Who uses Dullblade?

[Shiningbrow]

Simple question... 

 

Anyone out there bother to keep this spell in memory? Use it often? How many points?

[Arcadiagt5]

1 hour ago, Shiningbrow said:

Simple question... 

 

Anyone out there bother to keep this spell in memory? Use it often? How many points?

It’s not a particularly common spell for many cults. I don’t recall many offering it as a starting spell during character creation. Chalana Arroy perhaps? But even there Sleep and Heal are more likely to be picked. 

[soltakss]

No, I have never used it.

However, it does work as a Chaos Feature effect, that all opponents are affected by Dullblade 4, or 8, or 12.

[David Scott]

3 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

Simple question... 

Anyone out there bother to keep this spell in memory? Use it often? How many points?

Although it's a Chalana Arroy & Maran Gor cult spell, many years ago I had a player with an Ernalda healer make a matrix with it (maybe at 5-6). I always have healers with it. I also have allied spirits (CA) / bound spirits cast it as it slows down damage (usually at 4).

[soltakss]

7 hours ago, David Scott said:

I always have healers with it.

It is good for Healers, as it gives them the chance to get a POW Gain roll when they can't use Befuddle or Sleep.

[Dr. Devici]

9 hours ago, Arcadiagt5 said:

It’s not a particularly common spell for many cults. I don’t recall many offering it as a starting spell during character creation. Chalana Arroy perhaps? But even there Sleep and Heal are more likely to be picked. 

Sleep and befuddle both require the Chalana Arroy healer to take responsibility for the safety of whoever they cast it on, which can be a risky gambit in a melee. Dullblade doesn't have this restriction, and also doesn't require a POW vs. POW roll.

[AndreJarosch]

A mother who sees her toddler playing with a knife could cast dullblade. Doesn´t damage the weapon.

Edited April 16, 2021 by AndreJarosch

[Kloster]

1 hour ago, Dr. Device said:

and also doesn't require a POW vs. POW roll

It does, if it is cast on the weapon of an unvoluntary target, which is most often the case (not always because of @AndreJarosch)

[soltakss]

41 minutes ago, AndreJarosch said:

A mother whon sees her toddler playing with a knife could cast dullblade. Doesn´t damage the weapon.

So, it could be good for training, except that it also reduces the weapon skill, or at least it used to.

[Atgxtg]

We used to use it tactically to limit the opponent from using an incompatible spell. Throw a Dullblade and maybe some Countermagic, and it might mess up someone putting Bladesharp or Fireblade on their weapon. But all all depends on the opponent and what you wanted to avoid. 

[Stephen L]

14 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

Anyone out there bother to keep this spell in memory?

A lot of the tuskers in the defending Apple Lane scenario of the GM pack had it.  They used it to some effect, but were still skewered by the formidable cavalry skills of the party.

One of the more amusing scenes was the lead tusk rider was getting away, and the only way the players could think of stopping him was using a sylph to toss the Humakti duck in his path.  The duck offed him in a single blow.

I'm regretting the precedent, imaginative ways of tossing the duck places he really shouldn't be has become something of a theme of the campaign...

[Joerg]

1 hour ago, Stephen L said:

I'm regretting the precedent, imaginative ways of tossing the duck places he really shouldn't be has become something of a theme of the campaign...

Ducks riding sylphs (or getting tossed by them) might count as flying, and might incur Yelmic wrath...

[Kloster]

1 minute ago, Joerg said:

Ducks riding sylphs (or getting tossed by them) might count as flying, and might incur Yelmic wrath...

Does a tall Agimori counts (when tossing ducks) for Yelmic wrath? I'm asking because we had one in our last RQ3 campaign.

[Runeblogger]

2 hours ago, Kloster said:

It does, if it is cast on the weapon of an unvoluntary target, which is most often the case (not always because of @AndreJarosch)

This is surprising. Is this specified somewhere? I have always thought casting a spell on an object required no POW vs POW roll, even if the object is being held by an unvoluntary target.

[Kloster]

27 minutes ago, Runeblogger said:

This is surprising. Is this specified somewhere? I have always thought casting a spell on an object required no POW vs POW roll, even if the object is being held by an unvoluntary target.

IIRC, if you cast a spell on someone, whether himself or his equipment, you have to do a POW vs POW roll. RQG p244: "A target always resists a spell unless that target voluntarily and knowingly accepts the spell.". At least, we always played it that way, but perhaps we were wrong it was just a house rule.

P.S. Note, it does not matter if this is a house rule or not because Dullblade also affect the target, by removing 5% to his weapon skill by level of the spell, so the POW vs POW roll is mandatory.

Edited April 15, 2021 by Kloster
add the PS

[Joerg]

1 minute ago, Runeblogger said:

This is surprising. Is this specified somewhere? I have always thought casting a spell on an object required no POW vs POW roll, even if the object is being held by an unvoluntary target.

What I would do when GMing: If the object is engulfed by the wielder's aura, a POW vs POW roll may be called. Dullblade on a spear point should succeed most of the time without resistance. Long hafted axes or naginata sword sticks too, unless held in a shortened grip.

[AndreJarosch]

12 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Ducks riding sylphs (or getting tossed by them) might count as flying, and might incur Yelmic wrath...

That was exactly what i was thinking the second i read the original comment. 

[ChrisJ]

Since the target of the spell is a sword - then there is no POW - thus I have ruled that the POW vrs POW roll always succeeds - however a targets countermagic protects them and any weapon they are holding.  This is to align with the text of the spell that states "If the weapon has a spirit in it, the spirit’s magic points must be overcome for the spell to work" which I presume is leftover text from the 3rd edition of the text where POW vrs POW was MP vrs MP; otherwise I have no Idea what overcome the MP of the spirit means.

 

But as always YGMV.

[Bill the barbarian]

2 hours ago, Stephen L said:

I'm regretting the precedent, imaginative ways of tossing the duck places he really shouldn't be has become something of a theme of the campaign...

To paraphrase Gimli, “Never toss a duck!"

[Bill the barbarian]

7 hours ago, Kloster said:

P.S. Note, it does not matter if this is a house rule or not because Dullblade also affect the target, by removing 5% to his weapon skill by level of the spell, so the POW vs POW roll is mandatory.

Seem correct to me.

ETA emphasis added by me.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Bill the barbarian

[Shiningbrow]

But there are spell a that specifically target items within someone's grasp - like Crack. Do you have POW v POW for those?

I can see that Dullblade could reduce weapon skill because it becomes more unwieldy, re/unbalanced, etc... Not directly affecting the user.

[Bill the barbarian]

6 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

7 hours ago, Kloster said:

P.S. Note, it does not matter if this is a house rule or not because Dullblade also affect the target, by removing 5% to his weapon skill by level of the spell, so the POW vs POW roll is mandatory.

 

'nuff said!

[svensson]

On 4/14/2021 at 9:13 PM, Shiningbrow said:

Simple question... 

 

Anyone out there bother to keep this spell in memory? Use it often? How many points?

It's the age old question of 'buff or debuff, THAT is the question'...

[Kloster]

7 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

But there are spell a that specifically target items within someone's grasp - like Crack. Do you have POW v POW for those?

I can see that Dullblade could reduce weapon skill because it becomes more unwieldy, re/unbalanced, etc... Not directly affecting the user.

For me, as I have explained, all spells that affect somebody or an item he helds or carry requires the POW vs POW roll. Let's use Joerg's 'aura's' explanation for the rationale, but for me, it is more a matter of avoiding exceptions in the rules: All of my players are not bright scientists and some (in fact, only one) had problems remembering that a spirit spell needs a POW*5 roll to be cast.

[Shiningbrow]

Then, let me ask this... What if Dullblade (or Bladesharp, or Crush, or Fireblade, etc...) is cast on a weapon on the ground, and then picked up? 

I would presume most of you would say the damage effect is no problem. What about the skill adjustment?