In the powers book is the Control Advantage. And I'm glad we have the control advantage, but I have a few complaints with it:
- quantity and finesse of control scale together
- It gives massive arbitrary bonuses
- Its priced fairly for someone who uses those massive bonuses for every single thing they do
I was building a powers based magic system and had the thought that I didn't want the ability to move a cubic yard of dirt to also include the ability to give anyone in that hex -5 to basically everything. I wanted something that acted like the shape spells from magic. And so I decided to wing the advantage:
Control (Shaping): Rather than using the standard rules for control, base the rules off of the shape spells, like shape earth or shape water. You can control level x level /2 cubic yards. Notably, this cannot be used to give arbitrary combat bonuses. The cost is the same as any other level of control, and can only be taken for solids and liquids.
Is it any good? Well, I haven't tested it yet. But my Tuesday night game is going to be playing in a game with it for the next few months, so in a while I'll be able to tweak costs and tell you how well it did or didn't work. I do know that shape earth is one of the most widely used and best liked spells in Gurps Magic. We'll see if this is overpowered, or if its just fun. Hopefully it will play out like having a mage with shape earth, which I've played before and seems to constantly be useful but never quite be broken.
I look forward to reporting on this tweak!
