| From: | Marc Renouf renouf@********.com |
|---|---|
| Subject: | SR3... SpellCasting. |
| Date: | Tue, 2 Mar 1999 10:26:44 -0500 (EST) |
> But now this raises several questions that I considered if these rules
> really did change this way.
>
> For example, what benefit would anything higher than a HEAL-1 be to a mage.
See my other message for more clarification, but the benefit is
that a Heal-1 will only heal 1 box of damage, regardless of how many
successes the mage gets on casting. Read the new spell descriptions very
carefully. Many of them have a "maximum effect" that is equal to the
force of the spell.
> Another example is this. Let's say I'm casting a FIREBALL-1 spell. Someone
> not even that good in a spell can get a lot of successes. EVen though it's
> relatively easy to resist against, the mage could easily get a whooping 12
> successes! Making this a very deadly spell indeed, and giving him very
> little reason to cast any higher unless the other group has mage help.
Can they? A mage with a Sorcery of 6 and a Magic Attribute of 6
could roll 12 dice. Against a target on slightly better than average
Body (say a 4), he'll have 6 successes on average. That target will roll
4 dice, and will probably get all 4 successes. So yes, the Fireball takes
effect, but it only has 2 net successes, which will only stage the damage
up once. This is not ridiculously powerful.
Further, against someone with a Body of 6, the mage will only get
2 successes on 12 dice, whereas the target will get 5 successes on their
resistance test at a target number of 2. In other words, the target will
be unaffected.
This also completely ignores the ease with which Spell Defense can
stop low-force spells in the new rules.
So no, you can't sling around low-force spells with impunity and
still be able to blow stuff up. In order to achieve the effect you want,
you need to cast spells at a higher force, which means that you'll risk
taking drain.
> Thus it is a wiser decision to get a higher Sorcery in SR3, because your
> pool will not let you get away with casting powerful spells.
Sort of. It's better to get a higher Sorcery skill because that
skill determines how many dice you roll for the success of the spell
regardless of the spell's force (though remember that most are either
resisted or have a fore-related maximum effect). Further, a higher
Sorcery skill allows you to "split" amongst more spells and still have
some change of success.
Basically, the new system smooths out the power curve for magic.
Now, there's a tradeoff between spell power and skill, and both are
capable of achieving a desired effect (to a point). Someone with a high
skill can cast a lower force spell, knowing that they will probably
generate more successes and thus increase the effect (to a point).
Similarly, someone with a lower skill can cast a higher force spell,
knowing that while they get fewer successes, their target will be unlikely
to resist. This means that mages of widely different skill levels can
achieve more or less the same effect, but how they do it and how much
drain they're likely suffer varies.
As an analogy, a sammy with a Pistols skill of 12 can kill you
with a Streetline Special if he tries. A sammy with a Rifles skill of 2
can kill you with a Barret if he tries. The Streeline is easier to
resist, but there will be more successes because of the higher skill.
There will be fewer successes with a skill of 2, but 14D is tough to
resist. Magic works pretty much the same way now.
Marc
