In my previous campaign, I changed up what Magery did.
Magic items were not detected on sight - although, by touching them, you could roll versus IQ to sense they were magical.
You could, however, Concentrate and make an IQ+Magery+Alertness+Acute Vision roll to see if someone had Magery. You couldn't tell if that someone had spells or not, but yes, you could detect aptitude for magic.
This was done to change the flavor of the game - make it more like "detect the gift of Magery" and less "scan those guys and see if they're toting magic items." Especially because "those guys" meant "I walk around the city looking for magic items."
Overall it went pretty well - magic items were detected with Mage Sight primarily. Magery was uncommon but the PCs could check and see if they faced wizards or not, especially in social settings. It was a bit of a power-up for Magery since a spell replaced the other power but it fit the specific campaign well.
Huh... I've never had a PC use Magery to scan for magic items pre-conflict. Now I'm sort of tremulously wondering if this post of your will ignite a firestorm of murder-hoboery along the lines of "He's got the magic item's, GET HIM!"
ReplyDeleteHeh. It's not quite that easy, but yeah, that was at least part of my fear in a social game. "I scan the ranks of the army. Who's got magic stuff?" Ugh, let me roll for 10 minutes just because you're curious, in case you're more than curious.
DeleteIn Castle of Horrors, I said the wizard could detect magic items, but it took about five minutes of staring at the item and concentrating or meditating on it. It meant he couldn't casually detect magic traps but could find magic items after a battle. It seemed like a good compromise.
ReplyDeleteGiving an immediate check on touching magic items seems good. You still can't safely detect magic traps without another spell, but it gives wizard a little more of their standard utility.
I agree. Having a sort mine sweeper wizard does not fit well with the setting. My post on the other thread about adding modifiers to magic detection was sort of about the same thing. A DF Wizard would just walk into a room and see what is magical and what is not very easily even with distance modifiers because they have absurdly high levels of detection. Having the Wizard have to take some time to detect the magic items keeps the magic items more interesting IMO.
DeleteNote that this is a campaign change from a previous game - I run Magery as written in DF. It's not a big deal. DF run by the book is dangerous and lethal, being able to spot magic items with a reasonable chance of success close in (base 15, minus range, minus concealment and vision penalties) just isn't a big help. In a largely social game, it would have been a constant drag instead of just a tool to quickly pick out the good loot.
DeleteDo you have a table of concealment and vision penalties that you can share?
DeleteI just use the lighting penalties from DF 2, the Size and Speed/Range Table from Basic Set, and the spell Conceal Magic from Magic. Nothing to share that isn't already just out there, intended for use with Perception rolls.
DeleteDo you have modifiers for items that are hidden, blocked or underneath other objects?
DeleteNo, because if you can't see it . . . you can't see it. No need to roll to identify something as magic by sight if you sight is blocked. It's not magic item radar, it's a sense check.
DeleteOK. I sort have got the idea that the magic items emit some sort of aura that a wizard can sense. I assume this aura does not penetrate anything that blocks normal vision.
DeleteMages can roll to see if they sense an item is magical if they can see it; ergo, if they can't see it, they can't see if it's magical or not. To see "through" objects to spot magic items, you need Mage Sight (GURPS Magic, p. 102), which specifically does that.
DeleteIt's worth nothing this is all permanent items only - temporary spells, even lasting ones - aren't magic items. So if you trap an area with Link and a nasty spell, your foe needs Detect Magic to spot it, Magery won't do.
In the setting I have DR Arabian Nights, the PCs are in an Islamic world and they go and loot dungeons that were made in the Pre-Islamic Middle East. The magic system is closely tied to the language and thaumatology style so there will be penalties for a standard Wizard trying to use a magic item of say Babylonian or Egyptian origin unless the Wizard spends time and learns the language and thaumatology style that the magic item originates from. So using this set up would you think it would be fair to have a penalty for a wizard to identify if an item is magical and of an exotic magic style? Say the item is of Sumerian origin and the wizard does not know that language or magic style then would it be fair to give a penalty to the wizard to know if the item is magical using Magery to sense it?
DeleteDepends on how important you want those skills to be, how you define magic, and how easy you want it to be to spot magic items. Personally I'd make them easy to detect even if not easy to use. If they're hard to detect and hard to use because you're unfamiliar, you either have people miss items entirely (so you write them up, and they don't interact with them), ignore them (too difficult), or are just charging a character point fee to interact with them ("Okay, I learn the skills you say I need.")
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