Well-Adjusted Spell Costs for Real Wizards

In my upcoming campaign, I am going to adopt the following spell EXP costs. At first, I had shied away from these cost as being "too radical." But, I changed my mind.

I will make a difference between "learning" and "reseaching" a spell.

The Cost of Learning a Spell

This is the easiest way of gaining spell knowledge. It requires that the spellcaster have a tome or scroll or teacher who imparts the spell knowledge to the spellcaster. Learning any spell of any level (except petty) costs 100 EXP (flat), just like a skill. Petty magics still cost 50 EXP.

The Cost to Research a Spell

Researching is the hard way to learn spells. It requires that the spellcaster have some idea of the spell he wants to research and takes a great deal of time. The details of the research are left up to the GM, but it should take 1D3 months per spell level (or 1D3 weeks for petty magic). At the end of this period, the spellcaster expends the required experience points (see below) and makes a spell learning test as normal.

The experience point cost of researched spells depends on whether the spell is "known" or "unknown." Known spells appear in the Great Tome of the Old World (ie, the rulebook) and cost 200 EXP per level of the spell (the canon cost for spells), 100 EXP for petty magic. Unknown spells are spells the spellcaster wishes to create that are completely original. They cost 300 EXP per level of the spell, 150 EXP for petty magic.

Based on recent discussion on the list and my own research into this problem over the past week, I am fairly convinced that greatly reducing spellcaster's learning-a-spell costs will have no effect on "play balance."

One can only hope that the outrageously imbalance against spellcasters hasn't escaped the attention of the good folks at Hogshead...