True. And as you point out, it gets really wonky, such as taking live-5 and lower spells to level 0 or negative levels. 0 or 1 magnitude would be so much better than 5 levels, solving so many problems. Even just 1 magnitude would solve a lot, but 0 or 1 would probably be better.
Yes, and it costs vis. It's explicitly different from FFM in so many ways that I don't think it's useful as a comparison.
It might be a good idea to explicitly note that you can boost size as well, though. And maybe note that you are not allowed to offset by reducing things…
Yes, that is firmly within the intent.
Also a good point.
How about:
Boosted Magic
Minor, Hermetic
By spending a pawn of vis when casting Formulaic spells you may “boost” the Range, Duration, or Target (including size) of the effect by one magnitude. You can do this multiple times for the same spell. For example, boosting Range from Touch to Sight and Target from Individual to Group would cost you four pawns of vis. You may not reduce any of the parameters of the spell. This has no effect on Spontaneous or Ritual spells, though you can still use vis to boost your Penetration as normal.
Flexible Formulaic Magic
Major, Hermetic
You can vary the effects of Formulaic spells to a slight degree, while still getting the benefits of casting known magic. You may raise or lower the casting level of the spell by one magnitude to raise or lower one (only) of Range, Duration, Target category and Target size by one step, as long as this does not violate any of the normal limits on Formulaic magic. You may instead change one (only) of those parameters to another parameter at the same level, without modifying the casting level, as long as this does not violate any of the normal limits on Formulaic magic. Casting success, Fatigue loss, and Penetration are all calculated based on the casting level of the spell. You cannot manipulate Ritual magic in this way.
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Looks pretty good to me, but if you change the wording of the virtue Boosted Magic you should probably also adjust the description of boosting on pages 97 and 101 in HoH:TL as well as the Boosted Casting spell mastery ability on p99 so they are consistent with each other.
Also, the last sentence about mutantum magic should probably be kept in the virtue description. (Don't know if it was intentional to drop it, or if it just seemed irrelevant to this discussion)
Those look better, especially the ≤ 1 magnitude with FFM.
I would reword this. You're accidentally reviving the argument, as here you're saying changing Target includes changing size. If you want them to be altered separately, you really want to name them separately like you have for FFM.
And, as ErikT has noted, there are several other Boosted things that may need changing.
I like them mostly.
I'd think Boosted magic should be precise on one element. Some people may think as you are using vis, yes, you've boosted 4 magnitudes, so the spell would normally be 20 level harder to cast, however, because you used vis, you cast the spell as normal and don't need the 20 points higher casting total. Some may think the vis gives the flexibility, but the casting total is still required. I'm not too certain what is the intent.
So using the template in FFM for boosted magic, adding something extra would be helpful.
"Casting success, Fatigue loss, and Penetration are all calculated based on the {original casting level of the spell/ modified level of the spell}".
Yes, need to be explicit. Either "original casting level" or "modified casting level".
Having gone back to check the original again, it does not appear to be clear.
I think the intent is probably that the level does not go up — this is just a bonus from spending the vis. The ability is much, much less useful if the level does go up. But that may be desirable, if it would be overpowered otherwise.
The existence of the mastery Special Ability strongly suggests that the level of the spell does not go up, but it is not decisive.
Opinions?
I consider the level should go up, otherwise it's a bit too abusable. Using vis to boost a spell normally gives +2 to the casting total.
If someone with the virtue is thinking to do a wizards war, they could make a personal range attack spell, boost them to sight, so in essence getting +15 penetration from 3 pawns of vis. If they had an arcane connection even worse, +20 for 4 pawns.
It is a virtue though, and it is using a permanent resource, so is the flexibility enough? Then again it is a minor virtue. One could meet in the middle.
"Each pawn of vis used increases the casting target by +3.{Or maybe +2}"
I think the level shouldn't go up.
Using permanent resource is a good limit. And highly controllable by the SG. So I don't see a problem here.
You can fully utilize this virtue if you are prepared, and the preparation process is also a nice opportunity for some good stories.
If the level goes up the whole virtue just ends in the bin.
Of course, my preferred use of boosting is with Rituals, so the vis isn’t anything extra there (unless Mercurian, but Mercurian/Mutantum overlap is rare).
That's a good point. If the level did rise, then Rituals would cost double — you'd have to pay the vis for the increased level of the Ritual as well as the vis for the Boost. That strongly suggests to me that it wasn't supposed to, so I am inclined to clarify in that direction.
What about this for the boosting set?
Boosting (p. 97): Replace the description as follows: "By spending a pawn of vis when casting boosted spells or activating a boosted effect in an item, you may increase the Range, Duration, Target, or size of the effect by one magnitude. You can do this multiple times for the same spell. For example, boosting Range from Touch to Sight and Target from Individual to Group would cost you four pawns of vis. You may not reduce any of the parameters of the spell, nor may you exceed the limits of Formulaic magic unless the spell is already a Ritual.Casting success, Fatigue loss, and Penetration are all calculated based on the original level of the spell, but you do add one additional botch die for each pawn of vis used. Mutantes picture this process as "feeding" the magic, using vis to make it grow bigger and stronger."
Boosted Casting (p. 99): Replace the description as follows: "When casting this spell, you may use vis to increase the Range, Duration, Target, or size by one magnitude for each pawn spent. You may increase more than one aspect of the same spell. You may not reduce any of the parameters, nor exceed the limits of Formulaic magic unless the spell is already a Ritual. Casting success, Fatigue loss, and Penetration are all calculated based on the original level of the spell, but you do add one additional botch die for each pawn of vis used."
Boosting (p. 101): Replace the description as follows: "By spending a pawn of vis when casting boosted spells or activating a boosted effect in an item, you may increase the Range, Duration, Target, or size of the effect by one magnitude. You can do this multiple times for the same spell. For example, boosting Range from Touch to Sight and Target from Individual to Group would cost you four pawns of vis. You may not reduce any of the parameters of the spell, nor may you exceed the limits of Formulaic magic unless the spell is already a Ritual.Casting success, Fatigue loss, and Penetration are all calculated based on the original level of the spell, but you do add one additional botch die for each pawn of vis used. Mutantes picture this process as "feeding" the magic, using vis to make it grow bigger and stronger."
Boosted Magic (p. 104): Replace the description with the following: "By spending a pawn of vis when casting Formulaic spells you may “boost” the Range, Duration, Target, or size of the effect by one magnitude. You can do this multiple times for the same spell. For example, boosting Range from Touch to Sight and Target from Individual to Group would cost you four pawns of vis. You may not reduce any of the parameters of the spell, nor may you exceed the limits of Formulaic magic. Casting success, Fatigue loss, and Penetration are all calculated based on the original level of the spell, but you do add one additional botch die for each pawn of vis used. This has no effect on Spontaneous or Ritual spells, though you can still use vis to boost your Penetration as normal. Note that while magi with Mutantum Magic (below) can invent spells that allow this, they cannot boost spells that were not designed to do so without taking this Virtue."
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Looks good to me.
Just noticed an oddity in the boosting rules which I am not sure if it was intentional or not.
With Mutantum Magic you can invent ritual spells that can be boosted; you can learn the Boosted Casting spell mastery ability for a ritual spell, allowing it to be boosted; but the Boosted Magic virtue does not allow you to boost rituals.
It is not that the rules are unclear on this point, it just seems odd that of the three possible ways to boost a spell, two work on rituals while the third doesn't.
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Yes, I noticed that when I was making all the revisions. It is clearly deliberate, and given the flexibility of the Virtue (which doesn't require a specially-designed spell or a Mastery ability), I think it was probably deliberate. At this remove, I can't remember…
Anyway, I plan to leave it in place.
There are equivalent errata needed for the Gruagach innate flexibility (HM p59) and the Flexible Casting spell mastery on the same page. The latter IMHO needs a complete rewrite.
Good catch, thank you. I plan to use the following errata.
Inflexible Magic (p. 58): Change the description as follows: "The gruagach’s Formulaic spells are not as versatile as most. Instead of being able to vary the Range, Duration, Target, or size of a known spell by 2 magnitudes, the gruagach is only able to vary his spells by 1 magnitude."
Gruagach Spells (p. 59): Revise the final paragraph of the section as follows: "Gruagachan are able to vary the effects of their Formulaic magic to a certain extent. They may cast any of their known spells with a different Range, Duration, Target, or size. They may only vary one parameter in a single casting. The final spell must be within 2 magnitudes of the original spell and the new Range, Duration, Target, or size must be one that is available to the character. Casting success, Fatigue loss, and Penetration are all calculated based on the casting level of the final spell. This works the same as the Hermetic Virtue Flexible Formulaic Magic, but allows the gruagach to alter 2 magnitudes of spells."
Flexible Casting (p. 59): Revise the description as follows: "For every full five points in the gruagach's Mastery Score, add one to the number of magnitudes by which he can vary the Range, Duration, Target, or size of a known Formulaic spell."
Flexible Formulaic Magic (p. 78): Under Integration Effects, change the second sentence of the first paragraph to read as follows: "A magus with Spell Mastery in Flexible Formulaic Magic is able to vary one parameter of a Formulaic spell (Range, Duration, Target, or size) as long as the final level of the spell is within one magnitude for every full five points of the magus’ Mastery Score. Otherwise, it works in the same way as Flexible Formulaic Magic."
Change the end of the second paragraph to read as follows: "by making the magnitude difference two instead of one".
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This seems underwhelming. I posted about the Gruagach Flexible Casting mastery ability a while ago, and my opinion hasn't really changed; that's one hell of an investment of experience points for not much gain.
I wouldn't take it until I had 5 in a Mastery Ability, but it does seem like a nice ability to take at that point.
I'm reluctant to issue an erratum for something that might be a bit weak in a marginal part of the rules; there'd need to be quite a lot of discussion of the balance, and I'm not sure it's worth it.
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Fair enough, but I do think it's more than "a bit" weak. 75xp is a very large investment in a single spell, even with the equivalent of Flawless Magic.
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I think his point is that this is not an investment of 75 points to get this one thing. You also get 4 more choices and everything else you get out of Mastery 5.
Honestly, there are other, weaker, Mastery options, and some of those are still worth taking. If he’s not going to go through rebalancing them all, which aren’t even errors to correct, it’s probably best not to make such a change.