Massive Spells

[Michael Hopcroft]

I wouldn't want to put these in the hands of starting PCs, but how does one go about desinging a really massive spell within the confines of FH? In the past, I ocne started a thread about building a spell designed to skill a dragon with one shot. What if this spell also did massive collateral damage?

Likewise, in the 4th edition version of Fantasy Hero, there was a section about genres in which lone wizards can take on an army and win. Do that he would need a truly massive spell -- something that would destory a large enough chunk of the army with one shot that the rest would break ranks and flee rather than face it again. They don't have to know that it was a one-shot spell that the wizard will never be able to cast again....

Likewise I can imagine building a spell that does massive damage, enough to destory a God, but has such devastating Side Effects that it can only be cast as a very last resort. An example would be a spell that ages the caster fifty years, causes massive collateral damage on an almost unimaginable scale, or even causes the entire world to explode if miscast.

Finally, what kind of spells do Gods cast themselves?

[AnotherSkip]

Well for army killing spells the first thing you need is megascale range with megascale AOE, biff that up to 2-3d6 (for a standard army of Hummies,with standard defenses and depending upon how lucky you think you are)ERKA and lay waste to the land.....

only three shots and unless they have similar magics most of the NPC army is guaranteed toast.

[Polaris]

In our game of 3E (soon to be FH I think), we have the gods gain their powers from magic pools created and augmented by the deities followers... the more followers, the more power the god(dess) has. Needless to say, the deities using relgious wars and crusades to weaken their rivals is not at all an uncommon event. One Queen ordered her army to slay followers of one deity that the Queen blamed for problems that her kingdom/queendom was going through.

It provides another interesting area of conflict (religion) to the normal racial and political and economic conflicts of the world.

Polaris

[Monolith]

Using the Mass Combat rules in FH would give a mage a fairly decent shot at hurting various sized units even without Area Effect power. I could also see an Area Effect (1 hex), Selective, MegaScale 1km (total of a +1 Advantage) attack power being quite devastating in a mass combat though. Little 1d6 RKA Penetrating magic missiles flying around the battlefield, only hitting enemies could be quite devastating for only 37 Active Points. :)

As far as Gods, unless I was playing in a game where Gods faught heroes I would not even worry about their spells. A God wants you dead, you die. He wants you back to life, you live. No rolls required.

[Worldmaker]

I have to cast my vote in favor of the "Gods not needing writeups" side of the argument myself.

As for wizards affecting armies, Megascale does wonders.

[Michael Hopcroft]

There are some fantasy worlds, though, where Gods, while they are theoretically immortal and immensely powers, are beings like any other and can be killed by sufficient force. Especially when they venture outside their natural planes.

In one particular fantasy series, Gods of Light and Gods of Darkenss fought a war that lasted for a thousand years and slew nearly all of them, leaving the world in the hands of mortals. As a result of this massive casualty rate, Gods becamse reluctant to interfere in human affairs beyond granting spells to priests and priestesses. (I believe it was part of the backstory of Record of Lodoss Wars, but don't quote me on that.)