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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: Shadowman17 on August 13, 2011, 06:28:23 PM
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Is it at all possible to prevent a were-form from shifting into his beast form, like with a block of some kind? Likewise, is it possible to reverse the transformation with a counterspell?
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I guess you could keep them too occupied to change by laying down a rain of gunfire, flavoured as a block against that specific action. Or to make an aspect and invoke it for effect. Counterspelling it, though... No idea.
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Don't believe it's possible without a compel.
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I don't think there's a general way. If in a story my players would look to lay a trap and go look for a way to block a werewolf's transformation I'd let them research something specific.
For example in the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime the bad guys would be paralyzed when confronted by the remains of the human that they where made from.
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Personally I wouldn't allow a Block only because shifting has no associated roll, I would however allow aspects to prevent shifting. This can of course be done with magic (a maneuver placing an aspect like Locked In Form or You Are What You Are) but can also be accomplished with mundane skills (like No Time To Think or Panicked).
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In fool moon, one of the Lycanthropes was working herself into a frenzy, and Harry (doped up on his uber-caffine potion) shut her down.
He didn't think anything of it at the time, but when the potion wore off, the effort involved in doing so was kicking his ass.
Sounds like a Strong Parallel to me.
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Thaumaturgy, a good focus item, and a lot of knowledge or research on the subject of weres. Evocation it'd have to either be massively powerful or you'd have to have intimate knowledge of both weres in general and that particular were, likely their Name.
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Maybe in some circumstances, too... the book suggests that were-forms much larger or smaller than a human have to (respectively) borrow some mass from ectoplasm, or leave some of themselves in the nevernever.
In those cases... there certainly seem to be ways to prevent or at least discourage such. I have a were-bear in my game who puts on about 450 lbs + of ectoplasm during his shift.... running water and circles disrupt this as per usual, and so disrupt his shift. It's a mild complication, and we effectively use it as his +0 catch for the bear form's inhuman toughness... but I think that an appropriate block, like you're talking.
Possibly shifting inside a threshold. Running water, probably, since Harry does describe it explicitly as being a spell- it wouldn't force a wolf back to human, but could keep them from changing.
Social attacks/distraction, maybe.
Past that, unknown.
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Maybe a variant on the Circle Trap? A trap that dispels magic inside it once it's closed.
If you were to use water, it would have to be a lot of it - rain doesn't seem to bother the Alphas.
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Depends on how you treat the change-
If it's a single spell that makes you into a wolf, and you turn into a human by discontinuing the spell, then rain and circles are a problem.
But I'd always assumed that the transformation spells aren't continuous, so to speak... the spell energy only flows during the change... once changed, they don't really have to maintain the current form, and rain's not an issue. It's two spells- one to turn into a wolf, one to turn back. In between, you simply are what you are, regardless of any restraints placed on you- this is why the alphas have to change before entering a threshold, but don't automatically turn back when they enter (Displayed briefly during GS).
EDIT: The only case I see supporting the one-spell view is that they turn back when they're killed, but that could just as easily be a reflexive (or triggered) casting of the 2nd spell to turn back to their original form- to die as themselves. If a wizard can manage a death curse, this would be their equivalent, I guess.
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Depends on how you treat the change-
If it's a single spell that makes you into a wolf, and you turn into a human by discontinuing the spell, then rain and circles are a problem.
But I'd always assumed that the transformation spells aren't continuous, so to speak... the spell energy only flows during the change... once changed, they don't really have to maintain the current form, and rain's not an issue. [...]
Really good point that!
That way, the most you could do is prevent them from changing, and it would have to be more than a normal magic circle.