Channeling and 'choosing a success line'

By Uncle_Joe, in WFRP Rules Questions

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When we first played the game years ago, we didn't know you could choose lower success lines on the cards. So if you rolled at least 3 successes, you followed the the 3 success line (if it exists). For spellcasters, especially wizards, it made for some interesting moments if they rolled a LOT of successes while channeling... ;)

But re-reading the system again as we get back into the game, I see that players can freely choose a lesser success line and thus easily manage the amount of power (or favor) that they channel. To me, this seems much less thematic and it takes away those tense moments while channeling.

Are we just missing something in the Magic rules this time or can people actually freely choose not to take 'full power' in RAW?\

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The only success lines you can choose, as far as I know, are the ones for boon/banes and comets.

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That's what we thought the first time we played through but upon re-reading, the rules are fairly clear:

Multiple Success Symbols
As the core mechanic states, a task succeeds if one or more æ success
symbols remain after º challenge symbols have cancelled out
an equal number of successes. If more than one æ success symbol
remains, the player may be able to select from among several different
options. If an action card has more than one success line,
the player may choose to trigger any one success line requiring a
number of success symbols equal to or less than the number generated
by the dice pool.
So we thought maybe it was somewhere in the casting or channeling rules but so far, we've been unable to (re)find any reference.
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I think this was overlooked when they designed the channeling card. I've houseruled that when channeling you have to take the highest success line, otherwise the chaos star result will never come into play.

But per RAW I think a wizard can choose lesser success lines if they want to.

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Yeah, we might use that as a House Rule too but I swear we had found it in the RAW at one point lol. I think that is the more frustrating part. ;)

Also, our impression is that (especially at lower Ranks), magic is kind of weak. So making it more dangerous as well might be overkill.

Compared to melee or missiles, magic is slow, unpredictable and doesn't seem to do a whole lot more damage (again, at least with the lower rank spells we have used) or are we missing something there too? lol

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Actually, it is the skill and training of a Wizard that allows him to use winds of magic safely. He is able to control it and thus choose the line he needs. The "Chaos Star" effect is more to warn magic users not to be careless about it. But in "Winds of Magic" sourcebook, page 34 they talk about warpstone and how it can be used to empower channelling. When a wizard uses warpstone to channel, he must choose the highest success possible and all boons possible to get the most power available.