Re: RQ III Sorcery

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From: Michael Colligon (mikec@cbmvax.commodore.com)
Date: Wed 06 Jun 1990 - 09:56:33 EEST


In response to Dirk Walls <dirk@csuchico.edu> and Andrew Bell (bell@cs.unc.edu)in RQ Digest.4#11:

dw = Dirk Walls
ab = Andrew Bell

dw> I know it is possible to get [a] spell to last at least a month.

Yes, a sorcerer can cast spells that last a long time, but the more free int he puts into duration, the less he can put into intensity.

dw> Can a mage cast another dmg resistance the next day and stack it on dw> top of the week long spell he cast the day before?

No, you cannot stack the kind of sorcery magic spells you are talking about. However, there is no reason the spells cannot coexist. For instance, a sorcerer with a free int of 18 may cast one of the aforementioned spells adding 13 points to duration and 5 points to intensity. This gives him a 6 point spell that lasts for about a month (this may not be accurate as I don't have the book handy, but you get the idea). Now he gets into trouble and wants to increase the intensity. He cannot adjust the previous spell, but he can cast a new spell with as much intensity as he wants and as little or no duration manipulation as he wants. This allows him to have some sort of magic working all the time, and just cast a new spell when he needs more intensity for short period of time. Basically, the theory is the two spells coexist, but the only one that has any effect is the one with the greater intensity.

I don't like the way the sorcery treat wounds spell works. The spirit and divine heal spells are instantaneous. The sorcery treat wounds spell takes one hour per point to be healed. There is no manipulation of duration. The caster just puts the number of points into the spell that he wants to heal. The target of the spell receives one hit point back each hour up to the limit of the number of points put into the spell. I actually thought about changing the spell somehow, but decided against it. The only thing I do is interpret the casting of the spell to stop all ill effects that can be caused by not getting healed within some time frame (say 10 minutes). So, as long as the spell is cast on a person with 10 minutes (or whatever), the person will not suffer the penalties they normally would for not getting a serious wound healed. 

ab> The sorcery system as written allows even neophyte sorcerers to cast very
ab> powerful skills[sic],  with the limit being free int,  not casting skill.
ab> The simplest set of fixes I've come up with is:
ab> [Fixes -- see issue 4#11]

Your system has several drawbacks:

  Sorcerers already start and usually stay as the worst spell casters in the   system. Casting of divine magic is 95% successful and casting of spirit   magic is successful on POWx5%. [less encumbrance penalty -- ACB] A   sorcerer starts much lower (I think it's 5+1d6% or worse). [1D6 + magic   bonus -- ACB] Also, if you manipulate the spell you are limited to the   lowest manipulation skill used or the spell skill whichever is lower. I   do not like to further limit the abilities of sorcerers.

  Your system makes palsy a completely useless spell until the caster gets   to be at least 40%, because you have to manipulate the intensity to   overcome the target's location hit points, then you probably want to use   range as well (unless you like getting within 10 meters of your target).

A few questions:

Have you modified the chance for successful casting to offset this handicap?

How do you handle multispell?

[I'll put my response in Digest 5#2.]

I personally like the sorcery spell system for the most part. There are several spell descriptions that need to be cleared up or slightly changed, but the system as a whole works for me.

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