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Message no. 1
From: Erik S Jameson <esj@***.UUG.ARIZONA.EDU>
Subject: Armor Spell
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 11:52:45 -0700
Another question for the masses, and I need a quick response (I play
tonight).

Okay, the Armor spell just adds to the Body stat. A wonderful little
spell that has saved the Whistler's hide more times than I know or he
deserves. But what about a "true" armor spell? Something that would add
to the Ballistic and Impact ratings? I would guess that this would be a
certain kind of variant on the barrier spells, but clearly different.

Would this be possible?
Would it upset the holy Game Balance?
What kind of drain code might it have?

After classes I'm going to take a look at my Grimythingy II and take a
closer look, but any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

Erik, a.k.a. the Whistler
Message no. 2
From: wadycki andrew m <wadycki@***.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armor Spell
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 13:34:47 -0600
On Tue, 29 Nov 1994, Erik S Jameson wrote:

> Okay, the Armor spell just adds to the Body stat. A wonderful little
> spell that has saved the Whistler's hide more times than I know or he
> deserves. But what about a "true" armor spell? Something that would add
> to the Ballistic and Impact ratings? I would guess that this would be a
> certain kind of variant on the barrier spells, but clearly different.
>
> Would this be possible?
I think it would be a modified barrier spell. It should be possible.

> Would it upset the holy Game Balance?
I don't think it would upset balance as long as you don't combine it with
other armor. Also make it a very visible effect. Have it overlay on
your aura and so make it hard to touch things and make you a little
bigger. Like make it appear as big glowing plate armor or something.

> What kind of drain code might it have?
It should be a little less than a barrier. Use the same rules and have
it sustained. Same spell just very small in area affect. It would give
a force rating in physical and impact armor.

-Andrew
Message no. 3
From: The GREAT Cornholio <mruane@***.UUG.ARIZONA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armor Spell
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 13:25:42 -0700
On Tue, 29 Nov 1994, wadycki andrew m wrote:

> > What kind of drain code might it have?
> It should be a little less than a barrier. Use the same rules and have
> it sustained. Same spell just very small in area affect. It would give
> a force rating in physical and impact armor.
>
> -Andrew
>
About he whole armor spell thing-- personal barriers versus bullets &
blades & blasts. TRhat's the easiest way to go about it. Just buy the
formula from your local neighborhood talismonger.

Mike, TGC
Message no. 4
From: Luke Kendall <luke@********.CANON.OZ.AU>
Subject: Re: Armor Spell
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 13:12:19 +1100
On Tue, 29 Nov 1994, Erik S Jameson wrote:

> Okay, the Armor spell just adds to the Body stat. A wonderful little
> spell that has saved the Whistler's hide more times than I know or he
> deserves. But what about a "true" armor spell?

Definitely a variant of Physical barrier.

> Would it upset the holy Game Balance?

It would if you're not careful.

wadycki andrew m wrote:

> I don't think it would upset balance as long as you don't combine it with
> other armor. Also make it a very visible effect. Have it overlay on
> your aura and so make it hard to touch things and make you a little
> bigger. Like make it appear as big glowing plate armor or something.

This sounds reasonable.

Erik> What kind of drain code might it have?

andrew> It should be a little less than a barrier. Use the same rules and have
andrew> it sustained. Same spell just very small in area affect. It would
andrew> give a force rating in physical and impact armor.

Game Balance Alert! Game Balance Alert!

Seriously, it should be harder to achieve than a Physical Barrier spell,
because it's more useful (unbalancing) and because magic isn't great at
fine-control stuff [insert quote about casting a spell through a keyhole].

I'd suggest the same target no. as Phys barrier (6 I believe), with the no.
of successes giving armour rating. I'd suggest the Drain should be even
worse than Phys Barrier - that or make the spell unusable (require them
to simply subtract successful dice from the total to reduce the area of
effect of the Phys barrier spell).

Keep this in mind: in many ways this is a more useful and trickier spell
than the very similar Physical barrier spell.

luke@********.of.the Holy.Balance ;-)
Message no. 5
From: wadycki andrew m <wadycki@***.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armor Spell
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 20:35:47 -0600
On Wed, 30 Nov 1994, Luke Kendall wrote:

>
> Erik> What kind of drain code might it have?
>
> andrew> It should be a little less than a barrier. Use the same rules and have
> andrew> it sustained. Same spell just very small in area affect. It would
> andrew> give a force rating in physical and impact armor.
>
> Game Balance Alert! Game Balance Alert!
>
> Seriously, it should be harder to achieve than a Physical Barrier spell,
> because it's more useful (unbalancing) and because magic isn't great at
> fine-control stuff [insert quote about casting a spell through a keyhole].
>
> I'd suggest the same target no. as Phys barrier (6 I believe), with the no.
> of successes giving armour rating. I'd suggest the Drain should be even
> worse than Phys Barrier - that or make the spell unusable (require them
> to simply subtract successful dice from the total to reduce the area of
> effect of the Phys barrier spell).

The problem with the no. of successes giving the armor rating is that
then I just get a low force/low drain spell and pump tons of magic pool
into it. That is worse. How about this, the force is the impact and
half the force for impact. The drain level the same, and the power might
be a little higher (more difficult). Also the armor degrades with use.
or how about a minor drain every time it is hit as you try and stabilize
it. There was an interesting fire barrier spell that Professor Laverty
used in Never Trust an Elf, that couldn't handle the multiple people
shooting it. Making the armor very obvious also makes you a target and
makes it useless for stealth. If you start layering the armors it
extremly unbalances the game.
-Andrew
Message no. 6
From: Peter Andersen <petera@***.OIT.OSSHE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armor Spell
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 23:56:00 -0800
On Tue, 29 Nov 1994, wadycki andrew m wrote:

> The problem with the no. of successes giving the armor rating is that
> then I just get a low force/low drain spell and pump tons of magic pool
> into it. That is worse. How about this, the force is the impact and

Acording to the magic pool notes in SRII, the maximum number of pool
dice you can add to a spell sucess test is equal to the charactors Magic
rating. This can provide some help I find most of my mages are getting
around 6 successes with a force 4 armor spell...


TTFN, Ta, Ta for now! |/| Why do I need a transdimentional portal to
-- Tigger |\| hell? I can just take the bus to New Jersey.
----------------------|/| --- Diana Tregade
Mail to: |\|-----------------------------------------------
petera@***.efn.org |/| Long live Linux...
petera@***.oit.osshe.edu <-- Prefered Mail
Message no. 7
From: Erik S Jameson <esj@***.UUG.ARIZONA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armor Spell
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 12:12:47 -0700
ARGH!! Not quite the response I hoped for. I personally loathe the idea
of walking around in a glowing, mystical suit of plate mail. Kinda
cramps my style more than just a bit.

I admit this spell is similar to a personal barrier spell, but what I
would REALLY like is a spell that would give some kind of bonus to my
already existing armor. I mean, why should I walk into combat with
mystical plate mail when I can wear my hardened heavy security armor? I
asked the question because our group regularly goes up against majorly
bad things. Like last night, the GREAT Cornholio ran us through an
almost four hour combat involving at least 10 roach spirits of at lest
F10, a roach spirit avatar, Dunkelzahn, a Horror, strange extra/other
planar beings, elven nobles, Tir Tairngire, and the equivalent of two
Atlas Battlemechs. Now, some of them, like the Big D and the Mechs were
on our side, but we came clsoe to all dying. Hell, one of the four of us
did. So what I REALLY, REALLY would like for Christmas is a spell that
would boost my armor rating of 11/9 up some. I think I can do that, but
I really appreciate the opinions of this list. So again, I solicite more
help from the denizens of this list.

Erik, a.k.a. the Whistler
Message no. 8
From: The GREAT Cornholio <mruane@***.UUG.ARIZONA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armor Spell
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 15:30:30 -0700
On Wed, 30 Nov 1994, Erik S Jameson wrote:

[Stuff about me trying to kill the party]

Ah, armor won't help. The Dr. Pepper can (for lack of a better minature)
was using an area effect energy drain spell. Works better versus higher
essence peoples, too.

Mike, TGC
Message no. 9
From: Zach Weenig <Zach.Weenig@*.CC.UTAH.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armor Spell
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 16:26:36 -0700
On Wed, 30 Nov 1994, Erik S Jameson wrote:

> ARGH!! Not quite the response I hoped for. I personally loathe the idea
> of walking around in a glowing, mystical suit of plate mail. Kinda
> cramps my style more than just a bit.
>
> I admit this spell is similar to a personal barrier spell, but what I
> would REALLY like is a spell that would give some kind of bonus to my
> already existing armor. I mean, why should I walk into combat with
> mystical plate mail when I can wear my hardened heavy security armor? I
> asked the question because our group regularly goes up against majorly
> bad things. Like last night, the GREAT Cornholio ran us through an
> almost four hour combat involving at least 10 roach spirits of at lest
> F10, a roach spirit avatar, Dunkelzahn, a Horror, strange extra/other
> planar beings, elven nobles, Tir Tairngire, and the equivalent of two
> Atlas Battlemechs. Now, some of them, like the Big D and the Mechs were
> on our side, but we came clsoe to all dying. Hell, one of the four of us
> did. So what I REALLY, REALLY would like for Christmas is a spell that
> would boost my armor rating of 11/9 up some. I think I can do that, but
> I really appreciate the opinions of this list. So again, I solicite more
> help from the denizens of this list.
>
> Erik, a.k.a. the Whistler
>

What I do is spell lock a bullet barrier spell. It really works and if
you just happen to also have a spell locked mana barrier its REALLY hard
to get to those spell locks.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 10
From: Jason Ustica <usticaj@****.PR.ERAU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armor Spell
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 18:19:47 -0700
On Wed, 30 Nov 1994, Erik S Jameson wrote:

> So what I REALLY, REALLY would like for Christmas is a spell that
> would boost my armor rating of 11/9 up some.
>
> Erik, a.k.a. the Whistler
>

WHAT? Why would you need anything more than 11/9 armor?! Are people
shooting ICBMs at you? Sheeeesh!!

--Jason--
Message no. 11
From: Erik S Jameson <esj@***.UUG.ARIZONA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armor Spell
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994 21:34:44 -0700
On Wed, 30 Nov 1994, Jason Ustica wrote:
>
> WHAT? Why would you need anything more than 11/9 armor?! Are people
> shooting ICBMs at you? Sheeeesh!!
>
Damn near. Like I have said before, we play a VERY high powered game,
and the good ol' standby, the armor jacket (5/3) just doesn't cut it.
Hasn't for quite a while. And if you think I'm bad, our street sam
(Dave, a.k.a. Daishi/Mad Cat/Apache/Death Incarnate) actually has HEAVY
MILITARY ARMOR!!! And oh boy did he pay through the nose for it!!!! And
he still manages to take some damage. Believe it. Now do you know why I
need better armor?

Erik, a.k.a. the Whistler

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