Topic: instant spell 75% action?

[rboleyn]

Just remember what Lordmiller and I have been telling folks for months now....  You will find things in RMC, that you did not realize was part of the core rules, like this, because you always played using the option and may not have even realized that you were using an option (the layout of the old books being that bad...).

By the standards of the day they weren't that bad, in terms of organisation (try some o the FGU offerings for comparison). Man were they terse, though.

Another example, is the ESF rules. In RM2 and RMC those are an option, they are not core. If you could not meet the casting requirements in the core rules, you could not cast, period.

I never liked the ESF rules anyway, so I was happy they were optional. I would've liked casting times to be more like MERP's, though - you could prepare for less time at a penalty, and spell casting in one thing that's unequivocally better in RMSS, IMO.

One thing I always did in RM2 was to make it so that all items cast spells instantaneously. That made them much more popular for offensive magic.

[Arioch]

RMC Spell Law also contains options that allow for instantaneous spells to be cast using less activity (50% and 10%, IIRC), and in both case, they still operate as listed above.

My suggestion would be to use the above mentioned option that instantaneous spells use only 10% activity - but only for non-offensive spells. That way e.g. a Semi Spell User can use a Bladeturn spell and still do a melee attack in the same round. OTOH I would not want to allow a Cleric to use a Golden Slumber spell (also instantaneous) and parry in the same round, thereby just parrying his opponent as long as he finally one round fails his RR. That's why I would still require such spell to use 75% activity.

Just my 2 cents

Always done this way... At least after my evil cleric did the "Absolution + Full Attack" trick a couple of times!

[Nejira]

What are the design concepts behind instant spells, and why make attack spells as Absolution an instant if it proves to be so troublesome?

Wouldnt it be better if Absolution and its brothers were standard spells which leaves instants to be spells as Bladeturn, Dodging, etc?

[Marc R]

well, the design concept of Core Instant spells as "Always Treat as Class I" is to make them combat useful regardless of caster level, as they cast in one round.

The difficulties arise in the application of one of the options that make them 50% or 10% actions.

[Ecthelion]

Yes, some spells, like Bladeturn or Deflections, just don't make much sense when requiring them to be prepared for some rounds and then cast. Such spells are excellent candidates for requiring no preparation and 10% activity, making them useful in combat as a defensive spell alongside a melee/missile attack. Absolution seems to have been intended for use in combat too, but IMHO it should never use so little activity that a melee attack can normally be done in the same round.

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

First off, look at the original tactical system, magic always resolved first, before missile and before melee actions. Therefore, in the terms of the tactical system being used at the time, a spell that did not require any preparation was basically "instantaneous" for all intents and purposes, even though it was not so in actuality.

The problems stated arising when folks began using different tactical/initiative systems, where spells were not always resolved BEFORE other actions. This combined with the inaccurate naming of the "instantaneous" type of spell made many folks think of such spells as if they really were supposed to be instantly cast.

In RMC, we tried to solve this issue in a manner that makes sense with the tactical/initiative system we used.

We set things so that an instantaneous spell takes 75% activity. 10% for actual casting and the remaining 65% to account for recovery for the sudden surge of magical energies through the casting. This is RMC core, as detailed in RMC Spell Law

Now, anybody who has ever stood up too fast and gotten dizzy for a few seconds can understand the effect we were going for. Basically, casting an instantaneous spell is like that.

You stand up too fast (cast instantaneous spell), and have to wait a few seconds until you are no longer dizzy (recover from the casting).

I hope that makes sense...