| From: | TopCat <topcat@***.NET> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: [SR3] Combat Spells |
| Date: | Fri, 4 Jul 1997 15:23:17 -0500 |
>One thing the discussion pointed out to me was this: it is difficult to
>discuss Drain in a vacuum, since there are other factors influencing spell
>Drain. One of the main ones seems to be the effectively of Combat Spells
>relative to their drain. With most unresisted spells like Detect Enemies or
>Magic Fingers, you can throw them at a low Force and pump in Magic Pool to
>make up the difference. For Combat Spells, where the Force of the spell is
>more relevant, a higher Force is needed to make the spell effective.
>How about this: make Combat and Damaging Manipulation (DM) spells both work
>just like Ranged Combat damage; the target of the spell has to stage the
>damage ALL the way down to nothing instead of just beating the caster on
>successes (I know DMs already work this way, but bear with me). The
>proceedure:
>[snip]
>Since Combat spells are not reduced by armor, and guns are, it is possible to
>throw one of the above spells at Force 4 or 5 with a very good chance of
>hurting a target badly. You could also make something like Mana Missile more
>of the "standard sidearm" than Manabolt, just like a samurai would be more
>likely to use an Ares Predator than whip out an AK-97 right away. This would
>lessen the Force and Drain needed for an effective combat spell, but Drain
>could still be set at F instead of F/2.
>EXAMPLE:
>[snip]
>The above is an extreme example: a Willpower 6 target SHOULD be tough to
>affect, but under this sceheme, Caric still did damage. Under the current
>system, he would have done none. Against an opponent of equal Will 4:
A Force 4 spell (mediocre), cast at a Willpower 6 opponent (max human) was
still able to cause damage. This damage didn't have to go through armor and
couldn't be staged down by a body test. This change would make combat
spells WAY too powerful. If you wish combat spells to act like DMs, then
make them face the same drain codes as DMs and give the opponent a
resistance test to resist the damage. Nobody would use damaging
manipulations if combat spells were this easy to cast and this devastating
in power. *Please* don't make that change...
On another note, please consider taking elemental effect spells (e.g.
fireball and hellblast) out of the combat spell section and making them
damaging manipulations. Elemental effects on combat spells get kinda
strange and there's been an endless debate/rant about the "real" drain codes
for Hellblast and the effects it would have. Simply moving these
complicating aspects from one section and placing them in another would make
life a lot simpler all around.
--
Bob Ooton
topcat@***.net
