Magic World/BRP attacky death spells

[Al.]

This has been brought up in other threads but I want to take a slightly different slant, so please forgive any duplication.

In MW attacking spells (Blast,Fire/Frost, Lightning et al) did 1d6 damage per PowerPoint spent.

In BRP this becomes 1d6 per 3 PP spent (albeit PP in BRP are subtly different from those in MW). Some fear that this watered them down somewhat.

For myself this does not worry me. A Mage can still throw a beast of a spell occasionally and a powerful mage should have some additional store of PP anyway; although I am tempted to make it 1d2 per PP similar to the Elric! roll table just for granularity.

i.e.

PP......Damage

1.......1d2

2.......1d4

3.......1d6

4.......1d8

5.......1d10

6.......2d6

7.......1d8+1d6

8.......2d8

9.......3d6

However we then get to the point, why bother with Blast? Fire will ignore armour and get lots of people. Whilst Blast hits but one poor sap who gets the advantage of their kinetic (i.e. normal) armour(s). Even though Fire and Frost are now two separate spells (rather than 1 in MW) they are each individually much better than Blast.

Suggestion

Physical attacking spells can be Dodged. This does take an action (and so either takes up one of your two actions that round or imposes a cumulative -30% penalty on further Parries and Dodges depending on how you rule)

This should be a HARD Dodge (i.e. Halve the Dodge skill) Just as if the target were dodging a thrown missile.

Fire or Frost - that's it. No more changes. But you do get to affect or drive off lots of baddies, and it ignores physical/kinetic armour already anyway.

Blast - there is an additional penalty of -(10 per PP spent)%, theory being that a more powerful blast is either faster or generally more difficult to avoid. i.e. a 5 point Blast imposes a -50% penalty on target's Dodge and will inflict 1d10 if it strikes home

Lightning - no additional Dodge penalty BUT there is a chance that a LIVING target's heart stops when several thousand volts are applied across it. The target makes a roll against Con x(10-PP spent)* to avoid death AND then takes damage calculated as above/as normal for burning regardless

* minimum of Con x1 roll if 9 or more PP are spent.

Any thoughts?

Have I missed owt?

Al

[frogspawner]

The BRP versions, at least, already say Fire/Frost can be dodged and that armour does protect against them.

To me, giving Lightning an "instant death" effect seems a bit too nasty.

[Al.]

The BRP versions, at least, already say Fire/Frost can be dodged and that armour does protect against them.

I shall check my copy when I get home, seems I missed that then

To me, giving Lightning an "instant death" effect seems a bit too nasty.

Quite probably.

I wanted to make it mechanically different to blast but it might be better to just clone the rules. Although I am loathe to do so.

Al

[frogspawner]

I wanted to make it mechanically different to blast but it might be better to just clone the rules. Although I am loathe to do so.

It's a worthwhile goal to give these spells a bit more character. Good Luck!

(Me, I use the DnD spells - but have had to introduce all sorts of other rule-changes in the hope of otherwise reducing their lethality. They still do d6/pp, and I'm still not entirely sure it works...)