Spell Safety
From Sagataflwiki
Latest revision as of 00:18, 20 December 2010
Spell Safety is a stat that can apply to single Spells, sub-Realms, Realm, Categories or all of a character's spellcasting. Multiple instances of applicable Spell Safety are added together.
The final Spell Safety value is then looked up on a table (included in the Spellcasting Fumble article) that works as a diminishing return function, and converts the amount of Spell Safety into a negative modifier to the Spellcasting Fumble roll, thus serving to make the Fumbles less severe.
Spell Safety values of 1 to 7 are just converted straightaway to a modifier going from -1 to -7, while Spell Safety values of 43 and higher are converted into a -25 modifier. Anything between Spell Safety and Spell Safety 42 must reference the table.
Please noe that only negative - desirable - modifiers work according to diminishing returns. Positive - undesirable - modifiers stack in a simple fashion, and so if there are many of them, Fumbling can become very dangerous.
There are numerous sources of Spell Safety, including Rote Casting, Rote Cantrip and various other forms of Spell Specialization.
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Advice
Don't ignore Spell Safety just because of the diminishing returns. More Spell Safety is always worth pursuing, if the price (opportunity cost) is right. Even if a given quantum of extra Spell Safety does nothing for you, because it just moves you from the low end t the high end of the same modifier interval (e.g. the 35 to 38 interval), it does move you close to the breakpoint
Also, for low values of Spell Safety, the diminishing returns aren't very diminished anyway.
Please note
The DRF table isn't here, but will be in the article on Spellcasting Fumbles.
Mini-FAQ
Omitted for now.
The world
Spell Safety will be an inherent part of the world in which Sagatafl's spell magic system is a part of the setting's metaphysics, and characters will be aware of the possibility of getting more of it, in various ways. Given that the fear of Fumbling a Spellcasting attempt is the primary limiter to the use of Spell magic, characters will usually be very keen on getting more Spell Safety, especially in their areas of preference, either Realms and Spells they are very good at and find useful on a tactical or convenience level, or else ones that in their experience circumstances often force them to utilize.
World impact
Nothing to add here, for now.
The Ärth setting
Spell Safety works as per the Sagatafl rules, in the Ärth setting. Many characters desire it, but are held back by the cost of it, usually in the form of Mystery Slots that can be better spent on other things, and by the competition from RD bonuses which not only serve the same purpose as Spell Safety, to reduce the consequences of casting Fumbles, but also speeds up Spellcasting by letting the caster complete the Spell in fewer casting cycles (on average).
Design Notes
Spell Safety is an old idea, inherited from Quest FRP v2.1, where it was only used in the Jewish Clerical Discipline of Kabbalah; almost all of the DoMs of Kabbalah served to enhance Mage spellcasting in some way, and one of the effects, perhaps the only effect, of this Degree-of-Mastery was to apply a small negative modifier to rolls on the Spellcasting Fumble table, so that consequences would on average be less severe. (Possibly it was also intended to be RAW-legal to Enchant an item to apply a negative modifier to Fumbles; the text on Enchantment was often very unclear on exactly what could and could not be done.)
It seemed an interesting thing to me, The Designer, to have this phenomena which with Sagatafl's roll mechanic would be orthogonal to both casing skill and to the RD of the casting rolls. I didn't much like the idea of having a Focus or Focus-like item give a modifier to Fumble outcomes, because that would create confusion, and I wanted the answer to the question of what a spellcaster should do if he wanted to increase his spellcasting ability, to be clear and loud and free of confusion: Get a Focus. Or if you already have one, get a bigger one.
Various other options include Spell Safety coming from Mystery Slots paid to specialize in particular subsets of Spellcasting, usually Realms (this is the route I've eventually opted for), or giving a minor Spell Safety benefit to favoured Realms or sub-Realms based on casting style, i.e. different cultural approaches to Spellcasting, such as Norse/Dwarven Spellcasting, Druidic Spellcasting, Faerie Spellcasting, Solomonic Spellcasting, Hermetic Spellcasting and so forth.
This remains a possibility. I've long wanted a way to differentiate cultural Spellcasting styles from each other, so as to encourage characters to learn different styles, whereas if the only advantage was tactical intelligence, being able to deduce what spell the enemy is trying to cast before he finishes casting it, there'd be much less encouragement for such things. On the other hand, if knowledge of a wide variety of styles becomes too desirable, then characters will naturally behave in an obsessed fashion in their pursuit of this, collecting styles easily becoming the goal of their adventuring.
Also character concepts could be forced towoards certain styles if the style benefit is too great, for instance it is obvious that either or both of the Druidic Spellcasting Styl and the Faerie Spellcasting Style should favour Illusion Magic, in keeping both with original setting lore (the short story "The Watcher, unpublished) and with mythology (the British Wizard Merlin´used Illusion Spells to disguise Uther Pendragon as Gorlois), and so if a player wants to create an illusionist spell expert, the temptation to make him a Celt, or at least closely associated with Celtic culture, becomes too strong, thereby interfering with the ideal of freedom of character creation.
Spell Safety can be a very subtle tool indeed, though, doled out in small amounts when large effects are inappropriate, and so it is likely that many (perhaps all) Realms will end up favoured by one or two Spellcasting Styles.
Quick mini-glossary
No content so far
