I was explaining magician characters to one of my friends when we came upon the section that mentioned magic loss from deadly wounds. His character background had him almost dying from being shot in the back by his former partner, and he asked if he'd have to make a test for magic loss from that. And it gave me an idea...

Early Magic Loss - 6pt Flaw

Because of some violent trauma (Deadly wound, Stim Patch, invasive healing, BTL or drug addiction, etc.), the character has lost one point of his/her Magic rating. Only magically active characters may take this flaw.

I don't remember any flaws higher than 6 points, but it seems to me that even 6 points is a little low for this kind of flaw...any comments or suggestions?

The Abstruse One

Is the character permitted (or required) to take a geas?

I wouldn't allow geasing this off at character creation -- giving someone the opportunity to get a 6-point flaw, then geasing it off is just asking for min-maxing IMO.
On the other hand, if you enforce geases strictly (making them work about 50% of the time or so) it gets more interesting

Or reduce the cost of the disad if geased to something like 3-4 points.

It probably seems harsh, but for 6 points I would allow him to take this and never be able to use geasa and would never be able to initiate or buy up magic attribute.

So...for 6 points, you are already on the road to burnout. Don't use this as an example of what to do in your games...cause I'm just mean.

For 4 points I would allow a loss of magic attribute that was bought off with a geasa.

Cedric

MitS page 33.
You are only prevented from initiation and accepting geas if you delibrately chose to give up all your geas. Losing points of magic without accepting a geasa does not incur this same penalty.

There was a great thread about this on the old forums...

HERE

Sorry - had to fix the link to the old forums!

Something to check out...

Improved BP System Addendum that was inspired by Infinity Cubed and allows you to purchase both Resources and Magic abilities in segments. Might not be exactly what you're looking for, but it might help. 6 points seems like alot of points for the flaw.

Sphynx

sphynx, if I have some quips with your improved BP system where/how should I send them? Should I make a new thread or what's your e-mail address or... ? I'd say 'em here but that would be getting a wee bit off the topic of this thread...

To me, this sounds too easy to abuse. If I've got a lightly-cybered (<1 point of cyber) mage, why wouldn't I get this flaw and the 6 freebie build points it gives? I mean, if I've already lost the point of magic, why not use the Essence that went with it? As long as my Essence didn't drop below 5.0 at character creation, there wouldn't be any additional Magic loss.

Either way, I think 6 points is way too generous. Flaws should hurt.

Now, if the flaw reduced your Essence (instead of Magic) by -1.0, then I could see -2 for non-mages/ -3 for mages (maybe even -3/-4). I'd also allow up to 2 levels to be taken at character creation.

Go to your "My Controls", click on "Compose new message" under the "menu" and send "sphynx" a message oughta work.

Sphynx

Spooky, I was of the mind that it would lower you by an additional point, so if you took 1 point of cyber, then you would have a magic rating of 4.

[edit] yeah, upon revieing the original post, it says "some violent trauma" and gives examples. Getting cyberware wouldn't count.[/edit]

Thanks to I am Jin for pointing out I had the wrong copy of my BP system on that page. I've adjusted it to the correct formula.

Sphynx

Instead of lowering the magic point, have the flaw lower the base essence by 1 point. Without the ability to use the essence void for cyberware/bioware and disallowing a gaesa to regain the magic point from this essence loss. In other words, this character has less essence then a normal creature.

Id call it. Unnatural Being.

6 point flaw 5 base essence.
12 point flaw 4 base essence.
18 point flaw 3 base essence.

Now that's a real flaw.

Sensitive system (or bio-rejection?) is essentially three essence. It's not worth eighteen points.

Have a look at the Variable Magic article from TSS, it's not half bad.

Diesel, that's only 3 essence worth of cyber. If you don't plan on getting any cyber, like many spelltossers, then it's not a big deal to take it unless you get kidnapped and someone puts cyber in you against your will. The thing is, with only 3 essence, that means your magic rating is only 3, and so casting spells at force 4 will cause physical drain, spirits will roll against a 3 if you try to banish them, people trying to magically heal you will have a lot of difficulty against TN 7, and so on. Starting with three essence and getting sensitive system or bio-rejection is hardly the same thing.

But I have to admit, 18 seems like a bit much, especially considering that to be a full magician is 30, and if I have a magic attribute of 3 I can still project, perceive, cast low level spells without taking physical, and the like, and it's only costing me 12 build points instead of 30.