From:	"Bruce H. Nagel" <NAGELBH@******.ACS.MUOHIO.EDU>
Subject:	Re: [SR3] Combat Spells
Date:	Sat, 5 Jul 1997 14:10:38 -0500

You wrote:
> I remembered hearing about the last time Tom Dowd was going to run
> his game again and he was considering using the full force options. When
> asked why and whether he thought it should be changed he replied that it
> was more of a style of play they used than the system itself. They used a
> lot of fetishes and exclusive spells.
Well, what I say to this is: if spells are to powerful with the force
modifiers, you're adjusting all the force rules to accomodate something that is
an add-on. Eliminate the mods or, as someone else suggested, attach real
problems to the mods (spend a simple action to ready a fetish, can't use spell
defense while using an exclusive spell).

> On a similar note, we had a problem for a while that the best use of
> Karma we had was maxing all attributes. That style of play also changes
> the effectiveness of magic and game play in general which is why we
> limited it.
Yes, and attributes have always been cheap compared to skills. :(

> Also consider what if the campaign is set somewhere (like the CAS)
> where the cost for everything magical is through the roof. Players can
> now no longer afford to buy the trinkets that make spell casting easier
> since they are selling their soul just to purchase their new library or
> medicine lodge. This does create more of a raw magic alone style of game.
And mages may really suffer to get their Elementals, and use them sparingly. :)

> I like it better but I'm not sold on full force drains. Full force
> being used for area of effect spells I possibly might be. I've never had
> any problems knowing there was a lethality adjustment chart in the Behind
> the Scenes section. I think it works just fine.
I have no problem with full-force drain if instituted as damaging spells must
be staged all the way down, you don't just have to overcome the caster's
successes to not take damage. As for the lethality, I knew it was there,
considered it several times (esp considered raising melee lethality a bit) but
have never used them. Things always seemed to balance themselves after a bit
in my compaigns. NPCs tended to show up using the same abuse-the-game-system
tricks as the PCs, if/when the PCs found neat ways to bend the rules in their
favor.

losthalo