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Re: (TFT) Environmental Magics in TFT. - Meg's comments.





- I have a philosophical problem with IQ7 spells, in general. Magic is supposed
to be hard, and IQ7, in real world terms, is what they used to call "retarded", and
now refer to by some more politically correct term like "learning disability". If you're
intellectually challenged to the point where you can't even learn to read, then sorry,
no spells for you. Maybe as a GM, you want your less intelligent races to be able to
cast spells, but personally I'd rather handle that by giving them intrinsic magical
abilities that don't have to be learned.
I agree.  But if magic was hard, we would not have IQ 8 spells either.
I think I got some IQ 7 spells from interplay, and expanded the number of
them.  (I now have about 10 of them.)  One, "Light Candle Flame", is
obviously something you teach kids learning to be magicians.  And a kid
with an IQ of 7 is not retarded.  The novice (a step down from an apprentice)
is still growing his or her brain.
Agreed, and a list of "novice spells" is a nice idea. On the other hand, Literacy is an IQ 8 talent, and plenty of kids learn to read at a pretty young age. To me it makes sense that someone unable to deal with the level of symbolism and abstract thought required to learn to read, probably can't do whatever mental operations are required to cast a spell. But maybe magic is somehow more intuitive than reading. It's another of those things where people just picture it differently, I guess.


-  Most times, doubling fST cost doubles radius (thus quadrupling area of effect), but
with Shape Growth, doubling fST doubles *area*. Is this intentional? If so, why is this
particular spell different?
Typo, I will fix that within a few days.  It will double the radius like the
other spells.


- The Quietude categories only make sense from a game-mechanics perspective.
Why would a spell differentiate between an arrow shot from a bow, and a spear
thrown from a hand? Why would it differentiate between a dagger and a claw, or
a club and a fist? I'd probably have just two Quietude spells: one for melee /
unarmed attacks, one for thrown/missile weapons. Then a separate spell that vastly
weakens missile spells passing through its area of effect, or causes them to fizzle entirely.
    Also in the Quietude spell description: " Each doubling of the cost doubles the radius.
Each doubling of the cost increases by one, the amount of protection given. So x4 cost
would stop 3 hits, and x16 cost would stop 5 hits."
    So if you double the base 1-minute cost, spending 20 fST on the spell, does it cover a
radius of 12 MH, AND stop 2 points of damage, or do you have to choose? What if you
want it to be radius 6 MH but stop 4 points of damage?
True.  Might be better to just dump them.

You would specify which doublings you would use.  You think "I want double radius."
and cast the spell that way.  The spell does not look at fST spent and try to figure out
what effects you want from the cost.

I do have the spells MIssile Shield, Missile Wall, and Missile Dome which reduce
missile damage with out the whole sale power of Reverse Missiles.

They're probably my least favorite from the list, to be sure. But I definitely like the idea of a spell designed to make it harder to inflict violence on people within its area of effect. Perhaps such a spell could operate by a different mechanism than just blocking damage, though. Maybe a "zone of friendship" that boosts everyone's empathy, so it forces you to make a reaction roll as though in a social situation, applying all relevant modifiers, every time you want to attack someone, and only be able to actually attack if the result is 1 or less. Or a "zone of instant karma" that inflicts damage on any attacking figure equal to the damage they just did to their target. Or something.


- If I ran a campaign with Tindempt's Hex, I'd probably describe it as arcing electrical
currents dancing over the wizard's skin, doing damage, just because it's a cool image
and seems less random somehow than an invisible giant hammer. 1 die of damage,
doesn't increase or decrease (less record-keeping), cloth and leather armor protects,
as do Stone/Iron Flesh, metal armor and Spell Shield don't.
In my campaign, one of the biggest problems is PC's with wildly different
armors levels.  Some stop a tonne of damage, other PC's are running around
with only 3 armor.  This makes finding dangerous situations that are not TOO
dangerous very tricky.  So having the damage scale up if it does not penetrate,
(and then scale down if it does do something) has a certain appeal.  That said,
it does seem a bit gamey.

That's one reason why I said metal armor wouldn't protect. You might also extend that to Stone/Iron Flesh spells, and rule that enchantments on cloth and leather don't count. That way, no character would get more than 2 points of armor against that particular effect. Maybe that makes it too dangerous though, idk. 1 die of damage won't kill most PC's, but even 1-2 is too much to ignore.


One thing I expected to see, and didn't, is a "zone of sleep", which would make any
character sitting still/lying down very likely to accidentally fall asleep, and once asleep,
very difficult to wake up. Wouldn't affect combat, but if someone made camp there...
A neat trap for GM's to set, but I can also see players getting good use out of it, by
casting it on a sentry post they know they'll have to sneak past later.
That is a slick idea.  Would you like to write it up, or should I take a crack at
it?

I'll give it some thought. Not sure how powerful it should be, or how to implement it, exactly. Probably a stiff roll vs/IQ every minute or so of inactivity. I'm tempted to have the characters remain asleep until someone wakes them or the field dissipates, which should probably be around a day or so under normal circumstances. Unless the casting wizard rolled a 3 or something, in which case it grants not only sleep, but suspended animation, and the characters trapped go full-out Rip Van Winkle. Sounds like fun times to me.

- Meg




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