MORE, More, More on Mages

Last week I posted some stuff about mages and Stuart from ilkleyoldschool.blogspot.com noted that maybe I've made being a mage too dangerous. I agree. I was thinking that 5% chance of something bad happening might not be that big a deal, but it IS one in 20, so I'm rethinking that post with something like:

1% first cast, 3-5% second cast (not sure where I fall on this yet), 10% third, 20% fourth, 40% fifth, 75% sixth, 95% seventh and subsequent (or 99%) of the same spell. Note that this is not (or wasn't, but hmmm...) intended for casting spells in general. That is a Fireball and then an invisiblity and then charm person and then rope trick - all at normal chances - but then a second charm person, 3-5% chance of something really bad happening, and, of course, all that assumes casting within a certain time frame - 12 hours? 4 hours? Dunno... I don't think I mind the extra book keeping (though it's all theorhetical at the moment as I'm sans gaming group) but we'll see. So far I think I've proposed the most complications for the magic using class.

The idea behind this is that magic is dangerous, somewhat unpredictable - yet I could see the mage saying to himself, well, I have a pretty good chance of getting this third lightning bolt off - if it'll save the party or whatever. You know, basically knowing that there could be very dire consequences for manipulating the arcane energies - yet weighing the risks with the hoped for outcome. I would think that you would have to be desperate indeed to launch that sixth fireball (giving you 75% chance of blowing yourself up - or worse...) but "desperate times call for desperate measures".

Bear in mind, half of what this blog is all about is me brainstorming "on paper" as it were - so there's a lot of stuff here that has never been (and probably will never be) playtested - just musings for my entertainment...