The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Did Maggie REALLY curse Raith?
forumghost:
--- Quote from: morriswalters on September 26, 2018, 10:20:55 PM ---Yes, I'm aware. But it's the only use of Magic to kill that didn't leave an obvious cause of death. If it was easy to kill someone without an obvious use of magic such as fireballs or ripping a heart from a chest and so on, then why did Liver Spots not just kill Harry with his death curse? Thus my belief that JB's use of death curses is wonky.
--- End quote ---
Nah, Liver Spots is just a loser scrublord and couldn't manage enough oomph to kill Harry outright, even with a Death Curse.
groinkick:
--- Quote from: morriswalters on September 26, 2018, 10:20:55 PM ---Yes, I'm aware. But it's the only use of Magic to kill that didn't leave an obvious cause of death. If it was easy to kill someone without an obvious use of magic such as fireballs or ripping a heart from a chest and so on, then why did Liver Spots not just kill Harry with his death curse? Thus my belief that JB's use of death curses is wonky.
--- End quote ---
A death curse is just what a wizard can do in any given amount of time with all the magic they can muster. A wizard who has 10 minutes to use their death curse can do a whole lot more than someone with a few seconds to work a spell... Also it comes down to the wizard in general. Eb, Gatekeeper, LtW could probably unleash a death curse that Dresden couldn't even fathom even if his "gas tank" is larger than theirs.
Liver spots just wasn't a very good wizard, and didn't have any time to focus what power he did have before Mouse killed him.
morriswalters:
--- Quote from: forumghost on September 27, 2018, 01:19:43 AM ---Nah, Liver Spots is just a loser scrublord and couldn't manage enough oomph to kill Harry outright, even with a Death Curse.
--- End quote ---
Loser scrublord. I like it. :)
Mr. Death:
--- Quote from: forumghost on September 27, 2018, 01:19:43 AM ---Nah, Liver Spots is just a loser scrublord and couldn't manage enough oomph to kill Harry outright, even with a Death Curse.
--- End quote ---
Considering how much punishment Harry had already taken, that Cassius couldn't drum up enough power with his own death to actually kill Harry really says something about how crummy of a sorcerer he really was.
--- Quote from: groinkick on September 27, 2018, 05:12:25 AM ---A death curse is just what a wizard can do in any given amount of time with all the magic they can muster. A wizard who has 10 minutes to use their death curse can do a whole lot more than someone with a few seconds to work a spell... Also it comes down to the wizard in general. Eb, Gatekeeper, LtW could probably unleash a death curse that Dresden couldn't even fathom even if his "gas tank" is larger than theirs.
Liver spots just wasn't a very good wizard, and didn't have any time to focus what power he did have before Mouse killed him.
--- End quote ---
As I understand it, it's mostly limited by your imagination.
RPG mechanics time:
(click to show/hide)In the RPG, a death curse is treated the same as a thaumaturgic ritual. Now, with a normal thaumaturgic ritual, you take your time, gather a bunch of elements for it, and cast over a long period of time mostly for the sake of your own safety, because if you blow a roll, either you eat all the power to make it work (and you probably die), or your 30-shift ritual goes down the drain and blows up everything around you.
(Sidenote: This is another reason more wizards is better for casting -- you can divide up the backlash if someone screws up. 30 shifts of damage will obliterate most lone wizards, but divided among 13, it's barely a headache.)
With a death curse, you're already dying, so none of the "careful" stuff is necessary -- you can cast the whole thing, instantly, and just pour all your resources into pure power. You essentially use yourself as a sacrifice, so you get power for every potential consequence you haven't used yet (20 shifts on a base human alone), plus some more based on your stats (for someone like Harry, that's another 8), plus you can tag every consequence you have used, and can throw all your fate points into it because, hey, it's not like you're gonna need them afterward.
The result is something like a 30-ish shift effect for the average wizard; for reference, the heart-exploding spell from Storm Front was 35 shifts, while a "strong" fireblast like Harry's is 6. So 30 shifts is a lot to work with, especially if you're not directly attacking.
groinkick:
--- Quote from: Mr. Death on September 27, 2018, 03:33:09 PM ---Considering how much punishment Harry had already taken, that Cassius couldn't drum up enough power with his own death to actually kill Harry really says something about how crummy of a sorcerer he really was.
As I understand it, it's mostly limited by your imagination.
RPG mechanics time:
(click to show/hide)In the RPG, a death curse is treated the same as a thaumaturgic ritual. Now, with a normal thaumaturgic ritual, you take your time, gather a bunch of elements for it, and cast over a long period of time mostly for the sake of your own safety, because if you blow a roll, either you eat all the power to make it work (and you probably die), or your 30-shift ritual goes down the drain and blows up everything around you.
(Sidenote: This is another reason more wizards is better for casting -- you can divide up the backlash if someone screws up. 30 shifts of damage will obliterate most lone wizards, but divided among 13, it's barely a headache.)
With a death curse, you're already dying, so none of the "careful" stuff is necessary -- you can cast the whole thing, instantly, and just pour all your resources into pure power. You essentially use yourself as a sacrifice, so you get power for every potential consequence you haven't used yet (20 shifts on a base human alone), plus some more based on your stats (for someone like Harry, that's another 8), plus you can tag every consequence you have used, and can throw all your fate points into it because, hey, it's not like you're gonna need them afterward.
The result is something like a 30-ish shift effect for the average wizard; for reference, the heart-exploding spell from Storm Front was 35 shifts, while a "strong" fireblast like Harry's is 6. So 30 shifts is a lot to work with, especially if you're not directly attacking.
--- End quote ---
If a death curse for the average wizard is like a 30, while the heart exploding curse in SF was a 35, what the heck was the level of power Eb used when he killed a couple hundred people with a single motion, and didn't appear even slightly fatigued....
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