Pretender Balance Mod

[Chris Byler]

I think these numbers demonstrate the real problem with the humanoids: low new path cost only decreases the cost to get level 1 in that path. It doesn't change the cost to get level 2, 3, 4, etc.

There was a proposal a while back to give some pretender forms a new ability: increasing the level of a magic path would cost less (or more) points. If humanoids paid only 50% of normal points to increase the level of a path, in addition to their low new path cost, they could be real magical powerhouses and have strong blessings too. (This would of course be offset by their low dominion and physical weakness, but it would make them much more interesting to play.)

Or, of course, more humanoids could start with more and/or higher level paths. Frost father water 2 air 1, master druid nature 2 earth 1, crone astral 1 death 1 nature 1, great enchantress astral 2 nature 1, great warlock fire 1 astral 1 blood 1, etc. At the same costs they have now, this would make it significantly cheaper to get to higher levels of magic in those paths, while also making them more different from each other by having preferred paths. This would tend to encourage a 2-3 paths at level 4-6 humanoid rather than a 5-7 paths at level 2-3 one - although you would still be able to do either.