Quote from: Zachary The First;605220OK, to change it up a bit here, can someone give me a clear example of what each level of magic might contain, and what the cost would be for each?

Here's one example for a game a while back. The situation was a barbarian and sorcerer character were in prison to be pitted in the arena the next day against a huge monster critter. The sorcerer declared he will prepare a spell to sooth the monster and help the barbarian defeat him.  This falls under a First Level Magnitude Spell the effects of which can be modeled on the Valgardian War Cry Boon (hot tip - if you even need a special effect model it on a boon).

The catch being that one of the requirements to cast a spell (as defined previously by the player himself) is that he needs to be playing a musical instrument. So while the sorcerer meditates for the 1d6 x 30 minutes (another requirement for the spell) the barbarian ( a hot Red Sonya type)  flirts with the guards trying desperately to get him to get her a musical instrument of some sort, which eventually he does in the form of a flute.

In arena, the sorcerer spends the fight sitting cross legged on the floor playing the flute while the barbarian faces off the monster. Every round the sorcerer rolls his Mind and his Sorcerer level against the difficulty level of the spell. Whenever he succeeds the critters attack and defence rolls are at penalty (he rolls 3 dice and discards the best one) giving the barbarian the necessary edge to succeed.
 
The point of the example is to show how casting a single spell in BoL isn't just an fire and forget action to be resolved in a round but something you need to think about creatively and which becomes a major part of the story (yes, I went there, I said 'story'!).

Great example there SG.

One point that is worth making about BoL is that one of the ways it really reproduces the feel of the original source material, is that really works fine with just a couple of PCs - and would play great I suspect with just a single PC.

Let's face it, S&S stories usually feature single heroes or a team of two partners. The traditional rpg party of 4-6 adventurers doesn't really feature. (And a common complaint these days is the difficulty of finding players.)

PCs are competent out of the gate and the majority of the world's inhabitants are usually less skilled. So the main threat is big beasties, monsters and bad asses like the PCs themselves. But you still have to be sneaky and play intelligently - the PCs aren't invulnerable.

So a sorceror and a swordswoman is a balanced party (and you don't need one PC to be a sorceror anyway).