.

 

[PhilHibbs]

Common Sorcery
Requirements: INT 15+, Manipulation 90%
Hero Points: 15
Duration: 1 spell
Allows the magician to apply manipulation skills to Common Magic.

Hmmm. My instincts are to be very careful about allowing this. Being able to Demoralize 10 people at once for only 3 MPs is pretty powerful. Remember, with Common Magic, you get Range for free so you don't need to spend any on that, so Manipulation when applied to Common Magic is more potent than Manipulation applied to Sorcery - you get an extra free point. This ability makes some Common Magic better than sorcery.

 

[pachristian]

You're right about too few magic points.

How about if each magnitude of manipulation cost +1 magic point?

 

[Prime_Evil]

You're right about too few magic points.

How about if each magnitude of manipulation cost +1 magic point?

That still might be a bit too powerful. Because many Common Magic spells only cost one or two Magic Points to begin with, a Sorcerer would be able to use multiple manipulations on most spells. They could even sidestep the limits built into most progressive spells...

Most of the other Heroic Abilities are cool though. Do you mind if I swipe a couple of them for my magic system fan project?

 

[PhilHibbs]

They could even sidestep the limits built into most progressive spells.

Including adding range to a touch spell.

 

[Mixster]

Contingent (Spell)
Requirements: Equivalent of Grand Master in Cult or Order
Hero Points: 8 (may be bought multiple times)
Duration: Continuous until spell is used. Magic point is spent when spell is used.
The magician lays a spell upon himself. This spell is cast normally, but does not take effect immediately. Instead, the caster defines a set of conditions under which the spell will take effect. These conditions must be personal, something that the caster does, or which is done to him, but can include a broad definition. Examples include “When I speak the word “Swordfish””, or “If I am knocked unconscious in battle” or “If I fail to resist a Spell that would be resisted by a Persistence check.” (A certain amount of metagaming is permissible).
The magician does not begin to regain the magic points spent casting the spell until the contingency is activated and the spell takes effect. If the spell is a divine spell, the spell does not being to recharge until the spell is used.
Examples of Contingent spells might include a Teleport that takes the caster home if he is wounded in an attack, a Countermagic that automatically tries to negate any enchantments cast upon him, or a Cure Disease/Poison spell that automatically activates if the magician is poisoned.
The contingent spell ability must be gained for each individual spell that the caster wants to set up as a contingency. A caster can only have one contingency upon himself for each use of this ability.

So, for one extra magic point I can "automatically" cast my sorcery spells without spending any CAs on them by triggering them to words or something similar?

That seems pretty pretty sick.

 

[pachristian]

Hmm -

Sounds like the "Common Sorcery" may not be a good idea (at least as written). The idea was inspired by Lunar Magic from the Avalon HIll RQ 3. I never actually had a any play a Lunar Spirit/Sorcerer, so I never got to see how far the magic system could be exploited. For now, drop "Common Sorcery" from the list.

As for Contingent spell, remember that you cast the spell, spend the magic points, and then do not begin to recover the magic points until you use the spell. So imagine a magician with a POW of 15. He places a Contingent Spell Teleport on himself, he has the spell, with magnitude and range (2 magic points), plus his contingency (3 magic points). He is now running around with 12 magic points for everything else, until he activates the Teleport. This limits his ability to work other magic. The magician also shows up on detect magic spells.

The idea behind the Contingent spell is the classic bit in fantasy movies, and in comic books, where the villain suddenly escapes, or heals, or gains a sudden power, despite the fact that he is in melee combat with the hero and if he started casting a spell, the heros would gut him before he could say "boo!".

Remember, you have to buy the heroic ability one time for each contingent spell you have on yourself. So it's powerful, but it's a powerful one-shot.

 

[pachristian]

[

Most of the other Heroic Abilities are cool though. Do you mind if I swipe a couple of them for my magic system fan project?

Of Course! Please use them. Let me know if they work out in your game.

 

[Mixster]

As for Contingent spell, remember that you cast the spell, spend the magic points, and then do not begin to recover the magic points until you use the spell. So imagine a magician with a POW of 15. He places a Contingent Spell Teleport on himself, he has the spell, with magnitude and range (2 magic points), plus his contingency (3 magic points). He is now running around with 12 magic points for everything else, until he activates the Teleport. This limits his ability to work other magic. The magician also shows up on detect magic spells.

That's not exactly how it is written. It says you use the magic point for the contingency when it is used, so until then the mage in question would only have bound 2 magic points.

The idea behind the Contingent spell is the classic bit in fantasy movies, and in comic books, where the villain suddenly escapes, or heals, or gains a sudden power, despite the fact that he is in melee combat with the hero and if he started casting a spell, the heros would gut him before he could say "boo!".

Remember, you have to buy the heroic ability one time for each contingent spell you have on yourself. So it's powerful, but it's a powerful one-shot.

So one contingent spell cost 1 magic point and 8 hero points?
I mean can't you prepare a new spell after the first one is cast?
If that's the case, then I think 8 hero points and 1 magic point is too high a price for a one off effect.

 

[pachristian]

Okay - I've tried rewriting the Contingent Spell ability, to make it clearer.

How does this look? Should the magician have to define when he/she buys the heroic ability which spell the Contingency applies to?

Contingency
Requirements: Equivalent of Grand Master in Cult or Order
Hero Points: 8 (may be bought multiple times)
Duration: Continuous until spell is used.
Allows the magician to cast a spell, but ‘hold’ it for activation later. A contingent spell can only affect the magician him or herself. The magician defines a condition which causes the spell to take effect. This condition must be personal, either something that the caster does, or which is done to him. Examples include “When I speak the word “Swordfish””, or “If I am knocked unconscious in battle” or “If I fail to resist a Spell that would be resisted by a Persistence check.” (A certain amount of metagaming is permissible). Magic points spent casting a Contingent spell do not begin to return until the spell is activated. Likewise, a Contingent divine spell does not begin to recharge until after activation.
A magician can only hold one spell per use of the Contingency ability. Once the spell is used, the magician may contingent another spell.

 

[Mixster]

That's pretty darned awesome for a buffing sorcerer.
You could place a Magnitude Manipulated Enhance Dex, Int and Shapechange spell in this, coded to when you draw your sword. And when you get in combat you get all your usual buffs without spending a combat action on it for just one extra magic point.

 

[PhilHibbs]

Okay - I've tried rewriting the Contingent Spell ability, to make it clearer.

Would the spell and condition be always the same? I think that the condition should be at least. There would probably be a small selection of conditions available at each place that teaches it, but I'd allow the player to pick what they want within reason, e.g. a healing cult would not teach the "when I draw my sword" condition.

 

[pachristian]

That's pretty darned awesome for a buffing sorcerer.
You could place a Magnitude Manipulated Enhance Dex, Int and Shapechange spell in this, coded to when you draw your sword. And when you get in combat you get all your usual buffs without spending a combat action on it for just one extra magic point.

You're right - that is pretty awesome. I think of multispelling as three seperate spells, cast together, not one meta-spell (which is really more accurate). I would require the sorcerer to have three uses of the ability to do the trick you describe. It might be worth 24 hero points...

Would the spell and condition be always the same? I think that the condition should be at least. There would probably be a small selection of conditions available at each place that teaches it, but I'd allow the player to pick what they want within reason, e.g. a healing cult would not teach the "when I draw my sword" condition.

My initial idea was yes, the spell and the condition would always be the same. I've wavered on this somewhat, and won't really know until some real min-maxing, system-exploiting, rules-lawyering players I sometimes game with have tried it out. If they all love it, then I know I'm doing something wrong.

I really like your interpretation of there being a small selection of conditions at each place that teaches it: That makes perfect sense and is in keeping with the spirit of the game. If you don't mind, I'll incorporate that on the next rewrite (leaving you credit, of course, if you wish).