| From: | briann@*******.com |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Query: Damaging Manipulations & Spell Defense |
| Date: | Tue, 11 Jun 1996 04:27:15 +0000 |
and damaging manipulations.
Well, here is my take on the situation.
According to Pg 132 of my SRII Hard Cover in the middle of the
last paragraph in the first column
"When protected characters or objects are attacked by magic,
the magician that allocated the spell devense dice in the first
place can choose to use those dice to protect that target."
This says nothing about not protecting against damaging
manipulations. Therefore you are correct.
However, I have one note you might want to use. When using
normal spell defense, it does not matter when you use the spell
defense dice, they can be lumped in with your normal damage
resistance roll and the effects will not make any difference.
On the other hand when using shielding, you should seperate the
damage resistance roll from the shielding roll. Here is my
reasoning.
1. in the spirit of the way shielding is stated on pg 45 of the
Grimoire II, the target number should be raised. If you do not like
the spirit of this rule, then re-read shielding and you may come to
the conclusion that shielding should raise the attributte, this would
affect the base number of dice being rolled by the target as well as
increasing the target number to be affected by the spell. after this
then those dice allocated to shielding in the magic pool would be
applied. If you interpret it this way, then a mage with a willpower
of 6 and 6 dice in his magic pool allocated to shielding, attacked by
a manabolt would have his willpower raised to 12, then apply the
shielding dice, giving him 18 dice to roll in his defense. However if
you stick to the spirit of the rule as given in the description of it's
use (also on page 45 of Grimoire II) he would only get 12 dice to
roll and the attacking magician would have target numbers of 12.
2. If you stick to the spirit of shielding, then the target number
of the spell being cast should have it's target numbers raised,
regardless of weather or not it affects an attribute. It's all in
the way you interpret the rule. Either way can have far reaching
consiquences.
Sticking to the spirit of the law, you should have the attacking
magician make his attacks, with a target number equal to 4+(number of
shielding dice allocated). Note this may vary from target to target
if it is an area effect spell, and shielding dice are being split up
un-equally between those being defended. After this you have the
targets roll their shielding dice only subtracting these successes
from the attackers successes. With this new adjusted number of
successes for the attacker, you can determine the final damage level
of the spell. Note (I believe there is a rule somewhere) that for
every 2 successes beyond a deadly wound, the power of the attack goes
up by 1 {hope this doesn't happen}. Finaly the target rolls his body
plus any combat pool dice with a target number equal to the force of
the spell minus 1/2 his impact armor rounded down. Now you determine
the nasty effect on the target.
If you want to go with the letter of the law, you should still raise
the attribute, namely Body then lump in any combat pool dice along
with adding the shielding dice. Now make two simple rolls, the
attackers roll versus the targets roll. Man is the shielded target
going to have lots of dice. Lets take a street sam with a body of 8
protected by a mage shielding him furter behind and out of the area
effect of the spell. the mage gives the samurai 4 dice 4 shielding.
and he has a combat pool of 8. He also has an armor jacket giving
him an effective -1 to target numbers for his successes. He is
getting a force 6 acid spell thrown at him oh yes, the attacking mage
is throwing all 6 of his magic pool into the spell's attack. This
gives the defending samarai the following.
effective body 12 (base 8 + 4 shielding)
combat pool of 8 because the sammy does not like spells
shielding dice of 4.
The samurai rolls 12+8+4 for a grand total of 24 dice versus the
spells force of 6 (can we say lots of successes). where as the
attacking mage is rolling 12 dice versus a target number of 4. Now
granted this is a situation taken to it's extreme, but possible. Any
way the samurai should cake walk through the spell and then gut the
mage.
If you have any coments, please read the rules first, I know this is
going to raise a lot of tempers in the room, but you can go with
whatever interpretation you like, even ignoring my possibilities.
sincerely,
Brian K. Nielsen
e-mail: briann@*******.com
