[Mechanics] Questions about GURPS

[jamesf]

I have removed the blowpipes skill to give me the 4 points I needed.

Perhaps it is my inexperience with the system, but I find the disadvantages seem a little "unbalanced" to me, and will have too much effect considering the background I see for the character, so for now I will leave it as is.

Equipment list has also been updated.

I also reduced my acting and disguise skills and used the points for poison and traps. Apologies for the late changes. Point total should be correct now.
Regards

James

[MagicallyMusing]

I remember that I was planning on focusing on "Understand plants", but I remember very little else of what we discussed about magic. What do you need from me right now to get the magic stuff settled?

[Schwarz]

Originally Posted by MagicallyMusing

I remember that I was planning on focusing on "Understand plants", but I remember very little else of what we discussed about magic. What do you need from me right now to get the magic stuff settled?

How many character points are remaining? I remember that you wanted to be an average druid, right? So you will need to have at least 40-60 points to spend in Understand and Plants

My suggestion would be something like: Understand 1 (15 points) Plants 2 (20 points) and maybe Create or Control 1 (15 points) for diversity, or even you could add Animals 1 (10 points).

Then, you would need 60 points to be an average/adept druid:
Understand Plants 3
Understand Animals 2
Create or Control Plants 3
Create or Control Animals 2

However, this is a suggestion, you can play with the numbers as you want.

Also, I need to know if there is something unclear about how magic works and if you have doubts about the Plants Path and what you can do with that.

[Karhald]

I have allocated 40 points for magic. I will only be doing Humans right now, with a main focus on healing, and a minor focus on mind control (I'm not the mage you're looking for.)

So, let's see... that would mean I need Humans 1 (10 points) Create1 (15 points) and Control 1 (15 points) is that correct?

It would look like I have very little ability then, with no ability in Understand? I would need to shave more off of his abilities and skills then, in order to expand his use of magic. (being a mage is EXPENSIVE!)

I'm going to knock his wealth back to normal, he's from a wealthy(ish) family, but he doesn't have a lot of personal cash on hand, and the family wealth is in France.

With this, and reducing a couple skills, I think I can free up 15 points to have:

Understand1
Create1
Control1
Human1

Which.... means I can diagnose a few ailments, do a very small amount of healing (Maybe?) and possibly use magic to augment his normally infectious personality and stunning good looks to convince someone to NOT burn him at the stake?

[MagicallyMusing]

I'm going to need to audit my sheet or read back to figure out how many points I have left, but I'm not sure when I'll have time at the moment.

[Schwarz]

Originally Posted by Karhald

Which.... means I can diagnose a few ailments, do a very small amount of healing (Maybe?) and possibly use magic to augment his normally infectious personality and stunning good looks to convince someone to NOT burn him at the stake?

Yeah with focus 2 you can for example: command a person during 2d6 rounds, you can heal scratches and small wounds (up to 2d6, however serious wounds will not be considered). You can make your skin harder giving you DR 2 during 2d6 rounds. You can acute your senses, increasing ST, DX or HT by 1d6 during 2d6 rounds.

These are only examples, you can read the description, in the Magic Thread, about how the 2nd Circle of the Humans Path works and create your own rituals.

Magic is something correlated with your imagination, but the strength of it is limited by your Focus.

Originally Posted by MagicallyMusing

I'm going to need to audit my sheet or read back to figure out how many points I have left, but I'm not sure when I'll have time at the moment.

You still have 82 character points left, you can invest everything in magic, if you want, and be a real badass druid

[MagicallyMusing]

Thanks for that! I'll figure it out when I have both time and brainpower to spare... it might be a while. I'll try to get to it tonight.

[MagicallyMusing]

Sorry for the delay! I've been sick and my brain hasn't been working very efficiently, so I haven't gotten to the magic thing yet.

I think I will just dump my remaining points into magic. I don't think I understand the point value of magic, though.

[Schwarz]

Originally Posted by MagicallyMusing

Sorry for the delay! I've been sick and my brain hasn't been working very efficiently, so I haven't gotten to the magic thing yet.

I think I will just dump my remaining points into magic. I don't think I understand the point value of magic, though.

There are three Magic Forms: Control, Create and Understand. Each one controlling the magic possibilities. The range of points you can invest on each one is 0-4, and the character points needed to buy 1 point of magic is 15 character points. For example, you want to have the Create 2 and Control 1, then you will spend 30 and 15 character points.

Then there are the many Magic paths, Plants and Animals being included here. These paths are the core of any magic and rules all effects of a determined Form. Each point costs 10 character points with a range of 0-10, so if you want to have Plants 2, then you will spend 20 character points.

So, you cannot only have a Form without a Path, or vice versa. For example, a Control 3 magic has no effect att all. Like having a Fire 5, the mage can do nothing, since this path does not have any form.

Then, you need to buy at least one Form and one Path to be considered a Mage.

[Karhald]

I'll try to audit my character tonight. I may drop Gabriel's IQ by a point and reduce two more skills to get 25 points free to have his magic stat block look like this:

Understand 1. (15 points)
Create 2 (30 points)
Control 1 (15 points)
Human 2 (20 points)

Total magic investment: 80 points

So, if someone is hurt, I can tend to their wounds, and heal 2d6 damage (non-serious) with a check under 14 (control 2 human 2 +10)

Is that correct?

Now, with the 100 hours of study for him to cast a spell freely, should I list a few common uses of magic that I believe he would have used in order to not require an obvious magical ritual?

For example:
minor suggestion (these aren't the droids you're looking for)
Cure minor injuries (covered up with poultices and I didn't heal you, God did!)vigorous prayer)
Cure disease (same as injuries)
change own hair color, length, eyes, facial hair, minor facial features.
Understand direct, basic desires of person he's observing

[Schwarz]

Originally Posted by Karhald

Is that correct?

Now, with the 100 hours of study for him to cast a spell freely, should I list a few common uses of magic that I believe he would have used in order to not require an obvious magical ritual?

1. Yes, that point distribution is correct.
2. Yes, you can have these rituals memorized.

[Schwarz]

Originally Posted by Schwarz

... Like having a Fire 5, the mage can do nothing, since this path does not have any form...

I want to correct myself here.

If you have for example Plants 3 and Create 2, then you will have the following:

Create Plants 5 (2+3)
Understand Plants 3 (0+3)
Control Plants 3 (0+3)

Forgive me for giving you the incorrect information about it and if it wasn't clear.

[Karhald]

If I just did human 6, with no understand, create, or control, I could do anything listed, but nothing in other focus areas? You can still Understand in a focus with no Understand ranks?

Does that mean that with create 2, and fire 0, Gabriel could still manage some Fire magic?

What is the limit on number of rituals memorized?

[Schwarz]

Let me try to explain some things that I think I messed up...

1. A mage needs at least one Form and one Main Path, for example, Create 1 and Humans 1. He cannot have Create 0, Understand 0 and Control 0 and Humans 6, for example. But he can have Create 1, Understand 0 and Control 0 and Humans 6.

2. A fire mage that knows Create 2 and Fire 2, can cast Control Fire 2, even having Control 0, but he never will be able to cast Create Water 2, since he does not know the Water Path yet.

3. A mage can memorize hundreds and hundreds of rituals (which he can cast without the need to perform the ritual). The rituals can be found in books, in parchments, in piece of papers and many other places. So a mage will only learn new rituals from these things or with a master. However, he will need to perform the ritual when it is new (he wants to create a third arm coming from his shoulder, then he needs, for example, one cup of human blood, clay and to say something. It is like making a cake, if you always do it, you do not need to perform the "ritual" of looking the book, but if you're trying a new one, them you need to follow the "ritual")

[MagicallyMusing]

Okay, so, I think it looks like my options would be to go with:

Plants 2 (20 points)
Understand 2 (30 points)
Create 1 (15 points)
Control 1 (15 points)

For a total of 80 points, similar to Karhald's distribution. I don't see much reason not to invest more points in the path, though. It seems like it would result in a more powerful mage. For example:

Plants 6 (60 points)
Understand 1 (15 points)

For a total of 75 points spent seems like it would end up being considerably more powerful for cheaper, unless I'm still not understanding.