Spell casting has me a bit wonky

[zombietots]

Am I understanding this correctly?

INT 15 gives me a 15% skill level

POW 12

Dex 12

using a Blast spell POW 3 

I have a 15% of success using 9 POW to make it a 3D6 Blast which will go off in round 3 (counting down Dex 12-9 POW = rd. 3) and my chances are 15 success 3 special and 1 critical.

Is this correct?

And if I succeed I get a chance to improve my casting ability later?

[Saki]

Yes, but -  It doesn't take multiple rounds for the higher level spell, the spell does go off in the round you cast it.  Higher level spell = slower dex rank.  So you'd fire off your Level 3 Blast at dex rank 9 of the turn you cast it.

 

Otherwise yes, you're correct.  The assumption is that you'll spend starting skill points on improving spells rather than keeping them at INTx1.  When learning new spells, you'll likely need to spend downtime with a Teacher to train and get your skill level to a reasonable percentage.

[zombietots]

Oh, that's what I missed. I didn't know you could spend points to increase skill at character creation. I'll have to go back through the book again.

Thanks

[DreadDomain]

2 hours ago, zombietots said:

Oh, that's what I missed. I didn't know you could spend points to increase skill at character creation. I'll have to go back through the book again.

Thanks

Correct, INT% is only your base in the skill. Step 7 of character creation on page 11 tells who how many points (%) of skill you can distribute at character creation. You would want to distribute some to your spells.

When you distribute skill points have the skill rating table in mind to avoid over allocating to a small number of skills (I am good at this, surely I have 90%!). A skill is considered at professional level when you get in the 50's % and expert at 75% or so. For normal, unstressful applications the skills are not necessarily rolled or could roll with an easy difficulty (skill is doubled). A basket weaver with a 55% Craft (Basket Weaving) skill would not necessarily roll to weave a basket and would be expected to craft baskets of professional quality - if if he wants to craft a masterpiece to gift a princess, better warm up the dice.

Character creation steps are also conveniently summarized on page 15.

[zombietots]

Thanks, DreadDomain. I am also reading POWER USE in the combat section, and it says to use INT rank for instantaneous spells (Pg189 of the Gold Book). So, if I have a INT of 15 and cast Blast at POW 9 (cost of 3 per) does that mean I use INT at 15 or 12? or am I miss reading this altogether wrong?

[DreadDomain]

9 hours ago, zombietots said:

Thanks, DreadDomain. I am also reading POWER USE in the combat section, and it says to use INT rank for instantaneous spells (Pg189 of the Gold Book). So, if I have a INT of 15 and cast Blast at POW 9 (cost of 3 per) does that mean I use INT at 15 or 12? or am I miss reading this altogether wrong?

Read with Casting Time on page 91 of the BGB (in my previous post, my references were to UGE), if INT is used for determining initiative when casting spells, the spell would go at INT rank 15 minus Spell level 3, so Rank 12.

Edited September 21, 2023 by DreadDomain