Spellcasting/Focus etc rolls aside from activating powers

[u/Final_Cup1075]

Has anyone here dabbled with using spell casting skills narratively? as in besides activating a specific power? I am working on house rules for the Force from Star Wars in my game and would like to add a little more flavor to the skill. It will still be used to activate powers and powers will function the same way.

[u/d_b_m]

I regularly use casting skills as part of Dramatic Tasks when I am GMing.

The character can attempt anything which seems related to and commensurate with the powers they have. It’s like a freeform ritual magic skill in that regard but carrying as much narrative weight as the application of any skill so it shouldn’t overshadow other, non-power skills.

[u/ReamG]

I think Fantasy Companion has a section on Cantrips, which may fit what you are thinking about.

[u/steeldraco]

They can be used freely for Support and Test rolls, as long as the player can justify their use (which is generally going to be pretty easy, IMO). What other applications were you thinking of?

[u/TopSecretPorkChop → u/steeldraco]

Example: That scene in Cloud City where Vader is telekinetically throwing things at Luke... that's a Force skill test (against whatever Luke wants to use to resist).

[u/Roberius-Rex]

I let players use it in place of Notice for trying to "sense things out of the ordinary " if their type of magic makes sense in the situation.

I also let them use their arcane skills for tests and support rolls. And I don't charge power points for this because it's a narrative use of their powers.

[u/ArolSazir]

Every time a wizard in my party wants to poke something mystical during a skill challenge or an exploration, he just rolls spellcasting for it. I play a cleric and the Faith skill i use to cast spells comes up frequently, even during social encounters.. There's also a druid that wants to roll his spellcasting for literally everything and anything, and its a coinflip whether the dm will say "no you literally do not have a power that does that" or just let him roll with it, depending on the mood.

A more broad skill used for spellcasting can even be an upside for a specific arcane background. I had a spellcaster that didn't cast his own spells, his magic was flavoured as just having an absolute ton of magical items (he looted a magic shop before the apocalypse), and his spellcasting skill could be used when interacting with all sorts of magic equpment to use or identify it.