Thoughts on AU Conversion

I'm still figuring out how this is supposed to work.

• In AU, spells are sorted by power, lowest to highest, 0-9.
• Within a level spells can be Simple, Complex, or Unique.
• Any spell can also be Heightened, Diminished, or Laden.
• Spells have "technique" types: Alteration, Invocation, etc.
• They also have "effect" types: Plant, Mental, Elemental.
• Most classes only have access to Simple spells.
• They take a Secret to get Complex spells of a given "effect"
• Magisters get all Complex spells, regardless of "effect"
• Magisters must carry a special staff
• Mage-Blades must carry a special weapon.
• Magic doesn't work well in heavy armor

The Basics

Eldritch Magic is a very different beast from the other types of magic found in this setting: it's considerably more academic in tone, and considerably more powerful in scope. It is an import from the Land of the Giants across the Great Ocean, and reflects their preoccupation with formal structures.\\

Mastering this type of magic isn't easy, and says things about your character's background. When it comes to Witchcraft, most practitioners develop in isolation from each other; the secrets of the Patterns are a matter of folklore in many villages; but Eldritch Magic is most commonly taught in arcane colleges in the Diamond Empire. Graduates from these schools become magisters: powerful spellcasters feared far and wide. Those who, for whatever reason, do not graduate often know some simple spells, and may pass on what little they know in tiny schools of their own in backwater parts of the realm. So: if you know Eldritch Magic, you either went to one of these medieval university towns, or studied under someone who has.

In game mechanical terms, there's an important distinction between between those who have undergone the Rite of the Magister, and those who haven't. A magister commands extremely powerful energies with the help of a magic staff. Non-magisters can only cast the simplest spells, and even then they have to "dumb it down" a little.

Dumbing Down an Eldritch Magic Spell

Spells in this style generally cost points from pools to use. You can lower the cost in the following ways. Doing so does not require a Secret, and can be used any time.

Duration: Concentration

Instead of lasting for an hour, your spell only lasts so long as you can give it your full concentration--generally, about 2 minutes. Getting bonked on the head, talking to somebody else, or getting into a Bring Down the Pain situation automatically terminates the spell. This lowers the cost by 1.

Restriction: Ceremonial Casting

Most Eldritch Magic spells are "shoot from the hip"--you fire 'em right off. But with this restriction you take your own sweet time. Three hours of preparation reduces the cost by 1. A full day of prep lowers the cost by 3. A month of prep lowers the cost by 6.

An Example of Dumbing Things Down

Black Vassiya wants to spellbind the prince with mystical illusions, but the spell would cost 5 points of Instinct and she doesn't have it to spare. She spends the next three hours in an abandoned part of the castle using specially prepared powders and ointments. This lowers the cost by 3. She further limits the spell to a duration of concentration: she really only needs to bamboozle him for a little while as her friends raid the treasury. So this spell costs 5 points, minus 3 for prep, minus 1 for the brief duration, for a final cost of 2.

Early notes: Magisters vs. All Others

In the World of Near, spells drain points from pools. Let's say that unless you're a Magister (and have undergone the ceremonial initiation) you cannot spend more than 2-3 points on a particular spell. You can spend some on bonus dice, but that just affects how well you cast it, not how much the spell itself costs. Particular spell descriptor Secrets may ameliorate this: like, if you have the Secret of Damnable Spellcraft you can cast any hell-tinged spell regardless of cost.

Magisters also receive a staff as part of their initiation rite. If they do not cast spells using their staff, they get a penalty dice to the attempt.

Early Notes: Ripping off Ars Magica

It seems to me that with all of its wacky stuff on weaving spells together, ladening spells, spell slots vs. readied spells, techniques like conjuration vs. forms like plants & animals, that AU makes a very awkward attempt to model the "industry's best magic system." So, what happens if we rip off Ars Magica directly?

In TSOY, no big deal! You can "dumb down" or "smarten up" a spell, and in the process decrease or increase its drain on your pools.

For example: let's say you want to cast a spell to make the king like you. Normally this spell would last until sunrise. You could make it last until the next full moon at the cost of an extra point; alternately you can make it last only as long as you concentrate and the spell would cost one point less.

This would mean that "non-magisters" would get to cast some powerful spells, but only by "dumbing them down" so drastically that they become a lot less useful.

Options might include ranges (touch, close by, far away, sight, sympathetic with a Secret), durations (concentration, sun, moon, year, permanent with a Secret), or targets (individual, group, boundary, sight). Naturally common sense would serve here.