Playtesting: 2 Official Wizardry Powers

[BASHMAN]

Right now, the Awesome Powers 18 might seem a long ways away, but I want plenty of time to come up with the perfect "Wizardry" power, a catch-all that can be used to help emulate the variety of magic without having to make a Cosmic character, or buy every single spell you might cast as a separate power.

To that end, I am presenting 2 variants of such a power

Playtest: Wizardry (Version A): Based on Trick Ammunition from Awesome Powers 6
Cost: Level 1-10.

Either through years of study, or some innate talent, you have the ability to shape the supernatural force of magic.

For every Rank in Wizardry, you can buy 2 Character Points worth of Spells, which you use frequently (though none are effortless; any such ability should be purchased as its own Power).

Each spell is built as a Power, with a maximum cost of half your Wizardry Ranks, round up.

There are some downsides to Wizardry, which make it less powerful than true Omnipotence.

Wizardry usually requires some sort of focus. This could be some item (like a wand, a tome, a staff, crystal ball) or it could require words and gestures for spell incantations, etc. The player and Narrator should decide what the focus is. This does not count as a Limitation on the power, however if something happens to prevent the caster from focusing properly (such as being gagged) treat it as though they are out of Castings.

Wizardry fuels itself on magical energy channeled by the caster. When this magical energy runs out, the caster has a much greater difficulty in using the power. This magical energy is represented as Castings. Every time you cast a spell using Wizardry, you expend a Casting. You begin with 2 Castings per Rank of Wizardry. So a character with Wizardry 7 would have 14 Castings to spend in a day.

Castings recover at a rate of 1 per hour of rest. This rate can be increased by an Occultism/Channeling check for 1 hour of uninterrupted Meditation, which will restore 1 Casting for every 10 on the roll. So a roll of 33 would recover 3 Castings in an hour’s meditation. An interruption ruins meditation, and no roll is allowed.

If you run out of Castings, you can attempt to cast a spell anyway. Doing so requires you to roll a Power Check using Wizardry, or a Occultism/Rituals check (use whichever is greater), with a difficulty equal to the Character Point cost of the spell to be cast *10. So trying to cast a 4CP spell would require a roll of 40 or greater. If the roll fails, either the spell fails, or you must Push Yourself for 1 Damage per point of difference. So if you had to roll a 40, and rolled a 22, either the spell fails, or you Push Yourself and take 18 damage to get the spell off.

Power Tricks: In addition to the purchased Spells, the user of Wizardry can also improvise, performing a Power Trick as a spell by spending a Hero Point and 2 Castings. If you are out of Castings, and you decide to roll a Power Check, the difficulty is the spell’s Character Point cost *20. So casting a 4CP spell would require an 80 Power Check with no Castings available.

Possible Enhancement: Extra Castings: This Enhancement allows 5 extra Castings for 1 Character Point.

Note: It is possible for a character to have both Wizardry and Omnipotence.

Playtest: Wizardry (Version B)
Based On: X Mastery
Cost: Level (1-7)
Either through years of study, or some innate talent, you have the ability to shape the supernatural force of magic.

Mechanics: Wizardry allows you to to cast spells which can emulate nearly any power. Essentially, casting a spell functions very similarly to performing a Power Trick, though you do not have to spend Hero Points. Instead, you must make a Power Check using Wizardry or an Occultism/Rituals check (use whichever is higher). The TN is 10 times the Character Point value of the power you are trying to produce (though this can be altered in some fashion). So if you are trying to do Special Attack 2 (Mid Range), this would be a TN of 40.
If you succeed, the spell works, and you may make any attack rolls, checks, etc. necessary to use the power (these do not use your Occultism Skill or Wizardry Power). If you fail, either you have a Spell Failure (and you lose the rest of your Panel) or you can try to force the spell. When you force a spell, you get a +10 Result Bonus to your roll in exchange for gaining an additional Spell Failure. You can take multiple extra Spell Failures to succeed at a spell.
Example: Supremo the Magnificent has Wizardry 4 and tries to cast Armor 3 on himself. Unfortunately, he rolls a 5, leaving him 20 short of the Target Number, a Spell Failure. He decides to force the spell, taking two additional Spell Failures (a total of 3) for a +20 Result Bonus to get the TN of 40 he needed.

Once you have suffered 5 Spell Failures in an issue, your Wizardry power ceases to work for the rest of the Issue. Any Ongoing Effects related to your Wizardry power immediately cease to function. Further, if you have any additional magical powers, they function at a -2 Dice Penalty for the rest of the Issue.
The TN of the Power Check (or Occultism/Rituals Check) to cast a spell can be modified in the following ways, with a minimum TN of 10:

Ongoing Effect: The power you are creating with the spell will last more than 1 Panel. This would apply to effects such as Armor, Force Field, etc. +10

Rushed: If the power you are creating normally has the Concentration requirement, and you try to cast it during your regular Priority (such as Force Field), or if you are doing an interrupt action (either by Holding Off, or spending a Hero Die, or using Quick Thinking), such as to counter another person’s power or to defend an ally: +10 (+20 if both these descriptions apply).

Disrupted: If you are damaged, grappled, knocked back, or in some other way disrupted while casting +20

Impeded: If you are gagged, muted, bound, had your focus item (like a wand) taken, or in some other way prevented from casting in the “usual” way. +30

Practiced: This is a spell you cast regularly, and therefore more easily. -10. You know 1 Practiced spell per Rank in Wizardry (you should have a list of these written down somewhere, along with their effects and the TN to cast them).

Extra Time: You can take your time to cast the spell over the course of a minute or more, rather than in a single Panel. -10.

Ideal Conditions: You are in an area rife with magical energy, or have some other magical aid that you don’t normally have. The Narrator will tell you when you have ideal conditions. -10.

[Sijo]

As I mentioned elsewhere, both versions work for me. They can even be used in the same campaign, perhaps representing different "schools of magic."

[MrJupiter]

I think that I could agree with Sijo on the idea of keeping both versions. Mechanically, they both work on entirely different structures. You could call version #2 something else, say Magery or Sorcery, and have both powers available. Version #1 represents structured, disciplined harnessing of magic. Version #2 is the channeling of arcane forces through the casters force of will and innate talent.

[Sijo]

Exactly. In the comics there are even examples of the same character using both- Dr. Strange, for example, has many famous "Named Spells" (like the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak)- those would be Wizardry Version A, but he is also often seen simply casting magic bolts and shields- that's likely Version B.

[BASHMAN]

If Version B is adopted, just build Named Spells as a seperate Multi-Power maybe.

The idea is to avoid "kitchen sink" builds being necessary by including a stop-gap that is more accessable (but also more limited) than Omnipotence.

[Sijo]

The only problem with Omnipotence (in my opinion) is that it is limited to one effective Level for every 5. If instead you got 5 levels that you could spread over multiple Powers- five Level 1 Powers, one Level 2 and one Level 3, or one Level 5 Power, etc. it could be used even in non-Cosmic campaigns.

[MrJupiter]

The only problem with Omnipotence (in my opinion) is that it is limited to one effective Level for every 5. If instead you got 5 levels that you could spread over multiple Powers- five Level 1 Powers, one Level 2 and one Level 3, or one Level 5 Power, etc. it could be used even in non-Cosmic campaigns.

That's true, but Omnipotence is an anything power without any limits. If it were one level per point invested, a character could have a level 5 Special Attack in one Page and then implement a level 5 Growing the next... all for just 5 character points.

Even if Cosmic powers are not introduced, having a power that can simulate any effect (power), is a useful ability for a hero; but it must be balanced. Even re-skinning Shape-Shifting as this sort of ability has its limits: 1) the player spends 4 character points for it; and, 2) the hero must sacrifice Stat levels to gain temporary powers or buy extra build points with the CP Proxy enhancement from The A.D.E.L. File (or cheat with the Boost power for phantom Brawn or Agility levels*).

BASHMAN has a good point, though, in that it would probably be best to just settle on having only one version of this kind of ability for the game.

*I say "cheat" as you could buy 3 levels of temporary Agility with Boost, "Only for use with the Shape-Shifting power", and get the equivalent of 6 Character Points for powers with the player only investing 3 CP at character creation).

[Sijo]

Not necessarily- TristatdX has two options for "anything-goes" Powers- Dynamic Powers and Power Flux- the first uses level flushing, and the second a point pool.

Even if we agree that BASH should only have one multiple-effect Power, it needs to provide more than one level of effect at a time. I agree balance is a priority but this can be achieved via high point cost or built-in limitations.

[MrJupiter]

Not necessarily- TristatdX has two options for "anything-goes" Powers- Dynamic Powers and Power Flux- the first uses level flushing, and the second a point pool.

Even if we agree that BASH should only have one multiple-effect Power, it needs to provide more than one level of effect at a time. I agree balance is a priority but this can be achieved via high point cost or built-in limitations.

Hey Sijo, that sounds like a great idea for an enhancement!

[Sijo]

To be clear, my problem is with Omnipotence specifically- not with the proposed Wizardry Power, which (if version b is used) can probably be re-skinned as needed. For a Cosmic Power, Omnipotence just sounds underwhelming. I tried to build Silver Surfer with it, and he definitely isn't limited to level 1 effects. My proposed "level spread" version makes more sense for this kind of characters (admittedly, the Narrator should limit them to high-level campaigns or to NPCs.)