Parent Pages: Rules : Advantages
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5 Points + 3 points/level
This is an alternative to Magery and can be taken as an Alternate Ability to it.
You do not learn spells from a book. Instead, you improvise them on the spot. Sorcerers are generally self-taught users of magic.
You have a pool of points, similar to the Modular Abilities Advantage, allowing you to use any Mental or Physical Advantage as a spell.
The level of this Advantage directly determines the maximum point value of Advantage you can cast. The point value of an Advantage determines how many FP are required to use it as a spell. Limitations reduce point total, but Enhancements are added later and do not increase it. Thus, Limitations can indirectly reduce the FP cost.
Casting a spell costs 20 FP for your maximum-sized spell, but this scales according to the size of an individual spell. Always round the final cost up.
For example, you've got this Advantage at level 80 and you're using a 45 point Advantage as a spell. This is (45/80) * 20 = 11.25 FP, which rounds up to 12 FP. For a more detailed explanation of this, see p. P101 under the heading, Costs Fatigue. If you wish to keep the cost easy to calculate, always buy levels of this in nice, round numbers, such as 10 or 20 at a time. This will greatly simplify things for you.
All spells have a default duration of 1 minute for passive Advantages like Chameleon or 1 use, for instantaneous Advantages like Innate Attack. Spells may be maintained by paying half the original fatigue cost when the duration of the spell would naturally expire (round FP cost up). You must be conscious to maintain your spells.
Casting a spell requires a roll vs. the specialty of the Magic skill most appropriate to the effect being produced. The caster chooses if they use a basic or specific college skill, but the GM decides exactly which college(s) it fits into. The Skills for Everyone rule (see p. P162) applies to spells, but the required Skill is the Magic specialty used to activate it and in most cases can be the activation roll.
Failing to activate a spell uses no fatigue. Critical failure uses the fatigue and requires a roll on the Critical Spell Failure Table (p. B236). Critical success casting a spell uses no fatigue and maintaining it only costs 1 FP.
Modifiers may be added to a spell by taking a penalty to the activation roll. This is -1 per +10% of Enhancements and -1 per -10% of Limitations. These may be improved as a Hard Technique (see below).
Without Modifiers to Sorcery, casting a spell requires speaking, hand gestures and very common, reusable material components.
To use Threshold instead of FP, like Threshold-Limited Magery, note this as Threshold-Limited Sorcery. This would be an appropriate alternative for a self-taught Witch, along with the No Spell Components and Requires Talisman Enhancements.
Many of the Magery modifiers from GURPS Thaumatology are also quite appropriate.
Unless you take the No Material Components Enhancement, you must gather a set of material components for each college you wish to cast. These are normally unceremoniously dumped into a pouch, hung from the Sorcerer's belt and then clasped during casting. They only need to be held, so a container will not interfere.
These components are easy to find or gather (household items and/or odd bits from around the house), but should be unique to the individual. They always match the college in question, somehow.
If components need to be gathered in game, use the Scrounging skill.
Sorcery Techniques are fairly unusual and pose a few problems for proper record keeping on a character sheet.
Here are the issues that must be resolved for the sake of record keeping:
The solution that seems to work best is to record these techniques as leveled Advantages that cost 1 point base and 1 point per level. This is the approach that I'm taking with this wiki and in the GCS files (character sheets, templates and libraries) within.
In nearly all circumstances, a Sorcerer should pick up the Malediction Technique at any level. It's a common, basic assumption behind how a great many spells are supposed to work in many types of fiction.
It should be noted that +0% Enhancements and many Special Effects (see p. P113) are free and require no Technique. They can always be applied without a Skill penalty and allow a Sorcerer a great deal of freedom to make their spells look however they like (see Cosmetic Effects on p. P113). Some can be quite useful, as well.
The biggest benefit of this is great flexibility in choosing, on the fly, Skills to attack with and whether or not to use Tight-Beam Burning Attacks (see p. 399).
However, zero-point trade-offs (as described under the heading Minor Benefits and Drawbacks on p. P114) should normally involve two skill penalties, instead of being free. The GM needs to watch out for this kind of thing, but most of the time this can be waived away as a -2 penalty.
The GM should allow this kind of creativity if the character in question has Traits and/or Skills that can justify it. For example, shifting the sound a spell produces to the ultrasonic (to make it unnoticeable to most humanoids) should be treated as a paired Enhancement and Limitation, unless the character has Ultrahearing (implying a bit of knowledge of that auditory range).
In all cases, the GM should always disallow Limitations that are meaningless. For example, limiting a single-target spell to only work on the single target it's being cast at is not a Limitation. This would likely be a case of the player trying to reduce FP costs by using a meaningless Limitation.
The following example Modifiers should not be allowed on spell Advantages. Exceptional cases may be listed in the Exceptions column. As always, the GM has final say and can override this.
Modifier | Explanation | Exceptions | Reference |
---|---|---|---|
Accessibility | This is normally going to just be a cheat to reduce FP cost or try to produce results similar to the Selective Area Enhancement Suggest this modifier to players instead | Modifying an Advantage to change it's spell college should normally be allowed For example, turning a Paralysis inducing Affliction into a Necromancy spell that only works on Undead should be allowed | B110 |
Aspected | It's too easy to pick something that fits the current situation | This could be safely combined with Extended Duration | P110 |
Costs Fatigue | There are already rules intended for increasing the base power of an Advantage These Extra Effort rules should be used to temporarily increase the level of Sorcery, instead | This could be safely combined with Gadget Limitations and/or Extended Duration | B111 |
Emergencies Only | This could be added in an emergency just to reduce FP costs | It should be allowed if the player is thinking ahead, probably combined with Extended Duration | B112 |
Environmental | It's too easy to pick something that fits the current situation | This could be safely combined with Extended Duration or be used to change the college of the spell | P110 |
Limited Use | Doesn't make sense most of the time | Allowed in combination with Gadget Limitations and/or Extended Duration | B112 |
Maximum Duration | Usually meaningless | Can be combined with Extended Duration to represent an ability that lasts a long time, but can only be used for shorter periods | P111 |
Minimum Duration | Usually meaningless | Can be combined with Extended Duration to represent an ability that lasts a long time, but must be used for at least a given length of time | P111 |
Pact | This would be abuse of the rules, every time | B113 | |
Reliable | Taking a penalty to skill to increase skill makes no sense The GM should suggest a Technique to buy off penalties built-in to advantages instead | The only time this makes sense is in combination with Gadget Limitations; allowing the caster to take a penalty to make the item easier to use | P109 |
Specific | This is a variation of Accessibility that is also easily abused | Modifying an Advantage to change it's spell college should normally be allowed The Magnetic Limitation from Telekinesis is an example of something like this that should be allowed | P112 |
Takes Recharge | Meaningless most of the time | Can work in combination with Extended Duration | B115 |
Terminal Condition | Most of the time, this will just be abused with conditions that are there just to reduce FP cost | This is more meaningful in combination with Extended Duration | P112 |
Trigger | Very easy to abuse The caster could just use whatever materials are on hand | Could work in combination with Gadget limitations | B115 |
Unique | Spells aren't unique; they can always be cast again | B117 |
The following Modifiers require a little extra attention from the GM.
Modifiers noted as “Specific” are specific to the Advantage used and cannot be improved as a general Technique. For example, Accurate must be improved for every single Advantage it could be applied to, including Affliction, each individual form of Innate Attack (burning, cutting, etc.), and any other ranged ability requiring an attack roll. Any Modifier that is listed along with a particular Advantage should also be treated the same way, with very few exceptions.
Modifier | Notes | Reference |
---|---|---|
Accurate | Specific | B102 |
Advantage (Affliction) | Each Advantage is a separate technique | B36 |
Can Carry Objects | Specific | P108 |
Cosmic | Specific | B103 |
Disadvantage (Affliction) | Each Disdvantage is a separate technique | B36 |
Extended | Specific This is a separate technique for each sense/material/energy/whatever it affects | B41, B63, B72, P66, P70, P95 |
Extended Duration (Permanent) | If used at the +300% level to give PCs new Advantages, then they must pay points for them or the GM is free to arrange for them to vanish at some point in the future or arrange to balance them with new Disadvantages | B105 |
Gadgets | To be useful with attack Advantages, Extended Duration is normally required, since attacks normally last 1 second | B116 |
Melee Attack | The Enhancement and Limitation portions of this are separate Techniques | B112, P103 |
Negated Advantage (Affliction) | Each Negated Advantage is a separate technique | B36 |
Negated Disadvantage (Affliction) | Each Negated Disdvantage is a separate technique | P41 |
Negated Skill (Affliction) | Each Negated Skill is a separate technique | Affliction |
Once On, Stays On | Stays active until the spell ends For example, a wizard shapeshifts into the form of an eagle and is killed; they return to their normal form when the spell's duration lapses | P109 |
Reduced Fatigue Cost | Specific This can never reduce the FP cost of Sorcery itself | B108 |
Reduced Time | Specific One level of this can be used to reduce casting time to zero; this can be useful for spells used as an active defense | B108 |
Reflexive | Specific This can reduce casting time to zero, as Reduced Time does, but it does not allow the spell to cast itself automatically; it can, of course, cause the Advantage to switch itself back on later, before the spell ends | P109 |
Skill (Affliction) | Each Skill is a separate technique | Affliction |
Time-Spanning | Specific | P109 |
World-Spanning | Specific | P109 |