Extension is a *bad* spell

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From: Graeme Willoughby (GRAEME@SPVA.PHYSICS.IMPERIAL.AC.UK)
Date: Fri 29 Oct 1993 - 13:21:00 EET


Good day all, Graeme here (the new Graeme)

       I was looking in the Dorastor book the other day and among the gross monsters I noticed that one several (Platewalker in particular) have got large value extension spells - 18 points worth as I recall. I wondered just how long this would last and came up with the following table which I present for your delectation and amusement.

points duration in mins duration in other units 

0         15
1         30
2         60        1hr
3        120        2hr
4        240        4hr
5        480        8hr
6        560       16hr
7       1120       32hr   1d 8hr
8       2240       64hr   2d 16hr
9       4480      128hr   5d 8hr
10      8960             10d 16hr (break even)
11     17920             21d 8hr  3w 8hr
12     35840                      6w 16hr
13     71680                     12w +(7)     1 1/2 seasons
14    143360                     24w +(8)     3 seasons
15    286720                     48w +(9)     1Gy + 1 season
16    573440                    97w 3d 16hr   2Gy + 2 seasons
17   1146880                   195w 8hr       4Gy 27w
18   2293760                   390w 16hr      9Gy 12w
19   4587520                   780w 1d 8hr   18Gy 24w 
20   9175040                  1560w 2d 16hr  37Gy 6w 2d 16hr exactly

Explantion: The figures in parentheses indicate a time equivalent to an extension spell of that level e.g. (7)=1d 8hr. hr=hour d=day w=week Gy=Gloranthan year [42 weeks exactly] The last column is approximate, but within 2%.           

This means that extension is one of the best spells in the game! You don't need that gross an NPC Rune Preist to have 20 points of Rune Magic given that they have to have 10 points to start off with. I'd imagine that every cult has at least one spell that it would be useful for the preist to have permanently up. That is, the preist casts the spell with a 15 pt extension at the beginning of each year and spends the next fortnight recovering the extension spells - unfortunately they can't recover the one that they're extending though - how sad!                                                       

Then they have that spell up for the whole of the year. Obviously this only works with certain spells - but imagine a Sword of Humakt, her Iron Sword with Truesword lasting over a year on it. "We'll wait 1/2 hr to make sure all her spells have worn off and jump her" "You do this but she manages to get a hit in with her greatsword - erm 22 points of damage - good job she didn't critcal!" [moral: yet another reason not to mess with Swords] In this case this is equivalent to the humakti gift "Bless a weapon to do double damage against all opponents" except the cost is 15 POW instead of never accepting any healing at all - and it's transfereable - I know which I'd prefer to pay! Or it could be a "permanent" Find Enemy - equivalent to the Sense Assasin skill but more general, no geas and more reliable.                           

You see what I mean! There are so many spells that this would be brilliant with - Soul Sight is a perfect example or Shield (best keep this to Sheild I otherwise you'll have serious trouble with healing spells [and our ref has things to say about this as well]). How about Find Enemy - don't go out without it. A Lankhor Mhy Priest curses a wayward follower with Truespeak lasting a whole season while the head scribe has Translate literally at his fingertips all the time ......

Anyway I think you get my point - having a large value extension is *so* useful and *so* cheap,for such a powerful effect, that every Priest should be accumulating it, if they have access to it, and most cults do.

I appreaciate that a particular spell can be removed with dispel magic or equivalent but how often will they get hit with one that can remove 16pts of divine magic? Who'd dare try to steal a Sword's sword? One assumes that items that have such heavy magic on them are protected in both magical and mundane a mundane fashions like being chained to one's wrist.

I suppose that this can be just an arguement on how to spend 16 pts of POW - are sixteen varied short lived spells better or worse than one spell with 15 extensions. Of course I'd prefer 16 different spells *and* 15 extensions :-)

This isn't just about super-RQing either. Most players know priests - they do their cult service, learn spells, give tithes and so on, and as I say, it's not that hard to gain these levels of extension. How much would you pay/charge for *only* 5 days worth of your favourite Rune spell?

Comments please!
[Just for the record, if you need to make Platewalker more nasty(!) give him Truesword, Spirit Block II, Sheild I, Find Enemy all lasting 9 years - the rest he keeps "for emergencies" and no I don't want to think about Beserk lasting 9 years]
Graeme

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