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Let's talk about Multimissile.


Darius West

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In my opinion Multimissile is the strangest Spirit Magic spell.  No other spirit magic spell effectively creates matter out of magic.  Sure, they conjure fire, light, and darkness, even glue, but not an actual corporeal manufactured artifact.  How does it work?  Do spirits have access to a room full of arrows on the Spirit Plane?  Do they perhaps summon the arrows?  Or do they simply duplicate the arrow they see?   Or do they duplicate the force with which the arrow hits?  Is multimissile actually an illusion perhaps?  Do the magical arrows lie around until the spell duration runs out?  Do questions like this keep other RQG GMs up at night?  

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Multimissile doesn't, either - the missiles possess force and penetration, but cannot impale because they don't possess mass or matter. Unlike Disruption, the missiles interact with armor and skin like the original missile.

What likely happens is that the momentum of the enspelled missile is copied into ghostly clones, and its penetration properties, too. I don't think you could actively parry anything but the original missile (not impossible for javelins or thrown knives or axes). Slingstones or arrows cannot be parried under RuneQuest rules, anyway, although heroic feats might grant such an ability.

Second Sight etc. would show the cloned missiles more clearly during flight, I suppose.

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Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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7 hours ago, Darius West said:

Do spirits have access to a room full of arrows on the Spirit Plane? 

Yes, that is exactly how I see it.

7 hours ago, Darius West said:

Do the magical arrows lie around until the spell duration runs out?

Not in my Glorantha, they disappear once they hit you.

7 hours ago, Darius West said:

Do questions like this keep other RQG GMs up at night?  

No.

 

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Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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On 9/3/2022 at 5:40 PM, Darius West said:

 Do spirits have access to a room full of arrows on the Spirit Plane? 

21 hours ago, soltakss said:

Yes, that is exactly how I see it.

 Then they should at least lie around for the full 5 min of the spell's duration.  Potentially they should stay there indefinitely if they come from a room full of arrows.  I personally don't accept this take, as it creates more problems than it answers imo.  Then again, the spell is problematic in many ways.

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1 hour ago, Darius West said:

Then they should at least lie around for the full 5 min of the spell's duration.  Potentially they should stay there indefinitely if they come from a room full of arrows.  I personally don't accept this take, as it creates more problems than it answers imo.  Then again, the spell is problematic in many ways.

Easy, the spirits take them back once they have been fired. Simple.

I have never seen the spell as being problematic in any way at all.

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Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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To my mind, Multimissile bears a lot of similarity to illusion spells like a cut down version of Create Sensation or Illusory substance.  This makes a lot more sense to me than spirits having access to some sort of plane of existence where all the missing arrows go (I mean, what's next, a hero plane for missing socks where you can go to learn the final mystery of what happens to the damn things?). This would explain how and why the multimissiles appear, do damage, and disappear.

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16 hours ago, Darius West said:

To my mind, Multimissile bears a lot of similarity to illusion spells like a cut down version of Create Sensation or Illusory substance.  This makes a lot more sense to me than spirits having access to some sort of plane of existence where all the missing arrows go (I mean, what's next, a hero plane for missing socks where you can go to learn the final mystery of what happens to the damn things?). This would explain how and why the multimissiles appear, do damage, and disappear.

Am illlusionary substance missile would still need to be fired separately, but it would be able to impale, and if retrieved, it coulld be fired again (e.g. back) while the duration lasts.

The duration of the spirit spell is the amount of time that can go by between putting that spell onto a missile and its actual release as part of the missile swarm. Once released, the extra missiles are in effect only for the time of flight, i.e. the same melee round.

The extras in a multimissile spells don't cause magical damage, and aren't affected by Countermagic unless somebody cast the Countermagic onto the missile itself.

Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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On 9/3/2022 at 8:40 AM, Darius West said:

In my opinion Multimissile is the strangest Spirit Magic spell.  No other spirit magic spell effectively creates matter out of magic.  Sure, they conjure fire, light, and darkness, even glue, but not an actual corporeal manufactured artifact.

The description says creates a magical missile, so it's not an actual corporeal manufactured artifact. Magical missile in my mind looks like a glowing streak with a tail, like the illustration on page 78 of the red book of magic for shooting star, but not as showy.

On 9/3/2022 at 8:40 AM, Darius West said:

How does it work?  Do spirits have access to a room full of arrows on the Spirit Plane?  Do they perhaps summon the arrows?  Or do they simply duplicate the arrow they see?   Or do they duplicate the force with which the arrow hits?  Is multimissile actually an illusion perhaps?  Do the magical arrows lie around until the spell duration runs out?

It works the same way a spirit becoming corporate, corporate spirits can physically attack, similar to spirit combat causing physical damage and of course the spirit powers of Bite, Spirit Dart and Spirit Weapon.

So Multimissiles are a temporary corporate spirit magic, after they hit, they disperse back into the spirit world.

On 9/3/2022 at 8:40 AM, Darius West said:

Do questions like this keep other RQG GMs up at night?  

No.

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On 9/5/2022 at 7:00 PM, Darius West said:

(I mean, what's next, a hero plane for missing socks where you can go to learn the final mystery of what happens to the damn things?)

Are you not aware of Harmast Barefoot's twin brother, Hosiarie Always-socked?

 

On 9/3/2022 at 10:55 PM, soltakss said:
On 9/3/2022 at 3:40 PM, Darius West said:

Do spirits have access to a room full of arrows on the Spirit Plane? 

Yes, that is exactly how I see it.

How many in the room? I mean, if a full complement of Aldryami archers were facing a huge battle against the Uz, how long before that room is emptied???

 

 

However, more seriously, I am thinking (like @David Scott) that it's a physical manifestation of the spirit... Or it's not a physical missile, and it's merely force... either that, or it just does, and doesn't need to be questioned!

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Multiple spirit creatures have 'temporary SIZ' that only exists under certain circumstances: Nymphs, Chon-chons, etc. If you can summon a body, why not an arrow? Given the number of people who've been killed by missiles, the spell probably draws death trauma off ghosts to create the missiles. (And yes, they could still be blocked, because the ghosts know that missiles can be blocked).

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On 9/11/2022 at 6:31 AM, Shiningbrow said:

How many in the room? I mean, if a full complement of Aldryami archers were facing a huge battle against the Uz, how long before that room is emptied???

It's a big room.

Maybe High King Elf's bowery, or Golden Bow's Always Full Quiver.

I don't think about these things too much.

Of course, for those people who do, they could always HeroQuest to the big room, take out the Spirits and stop Multimissile working under certain conditions.

 

Edited by soltakss

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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On 9/10/2022 at 10:31 PM, Shiningbrow said:

How many in the room? I mean, if a full complement of Aldryami archers were facing a huge battle against the Uz, how long before that room is emptied???

Hilbert's Armory.  It has a *LOT* of rooms, but only 1 arrow per room...


Mostly, he just shuffles arrows between rooms.

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