Magic Points in the Legend Core Rulebook

[alex_greene]

I could not, for the life of me, find the rules for regaining Magic Points in the Legend Core Rulebook yesterday. I could have sworn I'd read them, but try as I might I could not find the rule anywhere.

Finally got them on p. 154:-

Regaining Magic Points
Adventurers automatically regain Magic Points equal to their POW, less any POW dedicated to a Pact, every 12 hours. They will regain this amount in six hours if they are fully resting, such as sleeping, or through the use of the Meditation Advanced skill (see page 62).

So that's 12 hours, or 6 hours if asleep or meditating, or 4 hours if they achieve a critical success in Meditation, to regain all of their Magic Points up to their available POW.

Do they regain the Magic Points all at once, or do the Magic Points come back, a point at a time, over that period? What of someone who only spent part of those Magic Points?

Let's look at someone with a POW of 16. They're both going to be recovering Magic Points through sleep, so 6 hours.

One day, she spends all 16 Magic Points available to her, somehow survives the Resilience roll, and makes it to a safe spot to sleep it off. She would recover those Magic Points at a rate of 1 Magic Point per 22 minutes 30 seconds whilst sleeping. Let's say she only gets 180 minutes' sleep - 3 hours. Does that mean she only gets 8 Magic Points back and she has to wait another six hours to get the rest back, assuming she uses no more Magic Points?

And a second example. Someone else with 16 POW who spends, say, 4 Magic Points also opts to sleep it off. He has 12 Magic Points left. He's planning on spending 6 hours asleep, but he too only gets a little sleep - in this case, about 115 minutes, just shy of two hours. With POW 16 he'd have recovered 4 Magic Points by some 90 minutes, so when he wakes up would he be at full Magic Points?

 

[soltakss]

I have always played that you get back a proportion, So, if you sleep for 3 hours then you get half POW back.

An easier way to do is is to get back 1 MP per hour, 2 MPs if resting, 3 MPs per hour if sleeping.

 

[alex_greene]

That works for me.

 

[Tias]

Another option, borrowed from Warhammer Fantasy back when I played it, is offering magic-users a skill called Meditation (Intx2, or Int+POW base if you want to mix it up). Making a Meditation roll, where you rest and devote 15 minutes in completely relaxed meditation, they then have the chance to regain one or several magic points.

It does mess a bit with the power scale, but then one could only allow meditation every couple of hours, or make the skill harder to improve.

 

[alex_greene]

Another option, borrowed from Warhammer Fantasy back when I played it, is offering magic-users a skill called Meditation (Intx2, or Int+POW base if you want to mix it up). Making a Meditation roll, where you rest and devote 15 minutes in completely relaxed meditation, they then have the chance to regain one or several magic points.

It does mess a bit with the power scale, but then one could only allow meditation every couple of hours, or make the skill harder to improve.

p. 62 of Legend Core Rulebook already has a Meditation skill. It's POW x 2, and on a normal success the rate of recovery of spent Magic Points is doubled: in effect, if one had spent all one's POW worth of Magic Points, a successful Meditation would recover the lot in 6 hours rather than 12.

A critical success causes Magic Points to come back at triple the normal rate - so instead of taking 12 hours, a critical Meditation success reduces the time to recover a full POW load of Magic Points to 4 hours. Lastly, there is a Divine spell, Meditate, which enables the user to regain all non-Pacted Magic Points with just 15 minutes of meditation.

I imagine a lot of characters, once they realise how useful Meditation skill is, would likely want to build up that skill just so they can recover their Magic Points as rapidly as possible.

But yeah, thanks for this.

 

[alex_greene]

Of course, now it's got me contemplating making available a magical incense or candle which, when lit, makes sure that every success in Meditation in its presence is automatically counted as a critical success; or making a Meditative Mind Heroic Ability available to give non-Divine spell user characters the blessings of the Divine Meditate spell.

 

[Tias]

Another option, borrowed from Warhammer Fantasy back when I played it, is offering magic-users a skill called Meditation (Intx2, or Int+POW base if you want to mix it up). Making a Meditation roll, where you rest and devote 15 minutes in completely relaxed meditation, they then have the chance to regain one or several magic points.

It does mess a bit with the power scale, but then one could only allow meditation every couple of hours, or make the skill harder to improve.

p. 62 of Legend Core Rulebook already has a Meditation skill. It's POW x 2, and on a normal success the rate of recovery of spent Magic Points is doubled: in effect, if one had spent all one's POW worth of Magic Points, a successful Meditation would recover the lot in 6 hours rather than 12.

A critical success causes Magic Points to come back at triple the normal rate - so instead of taking 12 hours, a critical Meditation success reduces the time to recover a full POW load of Magic Points to 4 hours. Lastly, there is a Divine spell, Meditate, which enables the user to regain all non-Pacted Magic Points with just 15 minutes of meditation.

I imagine a lot of characters, once they realise how useful Meditation skill is, would likely want to build up that skill just so they can recover their Magic Points as rapidly as possible.

But yeah, thanks for this.

Gack, sorry I'm still new to the system, perhaps I read it and forgot it was in there :idea:

 

[Prime_Evil]

How does this sound as a simple extension to the variant rule that Simon provided above:

You recover 1 MP per hour by default, 2 MPs per hour if resting, and 3 MPs per hour if sleeping. Increase this by +1 MP per hour with a successful Meditation skill roll or +2 MP per hour if you roll a Critical Success on the Meditation skill roll. If you fumble the Meditation roll, reduce the amount of MPs you get back by -1 MP per hour AND your Fatigue is increased by one level.

This will allow characters to recover Magic Points slightly faster than the standard rules allow.

 

[Tias]

Can I ask something here about Divine Magic 'points' that's been bugging me? Here goes:

Why is it so prohibitively difficult for starting Divine users to regain spells, and can something be done to mitigate? I've let the initiate in my group get +40% to his roll as long as he's in good standing with his diety, as a stop gap measure - because unless I'm reading it wrong, he only gets his pact score (of 15%) to roll against to regain a given spell.

 

[Fonso]

Can I ask something here about Divine Magic 'points' that's been bugging me? Here goes:

Why is it so prohibitively difficult for starting Divine users to regain spells, and can something be done to mitigate? I've let the initiate in my group get +40% to his roll as long as he's in good standing with his diety, as a stop gap measure - because unless I'm reading it wrong, he only gets his pact score (of 15%) to roll against to regain a given spell.

We use to add to the Pact Skill a bonus, based in the Difficulty and Haste Table; at the second day, +20%, at fifth day, +40%, etc.
However, 15% is a very low value; remember that you can invest free points during character creation to increase the Pact Skill.

 

[Tias]

Allright, I must have missed that. Thanks!

 

[alex_greene]

I generally rule that if the character Meditates, all their Magic Points are restored to them - including the Magic Points to their Pacted entity, which automatically gets fed to them. Say your guy has 18 POW and has Pacted 6 POW; after 6 hours' Meditation your character has his 12 POW back,and his deity gets his nice fat 6 POW automatically sent to him.

So in addition to whatever bonuses you can find (meditating on a High Holy Day, use of a portable shrine, meditating within the bounds of a suitable Consecrate spell even if it adds no bonuses to Pact at that time) you can add the critical range of your Meditation Skill to the Pact when rolling to regain specific spells. If the Meditation roll is a critical success, this bonus is doubled. If you've got others meditating in a group prayer thing, using their Meditation to help your character, their Meditation critical ranges are also added. Gods like congregations.

I have been thinking of a few other ways to boost Pact Skill - one of them is to temporarily have Enhance CHA cast on the Adventurer whilst meditating, with a Duration long enough to cover the entire period of the Meditation. The Enhanced CHA temporarily boosts the Pact Skill, effectively giving your character a louder voice when calling to his deity.

Also, your character would look badass whilst meditating, what with his CHA rating through the roof and all.

A CHA-boosting enchantment that is permanently on as long as it is worn, such as a Glamour ring or Enhance CHA pendant (that also happens to be fashioned into a holy symbol of the deity), is probably the best tool your character could have when it comes to regaining Divine spells.

And you'll never treat CHA as your dump stat again.

 

[alex_greene]

Other ways to regain Divine spells without Pact being rolled:-

- Pacting more POW.

- Increasing your Rank in the priesthood.

- Completing a supernatural Quest.

- Games Master Fiat, usually upon completing some major milestone in a stage of the character's spiritual journey (a Healer follower offers compassion without possible hope of a reward to a total ingrate; a Thunderer follower offers the hand of friendship to a man he just bested in Unarmed combat; a Trickster follower pulls a massive prank on some malevolent sorcerer, just for the lulz, even at risk of being skinned alive).

Another way I can think of to boost Pact is that group prayer thing.

Group Prayer, and what they call Concert Skill from Arcania of Legend: Blood Magic.

It would require more than one supplicant, and they would all have to be Pacted to the same deity, but I wouldn't have any problem in ruling that multiple supplicants can add their Concert Skills and their Pact Skills together, and whichever is the lowest figure is the number that the Concert leader rolls to regain Divine spells.

Only thing is, every participant regains their Divine spell allotment if the roll is a success, not just the team leader.

I'd only allow Pact rolls to be made under the most dire of circumstances anyway. If the action comes to a natural break, and everybody can grab six hours' Meditation time, they regain their Divine spells more or less automatically. I'd only need to use Pact if the circumstances are dire and the character is praying to gain access to a really powerful Divine spell right now.

(And if he succeeds, the deity will probably whisper in his ear "Here you go. It's on the tab. We'll talk about settling this later ...")

Truth be told, it's all Games Master Fiat. The dice don't matter so much if the player roleplays the process rather than relies on the dice for everything - though I'd draw the line at him bringing in a goat.

 

[Tias]

What the hell, man. Goats are the ESSENCE of mucking around with the divine? :lol:

Anyway, thanks a lot. Seems like a lot of good tools to use, here.

 

[Prime_Evil]

I just had an idea....

How about allowing practitioners of Divine Magic to rapidly recover a number of Magic points equal to the POW dedicated to Pact if they are in a location consecrated to the relevant deity (such as a shrine or temple)? In my own campaign, I've been thinking of introducing an Attunement skill based upon INT + POW that characters can use to attune themselves to places of power, ley lines, and similar places of power. I'd probably require the caster to make an Attunement roll to tap into the ambient power of the sacred location.

I also rate holy sites and items with a Sanctity rating that measures the amount of divine power concentrated in them. The sanctity rating measures how numinous the location or item is in game terms. The Sanctity rating of a site or item with religious significance is rated from 1 to 100 - it is theoretically possible to have a rating above 100, but in that case the site or item is otherworldly in nature. For my own campaign, I'd rule that practitioners of Divine magic can only "recharge" at a holy site if the location's Sanctity is higher than their Pact skill. If it is lower, the site is not sufficiently potent to refresh the priest's faith.

Finally, I'd rule that this kind of 'divine refresh' can only be used once per week or the caster risks displeasing their deity - with interesting consequences....

Whatt do people think?

 

[alex_greene]

I prefer the idea that any particular space is holy only because it is the worshippers which make it holy, keeping the stories and legends of miracles in that area going, creating shrines and temples, congregating there and having a string of anonymous votaries continuously maintaining Consecrate there, working in shifts to keep the spell going 24/7.

It is the worship of the congregations, and their daily sacrifice of Pacted Magic Points, which gives the gods their power and fuels Divine magic, which is why the characters do not spend Magic Points to cast the spells - it's the thousands of worshippers and their aggregate Magic Points which power the miracles.

Even the Gods know the value of delegation and crowdsourcing.

If the characters' adventures take them to an abandoned shrine or Temple and they find that there is a Consecrate still in place, making the hairs on the backs of their necks stand on end as they become aware that they are entering a profane place dedicated to some unholy deity, there should be a deep sense of foreboding far stronger than being in the presence of a deity.

Because if Consecrate is still in place, that means that the "abandoned" temple must still be a site of active worship ...

Yes, I love HP Lovecraft as much as the next man, and Legend needs more Lovecraft, even if it has to smuggle it from Call of Cthulhu and sneak off furtively into the night with it tucked under the arm.

 

[Tias]

most things in existence need more Lovecraft

Fixed that for you

 

[soltakss]

most things in existence need more Lovecraft like a hole in the head

Fixed that for you

Fixed that for you

 

[superc0ntra]

Here is a quick reference I put together.
http://privat.bahnhof.se/wb249637/_files/Power_Regain.pdf

 

[soltakss]

Here is a quick reference I put together.
http://privat.bahnhof.se/wb249637/_files/Power_Regain.pdf

That is very useful for most PCs. Thanks.