Arcane magic

[kenbert]

Has anyone considered how to model Arcane magic from Rolemaster?  Would it just be another school of magic?  Also Dual mages are close to Hybrid spell casters in Rolemaster.  How could the Archmage from Rolemaster be modeled? Would the Archmage be too powerful in Novus?

[AresLunthar]

LOL I'm sure it's been considered.  I think an Archmage would be interesting too.

[imported_Rasyr]

For an ArchMage type of Character...... Hmmm.....

As for Arcane Magic (being treated as the root of all magic), I would consider that to be the Spell Bases, from Libram Novus #1. Just follow the rules for learning and using Spell Base

Now, if you want to treat Arcane Magic as a seperate Realm, you would need to actual create that Realm and decide what spells are wanted as part of it.

And for an ArchMage, I think I would likely do something similar to the Harn Wheel of Magic. There are 8 core Schools,  And the Universal Spells could act like Grey spells in Harn (basically the same, learnable by all).

Attached is an image I just made up.
A Circle Divided into the 8 Schools of Magic (the underlined words). Casters are listed (same size as the School Name, but not underlined). Mixed Classes/Training Paths listed in smaller size. And those with quasi-magical abilities are list in parenthesis ().

Dual Mage would be allowed any 2 (though, looking at this, I might limit to those not directly opposed), and an Archmage could be one who learns all but the one opposite (One Primary uses Major costs, the two directly beside the Primary uses Minor costs, and then the next 2 use Non costs, leaving 3 Schools unaccessible (which allows for a good bit of variation).

[kenbert]

For an ArchMage type of Character...... Hmmm.....

As for Arcane Magic (being treated as the root of all magic), I would consider that to be the Spell Bases, from Libram Novus #1. Just follow the rules for learning and using Spell Base

Now, if you want to treat Arcane Magic as a seperate Realm, you would need to actual create that Realm and decide what spells are wanted as part of it.

And for an ArchMage, I think I would likely do something similar to the Harn Wheel of Magic. There are 8 core Schools,  And the Universal Spells could act like Grey spells in Harn (basically the same, learnable by all).

Attached is an image I just made up.
A Circle Divided into the 8 Schools of Magic (the underlined words). Casters are listed (same size as the School Name, but not underlined). Mixed Classes/Training Paths listed in smaller size. And those with quasi-magical abilities are list in parenthesis ().

Dual Mage would be allowed any 2 (though, looking at this, I might limit to those not directly opposed), and an Archmage could be one who learns all but the one opposite (One Primary uses Major costs, the two directly beside the Primary uses Minor costs, and then the next 2 use Non costs, leaving 3 Schools unaccessible (which allows for a good bit of variation).

I have always preferred Arcane magic to be the root of all magic instead of a separate realm so learning the Spell bases would be the way to go.

I really like your concept for ArchMages.   How would you handle the cost for the talent to be an ArchMage?  I guess this is something that you could "grow" into as you progress as a mage.  This is how I remember Grey Mages work in Harnmaster.  Would you see there being spells that are universal which are only available to ArchMages?  Perhaps there could be concepts/spell modifications that are part of the universal Spell base that only Archmages have access to instead.

Perhaps to stop ArchMages from being too powerful your spellcasting skills for adjacent schools can be increasingly penalized the further away the school is from your primary school.  One could then learn 7 of the 8 schools but the schools that are the furthest away from your promary school would have a steep penalty for the casting roll. 
 

[AresLunthar]

Seems like a Libram Novus might be brewing......

[kenbert]

I'd imagine that the Archmage would have to be set up to ensure that they don't overshadow single and dual school mages.  I also think that keeping the maximum number of available schools to any mage to five is desirable. 

I was thinking of the following costs and effects:

Primary  school spells cost Mn and no casting skill penalty.  Talent cost = 20.  Spell points =15
Adjacent schools to primary school (secondary schools)  spell cost Mn and casting skill penalty = -2,  Talent cost = 8
Adjacent schools to secondary schools spell cost N and casting skill penalty = -4. Talent cost = 8.
These schools cannot be developed unless the secondary school adjacent to them is already developed.

Perhaps Archmages and Dual casters could create spells that intermix the properties of multiple schools. This could be done once the mage knows Spell bases. I envision these spells would be like the spells from the base lists of Rolemaster Hybrid users.