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Classic Fantasy help with Magic Points


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Hi

I wonder if anyone can help?

In the Classic Fantasy system but also in fact in BRP itself I have a problem understanding how magic points work for an established character.

As I understand the rules the character has POW or MP equal to his POW characteristic and spells cost between 1 and 3 per level. I also understand that the maximum POW is 21 and that regaining POW is a matter of hours or an overnight rest.

My question is how do Spell Casters manage to cast more than a couple of spells per day of a higher level.

Even with a POW of 21 a caster could only cast 2 Level 3 Fireballs 3d6, 3x3 = 9pts each x2 = 18pts leaving only 3pts.

It seems that this is not very conducive to using magic.

Perhaps I have misunderstood the rules?

If not does anyone have a play tested house-rules such as a quicker recovery of MP / POW like after each combat or perhaps full recovery over an hour?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks

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Most campaigns use some sort of power battery, either power used from a staff or familiar that the wizard can use to cast spells. For my campaigns, which tend to be high fantasy, I have power stones, which store a fixed amount of magic points that the wizard can use. They recover power over time, without rest, but the biggest one in a fixed area will be the only one regaining power as it will overpower smaller ones.

I have also allowed players to convert fatigue points into power points on a 1 for 1 basis, but now they're actually stressing themselves to cast spells. You could also allow players to convert hit points to power points, but that means they're injuring themselves to power their spells.

Skunk - 285/420 BRP book

You wanna be alright you gotta walk tall

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Thanks Skunk.

Since I am house ruling a lot of things your suggestions are helpful.

I am currently considering a combination of some Power Storage items and a quick recovery of POW.

I also wondered about some system to separate POW from Magic Points so a charcter could attack and defend with POW up to 21 but accumulate magic points over 21 to power casting. Any other thoughts would be welcomed.

I should say I have been RPGing since 1980 and played most systems. I like Chaosium RQ2 as a fairly simple system and as an alternative to D20 D&D, which our gaming group plays a lot, but we are not fans of the Glorantha setting. My hope is to have an RQ2 / BRP style system in a D&D type setting mostly to use the vast wealth of scenarios and modules available which I will convert on the fly. I am therefore borrowing bits from all over and house-ruling to have a rule set that I am satisfied with. RAW get house ruled by most groups over time anyway.

Edited by Ipod Apelle
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I also wondered about some system to separate POW from Magic Points so a charcter could attack and defend with POW up to 21 but accumulate magic points over 21 to power casting. Any other thoughts would be welcomed.

Corum does something with this. It's tied into the Allegiance system. You have scores for Law, the Balance and Chaos and when the character does something significant that supports one of those powers they add a point to their respective Allegiance. If the character's Chaos value is larger than their Law or their Balance value the character gains extra magic points... Ok, just looked it up. For every five points above Law or Balance, the character gets 1 magic point. So a character with a POW 16, Law 3, Balance 5, Chaos 20 would get 3 extra magic points. Because their Chaos score is far out of sync with the other two, they also have a chance of developing a Chaotic Feature.

70/420

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I've always used POW as the maximum number that innate Magic Points can regenerate to, but I have never altered the character's POW attribute no matter how low the MP have gone. Seems to work fine. The regen rate for MP is too quick for my liking actually, I prefer characters to make a daily POWx5% roll to see if they recover 1d3 MP overnight. It just seems to give them a reason to be careful with their spellcasting, and also they value magic items or practices which allow them access to additional MP, so it feels a bit more 'sorcerous' for me. If you like playing D&D style high fantasy I would suggest keeping the regen rate as it is, but as others have indicated, I would allow more availability of magic items which store MP that the caster can use.

" Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!"

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At least in Magic World, MP is restored at a rate of 1/24th POW per hour. So, it takes 24 hours to regainit all, but you don't get it back all at once. It's a slow drip. I think it's that way in other BRP games too, but don't have any handy to check at the moment.

As someone stated above, most good mages use MP batteries of some sort. The Wizard's staff, for example, or bound Power spirits in RQ/MW.

Please don't contact me with Chaosium questions. I'm no longer associated with the company, and have no idea what the new management is doing.

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As someone stated above, most good mages use MP batteries of some sort. The Wizard's staff, for example, or bound Power spirits in RQ/MW.

That's why it's got a knob on the end, after all.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

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