The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Did Maggie REALLY curse Raith?
Avernite:
--- Quote from: groinkick on September 27, 2018, 06:48:56 PM ---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....
--- End quote ---
I'm guessing finesse, not power. Ripping out an artery rather than a whole heart or something even less physical.
groinkick:
--- Quote from: Avernite on September 27, 2018, 07:35:38 PM ---I'm guessing finesse, not power. Ripping out an artery rather than a whole heart or something even less physical.
--- End quote ---
Whatever it was it turned the lights out, they fell in an instant. Maybe removing all the electrical impulses in their brains?
Mr. Death:
--- Quote from: groinkick on September 27, 2018, 06:48:56 PM ---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....
--- End quote ---
Speaking purely in game mechanics? Probably not that much, actually. Something on the fly like that would be evocation, which uses much lower numbers than thaumaturgy, usually.
The average goon in a fight only really takes maybe 3 or 4 shifts to put down (roughly a solid blast with a shotgun or sword).
(click to show/hide)35 shifts is super overkill. That number is meant to take into account anything and everything the target might do to try and survive -- 20 shifts of consequences, 5 shifts for the highest defense stat, 4 shifts for the best possible roll, 4 shifts for all the stress boxes and another shift or two to put it all over the top.
The RPG source book puts Ebenezer's magical "Spirit" element attack at a base 8 power and 9 for targeting -- then admits it's probably low-balling him.
(click to show/hide)Damage in DFRPG is based on the fate system, which uses stress boxes and not HP. Any single hit that "lands" past the stress track is a Take Out, unless the character uses consequences to reduce that hit so it lands on the track.
The max a mortal has before getting powers is 4 stress boxes, so the average goon is going to have 2 or 3. A hit's damage is
(Attack Roll + Weapon Rating) - (Defense Roll + Armor Rating)
So, for instance, assuming average (+0) rolls, Murphy (Guns at 5) firing her pistol (Weapon:2) at a low-level goon (Athletics at 2, with 2 stress boxes) without armor becomes
(5+2)-(2+0) = 5 shifts of damage = one dead goon
Said goon could take a Moderate consequence (reduces hit by 4 shifts) and survive the hit to keep fighting, but generally nameless goons don't get the option because they're a speed bump, not a roadblock.
I'd say in a "high level game" like Changes would be, the average goon probably has a defense stat of 3, so even at the best (+4) defense roll, Ebenezer is still doing more than enough damage for a solid kill.
Now, AOE attacks are done by taking 2 of those shifts of power and using them to make it affect a whole zone, reducing the Weapon rating. Ebenezer can swing that easily and still be packing enough heat to whack the whole lot of them.
All that said, if I were GMing that session, lord knows I wouldn't be rolling 200 times for attacks. They'd probably be statted up as a single, large "monster" instead. Or an environmental hazard.
So, in answer to the question... He probably put more power into it than Harry's average attack spell, but not nearly as much as the heart-explodey spell because it was a bunch of nameless goons.
Maz:
While I think Malcolm being completely normal is nice... it doesn't address questions I raised the first time this was visited a decade or so ago.
Knowing the enemies coming, Maggie entrusted Harry to Malcolm's care.
Maggie's enemies utilized, apparently, an entropy curse to take him out.
Neither of these seems in agreement with Malcolm solely being a stage magician.
The only reason I would lean towards KotC is because Jim is a lazy writer and he references his father having a basket of swords similar to his own. We hear no other references I believe to his Father's props.
Mr. Death:
--- Quote from: Maz on September 28, 2018, 04:22:02 PM ---While I think Malcolm being completely normal is nice... it doesn't address questions I raised the first time this was visited a decade or so ago.
Knowing the enemies coming, Maggie entrusted Harry to Malcolm's care.
--- End quote ---
She was married to him and it was his child. She didn't go out of his way to find him specifically to give Harry to, that's just how things work -- if parents have a child and one of them dies, the other takes care of the child. Nothing complicated or out of the ordinary about that.
--- Quote ---Maggie's enemies utilized, apparently, an entropy curse to take him out.
--- End quote ---
Most likely because of Harry, not because anything about Malcolm was special.
One of Maggie Sr.'s enemies used entropy curses to take out a bunch of porn stars and none of them had anything special about them except that they were female and might possibly have been in love with a particular guy.
And we don't know that it was an entropy curse specifically, just that it looked like an aneurysm.
For my money, the most likely culprit here is Justin DuMorne. Killing Malcolm puts Harry in the System, where Justin can keep an eye on him until he manifests magic. Then he can swoop in and rescue the (by now) poor, lonely boy, become his father figure, gain his trust, and turn him into whatever he wants.
Elaine's an orphan too, after all -- how much would you bet her parents died just as suddenly and mysteriously as Harry's?
--- Quote ---Neither of these seems in agreement with Malcolm solely being a stage magician.
--- End quote ---
Well, no, they're not related to that, just like Harry's current troubles have nothing to do with him having moonlighted as a dance partner for senior citizens.
Malcolm being entrusted with Maggie Sr.'s child is because it's his child. Him being attacked by Maggie Sr.'s enemies is because he was married to Maggie Sr. and was taking care of their child.
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