- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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?