New Modes

I've been more or less offline the past few weeks, since baby Dresden was born, so I can't recall if I've gone over this on the list before. Since the kids are asleep and I am (amazingly) awake, I want to take this chance to write these ideas down (both to help me hammer out my thoughts and to get feedback.) ----------------------------------4th edition Talislanta introduced a new magic system, one where the players could make up any new spell they wanted, off-the-cuff, provided their character had sufficient skill in that field of magical knowledge. In "game reality" the PCs was assumed to have always known the spell the player had just made up. When I wrote Codex Magicus, I introduced the idea (based on SMS' input) that there had to be individual spells the PCs would know. A player would have to pick their starting spells at character creation, and any new spells would have to be purchased or researched or discovered. That was all fine and dandy, except that some Modes had their entire effect based on the spell level. Healing spells, Illusion spells, Transform spells, they were all completely defined by the spell level, which (according to the original magic system) could be varied at the time of casting. This wouldn't work with the idea of pre-defined spells. Thus we ruled that those Modes had to have pre-defined spell levels. Fast forward to the present: I'm writing the example spells for this book, and the correct solution to this problem hit me. I don't know why I didn't think of it way back then. In short: *** For each Mode, determine what are the core effects (that define an individual spell) and have those add to Difficulty instead of spell level. What remains may be a variable spell level. *** Thus for Transform spells, all those things that used to add to spell level (Trivial, Minor, Major, Radical, and Total Change) now add to

the spell's Difficulty instead. The only thing determined by the spell level is the Ability Level of the new form. Example: In the old system, to transform into an Exomorph with an Ability Level of 10 would have been a level 25 spell (radical change [15] + 10). In the new system, it would be a spell with a base Difficulty of -15, and cast at level 10. The Difficulty, just like always, is pre-set when the spell is created. However, now the spell level can be adjusted at the time of casting, like all the other Modes. For Illusions, we do much the same thing... every thing that used to add spell levels (additional senses, motion or animation, precise details, etc) now adds to Difficulty. These things determine what the illusion *IS*. Only the spell's Magnitude remains level-based. The magnitude determines how big, or how loud, or how impressive or believable the illusion is, and this aspect may be adjusted by changing the spell level. Healing spells were more tricky. After all, there is only ONE aspect to a heal spell - how strong it is. That is determined by spell level. I thought about this one for a while, and it came to me in the shower (like all the best thoughts do.) When a researcher creates a healing spell, he or she sets a base difficulty. Then when that spell is used, the spell level cannot exceed the difficulty. The strength of the spell is the difficulty + spell level. Example: If you have a Difficulty 5 "Heal Minor Wounds" spell, you could cast it at any level from 1 to 5. The spell would heal 6 to 10 hit points. If you had a Difficulty 10 "Cure Major Disease" spell, it could be cast at any level from 1 to 10, and would cure diseases from levels 11 to 20. For Summoning spells, a similar process is used. A Guardian Devil, for example, has an Ability Level of 13-27. In the old system, that simply meant you had to cast the spell at level 13 to 27 to summon it. Using the new system, a "Summon Guardian Devil" spell would have a base Difficulty of 12, and could be cast at anything from level 1 to 15. The above changes have several positive results: 1) System unification. All the Modes now work the same. Any spell can

have a Difficulty which is pre-defined at spell creation. All spells have a spell level which can be chosen at the time the spell is cast and determines the power or effectiveness of the spell. 2) Spell research. Spells that formerly could not take advantage of the new rules for spell research (which cost XP but countered the negative penalty from Difficulty) now can. Illusions, Transforms, Heals, Summonings... all those spells that were 100% defined by spell level now may have a Difficulty, allowing more flexibility in character advancement. 3) Flexibility. Illusions can now be varied a bit while remaining the same spell. A darkness Illusion can be man-sized (magnitude 1) or ship-sized (magnitude 5). A Transform spell can have the Ability Level change without learning a whole new spell. Healing spells have a broader range, allowing the healer to decide exactly how much to apply without needing thirty different spells.