From:	Caric <caric@********.COM>
Subject:	Re: [SR3] Fetish & Exclusive Spells
Date:	Tue, 8 Jul 1997 11:27:33 -0700

| >1) Make Fetish Required and Exclusive Spell modifiers in the spell
design
| >system just like Restricted Target, Personal Spell and so forth. The
| >requirement is designed right into the effect of the spell. A Reuseable
| >Fetish would give -1 Drain TN, an Expendable Fetish -2 and Exclusive -1
on
| >the Drain Category.
|
| Note that this means that you can no longer use the modifiers to cast
| spells with a higher effective Force than your Magic attribute without
| taking physical drain. If this still goes with F/2 drain, this makes
| fetishes somewhat more powerful; if you're using F drain, Exclusive
| should probably be -2.

The first part is true, but they would still help to bring the drain to a
more manageable level, and the lower force spells would be more effective.
As far as making exclusive -2 to the drain catagory I think that's way to
powerful...I mean that would take a deadly drain down to a moderate.

| >2) To extend the idea, perhaps Geasa could be made part of spell design
as
| >well: modifiers for having to incant, gesture, use a particular
talisman, be
| >in a particular state and so forth. These would be used to lower the
Drain of
| >a spell by making it more difficult to cast, allowing weaker magicians
to
| >cast more powerful spells more safely. In this case, Geasa would not be
| >required when Magic attribute rating is lost, but a burnout will need
spells
| >with more modifiers to lower to Drain to the point when they can cast
them
| >safely.
|
| This means that spell formulae will suddenly become a great deal more
| exacting: instead of buying a Hermetic spell formula and learning it
| with the modifiers you want, you end up with incredible numbers of
| variations on a single spell, invented with different modifiers. I'd
| suggest not allowing very many such modifiers, or you could end up with
| the incantation+gesture+expendable fetish+exclusive fireball with a
| really wimpy drain code.

Spell formula's are already type specific ie: exclusive force 4 manamissile
AKAIK...is that not the case? As far as limiting the modifiers I wouldn't
worry about it...if the player abuses it the GM will find away to make sure
one of the four criteria aren't met. At least he should.

| Also, I *like* required geasa for wizards who have lost a couple of magic
| points; it fits the path of burning out very well. Taking a geas on a
| spell to reduce the Drain also won't save the wizard from physical
damage,
| it'll just make it easier to stage it down.

I agree with you here...keep the geasa rules the way they are, but I do
like the idea of adding them as sorcery/conjuring/enchanting modifiers as
well.

-Caric

"These pretzels are MAKING ME THIRSTY!!!!!"