Topic: Cast spell and Melee same round?

[shnar]

This happened in our game tonight, and it felt wrong so thought I'd post here and see if it's right. The baddie casted an Instantaneous spell (some kind of coma thing) which uses 10% activity. The baddie then immediately did a full Melee attack.

For some reason, just for game balance purposes, this didn't seem right to me, being able to cast a spell and melee attack in the same round. Is this right?

-shnar

[Dark Schneider]

If you have activity and actions (remember you have max of 3 actions per round) of course you can. As spell takes 10% you attack with a -10 OB. Many Paladin spells that gives you OB are adapted to that, so any 'I' gives you a +5, so the spell 'I' gives you +15, II = 20, III = 25...because you must substract 10.

[Ecthelion]

For some reason, just for game balance purposes, this didn't seem right to me, being able to cast a spell and melee attack in the same round. Is this right?

It is, with instantaneous spells or when being hasted. As already mentioned the character just has to subtract the used activity from his attack.

[yammahoper]

As an option shnar, you could adopt the RM2 rule were instantaneous spells require no prep but still require 75% activity to cast.  This will stop those nasty combos you see AND alter overall game balance (Paladins and the like will suffer more).

I always liked the rule.  Spell users have enough advantages as is.

lynn

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

As an option shnar, you could adopt the RM2 rule were instantaneous spells require no prep but still require 75% activity to cast.  This will stop those nasty combos you see AND alter overall game balance (Paladins and the like will suffer more).

I always liked the rule.  Spell users have enough advantages as is.

lynn

That is actually the core rule in RMC.... 

[pastaav]

For some reason, just for game balance purposes, this didn't seem right to me, being able to cast a spell and melee attack in the same round. Is this right?

If it is instant spell it is possible and designed to be that way. For the majority of the spells that are not instantaneous it is not possible since the 25% activity left does not allow a melee attack. Only clerics have this advantage of instantaneus spells that are offensive (with possibly a few exceptions that I forget at the moment) .

[shnar]

Ahhh, that's where I'm getting my logic from. I've played RM2 most of my life (though most of my gaming days were decades ago), and this new campaign I've joined is my first foray into RMSS. Even in RM2 though, none of our players liked Magic much, so my memory on how magic worked back then isn't the best (we used RMC4's One-Roll-Spell-Resolution chart). But I was right in thinking you couldn't cast a spell and attack in the same round, at least in RM2/RMC's way of doing spells.

K, just me adjusting to RMSS. Go about your normal business...

-shnar

[Ecthelion]

Personally I basically like the way RMSS handles instantaneous spells. Having them a 10% action instead of 75% makes spells like Bladeturn, Deflection etc. useful which had almost never been used in our group in RM2 times. The only thing I dislike is that some attack spells are also affected by this rule - and in these cases I think the ruling is overpowered. This is why in our group we have a house rule that instantaneous attack spells use the old RM2 ruling where such spells are a 75% action but need not be prepared, while all other instantaneous use the RMSS ruling and require only 10% activity and no preparation.

[shnar]

That's actually why I asked the question to begin with. It didn't seem right that someone could attack twice per turn without being Hasted. Effectively, my opponent cast some coma-spell, putting me completely out of commission, and then wailed on me with his sword...

-shnar

[markc]

 Did he have the spell stored in an item? or cast from an item?

 On the attack spells, I use a little different combat system but the rules are basicly the same. But I did have some problems converting over the attack based instant spells. Some I gave a duration on such as 1/round per level or 1/2round per level, some next attack and some I had to really modify to get to work.

 Instant Defense Spells: I can see and use the "little" time to cast instant defense spells because IMO it should be in the game. And if the % action is too big then noone will use the spells. And IMO that takes away a lot of flavor of the game if you do not have spells like bladeturn, dispel, jump, land, etc. Yes I include some none standard defense spells but they are some good ones as jump and land are very useful if used as such.

MDC