Topic: What spells do you have the most trouble with in SL?

[providence13]

Flying, for purposes of Movement and Activity.

For Magical Flight, what do you guys use for accel/decel? SOHK does have good rules for Flight, IMHO. They might not apply as well to magic/thought-directed movement.

For example:
Flying at 150'; using 100%Act. (Fly II)
I want to cast a spell that requires 75%Act.
I'll have to slow down to 37.5'/rnd to free up enough %Act.
How long does this take in your games?

Or even if Fly 'X' allows hovering (no problem in my game), you can't come to a dead stop.. cast the spell, and start back flying at 150'. You'd squash yer brains!

I'm using 6'' rounds, but I can work with 10'', no problem.

(The Mage in our party is in a solo adventure with other NPC's. At least that's what he thinks when it's his init. The other players disagree )

Maybe using SOHK is just easier to rule.

[MariusH]

Lifegiving causes me some headache. Not when used on the players, but it's implications on the world system. Does it make any sense to assassinate anyone, when they can just be resurrected afterwards? How can anyone important die of anything but old age?

[DangerMan]

Hacking the body to pieces and burning it wont do?

[Marc R]

You sometimes don't have time to destroy the whole body. Our usual fix was to damage the brain. . .if you "destroy" the brain, the repairs there require a 50th level spell, and once people bust out miracles on that scale <shrug>. You usually have time to make one full attack on the downed corpse's head (and it's not defending itself, so no DB).

[MariusH]

Well, once you include lvl 50 spells, I still claim that "Time Returning" on one of the Astrologer base lists is by far the most difficult spell to handle - and more powerful than any other spell i n the book.

[Marc R]

Agreed there, that spell is a campaign killer.

[providence13]

In the Guardians of the Flame books, Lifegiving took a year to cast and cost a Mage his ability to cast spells.

While that might be extreme, I think it should be a spell that requires magical vestments, at the church (or place of power), as a ritual. To have other party member sacrifice something important to them- favorite magic item- would cut down on the availability of the spell.

[providence13]

BTW
I found the acceleration/deceleration info..
RoCo III pg 19
3.5 Mounted Combat
Acceleration: 2 pace categories/rnd
Deceleration: 3 pace categories/rnd.
I can live with this for magical flight.

[Old Man]

Lifegiving causes me some headache. Not when used on the players, but it's implications on the world system. Does it make any sense to assassinate anyone, when they can just be resurrected afterwards? How can anyone important die of anything but old age?

Destroying or even hiding the body tend to work. Or use Brust's Morganti weapons that consume the souls. Then no Lifekeeping.

Also, sometimes the target just doesn't want to come back from the Afterlife....

[markc]

Also, sometimes the target just doesn't want to come back from the Afterlife....

I fully agree with this.


....What do you mean I have to go back!
MDC

[Ravenheart]

About Invisibility we use following guidelines. Percentages show a possibility that the spell is canceled.

- fast turn (25%)
- quickdraw (95%)
- jog (25%)
- run (75%)
- surprised (50%)
- falling down (95%)
- fumbling any MM (85%)
- spell casting using hands (25/50%)
- casting any attack spell (100%)
- sleeping (20% per hour)
- drinking (100%)
- eating (100%)
- pissing and shitting (100%)
- getting caught in strong winds (35%)
- in storm (85%)
- attacking intent (100%)

[Ravenheart]

About the spells that cause concern, I hate the ones that concern the "role-playing" like Charm (target believes that caster is a good friend). It just don't function well and leaves the players always uneasy about the result. I understand the use of Calm or Suggestion since it's a clear "have to do it" case; the player is forced to behave in certain manner within spell parameters.

Does that Charm spell mean that the target actually sees the caster as a good friend (like illusion) or does that good friend just come up from nothing. "Hi, I have never seen you before, don't have a clue about from where I know you, I don't even know your name but you are a really good friend of mine, so do whatever you want."

It's a huge flag-of-disbelief, this spell. How have you handled Charm Kind (or such) spells?

[providence13]

Ravenheart, I use the second one for Charms.
Most of my players have been doing this for years, so role playing isn't a problem for them. I describe the world and they tell me how they react to it.
If I say that someone is a good friend, they react accordingly. You might loan money to a good friend; some people don't loan money to anyone. You probably wouldn't take off your armor for a good friend, but you might sheath your weapons and talk, if it were suggested.

I don't think the friend comes from nothing. Just tell them to think of a good friend they have and respond to the person like it was them.

About your previous post... wow! You really hate Invisibility.

[MariusH]

About your previous post... wow! You really hate Invisibility.

That's what I was thinking, too. It's always interresting to see someone have a so completely different view from mine of how things should be handled.

[DangerMan]

About the spells that cause concern, I hate the ones that concern the "role-playing" like Charm (target believes that caster is a good friend). It just don't function well and leaves the players always uneasy about the result. I understand the use of Calm or Suggestion since it's a clear "have to do it" case; the player is forced to behave in certain manner within spell parameters.

Does that Charm spell mean that the target actually sees the caster as a good friend (like illusion) or does that good friend just come up from nothing. "Hi, I have never seen you before, don't have a clue about from where I know you, I don't even know your name but you are a really good friend of mine, so do whatever you want."

It's a huge flag-of-disbelief, this spell. How have you handled Charm Kind (or such) spells?

There's a Charm attack chart in Gamemaster Law (RMFRP). There is one for suggestion and one for Fear / Awe, as well. All very good IMO. The charm chart offer some solutions to your issues.

[Zedul]

Lifegiving causes me some headache. Not when used on the players, but it's implications on the world system. Does it make any sense to assassinate anyone, when they can just be resurrected afterwards? How can anyone important die of anything but old age?

Yea + the healing spells are so good at high levels you can use a healer to completely regenerate a brain and then bring the body back even after years of death.  Technically a level 50 healer could bring someone back after being dust for a thousand years.

What I do is force a Constitution check on Lifegiving... if they roll above their Constitution, they fail and can never be brought back.

Also I assign or roll fate points and check off one fate point after each lifegiving.  Once the fate points are burned out, it's bye bye forever.

[Ynglaur]

I like the idea that, even if healed, a shade may not want to come back.

[paraphrased]
One-Eye: "In my country, we believe if you close all the orifices, it keeps the evil spirits inside."
Lady: "That helps, but you need to burn the body and head in separate fires, and then scatter the ashes.  It's the only way to be sure."

Glen Cook's Black Company series have a great way to describe creatures coming back, and the implications of it.

[Zat]

Yea + the healing spells are so good at high levels you can use a healer to completely regenerate a brain and then bring the body back even after years of death.  Technically a level 50 healer could bring someone back after being dust for a thousand years.

What I do is force a Constitution check on Lifegiving... if they roll above their Constitution, they fail and can never be brought back.

I think (I don't have my books handy at the moment) there are already rules for the Constitution thing with Lifegiving spells, and in addition there is a penealty to the roll each time Lifegiving is used...maybe a house rull of ours.

As for healing spells, some people may frown at me, but I insist on recovery rolls being made as seen in RoCo V. So even at very high levels, it's entirely possible that characters can sustain long term injuries even when magically healed of wounds.

[Zat]

Oh...and let's not forget the recover times for Lifegiving.

[ReaperWolf]

Any kind of divination magic mitigating the need to actually investigate is a potential hassle. The only solution to the problem is to insulate your murder mystery scenario, you have to resort to extreme measures, i.e. with magic to falsify/obscure leads, which tends to lead to an arms race.

No easy solution, unfortunately. 

Honestly I'm not all that keen on the subconscious spells, the idea of an unconscious spellcaster busting out some serious magic while playing possum just doesn't sit well with me but that's a personal preference.

As a GM it falls to you to determine what spells and magic to allow in the game and if necessary to house rule away any potential issues.

>>ReaperWolf