A Brief Treatise On Magickal Theory And Practice

[Pie_is_good]

I think the ideas are good, but a few things need to be hammered out.

The magickal ethics system mentioned seems reasonable, but I don't think all players should be held to that. If someone plays their character with an evil or chaotic alignment, I think they should have the right to break the code.

Also, I'm not sure what exactly the code will do. I don't think it should outlaw the use of magic within fights. It would make sense for it to outlaw use of magic for pickpocketing, etc., but the Amstaad law would hold you to that anyways.

Also, is this magical ability going to use the experience point system? You mention that you can get better as you go, but I don't see a way to measure that growth.

Other than that, Looks great. I think the premises are all good, but the rules about how exactly this will work (like the code) aren't quite clear.

[Pie_is_good]

Alright, sounds good.

The ethical code certainly makes sense; just as the doctors' code would. I still think that not everybody should be held to the code, though. Races which don't like each other wouldn't be expected to heal each other, and evil players would only heal for personal benefit.

[Pie_is_good]

As for the elemental magic, I think there should be some degree of restriction to opposing elements - I'm not sure exactly how it should come into play, but a sorceror who uses Fire heavily should have restricted access to water-based spells.

Jeep, your modifiers look good. I think an additional table needs to be made, though, that translates MoS to time taken. Maybe if someone misses the MoS by 2 or less, they couldn't cast the spell this round, but they haven't lost it completely and can try again the next round without expending another spell. Or something like that.

Also, Mikehart posted some material on how many spells per day are legitimately castable, and what those spells would be. As for the spells-per-day, I don't like the "X spells in category 1" approach - it seems unneccesarily restrictive. I'd suggest that characters have a pool of magical power for the day, based on some formula of POW (and potentially a skill). For example, if BoBo has Superb (7) POW and is Good (5) at Magical Endurance, his pool holds a maximum of (2x5 + 4x7 =) 38 Power Points, which recover at the rate of (0.5 x 7 rounded down =) 3 points per hour of rest.

Each spell type is then assigned a Power Point cost - e.g., each time you throw a small ball of fire at an enemy, your pool is depleted by 5 points. Once you run out of points, you can no longer cast until you rest up.

I'd rather not restrict players to dealing exclusively with specific spells that the mods create pregame - that takes the fun out of magic, IMHO. Rather, different quantities of the various elements should be assigned specific rules, the way those elements are shaped should be assigned specific rules, and the players should steer it from there.