I've been thinking about ways to make mages a bit more distinct from each other--right now, the only real distinguishing feature is the size of your dice pool and which skill you use (2 mages have access to the exact same spells, and if their skills are the same there's not much difference).

One talent I was thinking of was something like "Specialist Mage: choose one magical action you can use. Take a Boost die to all spells cast with this action."

Another possibility would be something to make a character who isn't a full mage, but has a knack for a specific action: something like choose a magical action. "Magical Knack: If when you spend a Story Point, you can use your ranks in Knowledge as if they were a magical skill for casting a spell with that action. You may not use any effects that are limited to a particular magical skill."

"Improved Magical Knack (requires Magical Knack): choose a magical skill (Arcana, Divine, Primal). You may use effects limited to this skill with your magical knack."

You could raid the Magic Talents thread for more inspiration. Or just talk. They'd probably love to hear from you.

37 minutes ago, Enoch52 said:

I've been thinking about ways to make mages a bit more distinct from each other--right now, the only real distinguishing feature is the size of your dice pool and which skill you use (2 mages have access to the exact same spells, and if their skills are the same there's not much difference).

One talent I was thinking of was something like "Specialist Mage: choose one magical action you can use. Take a Boost die to all spells cast with this action."

Another possibility would be something to make a character who isn't a full mage, but has a knack for a specific action: something like choose a magical action. "Magical Knack: If when you spend a Story Point, you can use your ranks in Knowledge as if they were a magical skill for casting a spell with that action. You may not use any effects that are limited to a particular magical skill."

"Improved Magical Knack (requires Magical Knack): choose a magical skill (Arcana, Divine, Primal). You may use effects limited to this skill with your magical knack."

The specialist is a decent idea. The Knack one I think the obvious question is why wouldn't I just buy a rank of Arcana or whatever magic Skill?

Reasonable question. I'd say it's a useful talent for somebody who is going to have ranks in Knowledge but only needs access to a single spell--someone with 4 ranks in Knowledge will cast that particular spell much better with Knack than they will with a rank of Arcana. I'm thinking a spellthief who wants to be able to Curse his targets so as to avoid reprisals, or a paladin who only wants Heal and the like.

36 minutes ago, CMink said:

You could raid the Magic Talents thread for more inspiration. Or just talk. They'd probably love to hear from you.

I've actually been looking at Conan recently. It does really surprise me that Genesys requires all of the additional effects to be purchased on the front end with difficulty, rather than allowing spending Advantage for additional effects, like Momentum spends in Conan. I like the idea that if I roll really well, I can get more than I was expecting, rather than a binary success/failure.

9 minutes ago, Enoch52 said:

I like the idea that if I roll really well, I can get more than I was expecting, rather than a binary success/failure.

You still do. You can still get upgrades, and crits, and pass boost dice, and add cool narrative effects. If you want the more powerful options, you have to pay for the opportunity. Higher risk with higher reward.

I get that you can still use Advantages. Just surprised I can't use them in any specifically magical way. I know I can say "the fireball makes him duck, and he takes a setback to his next action".

Its a balance issue. Spending 2 advantage to give someone a setback die is very different from spending 2 advantage to activate the burn quality, which in effect means they get hit again for free every turn until they spend their action to attempt to get rid of it.

True enough.

1 hour ago, Enoch52 said:

Reasonable question. I'd say it's a useful talent for somebody who is going to have ranks in Knowledge but only needs access to a single spell--someone with 4 ranks in Knowledge will cast that particular spell much better with Knack than they will with a rank of Arcana. I'm thinking a spellthief who wants to be able to Curse his targets so as to avoid reprisals, or a paladin who only wants Heal and the like.

What tiers were you thinking?

I was pondering this question in the other Magic Talents thread as well. Another option in the right setting would be to include an inherent ability to use a certain spell in a certain way as a Species ability.