Thoughts on the costs of sorcery ...

[InsomNY]

... Specifically experience point costs and similar spending "of the self."

1. If a spell has an XP cost, would it be a good idea to allow some or all of them to come from a sacrifice victim? How about from some rare and dangerous-to-acquire material component in addition to the usual requirements?

2. Instead of burning XP – something which many players are loath to do – perhaps the GM could assign long-term penalties commensurate with the proposed XP cost. For example, the sorcerer could suffer the "Fatigued" condition for a number of days, or take ability damage to one or more stats.

Any other ideas on the topic?

 

[Elfman]

Personally I think you should leave the XP costs alone and in place. But if you're going to lessen the cost...

Don't ever do option (1) in entirety. I did it once in AD&D, and it nearly killed the campaign, I had to have the gods convene to un-do the wizard's research that allowed the transfer of XP costs, it was so bad. If you want to be lenient, allow them to pay up to half the XP cost by sacrifice. Don't give in to temptation to lower it any further, not even for "willing" sacrifices. Trust me, it can kill the balance of the game very fast.

or

Again, allow a part of the XP cost to be offset by the penalty of fatigue, ability loss, whatever, but not the entire amount.

If it's a player that's complaining about the high cost of spells, I'd ask them to seriously rethink their character concept before I retool the mechanics of the game. If it's you as GM... well... give the villians more XPs!! :twisted:

 

[slaughterj]

I'm not even assigning XP in Conan, just telling PCs when they level up. The XP system is so arbitrary anyway. I despise XP costs for spells (and I'm usually the GM), because I like consistency in games where the same advancement is given to all PCs (which games like D&D and other level-based systems promote, as opposed to some point-based systems where it is easier to distinguish awards). If I ever have to worry about it in Conan (no spellcaster PCs), I will first drop the XP costs, then decide whether that makes the spell too easy, and if so, either add an ability drain, rare/expensive material component, something else, or some combination of the above to balance things.

 

[Anonymous]

Switch XP for HP.

 

[Anonymous]

The XP cost of Nature magic spells should be ignored as all such spellslisted in the base rule book have XP costs but not the more powerful ones listed in the scrolls of Skelos.

 

[Anonymous]

The XP cost of Nature magic spells should be ignored as all such spellslisted in the base rule book have XP costs but not the more powerful ones listed in the scrolls of Skelos.

 

[Belligrent0001]

What I am doing in my campaign is rewarding the players with silver or gems even equipment. then to add to the 'high adventure' lifestyle they much spend their monetary gains living the high life. ever sp that they spend gains them 1 xp. This makes my players coose to be good, or have good equipment. In the case of the sorcerer they know in advance how many xp certain spells require and have to make sure that they buy enough exp to handle casting it. I also make sure that I provide them with enough coin to make these things posible and I limit the amount of equipment that is availlible as well.

Maybe I should post this as a seperate thread but it kinda plays into the xp cost for spells.

 

[Anonymous]

What I am doing in my campaign is rewarding the players with silver or gems even equipment. then to add to the 'high adventure' lifestyle they much spend their monetary gains living the high life. ever sp that they spend gains them 1 xp. This makes my players coose to be good, or have good equipment. In the case of the sorcerer they know in advance how many xp certain spells require and have to make sure that they buy enough exp to handle casting it. I also make sure that I provide them with enough coin to make these things posible and I limit the amount of equipment that is availlible as well.

Maybe I should post this as a seperate thread but it kinda plays into the xp cost for spells.

Hey, I do the same thing! Only I divide the amount of silver they spend by their current level to get their xp. It's a lot more politic than just saying "You spend your money, now it's gone".

Clearly you need to keep track of how much "treasure" you've given out when awarding normal xp.

 

[InsomNY]

It's a lot more politic than just saying "You spend your money, now it's gone".

But the whole point of high living is just that – you spend your money and it's gone. If the players want to spend their money and have something to show for it, they'd better make plans to do so. To make the disappearing-silver syndrome more palatable, a GM should make sure to give lavish descriptions of the carousing, and possibly leave the characters with one or two nice trinkets (not necessarily valuable or useful, but nice) when it's all done.

At any rate, mine were just suggestions, and a means to start a discussion. Any other ideas on alternatives to XP costs?

 

[Belligrent0001]

I don't give out xps except for outstanding roleplaying or for something over the top. I just have to make sure that hte monetary reward is fitting for the tasks accomplished.

 

[Qjedi]

It's a lot more politic than just saying "You spend your money, now it's gone".

But the whole point of high living is just that – you spend your money and it's gone. If the players want to spend their money and have something to show for it, they'd better make plans to do so. To make the disappearing-silver syndrome more palatable, a GM should make sure to give lavish descriptions of the carousing, and possibly leave the characters with one or two nice trinkets (not necessarily valuable or useful, but nice) when it's all done.

At any rate, mine were just suggestions, and a means to start a discussion. Any other ideas on alternatives to XP costs?

We haven't changed any XP costs of spells, but have been thinking about ditching them because they do just completely suck for the PC's, including my scholar who has nature magic and necromany and will raise the dead quite regularly to avoid any xp cost when an animal or beast would do the job better.
It just comes down to how you want to run your game. I do like the xp cost changed to hp cost idea because of the danger of casting the spells However I would likely run it at a rate of 1hp = 50 or 100 xp or else you would sacrifice (willing only) for it, which we have already had one PC do in the game I am playing my sorceror in.
At any rate, remember the golden rule:
If it isn't fun, change the rule!