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Message no. 1
From: shadowrn@*********.com (James Zealey)
Subject: invisibility = blind spot / after doing some research / invisibility by the book
Date: Mon Feb 18 18:00:02 2002
--------Bira Wrote-------
Take the Lighting Bolt spell, one of those flashy elemental manipulations. If it just
created a "proper" electrical discharge it would lose most of its usefulness. It
would automatically direct itself to the nearest and largest conductor available, wheter
or not your target was that way, and might actually go trough _you_ to get there. It would
probably only harm the target it he wasn't wearing rubber soled shoes.
-------------------------

It's fairly easy to direct a lightning bolt (assuming you can manipulate air a little).
You just ionise some of the air on a path from the start of the bolt to the end. The bolt
will follow the path of least resistance.
Rubber boots do not save you from lightning. Full stop. Hell, they hardly save you from an
electric fence.

As I understand it, an indirect illusions ARE essentially manipulation spells. Putting
every spell which does something into manipulation is a little silly though. A mana
illusion creates a "manifestation" like a spirit (notice spirits don't show up
on cameras?). A physical illusion actually creates light. I can't understand how any
indirect illusion would work solely on the targets minds - doing so in many situations
would require that the mage be able to target them with a spell (and thus requires even
MORE bending of the laws of magic than using a clairvoyance to see the other side of the
object - you can't target through a clairvoyance spell). So my personal view leans towards
the clairvoyance thing.

In terms of balance and overall mechanic, invisible objects blocking LOS for casting
purposes is probably the best solution. In addition, it encompasses both the "limited
clairvoyance sees the other side of the object" AND "blind spot in vision"
explanations. I think most of us have dismissed the "warping light" explanation
out of hand.


"Your gun has 'replica'
written down the side, mine
has 'Ares HVAR'..."

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Message no. 2
From: shadowrn@*********.com (Bira)
Subject: invisibility = blind spot / after doing some research / invisibility by the book
Date: Mon Feb 18 19:20:01 2002
On Tue, 19 Feb 102 10:03:24 +1100
"James Zealey" <incubus@*********.zzn.com> wrote:

> --------Bira Wrote-------
> Take the Lighting Bolt spell, one of those flashy elemental manipulations. If it just
created a "proper" electrical discharge it would lose most of its usefulness. It
would automatically direct itself to the nearest and largest conductor available, wheter
or not your target was that way, and might actually go trough _you_ to get there. It would
probably only harm the target it he wasn't wearing rubber soled shoes.
> -------------------------
>
> It's fairly easy to direct a lightning bolt (assuming you can manipulate air a
little). You just ionise some of the air on a path from the start of the bolt to the end.
The bolt will follow the path of least resistance.

Well, with an "improper" lighting bolt spell, you don't even
need to do that :). The ionizing would probably give off more clues to
the target or to nearby sensors about what is going to happen shortly,
and can be a tricky task to concentrate on in the middle of combat. And
there's also the risk of something offering an even more attractive path
to the bolt than the mage's ionized line, which can cause unpredictable
results.

Doing things in the most straighforward (but not necessarily the
more scientifically correct) way also helps eliminating these
uncertainties.

--
Bira <ra002585@**.unicamp.br>
http://www.shadowlandbr.hpg.com.br

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Thwap!