Crystal Casting - A Summary
The Elemental Companion introduced several new ways to create spell-casters in RMSS. Here I give a quick run-rown of my Orcan magician, using the Crystal Caster background.
Mages have access to large quantities of power. This power can take many forms, but the latest to catch my eye is the Catalyst-Casting introduced in Essence Companion.
Power-Points are an obvious limitation to a mage's power. He can only go on casting as long as they hold out, and once even 25% are gone, penalties start to accrue. The catalyst-caster gets around this problem by drawing PPs from their chosen form of catalyst, herbs, corpus or crystals. Each catalyst holds a number of charges, each worth a set amount of PPs. The different types of catalyst are used for different spell-categories. i.e. rubies will only supply charges for PPs towards light-based elemental spells. Quartz will fuel control-based utility spells, etc. This means that a catalyst caster needs a wide range of catalysts to cover their spell lists, and may be restricted by the number of charges available.
Schlarzag, the Orcan Magician, knows the Spell Enhancement (closed Essence) list to fifth level, but without green Laen is unable to cast any spell from the list. Now that he has gained a small chipping (5 carat) he has 6 charges available before the gem needs to be refreshed. Each of these charges will supply 3PP, being a rare stone. A larger stone would provide more charges, worth more PP each, but at 8gp/carat the 10carat stone is a little expensive, even if it can be found! On the other hand, the geodes required for earth-based force spells are relatively common, and Schlarzag has a small pouch dedicated to them. Very useful for multiple Cracks Call.
One complaint I do have is that the lists of crystals and their properties is very limited, but more importantly does not tie in with previously published crystal lists. I know my GM and I had a hard time trying to figure what to do with gemstones that were on his treasure-lists, but not detailed in my crystal-catalyst lists. This can be worked around with a little effort, but it would have been better to have seen what has, up until now, been a comprehensive system use the already-published information rather than add to it without any sense of consistency.
Overall, I would recommend playing a crystal-caster, so long as
your GM will allow you access to the gems you need. Obviously some will be
harder to attain, but most should be available. I had the advantage of having
taken the 'miser' flaw, and we decided that Schlarzag would not be able to sell any
of his gems, even if no longer of much use to him. This kept the GM happier
about handing out high cash value stones, when all I was after was a few PPs!
I think the other types of catalyst-casters would play out just as well,
although they work slightly differently, with their catalysts being used up by
the spell.