Spell Mastery + Grant Puissance

I've recently stumbled on some old thread about munchkinism and the usage of Grant Puissance.

As usual, when I see unusual concepts I start to think about how can they be used and how broken could they be.

Here's this one. I start with the usual quote of the relevant part of the Core Rules for Mastery.

For every possible Hermetic spell, there is
a corresponding Ability. This Ability can be
studied in the normal ways, and is called the
spell’s “mastery” ability. If a maga has a score of
one or greater in a mastery ability, she is said to
have “mastered” that spell

What to you think about the usage of the Grant Puissance in (Ability) of RoP:M (page 38) // RoP:F (page 58) applied to a Spell Mastery Ability ?

Grant Puissance in (Ability)
4 points, Init equal to (Qik – 3) Corpus
R: Voice, D: Sun, T: Group
Bestows prowess in a given activity. For
every Might point invested, ten men can
be given a +1 to all rolls in a general
situation (such as combat, or woodcraft);
or 1 man can be given a +3 to a specific Total
or Ability (such as Soak or Hunt). Might
points spent on this power are only
recovered when its effects are withdrawn.
MuCo 20 (base 2, +2 Voice, +2 Sun, +2
Group): Lesser Power (20 levels, +1 Init)

I've found a different thread on Spell Mastery + Specialties which is somehow related to the main question here.

Do you think that Grant Puissance in (Ability) could be applied to the "Ability" represented by the mastered spell ?
How can this be applied ?
A flat +3 modifier for the casting roll, a flat +3 increase in the Mastery score (and so giving the magus 3 different mastery options), a flat "no way" ? :slight_smile:

Does it count as munchkinism ? I think I would have a hard time selling it to my troupe :smiley:

I don't see why a "Grant Puissance in X Spell Mastery" power couldn't exist. I think you would need a very good explanation for why a magical being would have a power so tied to a specific aspect of hermetic magic, which is rather tricky, but the general idea doesn't seem absurd.

Puissance doesn't actually increase the ability, it adds "2 to the value when you use it". Spell Mastery abilities are only actually used when calculating casting total (adds on) and number of botch dice (subtracts from) so that's what puissant mastery would increase, in my opinion. It would not give you the benefit of more mastery options.

Is it munchkinism? Well that really comes down to the why and how. If it seems natural, earned, and plausible as part of a story then it would be fine with me personally. If it is shoehorned in in order to give a character puissant mastery as an easy power boost and for no other reason, that would not sit well with me.

It seems like a lot more work in character than just learning to master the spell the normal way.

I could see a familiar developing this for a spell their magus uses frequently, but it is a very focused and honestly in many ways the opposite of munchkinism to my mind- when are you going to find 10 people using the same spell in the same time period to grant the bonus to? it is so overly focused it actually loses most of the impact of the power.

I agree that merely adding to the Mastery level wouldn't give additional Mastery special abilities, just increase the level for those existing abilities that make use of the total level. I wouldn't allow Grant Puissance to increase the number of levels for those Masteries which can be chosen multiple times and the benefits stack (such as Precise Casting). Grant Puissance only increases the generic total, not specific Masteries.

Besides, the real Munchkin value for Grant Puissance abuse is increasing the Source Quality of a book being written, which is a legitimate Total potentially subject to the effect. :wink:

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