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Messages - Melendwyr

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31
The big battle during White Night:

Fuego
Force Shield, extended and made reflective (it's notably more expensive than earlier versions)
Forzare as a area attack
another Force Shield which lasts for multiple exchanges
a rift to the Nevernever (which is elsewhere said to be very magic-intensive)
brings up the shield again
another Forzare blast, with Hellfire, multiple targets
a massive fire spell that turns an entire area to molten stone
another shield activation
and one final shield powered by Lara's kiss, which might involve a consequence - although there is no textual evidence of any lasting effects

Even assuming Sponsored Spellcasting handled the fire, and one of the force blasts, that's an absolute minimum of six castings.  Assuming that Harry accepted mild consequences (which there is absolutely nothing in the text to suggest) he'd still have made four normal castings, which would fill his mental stress track completely.  Assuming he didn't additionally extend any of the durational spells - that would put him way over the limit.

(I'll point out that Ramirez casts many potent spells with multiple targets that are nevertheless lethal despite having some serious injuries which would preclude his accepting consequences to cast, too.  He does not seem to possess any kind of Sponsored Spellcasting.)

And, of course, he was subject to a massive psychic attack which would also produce stress and temporarily incapacitated him.  Which by the rules he would be far more vulnerable to than most of the people in the battle, because he'd been casting spells, and in the RPG rules that produces stress on the mental track.

32
Spell(novel) <> Spell(game)

If Harry tells us that he is throwing around a few fireballs, that doesn't have to be a spell in the sense of the game. It can simply be flavor, it's a cool show, but it doesn't accomplish anything, so it doesn't cost anything.
  So if I cast a fireball but don't roll well enough to hit with it, it somehow doesn't inflict stress on me?  And of course there are no meaningful reactions to an attempted fireball, like dodging, that would follow from an attempt.  Which is free, because it didn't accomplish anything.  Riiight.

Don't forget all of the relatively long-term spells Harry casts, which involve generating even more stress when they're extended.

33
Have you actually ever sat down with the novels and worked out how many spells Harry throws around in the equivalent of a 'scene'?  Particularly in the later novels, in which it implied that either his capacity for magic has increased or he's become much more efficient (or both, of course).

Four or five spells doesn't cut it.  And we're ignoring the point that some spells are inherently more magic-intensive than others, regardless of how they're customized.

34
I find myself frustrated by the meager-seeming amounts of magic that characters can manage to throw around in a single DFRPG conflict.  Yet the stress mechanic is too important to eliminate or massively overhaul.  I've come up with a hypothetical houserule that might permit characters to throw around more magic without blowing the limits entirely:

The first time a particular Rote spell is used in a given scene, it generates no 'default' stress.  Stress that comes from channeling more energy than Conviction permits, or ignoring the requirements for spoken verbal triggers, and so forth, still applies.  But the single point of stress that comes from casting any spell?  Isn't present for the first in-scene casting.

Thoughts?

35
DFRPG / Re: On Angel(s) and Devil(s)
« on: July 21, 2014, 08:14:49 PM »
If I might switch continuities for a moment:  in Doctor Who, there is a villainous military space station that is named Demons Run - which, when it's pronounced, would likely be interpreted as Demons' Run - the place where demons have free reign.

In actuality, it's a shortening of an old saying:  "Demons run when a good man goes to war."  The meaning of the name is in reality entirely different from what we would first assume.

No supernatural entities are going to name urban regions after themselves.  It's far too obvious.  The names are clearly worn-down remnants of mostly-forgotten meanings.  Find what those original ideas were and you'll know what's there now.

36
DFRPG / Re: Casting languages
« on: July 19, 2014, 08:14:08 PM »
I've had people using Quenya (was already fluent in Sindarin, so that wasn't an option) and a constructed language.

37
DFRPG / Re: The Forest People
« on: July 18, 2014, 08:24:37 PM »
I don't think we know about them for anyone to attempt a write-up.  Seriously:  a sentient, mortal race capable of casually moving cars and with immense supernatural abilities that don't work in the same way as (or aren't starting off from the same perspective as) human magic?

We'd probably need new mechanics.

38
DFRPG / Re: Seeking NPC Feedback
« on: July 16, 2014, 10:32:16 PM »
Well, the rulebook makes clear that people can adopt items made by others.  The book also makes clear that Warden swords come with job responsibilities - from a game perspective, that helps explain why they're more powerful than things most people can make.  It's conceptually like a person with a +2 Resources purchasing a private jet for the use and with the resources of a +6 Resources organization.

Luccio isn't sure when someone will be able to adapt her design - which suggests that item creation is highly personalized, not surprising, and also that making the swords is more complex than the items most people have experience with.

Probably there would be a certain amount of learning how to adjust to an item's "power feeds", except with items that were designed to be easily transferred. 
(click to show/hide)
  I suspect other people would have to spend some time analyzing an item before they could provide the right kind of mystic "battery" for it.  However, just as the novel making-of-potions requires lots of time and the process is heavily abstracted in the game, I'd say the same thing holds for transferring magic items.

Short of something like this being showcased in the novels, that's probably the most 'canonical' guess you're going to get, and it's a reasonably straightforward GM-call.  Change it if you feel like it, but I think it's an acceptable default.


39
DFRPG / Re: Rituals: Potions vs. Straight Up Thaumaturgy
« on: July 16, 2014, 10:03:21 PM »
I just figured that each 'school' of thaumaturgy is its own theme.  It confuses me.  Couldn't a 'summoner' also do wards but his wards would involve patrolling sentinels that he'd summoned?
  I wouldn't interpret it that way.  A summoner wouldn't be able to manage anything more complex than the basic charged circle - the sort of thing that anyone with even a little power can manage.  He would be able to touch the other aspects of thaumaturgy only to the degree that they're part of summoning.

Now, what he could talk or bind the summoned creatures into doing for him is another matter...

40
DFRPG / Re: New GM Questions
« on: July 16, 2014, 09:52:25 PM »
In the books you occasionally see non-sponsored magic in the hands of laypeople who likely don't have spellcasting powers. Thomas uses multiple tracking spells, for example, in one short story. I also believe Harry teaches a couple of people how to make a magic warding circle. What's the consensus on how that is being done?

The circle is so basic that it can be enacted even without magical skill, mostly because instead of being infused with directed power an energy source is being directly applied to it (human blood).  The untrained will is enough to direct the energy into the established structure.

Remember, it's canon in the novels that anyone can learn to perform magic, but without sufficient magical senses to pick up on what's going on, there isn't enough feedback for people to develop.  The established metaphor is "learning to paint while being blind" - it's possible, just so difficult that it's practically impossible.

Thomas says that his spells are crude - he doesn't know enough to manage better ones (little Lore).  After being instructed by Bob (Lore bonus) he pulls off some better rituals.

Quote
In the vein of house rules, what's the thought on allowing focused practitioners to buy refinement in order to add bonuses to their specialties?

I'm working on a one-point power that, when taken with either Ritual or Channeling, has the following effects:
  • permanently limits you to a single element (Channeling) or a single theme (Ritual)
  • gives you two non-stacking bonus specializations (exact nature varies on previous choice)
  • removes the 'stacking' limitation on specializations
  • permits Refinement to be taken for anything that doesn't violate the single new restriction

It essentially 'upgrades' Ritual and/or Channeling to Thaumaturgy and Evocation while restricting them to a single specialized focus.

41
DFRPG / Re: Rituals: Potions vs. Straight Up Thaumaturgy
« on: July 16, 2014, 05:46:13 PM »
Harry's made Ghost Dust before, which mechanically is a potion.  Don't be too limiting - but consider that Harry needs some strange and exotic ingredients to make potions, and sometimes those requirements are a problem.  (He hasn't been able to store sunlight for years, now.)

If the player can't find the right recipe to make the potion that is desired, or can't tell an interesting story about how they managed to create it, I'd say they don't get the potion.

42
DFRPG / Re: Rituals: Potions vs. Straight Up Thaumaturgy
« on: July 16, 2014, 04:40:05 PM »
Keep in mind, that "potion" in the narrative sense and "potion" in the mechanical sense are 2 different things. In the mechanical sense, any 1 use item is called a potion, like Harry's sunlight handkerchief.

My campaign villain "The Candyman" relies on that fact... and on the canonical principle that potions can be diluted to dilute their effects.

43
DFRPG / Re: Rituals: Potions vs. Straight Up Thaumaturgy
« on: July 16, 2014, 03:56:12 PM »
A lore declaration doesn't cost a FP.
  I looked it up:  either a FP or a successful Lore roll.  That's still somewhat iffy.

44
I prefer to exercise the option to make people define what sorts of things they can do with skills like Craftsmanship or Performance.  If they try something outside those bounds, they get perhaps a +1 for general experience, and that's all; if you're practiced in watercolors and line drawing, you can't suddenly burst into song and expect people to be impressed.

45
DFRPG / Re: Rituals: Potions vs. Straight Up Thaumaturgy
« on: July 16, 2014, 03:25:42 PM »
Primarily, that you can't do things on the spur of the moment, unless perhaps your group permits the optional rule that you can define what potions you have on hand.  Even then, I think it costs both a successful Lore roll and a fate point.

Consider also that potions (in whatever form) are physical objects which can be taken away from you.  Also, many thaumaturgic effects don't actually translate well into potions.

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