I am trying to come at magic in Nook in a new idrection...well for me anyway. In most video rpgs magical power is numeric. The number oges up with healing and goes down in defined increments according to which spell is cast. I want to change this.
The spells in Nook are still finite. This spell that has X affect always costs N in energy. I am making the energy available variable. The player will have to roll to gather energy for a spell. This is of course afffected by conditional modifiers. A character may not be able to get enough energy for a spell, or run the risk of getting too much energy. I decided that too much energy should present some kind of danger, such as physical harm, or just running amuck in the world.