So are you saying that to start with, there are no spells, and they are derived from performing the same spontaneous magic over and over?
I won't speak as to 'no' spells, but considerably fewer than we have in the DB right now would be my bet. As for just blatant repetition, no.
A close reading shows that you have to tinker. Lets use the fireball, it has a power rating of 50. It's intent is Kill. I have a skill of 5 in Kill. So I'll start off and say ok, it'll take 8 energy to cast this spell. Damn it fizzled. Ok, Maybe it'll take 11 energy to cast. Well it's somewhere between 8 and 11 because I just burnt my test subjects to a crisp. Time to find more volunteers from the Cult of the Fallen.... (some time later) Great, more targets to practice with. So it was between 8 and 11. Why waste power? Lets try 9. Nope it fizzled. And crap my kill skill went to 6 with all this practice. Lets try 8 again as it was a 20% increase in my skill and if I min max it I'm better off always trying from the bottom/middle (note 20% decrease from 11 is 9.166 so I know my range is now 7.5-9.16) Ok so here goes with 8. Damn another fizzle. Ok then maybe 9. Wham they're all dead again. Ok the value is between 48 and 54.
You can see how this might take time. Especially if you have to get it within a certain percentage/range/over/under or some such other rule. Which incidentally could also require certain skill levels in the intents. If I had a skill in Kill of 1 and I got a range between 40 and 50 that might not count since it's still so unknown. That doesn't even open up the possibility of half energy levels etc, though I have my own thoughts on that.
Or are you saying that Tom misspoke, and we do, in fact, have to get a GM ruling on every single spell we cast, regardless of whether it's being cast against someone?
A spell does the same thing every time with defined limits, so no you won't need a GM for that. Obviously if you go beyond those limits any player or GM could easily point out your error. Spells haven't changed, just how you get them and how they're calculated. We'll have to discuss amongst ourselves what it means to improve skills in this paradigm and whether a learned spell always costs the same amount of energy, or if it explicitly says what the power rating is and the game figures if you can meet that and it takes away your energy automatically.
