Sorcery: Wordcasting
So, not that long ago I reworked my rune magic framework, making it more in line with the D&D lore. However, I had to abolish the Verb/Noun symbol system. But I do like verbs and nouns! I have decided to do something around that concept. I'll call it wordcasting after the variant spellcasting system from Pathfinder. This was quite the headscratcher for me. The end result looks interesting to me, but something in the back of my mind is telling me that I came up with garbage. I guess this will require some testing. Everything here is subject to change.
The result will probably be similar to my take on the D&D wizard, as I do not want to limit the scope, but want to make improvisation take a long time, plus I want to keep the spell skills. However, I want to make Verbs and Nouns into skills (or maybe techniques?) instead of givine each spell its own skill. That would mean that there's going to be fewer "spell" skills, but you'd have to roll at least twice - once for the Verb, and once for the Noun. I think that since there's going to be fewer spell skills, it would be reasonable to abolish the "skill slot" that my wizard uses for improvisation.
I want the spells to require at least two skill rolls attached to them. Usually, this is done via Skill for Everyone (GURPS Powers, p. 162), but how will that interact with multiple rolls? For example, if we have a spell based on Malediction, which skill will be used for the Quick Contest to see if the subject is affected? So, we would have the following situations:
1. The spell has no casting roll. We apply Requires Two IQ Rolls, -20% to the spell.
2. The spell has an IQ-based casting roll. We apply Requires IQ Roll, -10% to the spell.
3. The spell has a non-IQ-based casting roll. We apply Based on IQ, Own Roll, +20% and Requires IQ roll, -10% to the spell.
If there are three rolls required (for example, when a spell transforms earth to air, you might need Transform (verb) and both Air and Earth (two nouns), you just add an additional Requires IQ Roll, -10%. In any case, if there is a Quick Contest to resist, or if margin of success/victory is important for something else, use the lower of the two (or more) skills that were used to cast the spell.
Spells should require somatic, verbal, and/or material components. This is accomplished by adding the Requires Magic Words, -10%, Required Gestures, -10%, and/or Requires Material Component, -10% or Trigger, -X% limitations to the spells. The combinations of these limitations may vary from spell to spell. Casting times and FP costs can be adjusted as well. Alternative Rituals from GURPS Thaumatology: Sorcery, p. 7, are not in effect, because each spell has defined somatic and verbal components.
Improvisation should be limited to spells written in the caster’s grimoire or any other spellbook or scroll, and should take a while. This limits the caster’s combat flexibility, but still allows him to be flexible outside of combat. To accomplish this, we replace Sorcerous Empowerment with Wizardly Study.
Spell scrolls that can only be used to transcribe a spell into your spellbook cost $2 per point of the spell’s full cost. Transcribing a spell requires identifying it first. Transcribing takes 1 day per 20 points of the spells’ full cost.
Trading Fatigue for Skill (GURPS Powers, p. 161) is available.
When rolling a critical failure on a casting roll, use the Critical Spell Failure Table (p. B236).
You know, since there's so many skills (see below), I suggest adding the following rule: If one of the casting rolls was not successful, but the rest were, then the spell still resolves, but at half its power (basically, as if it was cast in a low mana area). This does not apply to critical failures or failures by 5 or more.
SKILLS
Thaumatology will be your core spellcasting skill, with Verbs and Nouns being Hard skills that default to Thaumatology-5. However, a defaulted Verb or Noun skill cannot exceed 12, regardless of how high the caster’s Thaumatology skill or Talent level is. Basically, I stole this from RPM with some adjustments.
What verbs and nouns exist in your game world is entirely up to you. You can borrow the system from RPM or come up with something using the guidelines from GURPS Thaumatology. The actual words of power from Ultimate Magic for Pathfinder probably is not a good fit, but there were other attempts at making a similar systme withing the D&D 3.0/3.5 framework. Encyclopaedia Arcane: Chaos Magic by Mongoose Publishing probably won't give you any good ideas. However, Elements of Magic: Revised Edition by EN Publishing looks promising (I always wanted to give this book a shot in my D&D games, but never had the chance - but now, since I'm playing GURPS, I have the benefit of being able to adapt anything I want).
The latter provides the following Verbs (it calls them Action Types):
- Abjure (this one gives protection or dispels effects);
- Charm (this one imposes a mental debuff);
- Compel (this one controls the subject);
- Create (this one creates something out of nothing);
- Drain (this one imposes a non-mental debuff);
- Heal (this one heals or repairs damage);
- Hex (this one reduces defenses);
- Illusion (this one creates illusions or obscures senses);
- Infuse (this one gives a buff);
- Move (this one moves physically or via teleportation);
- Seek (this one detects or scries; it's not actually in the book, but I think that it is required);
- Summon (this one summons a creature);
- Transform (this one transforms the subject into something else; usually requires two nouns).
Nouns are divided into Alignment, Creatures, and Elements.
Alignments are: Balance, Chaos, Evil, Good, Law.
Creature words correspond to creature types in D&D: Aberration, Construct, Deathless, Dragon, Elemental, Fey, Giant, Humanoid (includes Giant and Monstrous Humanoid), Magical Beast, Monstrous Humanoid, Ooze, Outsider, Undead (includes Deathless). I do not include Animal, Fungus, Plant, and Vermin, since they are closer to druidic magic than to arcane magic.
Elements are structured similarly to how the Inner Planes are structured in D&D, but there are some differences. They are split into five categories:
The Cardinal Elements: Air, Death, Earth, Fire, Life, and Water.
The Paraelements: Lava, Lightning, Mist, and Ooze.
The Negative Elements: Acid, Metal, Shadow, and Void.
The Positive Elements: Crystal, Ice, Light, and Sound.
The Unifying Elements: Force, Magic, Nature, Space, and Time. (Magic isn't actually in the book, but I think that it should be there).
That's... a lot of skills. I can see some that I may cut down though. (If you're reading this in the future, the removed skills will be crossed out).
SAMPLE SPELL
Detect Magic
Keywords: Information.
Full Cost: 4 points.
Casting Rolls: Seek; Magic.
Components: V, S.
Cost: 1 FP.
Casting Time: 1 second.
Range: Unlimited.
Duration: Instantaneous.
Like in GURPS Thaumatology: Sorcery.
Statistics: Detect (Magic; Costs Fatigue, 1 FP, -5%; Magical, -10%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires IQ Roll, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%; Touch- or Vision-Based, -15%) [4].
When adding the Requires Gestures limitation on spells built that have multiple advantages, do I add them to every advantage/part of the spell?
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