At 10:35 PM 2/6/04 +0100, you wrote:
>One of the nicer little items a spellcaster can find or make for
>themselves is a Mana Storage Item, often called a Mana Battery. (Often
>placed in their Staff). What is REALLY nice is that Mana Batteries
>automatically recharge themselves completely in 10 days.
> Listed under Optional Ensorcellments, no maximum is mentioned for the
>number of Mana Batteries a spellcaster can create and/or use. I can readily
>imagine a spellcaster having dozens of Mana Batteries and thus being able
>to average many times the number of spells per day than they could
>otherwise.
> Basically I think it is flawed.
> Possible solutions I've thought of are:
>- Allow a maximum of (EL in Ensorcelment) ELs of Mana Battery. Oh, and
>don't lose it as you can't replace it as long as it still exists. Maybe
>allow ELx2 if the Mana Battery is Dedicated. [Of course what happens to the
>Mana Battery after the spellcaster dies? Does someone else get to use it?
>Eventually might someone amass a huge collection of them?]
>- Allow any number of Mana Batteries, but they don't recharge except by a
>spellcaster transfering Mana into it from Casting Ability. [My preferred
>solution.] One could even be nasty and put some inefficiency into them so
>that for each X Mana put in only Y Mana can be brought out and used.
>
>Any other suggestions? Comments?
>
This is all what I've done in my games. I've had about 5 characters find
that one page that mentions this stuff. They fell in love. You know
Varange, he had two in his storage at all times for example. It can be
very abused for sure. So I've come up with my own rule system. But
unfournately I can't seem to find the notes. It must be with my books.
Thought I had it on file. But some basic rule of thumbs that I could come
up with quickly (though not my exact rules) are..
Mana Battery limits:
1) Will - Will/10 - So thus a character with Will 100 would be limited to
10 batteries at any time. Will being that you could explain it that your
Will or your lifeforce has to control a certain amount. Thus if you have a
weak will you can't control more than your limit.
2) MEL - Could do it 1 MB per MEL. or MEL-1 Thus you have to be MEL1
before you can have one. Thus its limited by your experience. Could be
explained that as you grow in power your Mana manipulation powers get greater.
Mana Storage:
1) Your (EL+1)x10 does work nicely but there could be other methods.
I don't recall if I corrected this but thinking about it now...
2) MELx4 - A simple formula thus increasing as you increase MEL thus
limiting the abuse of the battery
Thinking about it now theres not much improvement you could do. However
you could assign a basic storage formula and then use a Mana Limit. Say
MELx10 Max Mana can be stored at any one time.
Thus EL3 MEL 5 Could put in 40 Mana with a max limit of 50 mana. This
does mean that EL4 would be his highest ability he could do until he learns
how to make better battiers at MEL6. Thus the abuse of batteries are limited.
Mana Drainage
So how much can you take out? Well you could use the basic rules or use
your own like a casting speed formula or a formula like EL+1 points per
phase.
Now there could be tricks the GM can do to affect all the above. As a GM I
won't list all mine but osme fun ones I've come up with are.
Environment:
A Law mage has a battery created by himself. But he enters a Choas land.
If its just a land that supports chaos generally then 1 MP is lost per day.
If he enters a shrine of chaos then 1 per hour. However if he enters a
chaos purified and protected shrine with full bells and whistles then maybe
1 MP per 10 minutes. Thus this makes life fun.
Normal mana drainage:
A MB shouldn't stay intact for life. IT should lose some on its own. THe
Ref can determine the rules for it but examples are 1 MP per month or d3/d6
randomly per month. You could even have the MB lose -1 from its Max
storage for every year. Thus the MB doesn't last forever. Making th emage
recreate more.
I never liked that MB could regenerate on their own. I always am one that
you must charge it back up yourself. Now if it has a demon in it then sure
it could recharge. But if its just some ring sitting there nope. Unless
again you could have fun and if its in a purified law (using above example)
shrine and the ring stays there for a few hours it could start regenerating
X points. Thus giving te power of environment over just pure regeneration.
Another trick is as you mentioned the amount of Mana pulled out may be
random. In that it may be 1 2 or 3. This could be a factor of
enviornment, stress or just Fate. IF its a demon then this adds spice by
having the demon play with the wizard and giving less mana when he needs it
the most.
MBs aren't unique. I've seen them actually in that other Dungeons oriented
game once or twice. In another game system I have and run I also use them
but its more demon oriented.
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