The Cost of Magic

In fantasy literature, there is often a price to be paid for magical power. Wizards may have to make terrible pacts with dark powers for the knowledge they seek, priests may have to sacrifice something dear to them to invoke their deity’s favor, or the spellcaster may pay an immediate price in terms of fatigue, illness, or even a loss of sanity. Generally, the AD&D game is quite forgiving in this regard; when a character casts a spell, he expends a few unusual material components and simply forgets the spell he had known. It’s easy to increase the cost of magic by strictly enforcing the requirement to procure material components for spells, especially if the DM is conservative in handing out treasure. For example, find familiar requires at least 1,000 gold pieces of special herbs and incenses, which means that a 1st-level wizard may have to do a lot of adventuring before he has enough money to summon his familiar! The spell scare requires a piece of bone from an undead creature; requiring the wizard character to personally locate and remove such materials can force the player to make hard decisions about which spells are worth the trouble.

Now, imagine a game setting in which magic is far more costly. What if a character risked insanity every time he attempted to learn a spell? Or if the casting of a spell required the character to make a saving throw vs. spell or pass out from exhaustion? A character might even have to risk a permanent loss of hit points or ability scores each time he cast a spell in a world where magic is exceptionally dangerous. (See Chapter 6 for some of these options.) Again, these restrictions are rules changes and not just cosmetic matters, but a few changes like these can make a great impact on a normally routine campaign.

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