Thought for Any Spell-Casting Heroes

[ken]

I agree that mind points should be actually USED. I didn't find any use for the talisman of lore, either, except to give to the weak-minded Zebs so that he didn't get taken over...

Careful what you say there, Flesh, you know he is My Hero

[Draven]

Reciently, my GM has given all spell casting heroes an added ability called focus. It takes the place of searching/attacking/casting for a turn. They roll a number of dice equal to their mind points. As long as they roll more shields than skulls they can "relearn" one spell at random from the spells they have already cast. Its a cool ability and only works sometimes. We don't break the ability by using it too much, but if something like that got granted to some unscrupulus players they would spend 12 turns in between each room focusing back all of their spells.

-SadKitchen

I like the idea of using a mind point per focus attempt, but another idea I thought of was to make a tile on which you have to stand to be able to use focus. A while back I cut square tiles out and stuck the diamond stickers from a guitar hero game. I plan to use them as magic nodes. Only one focus per node could be the rule. Something along these lines could be used by your Gm to control where and when you are allowed to focus. We all know that the heroes will always try to bend and abuse the rules to their advantage.

[sadkitchen]

My Gm e-mailed me with his Idea for a focus deck. When a hero focuses they draw a card. Some card ideas.
Wandering Monster - You thoughts are interupted.
Can't Concentrate - Nothing happens.
Success - Regain one random spell.
Super Success - Pick a spell to regain.
Briliant Idea - No spell but restore 1 mind point.
Chaos Thought - Loose 1 mind point.

As usual bad and nothing cards go back to the deck while good cards don't. What do you think? Worth making up? (or renaming with real names?)

-SadKitchen

[Big Bene]

I like the idea - go on with it (but I think your gamemaster will do what he likes anyway ).

Only complain: If I understand you correctly, in this version, you don't roll a die anymore for focusing (less or equal than mind points). So mindpoints are pretty useless, and a card which reads "loose one mind point" is no real hazard.

[torilen]

I definitely agree that using mind points would be one of the better ideas offered here. That gives a reason to have them,
and makes it kind of dangerous to try and regain spells.

On a different note - I've revised my original thought posted here. Tell me what you think of this.
After you've cast all your "free" spells, and you wish to cast more, choose the spell you wish to choose.
Roll combat dice equal to your CURRENT mind points. If at least 3 white shields are rolled, you cast
the spell as normal. (I make it 3 because the wizard starts with 6 mind points - that gives him an
initial 50/50 chance at casting an extra spell)
If you don't roll at least 3 white shields, you lose that turn and 1 mind point.
Even if you are successful, each additional attempt thereafter increases the required number of white
shields by one...so your second attempt would need 4 white shields...third would need 5 white shields.

If you lose all your mind points, you fall into a coma...but you're not dead (though quite vulnerable).

This does a couple of things. One...it allows a wizard or elf (or other caster) the chance to continue to be
useful...and giving him the choice of what spell he wishes to recast.
Second...it makes it dangerous to try...and it becomes more dangerous the more he tries.
Third...it makes mind points very useful, and allows the GM to use and make artifacts that give
more mind points. The talisman of lore offers one...so the wizard could, in effect, cast seven
extra spells (with a starting mind point value of 6, of course).
BUT...what if he had 9 or 10 mind points...gives him some room to lose a couple and still be able to attempt
to cast extra spells.

[Ethica]

Torilen, chances of rolling 3 white shields on 6 dice is closer to 30/70 against.

[torilen]

Well...that's probably true. I wasn't taking into account the fact that you would be looking for only
2 sides of the dice, instead of the three sides when you are rolling for skulls.

Either way - a wizard or elf still has a pretty okay chance of casting at least two or three extra spells
before he would have to stop.

[Ethica]

I always thought it would have made more sense to have a mana cost on each spell and magic users expending their mana and being able to cast losts of rubbish spells or a few more powerful ones, as they advance they obtain greater mana and are thus able to cast more powerful spells.

This seems the most logical way to work the whole thing but I guess when they designed it they wanted to keep the game streamlined.

[sadkitchen]

Very reasonable Idea Ethica. It could even be directly related to mind points so if the Wizard lost a mind point he would loose some mana points as well. Wizard could start wil 24 (Mind x 4) and Elf could start with 8 (Mind x 2) The base spells would cost someting like this

AIR
Swift Wind = 1
Tempest = 2
Genie = 3

FIRE
Wrath of Flame = 1
Ball of Fire = 2
Courage = 3

EARTH
Pass Through Rock = 1
Rock Skin = 2
Heal Body = 3

WATER
Sleep = 1
Viel of Mist = 2
Water of Life = 3

CHAOS
Ball of Flame = 2
Cloud of Chaos = 4
Command = 3
Escape = 1
Fear = 2
Firestorm = 3
Lightning Bolt = 3
Rust = 1
Sleep = 1
Summon Orcs and Summon Undead = Viariable costs as follows (might even take out the die rolling)
2 for lowest number summoned
3 for middle number summoned
4 for highest number summoned
Tempest = 2

The bad guy casters would have anyware from 1 x Mind Points (Fimir Mages) to 5 x Mind Points (Witch Lord) mana points. Spell ring would change to +3 mana points.

Do you like? (Idea comes from the above post)
I realy want to try this out. Anyone running a game in Michigan any time soon?

-SadKitchen

[Ethica]

In my opinion ball of flame is more useful than courage, but having it as power 3 makes it more than double the power of 2 fire of wraths, so maybe you have it right already.

Thinking about this idea, it makes the wizard too powerful. Being able to cast 24 fires of wrath in 1 quest or 8 water of healings sounds overpowered.

I want to withdraw my support for mana points and align with the original 1 offs system.