Resistance and resiliance magic.

[Mixster]

Mixster has worked a bit on a Warhammer-like system, where on can cast as many spells as one likes - but with a risk each time. Perhaps he can give some inspiration.

- Dan

So I have. Albeit it is far from finished.

That would be great if he could.

Sorry for being late for the thread, here are my ideas so far:

Atm. I'm working on a few ideas, which I will either use all of, use some of, or completely forget. Here are my brainstormed ideas:
System #1 (the one I like best atm)
As is, the system is designed only for sorcery and common magic and works like this:
Magic Points exist as is, but instead of powering your spells, it can do one of two things. Re-roll one dice on the casting roll (IE the skill check to cast the spell), or re-roll a mishap roll, multiple magic points cannot be spent on the same spell.
Sorcery Casting:
Each Mage has a set of "cursed numbers" ranging 0-9 these cursed numbers are either specific to each wizard and chosen at character creation, or they are setting/grimoire specific. A setting inspired by Christian Mythology could have 6 as a cursed number (which will be this systems assumed standard, for reason explained below).
Any casting that involves a cursed number causes a mishap, modified as below:
Critical Successes never suffer mishaps.
Successes take mishaps as normal.
Failures increase the degree of Mishap by 1.
Fumbles increase the degree of mishap by 3 (was considering 1d4 to make it more random).
Each additional cursed number increase the degree of mishap by 1. (so if for example 6 is cursed, and 66 is rolled, it would be a 2nd degree mishap on a success and a 3rd degree mishap on a failure).
When applying manipulations. Not only are there an extra requirement of combat actions, but for every full 2 magic points that would normally be spent, one extra digit (either chosen at game start or at random each time) is counted as a "cursed number". (So spells that cost 1-2 Magic Points have 1 cursed number, 3-4=2 5-6=3 and so on).

Here's a sample list of Mishaps for elaboration (note that mishaps doesn't necessarily cause the spell to fail, it mainly generates an extra effect):
1st Degree:
1-20% The caster must pass an easy (+20%) persistence check or suffer d3 damage to a random location, as aethyrical fires singe the flesh of his bones. No matter whether he fails or succeeds the casters gets a nasty scar that heals in about 3 weeks.
21-40% The caster drains himself and loses 1 point of CON and POW. The lost CON and POW return at a rate of ½ per stat per day.
41-60% Even if the casting roll was a success the spell fails to function.
61-80% the spell goes into a time loop and takes effect 1d6+1 rounds later.
81-90% Everyone, including the caster, within 2 meters of him/her must take a resilience check or suffer 1 point of damage to a random hit location.
91-95% Roll twice more on this table
96-100% roll on the 2nd degree table.

2nd degree
01-05% roll once more on this table, and once on the 1st degree table.
06-25% If the spell was targeted at an ally, the spell hits a random enemy instead, if the spell was targeted at an enemy the spell hits a random ally instead. If the spell had multiple targets, each new target can only be affected once.
26-40% The caster must succeed on a persistence test or suffer 1d6 damage to a random location.
41-50% The caster must succeed on a resilience test or instantly age 2d10 years.
51-70% 1d4 of the casters loved ones suffer a first degree mishap, and the spell fails to function.
71-90% caster must succeed on a persistence test or suffer 1d3+1 levels of fatigue.
91-95% roll twice more on this table
96-100% roll on the third degree table.

3rd, 4th, 5th degree. (You get the idea, we can elaborate these together if you like it)

A note on cursed numbers:
Within these rules if the cursed number is 0 or 9, fumbles will be particularly harsh, these spells will already cause a crash and burn on fumbles, but in a setting where 9 is also a cursed number, rolling 99 will generate a 5th degree failure, which would be the equavilent of the mage severly hurting himself and most of his family, friends, and fans. On the other hand, if the cursed number is too low, such as 1 or 2, more of those numbers will be successes and criticals, making some of the curses less effective. Giving more reward and less risk. The basic way of generating cursed numbers, would be starting with 6, and adding extra numbers towards 0 when extra magic points are used.

A note on POW in this system:
So POW could also be used by non-caster I was toying with the idea of essentially making POW work per week, work as I wrote with the mishap re-roll, but also allow them to re-roll all sorts of other skills. In effect POW would be a "per week" (or month perhaps?) hero point reserve. In this case I'd scrap hero points altogether and make heroic abilities cost improvement rolls instead.

The system would do similarly with common magic, but the mishaps would be a bit less significant, so failures probably don't pop up the degree by 1, and successes decrease it by 1.

System #2. Much simpler, much less thought upon.
Whenever you cast a spell, you make a note of how many magic points you would have used this day, if your casting roll is over 100-"total mp spent". You cause a bad effect. For every 10 points over the bad effect gets worse.

System #3. Weird, but could be fun.
Spells need material components instead of magic points. As long as you have components, you can cast the spells. When you are out of components, you are out of spells. (probably stupid to make spell-casters into simple money->flashy effects translators. But I guess it could work).

 

[jwpacker]

It sounds to me like the OP wants a system akin to what they use in Shadowrun - each spell has an associated potential for damage, based on the potency with which it was cast. If that potency was at or below the level of magic that the character has, the potential damage was fatigue. If it's above that magic stat, it's killing damage.

The player rolls a number of dice equal to his magic stat plus his willpower stat, with a hope of getting enough successes (fives or sixes on d6 in SR) to counteract all of the potential damage from the spell-casting (with a similar mechanic for summoning and binding spirits).

If a spell's magnitude is greater than MP/3, round up, the potential damage you face is hit points to the chest or head. If it is equal to or less than, the spell may cost you fatigue.

To determine possible damage, make a Persistence test versus 20% times the magnitude of the spell cast. Yes, magnitude five spells ought to have a good shot at making you hurt, right? Put together a matrix of possible results, including everything from a critical success versus a fumble casting the spell at a higher magnitude for free (useful for beating past countermagic even on fixed magnitude spells) and the opposite resulting in catastrophic organ failure. The more prosaic costs of failure include an increase in fatigue state by 1 level for every two magnitude (or fraction thereof) and a cost to your MP equal to the magnitude, thus making future spellcasting more likely to be deadly rather than just exhausting.

Just more brainstorming, of course, but I think it keeps the feel you were looking for...

As for me, I like the idea of my mages being able to cast spells forever if they like. I'm tempted to set a threshold of Common Magic skill at which the cost of all spells is reduced by one. That way you could cast a magnitude 1 Disruption all combat long, doing a 1d3 hit every time you succeeded, for example. I imagine the threshold would have to be fairly high. I've even considered setting it at 100%. But that way, you'd have really powerful mages who could do things that might tire out an apprentice in short order, with no repercussions.

 

[Asyme]

Sorry - been away on holiday and locked out of my email for too long to reply. But yes - the last was pretty much what I was thinking of. I'm happy to use MPs for special things (summoning demons as an example or binding divine spells) but in general like the idea of mages being able to cast more than a few spells before having to pull out a dagger

Nice suggestion JWpacker

 

[Marrethiel]

I'd suggest something like making spells take longer to cast, this would offset the ability to cast all day long. Then let them spend hit points (like fighters do in a way) to hasten the spells. I've ran a system like this before and the mage players enjoyed the level of tactical decission making. The Legend conversion would involve more time per point of magnitude and maybe a cap on how many constant spells they can have up (to avoid turning mages into buff monkeys).

Another game burnt fatigue when ever you fumbled. This would probably need an increase in the fumble range by one per point of magnitude or something similar.