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Post by logan9a on Jan 25, 2017 18:01:15 GMT
So augmenting damage (fire punch, fire sword) or performing Utility spells requires only the Channeling roll, but Projecting damage takes a Channeling & Projection roll? Is that what you are saying? I love these sort of questions because they make me think. Here's what I'm thinking: PC: I want a fire sword (because destroy it with fire is a normal PC thing)! GM: Roll fire magic. PC: Got it. GM: Your fist glows with fire magic. PC: Not on my sword? GM: (Not sure yet - thinking it is easier just to stick it on fist. Maybe the sword would be channeling at -30%?) Are casters going to glow like Dragon Ball Z characters when they are channeling? Having never watched that show before I'm not sure. I was imagining something like this for lightning: I had imagined it more subtle than that. In the realm I'm currently working on, I'm not. Plus, it gives the high ranking sneaky casters (see above) real reason to go for the multi-action penalty to fire sneaky spells at people rather than the "Hey - look at me! I'm doing magic! See if you can kill me before I unleash this shit! If that's the case, do spells project from you? Unless you are projecting them from a weapon, rod, staff, etc. Then, that would be glowing with the force. Or are you saying that you glow when you channel, but can cause spells to detonate without a clear trail to you (You glow when you cast fireball but the fireball itself doesn't originate from you). Ah - I see. I'm thinking that being able to 'fire without warning' is an advantage. Yes, the spell would come from you but bad guys (or good guys) would have to make a spot at -30% to figure out 'who did that' if the person is doing sneaky magic and the person is otherwise busy. If someone were just standing there watching, it would be a spot at full. I'm trying to figure out what you're describing with "sneaky casters." You seem to indicate that magic is obvious when you're channeling but not when you're casting. Somewhere between the two. Subtle enough that the actual magic might not be noticed unless the person were looking for it or just freakishly observant. [Note - this is all for what I call 'quick and dirty magic'. Honestly, PC's rarely spend the time and effort to do ritual magic. For ritual magic, it would be several 'fetch quests' followed by 'much rolling of the dice' for something that may or may not go horribly wrong. Because it is a far better use of PC's time to get NPC's to do that kind of shit, I'm not worried about that sort of magic. Sitting in a tower for a year doing the equivalent of trying to get several small balls into several small holes with a plastic game might be what most mages do but it would be a dull as fuck campaign. So for that sort of thing, just hire people.]
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Post by bentpaperclip on Jan 25, 2017 18:11:25 GMT
I don't see how anyone could miss you casting if you GLOW then that glow moves FROM YOU to the target. Unless they are literally blinded in some way, this doesn't seem possible. It would be similar to taking about a gun and shooting someone and them needing to pass a spot check (at -30%!) to figure out who did it.
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matchstickman
Agent
Messiah: Will rise again
Creator of and most frequent player of the Heroic Cthulhu Drinking Game
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Post by matchstickman on Jan 25, 2017 18:14:09 GMT
So for that sort of thing, just hire people.] Hire people? You mean NPCs? Unless they succeed without needing to roll that is just asking for trouble.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 25, 2017 18:33:03 GMT
I don't see how anyone could miss you casting if you GLOW then that glow moves FROM YOU to the target. Unless they are literally blinded in some way, this doesn't seem possible. It would be similar to taking about a gun and shooting someone and them needing to pass a spot check (at -30%!) to figure out who did it. Hum. Good point. Maybe it would only be useful for a sneaky first strike. "Where did he get a gun!"
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Post by logan9a on Jan 25, 2017 19:29:08 GMT
So for that sort of thing, just hire people.] Hire people? You mean NPCs? Unless they succeed without needing to roll that is just asking for trouble. It's a great way to get them to destroy their own place!
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Post by logan9a on Jan 26, 2017 16:01:46 GMT
Any more thoughts on this?
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Post by bentpaperclip on Jan 26, 2017 16:57:02 GMT
I think everyone has expressed their thoughts - and you yours. Not one player has said, "two rolls is a good idea."
Not sure what else there is to say - as the GM you can pretty much take or disregard what has been discussed.
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Post by bentpaperclip on Jan 26, 2017 17:09:34 GMT
I guess that's not technically accurate, I agreed that it is balanced to require two rolls (and likely two rounds of combat) if Magic is significantly more effective/powerful than technology.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 26, 2017 19:35:13 GMT
I think magic can definitely be more powerful than tech. Plus, it is showing that once you get the magic going it can be used for other purposes than just 'getting the magic going'.
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matchstickman
Agent
Messiah: Will rise again
Creator of and most frequent player of the Heroic Cthulhu Drinking Game
Posts: 2,939
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Post by matchstickman on Jan 26, 2017 19:48:02 GMT
So "prep spell" is the "fast draw pistol" of magic?
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Post by logan9a on Jan 26, 2017 20:14:31 GMT
You could certainly use it for such.
Here's what I'm envisioning - though I'm not sure how to 'make it happen'. Let's assume the person doing the magic is 'experienced' and is into 'air' magic.
They've just realized they're in combat!
Round one possibilities for them (assuming they wanted to go with 'magic stuff' as opposed to 'pull pistol' or 'dodge' etc):
Make air magic go now. > Roll make air magic go now.
Make air magic go now and shoot bolt of air at someone. > roll make air magic go at full, bolt of air -30%. (Or possibly the other way around though if they did that and failed on 'make air magic go now' then they got nothing next round to start with).
Make air magic go now and cover sword with airy goodness > roll make air magic go at full and...what? Sword cover at -30%? Don't know.
Make air magic go now and pimp slap someone with it. > Roll make air magic go now at full and punch at -30%.
These are ideas off the top of my head.
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Post by bentpaperclip on Jan 27, 2017 13:20:15 GMT
1) Action One - Buffering 2) Action Two - Cast Spell
Seems pretty simple.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 27, 2017 16:36:10 GMT
1) Action One - Buffering 2) Action Two - Cast Spell Seems pretty simple. I'm thinking buffering, buffering cover weapon. That could be two actions or a multi-action deal. If you think about it, weapon+STR+magic = pretty damned good damage. While an extra d6 (or possibly more when the players get stronger through the method I'm figuring out for this zone) may not sound like a lot it is pretty huge.
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Post by bentpaperclip on Jan 27, 2017 16:53:24 GMT
Sure, it's good damage. It should be. You don't do damage until your third passed roll (for flaming sword). Given that most combat is only a couple of rounds long, it is likely that half of combat will be buffering. Therefore, your damage per round could actually be less than if you'd just started swinging the sword.
For the record, I don't have a problem with this. I'm articulating the need to make magic better than "shitty" if you want to go this route.
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Post by logan9a on Jan 28, 2017 0:35:31 GMT
I'm articulating the need to make magic better than "shitty" if you want to go this route. I think that would get into semantics. Define 'shitty'. Plus, different types of magic, different skills etc will be native to different zones.
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