I know that a pc can only perform ONE action in a given turn, but this has created a very small issue with one of my players.

She is a Grey Order, Rank 1 apprentice with the following action cards: Magic Dart, Doppleganger, and one we made up called "Snake on you" (at this low level it is little more than a thin shadow around the head of the target causing a brief negative condition.) Her Willpower is 4 and what I have found is that even though she uses her magic (other than doppleganger) quite often, she rarely, rarely needs to "channel".

I feel that a very large part of being an arcane magic user character is being left out. We have played through the entire Day Late and Eye for an Eye campaigns and I think she has only channeled twice.

I want her to use the "risk / reward" aspect of channeling and being a spellcaster, but find that with only ONE action per turn allowed, she, at this time anyway, has very little need to do so.

Am I doing something wrong?? Does channeling come into play more as the character grows, gains more spell cards, and spell cards of a higher power requirement ??? OR does anybody know of a group using some house rules allowing MORE than one spell cast within a given turn,… the latter would motivate the spellcaster character to channel and hold more power,…. Any suggestions???

Thanks,..

Read the bit on "quick casting." That allows for channeling and casting on the same turn.

Other than that, I would be VERY leery about letting someone break such a fundamental rule about using ONE action card per turn (unless there is a reaction card mixed in somewhere). This is especially true at lower rank characters.

jh

As soon as she has spells that take 3 or more power to cast, things will start to get hairy.

As long as spells cost more than 2 power, she won't be casting very many spells over the course of a battle without channeling. So, keep in mind that she is casting pretty simple spells that don't require a lot of power, enough that natural equilibrium is enough to regenerate what was spent, as well as having enough to cast it from the first round purely from her stored pool of power.

You can also consider having the winds of magic be unpredictable. Sometimes and some areas the winds are weaker, sometimes more powerful, sometimes more energetic (harder to control) etc.

So, feel free to increase the costs of spells at times, or increase the difficulty of spells … or vice versa. Or add additional boon/bane conditions, such as gaining or losing power, etc.

WOW Dvang,… I keep forgetting that I am GM,.. I am the "World" So I can make it more difficult if I see fit,.. Thanks for the reminder, and I will use the "winds of magic stronger/weaker in certain areas" to get her channeling more until she has some more powerful spells,… Hey,.. even after that right ?!? <<evil laugh , twist moustach>>

Sounds like she's being a very cautious spellcaster, which isn't something to discourage in this game from what I hear. Miscasts can be brutal.

Yes, I wouldn't do it to specifically penalize her … but to make her spellcasting more interesting.

It also gives another reason for a wizard to use the Magical Sight skill, as it would allow the Wizard to gauge the affect the local Winds have on spellcasting in the area (on a successful check, of course!).

In general, low rank spells don't take much to cast. So, there isn't a lot of need or requirement to channel. A 1-cost spell can be cast every round without channeling. Even a 2 cost can be cast a couple times in a row, since equilibrium returns 1 per turn.

It is only when a wizard starts using the higher cost spells, that they end up having to channel to cast or to sustain spellcasting over multiple rounds.

For example a Wizard with a Pool of 5 power casts a spell costing 4.

She has the option of not channeling, which means she uses 4, regains 1, leaving her with 2 power on the second round. Not a lot of power for casting in the second round. Or, she channels to gain power, possibly gaining power, say 2 … Now at the start of round 2 she has 4 power, so could potentially cast that same spell a second time (without needing to channel again). Etc.