Wise Turtle Publishing

I just read August 10th’s blog, and I have a question. According to the new way magic is going to be handled, there is an up-front Endurance cost for the spell. That’s fine if you’re just hurling a fireball. BUT, if the spell is an ongoing effect, like sleep, then you can’t recuperate the Endurance expenditure until you relinquish the spell? If this is correct, then how do you handle a caster like an alchemist or artificer who make magic items? I understand that the Endurance cost can be modified with perks and flaws, but still. Unless the cost is reduced to zero, you could be talking about a permanent loss of Endurance. What about the witch who gives the princess the poisoned apple of magical sleep? Unless a prince comes along and kisses the princess, the witch is permanently out of that Endurance? Will there be some kind of “permanent” perk?

The same problem arises with Witchcraft, which gives your opponent a flaw. This flaw normally doesn’t go away, so the Endurance loss is permanent… basically giving you and your target BOTH a flaw. And that is really going to suck if you’re being hunted down by fireball throwing wizards.

Actually, this is exactly how I plan magic items to work in the built-in campaign setting for OVA Fantasy. How do wizards get around it? Well evil ones basically kidnap people and use THEIR endurance to craft items. Nasty!

That aside, the Magic Ability doesn't officially cover crafting items. You'd be best off making your own rules...or if you prefer, rename the Inventor Ability to something more thematically sound.

As for witchcraft, I think this is very appropriate. Otherwise, you'd have witches casting PERMANENT -3 penalties in combat to their opponent's key combat stats with an Endurance cost they can simply recoup later. This way, you have to plague your spell with tons of requirements in order to cast it with a minimal or nonexistent Endurance cost. Something like, say....a ritual said under the full moon as you burn a concoction of lizard guts, chicory root, and a sample of the target's hair. Sound like proper witchcraft to anyone else? Does to me!

Clay wrote:This way, you have to plague your spell with tons of requirements in order to cast it with a minimal or nonexistent Endurance cost. Something like, say....a ritual said under the full moon as you burn a concoction of lizard guts, chicory root, and a sample of the target's hair. Sound like proper witchcraft to anyone else? Does to me!

I really like where you're going with this. Actually, that line of thinking could be applied to an alchemist, too. After all, potions need ingredients and time to prepare, not just a wave of the hand and some magic words....

(On a completely unrelated note... Auren looks amazing.)

Having played Exalted, this sounds a lot like Committed Essence. For non-players, Essence is essentially the mana characters use to use charms, their Holy-Balls-They-Did-What type of attacks the game is famous for. Normally, it's spent as you would a spell in your favorite JRPG, but there are some things that have you commit Essence, such as attuning to magic equipment or using combat form charms. When Essence is committed, it's treated as if it was spent, but it doesn't get regained like regular expenditure. Of course, if the character breaks attunement (most often through death) or ends his combat form, etc, the essence is no longer committed, but it's still considered spent. The plus is that you can start regaining that essence.

So, for example, it's a Familiar of Zero game and the baddies have minions who actually know how to use guns. My square mage character casts a spell on a minion that creates a vortex of air that can alter the bullets' trajectory and reduce the gun's accuracy. I commit the X endurance to pay and maintain the spell, because I like weaker opponents. Once the target dies, the spell disperses to the four winds (aren't I clever) and the endurance is no longer committed. On my next turn, I can take a proverbial knee to regain that Endurance.

As for potions, as a GM, I would either say that the Endurance is committed until the potion is used or that it's not committed, but is recovered at a slower rate.

I swear, no matter what you do in RPGs, someone, somewhere has already done it. But hey, I guess that's proof it works.

Clay wrote:I swear, no matter what you do in RPGs, someone, somewhere has already done it.