From: Paul Reilly (paul@venus.phyast.pitt.edu)
Date: Tue 01 Jan 1991 - 09:56:33 EET
Renoyld Schirmer has come up with some interesting answers (to RQD1) and
questions. I will try to address some of them with my own opinions:
>>When a critical attack is rolled, does magic armor-type spells still count?
>{Reply discussing acid, heat, cold, and Damage Resistance}
>The house rules that govern this at our game is that Dammage Resistance
>will still function as normal for a critical hit (i.e. roll vs.
>resistance to get through) but the Dammage Resistance spell will then be
>disabled (needing to be re-cast.) Dammage resistance does not protect
I like this house rule, especially the "it may save you from one critical
hit but then it's gone" rule. In our campaign we consider what Runes each
spell is based on when trying to figure out how it works in various situations
and what "special effects" are produced; for the standard Damage Resistance
spell we assume that the Runes are Luck (describing the action of the spell),
Magic(allowing the spell to be cast), and Life (describing what it is to
protect.) Thus the spell alters probabilities to make a 3-pt. arrow hit, for
example, "just miss" the target. Things like cold damage from the environment
that don't depend on this kind of tricky probability (e.g. if you're out in
the Fronelan winter with no coat you just freeze gradually) are unaffected by
the spell. (If people are interested in this Runic Sorcery system I will try
to get something out to the Digest on it.)
Something like acid would depend on the circumstance; just being dipped in
it would hurt you, but for a crock of acid thrown at you I would roll for
thrown object damage and see if it missed entirely; if it did hit you it might
have less chance of breaking on you.
>Shouldn't a head shot, even if it didn't penetrate armor, still have a
>chance to at least stun the target? (i.e. damage vs head hit points in
>resistance roll, if successful the stunned one round; special=stunned
>2 rounds; critical=unconscious)
Interestingly, I have had a running 230-lb. man in full armor slam a 14-lb.
steel shield into my helmeted face, giving me a concussion. I did not become
unconscious but was severely "stunned", getting worse over several hours.
The stunning should probably subtract percentiles from all skill rolls
(especially mental skills!). In fact, Head Hits should probably subtract
percentiles from all skill rolls anyway! Rather than having me write down
a system for this, why don't several people come up with a sort of n hits
= -y% modifier or some such and see if there is some agreement?
>Instead of rolling spirit combat each time someone wants to learn a
I have found that the spirit combat works well if the spirit for an
n-point spell has a POW of n*(n-1)/2 (i.e. 1,3,6,10,15,21...) INSTEAD
of nd3 points. This limits most people to 4-point spells with the high-POW
individuals able to get spirits up to maybe 21 points, i.e., 6-point spells.
Cult Spellteaching has the advantage that the spell spirit can be Commanded
not to possess the student.
I had a strange idea for a variant: when you "learn" a Spell you don't
actually learn it; instead, you Master the spell spirit, which becomes your
slave. When you want the spell done, you feed it MPs, and it runs off and
actually performs the spell much like a mortal performs a physical task, e.g.
a Bladesharp spirit jumps into the target sword and helps swing it about, a
Healing spirit jumps into a wound and sews it together, etc. This would change
the flavor of magic a lot, but it would seem suitable for a primitive/shamanic/
Hsunchen campaign, judging from the research I have been able to do on
shamanic practices. more on this another time...
> 1. Silly question: If I have Countermagic cast on myself, can someone
>else cast a Heal Spell on me without having to go through the
>Countermagic ?
I don't think so, although one could argue either way. The Countermagic is
a passive spell and just provides a barrier to incoming magic; it isn't
under your direct control and itself isn't "smart" enough to distinguish
"friendly" magic; e.g., is that Fanaticism from a friend or foe?
Analogous question: If you're wearing chainmail and someone Impales you
through it, can your friend First Aid you through the armor? After all, the
armor "wants" to help you, right?
Also, the fantasy literature is full of unintended irksome side effects to
"helpful" magic. I think it's more fun to have your friends trying to figure
out how to heal you through your Shield spell before you bleed to death...
Re Glen Bailey's comments:
>How about this rule for combat fumbles (it just came off the top of my head,
>but its simple and keeps weapons masters from killing self): Subtract the
>Cchance to special from the fumble results roll. (Example: sword skill=60,
I like the basic thrust of this rule, but I may hold off on implementing it
just because fumbles are interesting. I actually think from SCA fighting
experience (13 years of it) that very very few fumbles are "hit self for
extra damage"; actually, self-hits tend to be very light due to the awkward
angle; I know only one person out of hundreds who ever managed to give himself
a concussion while practicing against the pell (me, of course!). Much much
more common are fumbles like "overcommit on your attack, off balance and wide
open, enemy gets free double damge attack because he can swing his sword like
a baseball bat instead of trying to get around your shield.) Often I translate
the result on the fumble table into something more like what I have seen or
experienced; this also means that people out practing rarely decapitate
themselves...
>Spell fumbles? The extensive fumble charts are too much. Unless the GM can
Usually I say something like "The spell is going out of your control. Roll
your basic chance with the spell to abort it before it goes off randomly. If
they succeed the spell is aborted but the points are spent; if they fail the
spell takes effect on a random target, usually something inconsequential
("Geo's left foot glows pink. So does the sorceror's face...)
Starting another thread: How about a "tricky attack" rule? You make a
complex attack, add three strike ranks, and subtract 2*N% from your attack
and N% from the opponent's Parry/Dodge? We are just trying this out as an
optional rule and it seems to put a little more strategy into fights.
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