Despite how much I adore this game, it's one of the few rpgs that I feel requires homebrew. 1 is banning Specialized Skill. 2 is changing how magic works.
The assumption that failing at something means you don't do anything has wormed it's way into more rpgs than it should imo. It feels especially egregious tho in TTB. I really like how magic works in comparison to other abilities. Magic will never outpace damage, no matter your build the same amount of effort put into weapons and combat pursuits will be better. In exchange magic has this beautiful creativity that I wish more games explored. But when someone sits down to play and I have to tell them that magic skills are the only skills in the game that can fail no matter how high your skill is? Well that breaks my heart and can easily be a "I quit" moment.
My solution is a homebrew rule. If you achieve a margin of success when casting your spell, you count as having one of the necessary suits to cast the spell. It doesn't give you a suit so you can't get triggers, but it means powerful mages can guarantee casting simple spells, whilst spells drowning in Immuto will challenge even the most min maxed of spellcasters.
But i've only ever played with my friends, so living on an experience island i'm paranoid i've over blown how feels bad this mechanic is. So what do ya'll think? Am I right? Do you have your own solutions to the spellcasting problem?
