The ground idea stays the same. Spells are weak, and become stronger using drawbacks. Additionaly, this system takes into account level-ups, to make stronger spells be something that takes more experience to master.
A level 1 spell has 2 free effect-levels, and can add up to 1 more by adding drawbacks
A level 2 spell has 3 free effect levels, and can add another up to 2 more by adding drawbacks, etc etc
A spell also automaticaly gains an affinity, which balances itself by being either super effective ot resisted by certain targets. Additional affinities require drawbacks, to balance out the versatility, as you are more likely to have an attack ready that could hit super effective.
At level 1, a player starts with 6 spell-points. Those can be used to create 6 level-1 spells, or 3 level 2 spells, or two level 1 spells and 2 level 2 spell. At furter levels, 3 more spell points get added each level, the maximum spell-level however is equal to your current level (except at level 1). Spell points do not have to be spend immediatly, if you want to safe up to create a larger level spell, and can also be granted by the GM as rewards for good or fun roleplay (instead of perks), or when an ingame action somehow explains why a character would have gained power by whatever way, for example being close to an extremely powerful magical event, and thus bathed in the released energies. Spell points do not have to be spend on new spells entirely, but can also be used to upgrade spells, adding high effect levels, or removing drawbacks, as your mastery of the spell improves.
This system also includes physical manouvers, which can easily be handled the same way as spells.
This also allows Items to allow varied benefical effects, like a magic staff automaticaly adding one level of damage to damaging spells cast with it, or a gun automaticaly adding Ranged 1 to your attack
Critical attacks can, at the GMs leisure (or maybe after PMing the player about preferances), add any of the spell effects, instead of just doing more damage.
And without delay, lets get to the heart of things, the effects. I find it important to give long, extensive lits of possible effects and modifiers, to give players incentive and inspiration to try different things. Note I will be adding various numbers to the effects, which serves to imply how many drawbacks something requires to balance out.
Positive effects:
Additional Affinity 1
Your spell now deals two kinds of damage, meaning it may be super effective against more kinds of enemies (or resisted by more). If you have two affinities, and your spell has the same affinities, the same type attack bonus applies twice!
Damage 1,2,3,4,...basicaly no limit.
Self-explanatory, the more levels in this effect are, the harder your punch, the deeper the cut, the hotter the flame, more bang for your buck. It seems to be implied that this will increase by adding 1d4 damage, if nothing changes.
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Potent 2,4
Increases one of the spells increments. For instant, the 1d4 damage becomes 1d6/1d8, damage over time would become 1d3/1d4, duration on something becomes 3/4 turns, etc
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Heal 1,2,3 etc
Same as damage, simple.
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Ranged 1,2
It's an advantage to be able to hit something from far away, there is hardly any denying it. Ranged 1 gives you the basic range determined by (whatever stat Sanure sees fit. I advice however that the range is long enough that it would take an enemy at least 1 turn to move to the enemy to retaliate, to actually give an advantage here.), while ranged 2 can hit anything as long as have a line of sight. This will help make battle-maps more interesting, and decides if you use cunning or aim to hit someone with a spell. Examples: guns, lasers, fireballs.
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AoE 1,2,3
Adds an area of effect to a spell, to affect everything within the area, the actual size increases depending whatever movement speed is settled on. At AoE 1, the effect *might* (more on that later) still be dodged, even in the center of the AoE, with a penalty. At larger AoEs however, the penalty at the center of the effect should be so large, dodging it would be an exceptional feat. the actual shape of the AoE does not have to be circular, like in the case someone breathes fire, where it would be a cone, or that one episode in sailor moon, where she does a fuckign heart shaped AoE, how magical girl like is that? At level 3, one should just consider the AoE to include *everything*, unless the battle map is huge. Examples: An automatic gun, spraying wildly in front of you, a bomb exploding, an area shielded by a barrier, a war-cry heared by everyone, etc.
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Chain 1,2,3
the spell jumps from target to target, one more target for every increase in category, decreasing in effectiveness by 25% each jump. This decrease has to be at least one digit lower, so if the first target is, for example, debuffed by 2 dex, the second target is not debuffed by 1.75, but by just 1 point.
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Combo 2,4,6
The spell attacks 2/3/4 times, each with its own dodge chance and damage reduction on hit. Examples Kung-fucking-fu, laser barrages, automatic rifles.
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Damage over time 1,2,3 etc
the spell does damage over time. At level 1, this lasts 2 turns, and deals 1d2 damage each turn. Each additional dice increase (2d2, 3d2 etc), AND each additional 2 rounds of duration cost one point. So for example, you could take DoT1 to deal 1d2 damage for 2 turns (average of 3 damage), or make it into DoT3, to deal 2d2 damage over over 4 turns(12 damage average), or go full ham into DoT5 to deal 3d2 damage over 6 turns, (average of 30 damage, jesus christ). As you can see, DoT increase much faster than immediate damage, but this is balanced out by costing a lot of points to make strong and first and foremost, taking a lot of turns to actually play out. Over the course of 6 turns, you are giving the enemy plenty of time to do stuff. Examples: poison, suffocation, bleeding, burning, fading, eaten by the void, etc.
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Heal over time 1,2,3 etc
Same as damage over time.
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Buff/Debuff 1,2,3, etc
Increases something, someone does by 1 category. Note, in this system increasing someones stat just by 1 point is very powerful. At equal stats, it's basicaly a 50/50 chance to win an opposed roll. Increasing a stat by just 1 point makes this into a 60/40, which is big. Just a buff 2 may turn a 60/40 in the enemies favour into a 40/60 in your favour. In this system buffs and debuffs are not to be scoffed at. At level 1, the buff lasts 2 turns, one more point can be spend for every 2 additional turns. Example: suddenly being forced to move at slow-motion, the strength of a bull cursing through your veins, your morale being lifted
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Maim 4,5,6, etc
The spell or attack causes an injury or debuff that will last through the entirety of battle. This starts at level 3 for a -2 hinder, and costs 5 for a -4 hinder, etc. Perfect for a critical hit.
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Hinder 1,2,3
The action in any way, hinders a targets action. For every level in this point a targets roll is decreased by 1, once. Example: Jumping in someones way, holding onto someone, catching someone in a sticky liquid, etc. Duration may be increased by taking points. Perfect for improvised actions.
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Support 1,2,3
The action, in any way, supports a targets action. For example, playing human step-ladder when someone is climbing, tacticaly advising someone, etc
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Imbue 1
Imbues an effect in a person or object, basicaly creating a container of sort for another spell to be stored in and go off later. Duration can be bought extra. For example, imbueing your next attack with lightning damage by charging up beforehand, or creating a mine by imbueing an explosive spell on a rock. This might also mean summoning a weapon that deals more damage than your normal attack. Note, this can stack with other spells. Fot instance, if you have a sword and one of your "spells" is a sword combo attack (reminder, physical feats are also handled by this system), then imbueing it with fire would obviously work on the combo, not just normal attacks.
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Passive effect 3,5
Once toggled, which takes a turn, a certain effect is turned on, and remains turned on for the rest of the fight. This effect must not cost more than 1 point for 3, or 2 points for 5. Example: Sanure granted Skyflame the ability to imbue her melee attacks with fire damage, a level 1 effect. Skyflame can toggle this on and off.
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Can not be dodged 4
Sending a fireball to explode someone is nice, but he can see it coming and get the hell outta dodge. But you are a pyromancer, why not just create the fireball right in his fucking face, where it immediatly explodes? Skips the dodge roll, going straight to the damage mitigation rolls. Example: Creating a gravitational pull on the enemy, grabbing someone with telekinesis etc.
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Escalating 1,2, etc
An effect can turn out much stronger than you thought it could be. At the end of the duration, there is a 50% chance the effect will last another 4 turns. OR the damage done might be increased by 50% or whatever else you can think off here.
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No cooldown 1
This attack is spammable, removing the automatic 1 turn cooldown all spells have. Obviously can not be combined with cooldown drawbacks.
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Armor piercing 1,2,3
For one point this spell ignores 33% of the enemies damage reduction, then 66%, up to the entire thing, oh yeah.
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Barrier 1,2,3
If not combined with an AoE, this barrier is cast on just one person. Increases the targets Damage reduction by 2,4,6 points, duration must be increased seperately
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precise 1,2,3
This attack is very hard to dodge. -2,-4,-6 to the dodge roll
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Move 1,2,3
This spell moves the target somewhere, like teleporting, or throwing someone. one point for short distances, at 2 points distance is more narrative. If it has any other effects, they are applied along the path, at 0.5 the normal strength, unless you also have aoe, then 100%. An additional point can be spend to create a portal and allow multiple people to move.
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Versatile 1,2,3
A truely trained mage can easily adjust a spell to do what he wants on the fly. This effect can be switched for any other effect. You may not take more than your level-1 of these.
Until overcome 2,3,4
Instead of a duration, the effect will last until a certain TN on a fitting attribute is met, starting at 11,13,15 etc. Example being caught in a net, being pupetted by magic strings, etc.
Many more: The world is your oyster, by all means make up as many effects as you can think off. I just kept writing until nothing new popped up immediatly after finishing the last part.
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Drawbacks:
Cooldown 1,2,3 etc
After using this spell, it can not be used again for another x turns. Note, EVERY spell automaticaly has 1 turn cooldown, so level 1 means 2 turns.
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Charge 2,4
Before using this spell, you can not act for 1,2 etc turns. This is worth 2,3 etc points
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Paralyzing 2,4
Same as Charge, but AFTER casting.
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Draining 1,2,3 etc
The spell is channeled to levels your body can not handle, causing you to take 1d4 damage per point taken in this drawback
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Countermeasure 1,2
Effects with a duration that can easily be turned off by using your action to do something about it. For example, stop, drop and roll when on fire, simply stepping out of the danger zone, bandaging a bleeding cut, etc. At level 2, this will prompt an opposed roll, for example compared strength rolls to free yourself from a chokehold, compared mind-rolls to free yourself from hypnosis etc.
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Obvious 2,4
This spell is slow and easy to dodge grants +2,+4 to dodging this spell.
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Left to chance 1,2
Effects with a duration may end prematurely a 50/50 chance at the halfway point of the duration, for example, who knows how long that fire will burn? This could also mean the damage an attack does is not reliable, having a 50/50 chance to deal only 75% damage, or even only half!
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Buff/Debuff 1,2,3 OR hinder/support 1,2,3
Same as buff, and debuff as a bonus, but in an unwanted way. The caster or the target of the spell gets weaker, or stronger, eventhough you didn't want that.
Example: The attack you made was strong, but reckless, giving the enemy a bonus to his next roll to attack you, or for example a berserker spell makes someone a lot stronger, but also decreases his defence.
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Ammo 1,2
A spell can only be used twice, or even just once, per combat. Example, you simply dont have that much magical energy, you *literaly* are only carrying 2 grenades, etc.
and of course many many more. I openly support people having as many ideas as possible. I do however also support moderation. Just because you can take the maximum amount of drawbacks on a spell does not mean you have to, or even should, just to get the maximum effect. roleplay over minmaxing. Unless you find minmaxing fun, this system has stuff for everyone. Also, don't just all take cooldown as drawback, be varied folks.
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Feeble 2
This spell really lacks a bite. This is like reverse potent, decreasing a certain category on your spell by a degree, like only doing 1d2 damage, lasting only 1 turn, etc
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Difficult 1,2,3,4
Maybe this spell is so hard to cast, you might just fail at it? This drawback gives a spell a TN of 11,13,15,17 per level
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Feedback, only in combination with Difficult
When the spell fails, you have negative consequences happening, which can be any of the above drawbacks (or whatever else you want). The feedback drawback is worth HALF as many points as the negative things that could happen, because, well, they might not happen at all.
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Optional:
These fall under neither drawback nor effect, as it has a bit of both.
Charge-Up 1,0
You can chose to not immediatly cast a spell, but wait a turn to charge it up, making it stronger by two points. You can charge a maximum of your level extra points out of this. Costs 1 point to be able to do this, costs 0 if you allow this spell to also power up the DRAWBACKS by 2 points.
Channeled 0
This spell has no set duration, instead it lasts until you are interrupted.
Battle 1
The spell continues until the target has beaten the caster in an opposed roll. Until this happened, neither side can do anything else. In a many vs one situation, the GM may decide that others may also not be allowed to do anything, to prevent abuse.
Example spells will come with Skyflames charsheet, to be done after I posted this
Did I get everything? Skyflame charsheet coming up soon, I am lazy now and will watch dota pro games until I feel writing the charsheet. Until then, feel free to ask me anything about the spell system, including "I want to do X with my spell, how can I do that?"
If we continously run into char creation problems to create spells you want, but are too low level for, stuff will be adjusted. My question "weak spells at low levels" only got one answer, so its hardly a demographic.
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Topic: -~Rise of the Alterverse~- OOC [The Clone Wars!] (Read 94486 times)