A question that has recently come up has been the capability of magicians to use Elemental Controls (EC) or Multipowers (MP) to avoid having to buy every spell as a different line item. I shall quickly cover why ECs are right out, but then I have some better news on the MP front. First ECs give points back for having a coherent set of powers, which is like giving a player points for playing something more than a collection of points. Well, I never liked ECs because most of them were really cheesy and second I expect all of my players to have a coherent set of powers.

Multipowers on the other hand are a completely different construct. In this case the player is given a point break because they can only run so many powers at the same time. However, in the realm of fantasy the magician is also limited to their INT/5 spells being active at any one time.

Below I will discuss the traditional method versus the Multipower version of the same thing.

Tradition Cost Breakdown:

• 40pts 8d6 Energy Blast (Fire)

  • -½ Gestures
  • -½ Incantations
  • -½ Full Phase
  • -½ Requires Magic Skill Roll
  • -½ Side Effect
  • -½ Obvious Inaccessible Focus ===== 10 Real Points 20pts 10“ Flight

1. ¼ Gestures
2. ¼ Incantations
3. ¼ Full Phase startup
4. ½ Requires Magic Skill Roll
5. ½ Side Effect
6. ½ Obvious Inaccessible Focus ===== 6 Real Points

25pts 5d6 Energy Blast (Earth)
  +½ Explosion
  -½ Gestures
  -½ Incantations
  -½ Full Phase
  -½ Requires Magic Skill Roll
  -½ Side Effect
  -½ Obvious Inaccessible Focus
=====
9 Real Points

The Multipower Method is below. I have made the pool 60 points so that it exactly mimics the effects above where the magician can fly and attack with their magic.

15pts 60 point MP Pool
  -½ Gestures
  -½ Incantations
  -½ Full Phase
  -½ Requires Magic Skill Roll
  -½ Side Effect
  -½ Obvious Inaccessible Focus
1pt Slot1: 8d6 Energy Blast (Fire)
1pt Slot2: 10" Flight
1pt Slot3: 5d6 Energy Blast (Earth), Explosion

As you can see this can get rather expensive when buying spells as standalone, especially when magicians want to begin adding variations on the same theme. You can to nearly the same thing with Variable Advantage and Variable Special Effect, but I believe that lends more flexibility that I want my magicians to have at this time. If we go too far down this road things will become more like superpowers and less like magic. Neither can I deny that Martial Arts is also a cost-break power structure and since that has been opened up for warriors, it makes sense to give something to the magicians to counter the effects.

My proposal is to open up ultra-only MPs to the magicians when they reach a certain level of knowledge. This MP would reflect those spells that have a nature that all ties together and would be co-authored by both the GM and the player. In the same manner that warriors have to reach a certain level before the next set of MA abilities are opened to them, so will the magicians have to reach a certain level. The way to think of these abilities are as a series of spells created by groups or individual magicians that all link in the same fashion. I know this is not how MPs work in the base HERO rules, but that is how they are going to work in my fantasy setting.

To give more meat to the discussion table I will outline below a sample set of spells that the magician could pick up. This will hopefully frame the discussion so that we don't get too far off track.

This book was originally authored by Charles the Mountain during his early years. It still remains as one of the best research into the various shadow realms of our own world. While his ideas that each of the realms are cast by the energies of the elemental stones striking the world hasn't gain full acceptance, there is no doubt that he was one of the few magicians to begin to explore these worlds. While this book has waxed and waned in popularity among magicians because of its difficult subject matter, most would pay an exorbitant amount for even a full copy of the original book.

• Apprentice

  • Requirements

    • Must own at least a partial copy of the book
    • Shadows Skill Roll (INT-based) 12+
    • Language: Magespeech
    • KS: Shadow Realms 11+
    • 100 hours of study upon the Grey Book
  • Freebies

    • +2 all Skill rolls dealing with Shadow Realms, Must read book
• Journeyman

  • Requirements

    • 250 hours of study upon the Grey Book
    • Shadows Skill Roll 16+
    • KS: Shadow Realms 14+
    • KS: Prime Elements 12+
    • PS: Shadowmaster 14+
    • INT 14+
    • 40+ point Multipower with following limitations: (-½ Not in direct sunlight or dark, -½Gestures, -½RSR, -½ SE: 4d6 Body Drain Rec 1 Body/day)
  • Shadow Spells

    • Mirror World: Extra-Dimensional travel to Shadow Realms
    • Call Shadows: Summon Shadows
    • Dominate Shadows: Mind Control Only vs. Shadows
    • Shadowform: Desolidification
    • True Sight: N-Ray vision
    • Voice: Mind-Link to any Shadow Creature
  • Freebies

    • +5 all Skill rolls dealing with Shadow Realms, Must read book
    • Rep: Shadowcaster 8-
    • +1 to all PRE-based skills with learned magicians
• Shadowmaster

  • Requirements

    • 800 hours of study upon the Grey Book
    • Shadows Skill Roll 21+
    • KS: Shadow Realms 24+
    • KS: Prime Elements 18+
    • PS: Shadowmaster 19+
    • 70+ point Multipower with following limitations: (-½ Not in direct sunlight or dark, -½Gestures, -½RSR, -½ SE: 4d6 Body Drain Rec 1 Body/day)
    • 4 Shadow spells in MP
  • Shadow Spells

    • Wraith: Full Life Support + Flight + Shadowform
    • Shadowstep: Teleport Shadow to Shadow
    • Shadowdeath: EB, NND Does Body
    • Shade: Summon Shade
    • Return: Banish any Shadow creature
    • Mirrors of Self: Images only of self and +4 DCV
    • Distortion: TK up to character's strength
    • Danger Sense, Only against Shadows
    • +4 PRE Rolls (only for fear/intimidation), RSR, Costs END
  • Freebies

    • +10 all Skill rolls dealing with Shadow Realms, Must read book
    • Rep: Shadowmaster 14-
    • +3 to all PRE-based skills with learned magicians
    • Creatures native to the shadow realms will never attack you and gain a +5 to their EGO-roll if mind-controlled to do so.