RQ6 Magic Adjustments

[Robsbot]

I have both The Magic Book and RQ6. I did a cursory quick read of the entire magic book and I initially didn't like the systems at all (but I did love the Ritual Magic section, as I love the idea of power long prep spells). However, I picked up RQ6 and while it's a substantial improvement to the RQ3 magic systems I'm still unhappy with RQ6 Sorcery. While most people seem to have an issue with RQ3's sorcery I don't. For instant buffs with good effects while being lax on pure damage we already have the sorcery system in place with the BRB, Elric!, and The Bronze Grimoire. I feel the Elric! system does the RQ6 instant buff type sorcery much better with much less complexity.

What I'm trying to accomplish is creating an "Enchanter" type class. I want it to differ from Mysticism in that it requires planning and pre-casting. In my setting I want Mysticism to be more for martial classes and this Enchanter to be a Wizard who sits in a tower accumulating magical staves, a familiar, a brazier of power, and all sorts of other ways to store power to fuel his powerful spells. I want the feel of the RQ3 sorcery without the mechanical failings I seem to hear about. RQ6 handled them nicely, but also butchered the Enchanter feel of RQ3. Here are a few ideas I've had:

1)Would it be as simple as using The Magic Book shaping tables for duration, range, etc.? Could I then use some of the spells from both the RQ6 and RQ3 list as I see fit or are they balanced differently and would it cause a power discrepancy?

2)Would it just be easier to use The Magic Book and use the Skill/10 or Skill/5 shaping limit like RQ6 and some of the house rules I've seen around here?

3) Could I just increase the casting cost of RQ6 shaping to 1 Magic Point base + 1 Magic Point per point of shaping and find a way to make the time scale much harder? I like the idea of it being some multiple of POW but it doesn't scale hard enough.

In combination with any of the above: Could I use some of the spells from both the RQ6 and RQ3 list as I see fit or are they balanced differently and would it cause a power discrepancy?

[Robsbot]

Complete re-edit. I appear to have missed the Enchant spell in RQ6. That does everything I want it to. It allows for permanent spell upkeep while limiting magic regeneration. Well done on RQ6's part!

To create the Enchanter class I'm going to impose a few house rules on RQ sorcery:

1) All Enchanters start with Enchant, and it doesn't count against their spells known limit. It's simply another shaping component.

2) When a spell is weaponized (Wrack, Tap, Venom, Palsy for example) in an enchantment the spell contains all the properties it was imbued with including range, duration, magnitude, and number of targets.

3) To use a weaponized enchantment you must succeed on an invocations (artifact) skill roll. There is no MP cost for invoking an enchantment. On a failure, the spell fails to rise from your enchantment. On a fumble the enchantment fizzles and you must re-enchant your item. On a special, you gain 1 MP as the spell is channeled through you. On a critical the spell does maximum damage and you gain 1 MP. This essentially allows you to create your own ranged weapon imbued in items!

4) The book seems a bit unclear on suppression and dismissal, so I'll clear up my version. Enchantments can be dismissed by their owner at any time. Any attempts to dispel an enchantment only suppress it for the duration of the dispel. Enchantments can only be dispelled by other enchanters.

It seems rather well balanced. Enchanters could basically make their own weapons and enchancements, but have a smaller casting pool for spontaneous casting. They'd rely on magical staves and other MP storage if they decided to have multiple upkeeps. In between adventures it would be good for the enchanters to drop their enchantments, refill their staves and other foci (thus making them vulnerable to ambush!) and then re-enchant their stuff. The only issue I could see is if they dropped their spells before they went to sleep, regenerate the magic, then re-enchant their things. However, this doesn't seem like too much of a problem as it would still tie up their MP for the day but give them slightly more flexibility from day to day.

Thoughts? Has anyone ran RQ6 Sorcery as is, and what are your impressions of it compared to say RQ3?

Edited December 5, 2012 by Robsbot