This heavily modifies how the spell works.
Why
As written, Bind Magic is too good. The spell is immediately accessible even by beginner druids or sorcerers – who can eschew a general talent for having Rank 2 in their profession’s talent, then chance-cast Rank 3 Bind Magic in order to write it to a grimoire – at the cost of one magic mishap roll.
Creating permanent magic items that can be used by any characters in a party has the exact same cost that just normally casting the spell would have, in exchange for potentially game-breaking advantages depending on your style of play:
- A spellcaster can choose when and where to roll for a magic mishap while binding a powerful spell, allowing for safe recovery of most outcomes, and anticipate the result of a Power Level roll prior to facing a challenge.
- Any character in the party can accumulate any number of tiny magic items with permanently bound combat-oriented spells that can add up to an amount of Willpower Points that exceeds the limit of 10 WP per character, completely throwing off the balance of any conflicts with NPCs and monsters.
- With the virtual surplus of WP in a party equipped with bound spells, the balancing factor of being able to activate a permanent magic item only once per day can be easily negated by meta-playing the GM’s WP pool.
- The ambiguous wording on how spells can be triggered allows for specifying conditions where multiple spells can be activated at the same time, by the same character, without the cost of any combat actions.
Goals and Design Choices
These are the goals and design choices behind the modified version of Bind Magic:
- Bind Magic has a cost, aimed at limiting both the quantity and power of the magic items a druid or sorcerer can create, while still allowing for the creation of useful, versatile and permanent magic items.
- Each Willpower Point spent on an item’s creation, for a reason other than defining its duration, gets locked with the character that has created it and cannot be further used or spent for any purposes.
- WP locked with a Player’s Character still count towards the GM’s WP pool at the beginning of each session.
- Destroying (breaking) a magical item (non-artifact) releases its power back to its creator, immediately unlocking an amount of WP equal to the same amount spent on its creation for purposes other than defining its duration.
- A magic item has to be in possession of the creature that activates it.
- Bind Magic does not affect the physical properties of an object, therefore not increasing its natural resistances.
- The same spell cannot be bound to an object more than once, at the same time.
- Multiple bound spells cannot be activated simultaneously, and each one requires either a slow or a fast action in order to be activated, depending on the type of action the bound spell originally requires.
- Magical traps can be created, but you cannot place magical traps in weapons and/or ammunition for combat purposes.
- A single zone cannot have more than one magical trap enabled at the same time.
Modified Spell Description
Skilled Sorcerers and Druids can BIND spells to dead objects to create magical traps or powerful magical artifacts. You cast the spell like any other and choose how many Willpower Points to use in she spell you are binding (these WP won’t be spent, see below), but you must then spend extra WP to bind your spell to an object instead of unleashing its power immediately. Rituals cannot be BOUND. The same spell cannot be BOUND more than once to the same object, at the same time.
Roll for any overcharge and mishap when the spell is BOUND. The extra WP do affect this roll, but don’t count toward the Power Level. The WP that actually count towards the Power Level of the BOUND spell are used, but not spent – rather, these WP become a link between you and the magical object, and cannot be spent or lost by any means until the magic dissipates. This link cannot be broken, even if you die, and is not subject to DISPEL MAGIC.
If you spend 1 additional WP, the magic lingers for one day, or until the spell is triggered. If you spend 2 additional WP, the magic lingers forever, but dissipates when the spell is triggered. Spending 5 additional WP binds the spell to the chosen object forever, and it can be triggered once per day.
You decide how the spell is triggered, but doing so requires intent and the object has to be in possession of the creature that triggers its BOUND spell. Common methods include a certain phrase being uttered or that the object is opened, broken or thrown to the ground as part of the activation, and the chosen method cannot be changed. Once the spell has triggered, it works just like it would if it had been cast normally. Triggering a BOUND spell is a slow action – except if the spell is a power word, in which case it becomes a fast action. Only one instance of one BOUND spell can be triggered during an action.
Alternatively, you can BIND a spell as a magical fixture. A magical fixture occupies an entire zone (see page 86), and a dead object within the zone must to be chosen as the focus for any conditions that trigger the spell. A magical fixture does not require intent to be triggered, and triggering it does not use any actions – if its conditions are met, the BOUND spell is immediately activated. The effects of the BOUND spell are centered at the magical focus and the spell cannot be triggered if the focus is not present within the zone. A single zone cannot be used as a magical fixture for more than one bound spell, at the same time.
Destroying the magical object or focus causes the binding to permanently cease, immediately freeing up all of the Willpower Points used to BIND it.
