Magic has a wild, boundless nature that can permeate every aspect of a game and its setting. Before things get out of control, your GM may want to place some limitations on how and where magic can be researched, created, stored, or modified. These aren’t hard rules, but thematic limits that invite our heroes to seek out magical powers rather than simply, inexplicably, acquiring them with hero points at any time.
Aquiring New Spells
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Safety: Decoding, translating, modifying, creating or learning spells can only be accomplished with concentration and focus. This means a safe place and restful conditions. In ‘the fi eld’ these conditions can be hard to find. Safety means no threats of any kind are incoming.
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Elder Wizards: It takes decades to learn higher magics. Elder wizards are a good way to access new or more powerful spells. If more than 20 points have been / are being put into a spell (before limitations applied), the GM may require an elder wizard to aid your work. Your campaign may even have GM-made spells that can only be acquired from such a mentor. How to find such a wizard? Who knows?
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Spell Storage: Gems, scrolls, rings, amulets, wands, staves, and frescoes are the common residences of spells. All of these require some acumen to translate and comprehend. Wizards are often searching for such ‘containers’ wherever they go. A detect object spell built to find magic or spell storage is handy for such work. Given time and safety, the spell(s) therein could be learned, no longer requiring the container.
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Gaia Theory: The land itself holds magical power. In very special places in the wilderness, new magic can be acquired directly from this vast, mysterious source of power. These are most commonly a henge or heroic grave site. To grasp the hidden power of such a place, the aspirant must spend a matter of hours or days there, searching for subtle energies and cues from nature itself. Numerous intellectual skills can be handy in this endeavor.