From:	Owen Landgren wodin@********.com
Subject:	Force of spells & other issues
Date:	Mon, 02 Aug 1999 02:29:09 -0500

Whee-- off to make myslef into a complete newbie.

I recently picked up SR again, after a long hiatus during my junior
and senior years of high school. In reading through the 3rd Edition
rules on spellcasting, I came across something rather disconcerting.
There are a large number of spells it would be pointless to take at a
force greater than 1.

Some of the ones I found as I paged through the spells:

Clairvoyance, Clairaudience, Analyze Device, Detect Enemies, Combat
Sense, Detect(basically anything), All of the increase attribute/heal
spells,Oxygenate, Detox, Prophylaxis, Entertainment/trid
entertainment, Stealth, Light, and more.

Are there reasons for taking these spells at greater than Force 1
beyond not being a munchkin and staying within the characters
interests and actions? I don't know what new spells appeared in
MITS(I'm getting it soon, <pant>,<pant>), but wouldn't a lot of them
be equally open for abuse? I recognize the issue of dispelling, but
many times this is simply not a factor.

Another question-- isn't Levitate a little abusive in combat anywhere
other than ground level? i.e Levitate someone off the edge of a
building and just drop them, or Levitate a security guard and drop him
over his own electric fence, etc, etc. Does anyone have a workable
house rule that slows down the combat usage of this spell while still
encouraging the inventive, fun tricks it creates?

Apologies if you've all been over this a million times.

--
Owen