We've had as situation come up in our group during play: PC #1 is trying to fight off mental Domination from BCV. PC #2 (a wizard) recognizes the attack for what it is and throws up a rote on PC #1 (a tailor-made block for mental attacks, as we house-ruled that not all blocks are equal). Conviction plus Foci plus Refinements equaled Block:7. Discipline:6 plus dice roll (+3) plus Foci plus refinements =11, plus the Block:7 equaled...yeah, the GM's jaw hit the floor. Showed him the actual rote as written, went to p.252 for example and (minor) fireworks ensued. While I see the point that he (and the 2nd of the three GM's of the group--we switch off to keep things fresh) that the wizard's block for that is way powerful, I'm not wholly certain how to fix that. Has this come up in any other games and how would you house-rule this? I argued that the Block (rote as written) is only up for 2-3 exchanges and then disappears; they argue that fights seldom last more than that amount. I must confess that since I was running PC #2, I did have a dog in the fight.
Your comments are appreciated and welcome!
Yeah, it's not an 18 shift block. or even a 11 shift block.
It's the same way for maneuvers!
The Power of the spell = the difficulty to overcome both blocks and maneuvers. Discipline is only important for controlling the spell. A rote spell give you auto-control, so yes, no need to even roll the dice since your opponent must overcome the total Power of the spell.
As Haru said, blocks only last one exchange unless you devote more power to duration. That said, if you have a Power 7 mental block, on your next turn, you could devote shifts to make the block last longer. Casting a power 5 spell would add 5 shifts(exchanges) of duration to your power 7 block - and that would only cost you 1 mental stress.
Happens to the best of us. Though I'm not too big a fan of the block spell rules as written, so I understand the wish to change them, even subconsciously.
I LOVE blocks! I use them more often than I attack