Topic: Ranging, Instant Ranging, and long-range spells

[MisterK]

Spell Enhancement list (Closed Essence) includes spells that increase the range of the next spell you cast.

But the range extension is a fixed value, as opposed to the duration extension spells (Extension), which provide a duration multiplier.

This has interesting side effects for spells that have a very short range (e.g. 5'), because the range increase is proportionally huge.

But for long-range spells, the range increase is insignificant.

So, two questions
- is it a purposeful design feature ?
- why is the ranging expressed as a fixed value rather than a proportional increase ?

[EltonJ]

I don't know the answer to those questions.  Except that the Spell Enhancement list works like the metamagic feats in D&D 3.x.  The only thing made known about the ranging spells is that they aren't cumulative to one another.  You cast one to increase the range of your next spell, but you can't cast another ranging spell to doubly increase the range.

[rdanhenry]

Most of the spells in Rolemaster are localized/tactical and the fixed addition is significant to those. I don't think that it was meant to be used for the rarer long-range spells, which often come in a series of increasing ranges. But that's merely my guess.

Note that double or triple range would not increase the distance you could send someone by Teleport, for example, as the range is the distance from the caster to the target. The distance you can Teleport someone is defined by the spell effect itself and is unaffected by tweaking the spell parameters.

[MisterK]

Agreed with the teleport part. There are a number of spells, however, that have a 100'/lvl, 1 mi/lvl, or even more as a base range (notably Seer scrying spells, but also magician spells in the Water Law and Wind Law lists in RMU, and a number of others).

I was just wondering why the ranging enhancement had not gone the same way as the duration enhancement. The duration enhancement works for tactical spells, but also for strategic spells and can actually enhance them so a 10 min/lvl spell duration can last more than a day (meaning you can be under that spell effect all the time). Ranging enhancement works for the tactical spells, but not for the strategic spells, and I find it odd.
As if the main interest of magic was tactical.