Topic: Spell Fumble table

[Malleable]

So something came up when we had a spell fumble during my last game session.
Character rolls a 01 on Spell Casting Static Maneuver Table T-4.5
The result is Absolute Failure, and he needs to "subtract twice the total of all applicable modifications from the Spell Casting Modifications Table T-4.6" from the Spell Failure Table A.10.11.2.
So if the character has a positive modifier, he is lowering how poorly he fails on the table.  If he has is adding increasing how poorly he fails on the table. 
This kinda makes sense.  If you were casting and had positive modifiers your failure isn't as bad as it would be with negative modifiers.

BUT had his initial SCSM roll been even worse (Spectacular Failure) he would have subtracted 'triple' the modifier.
If he had negative modifiers his failure would be even worse.
But if he had positive modifiers, his failure would have been much better with Spectacular Failure than with Absolute Failure.
So if you fail on a SCSM and have positive modifiers, the worse you roll on SCSM table the better your result on the Spell Failure table.

Just sounds counter intuitive.

Mal

[Spectre771]

"subtract twice the total of all applicable modifications from the Spell Casting Modifications Table T-4.6" from the Spell Failure Table A.10.11.2.

The key word is subtract.  It sounds like you are adding, two time, three times, the modifier.  He ended up with a negative number for the spell failure, but you ADDED 2x the modifiers resulting in a positive result?  You should have had a superbly negative number.

Did I misread what you wrote? 

[Malleable]

If you subtract a negative modifier, you are adding a positive.  Which would make the failure result worse.
But if you subtract twice a positive number you are mitigating your failure.

My problem is not the direction of the effect, but that if you go from Absolute Failure, to Spectacular Failure on the SCSM, having a positive modifier makes your failure less severe.  A worse roll on SCSM means your spell failure less severe.

Mal