Illusions, basic light & sound questions

[Thia Halmades]

Hey Steve;

 

Here's one that came up during spell translation last night. The spell is Dancing Lights - it's straightforward enough. Cough a light into existance (Sight Group 10 pts.) and then you can move it around, up to 100' (approx. 15 hexes) per phase.

 

Question one: Without +PER modifiers to see it, how 'bright' is it? Is the brightness a special effect, assigned by the GM? A torch? A halogen bulb? The sun?

 

Question two: Okay, I cast the spell. POOF, light! I need to be able to move independently of where I am. Jason suggested that it could simply be 'moved' so long as it was in range of the AP * 5 in hexes of caster/point of origin, i.e., the range of the spell under normal circumstances. Is this a handwave, or is there a mechanic?

 

Second topic, "Ghost Sound." The original d20 version has the caster capable of generating noise up to level * 4 humans. They cite 20 humans equaling one dire tiger (don't ask). If we throw out the gimmicky level bit, can you give me a rough guide (or point out what I missed) that tells me how loud a 15 AP "illusory sound" could be, maxed out? Under the right circumstances I can see giving a boost to a PRE attack, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to model it.

 

Third Topic, "Prestidigitation." I'll sum this one up - can I build a Spell as a Multipower in a VPP (please stop looking at me like that) and have it be valid? The idea of the spell is that creates many "small" effects; change the taste of food (cosmetic transform) lift up to 1 lb. of material (weak TK) AND, just to make it fun, create small, fragile useless objects. Like d20 books. Can I wrap all of those together as a set of powers within a spell and then give the caster free access to any of the above, or am I overthinking?

 

The problem is the spell as written really is quite handy, and at "0 Level" it can do all kinds of nifty things, none of which are combat-useful (-1 lim, based on my reasoning of what 'felt' right.) But I can't recreate three effects in a spell without twitching uncontrollably, or making a multipower in the spell proper, which opens up all kinds of new and interesting abuse issues.

 

Help?

[Steve Long]

Re: Illusions, basic light & sound questions

 

1. Bright enough to be seen with an unmodified PER Roll; dim enough that a missed PER Roll won’t notice it.

 

2. Use the Mobile Advantage, found as a modifier under Area Of Effect.

 

3. No, I can’t give you any such guide. The rules deliberately avoid any such guidelines. If you want, you could take the Hearing PER Roll bonus you buy for the Images, look at the Hearing Perception Modifiers table on 5ER 353, and draw some rough comparisons.

 

4. No; it is explicitly illegal to build one Power Framework with another. Of course, what any given GM chooses to allow for his own campaign is up to him, but that’s the by-the-book rule. I’m sure there are GMs out there who’d allow such a thing (esp. for a simple non-combat spell), and others who’d raise their holy symbols and recoil in horror at the thought.