High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested)

[Lucius]

Re: High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested)

 

Not in MY Kingdom You Don't!:

Suppress 1d6

 

All magick powers simultaneously (+2), Difficult To Dispel (x1 Active Points; + ¼ ), Affects Any form of Desolidification (+ ½ ), Area Of Effect, Megascale 1,000 km (+1 ½) Zero END Persistent (+1 ½ ) , No Normal Defense (+1), Continuous (+1) Autofire (5 shots; +1 ½ ), Cumulative (54 points; +2 1/2) (54 Active Points)

 

Gradual Effect (1 Week; -2), Extra Time (1 Hour, Only to Activate, Character May Take No Other Actions, -1 3/4), Can only cast once per week ( -1 ½ ), Gestures (Requires both hands; - ½ ), No Range (- ½ ), Incantations (- ¼ ), Only in My Kingdom ( - ¼ ), Concentration (1/2 DCV; - ¼ ) (Real Cost: 8)

 

 

Probably with some linked Power Defense, Mental Defense, and maybe other defenses, megascaled.

 

 

I'm still thinking of writing up

 

I Am One With The Land

Multiform into a Base, where the Base is the Kingdom.

 

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary is at Two with itself

[The Monster]

Re: High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested)

 

Or...

 

Stupid Wizard!

Drain INT, big area, continuous, etc.

Only affects targets with Sorcery skill.

 

or, again...

 

Silly Wizard!

Add naked limitation: Side Effects Always to any magical power

 

 

...of course, these only work if you don't want to use any of your own magic (unless, of course, you buy Personal Immunity!)

[Blue Jogger]

Re: High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested)

 

Our group discussed the possibility of this one:

 

Hostile Magic Zone

CE: -3 to all Magic Skill Rolls, Long-Lasting

 

In a world where most of the magic requires skill rolls and side effect, this is just viciously cruel.

[Markdoc]

Re: High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested)

 

Yeah.

 

I threw the idea out for the thread, and with all the responces, and what that can mean to the world they are in, has really made me examine the world they were going to be in, and what exactly it will be like.

 

Our own experience with battles in a high magic setting has shown that the mass of soldiery is merely there to soak up a few spells: it's like the first day of the Somme (and in such a setting, you bet the regular soldiery starts digging trenches and bunkers, for a little cover as soon as they realise a battle is looming, adding to the similarity). And unless charmed or otherwise coerced, they'd know that, so their morale is pretty shot even before the battle starts Being an armoured knight on a mighty steed is not much better than being a peasant with a pointy stick when one guy on the opposing side can sling big area effect 8d6 RKAs.

 

As a result I redesigned the armies of the major powers so that they have a cutting edge of high-powered warriors and mages, kitted out with potent antimagic protection, weapons of mass destruction or both, with a small number of cannon fodder simply to stopp them being over-run. Battles become games of "Kill the majors" and the first side to lose their heavy hitters either surrenders or is wiped out to the last man, woman and wombat. The common soldiery is relegated to carrying stuff, building stuff and garrison duty: being called up for battlefield support only when absolutely necessary.

 

cheers, Mark

[Doc Democracy]

Re: High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested)

 

I see the magic colleges developing some kind of magical military equivalent of the pike block.

 

If you want to retain the look and feel of medieval warfare then you get massed units which, when they retain their cohesion and numbers can frustrate large magical battlefield spells. Thus you need to break down the men in the old fashioned way before you can mop up the ones running away with your mass action spells.

 

 

Doc

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested)

 

I see the magic colleges developing some kind of magical military equivalent of the pike block.

 

If you want to retain the look and feel of medieval warfare then you get massed units which, when they retain their cohesion and numbers can frustrate large magical battlefield spells. Thus you need to break down the men in the old fashioned way before you can mop up the ones running away with your mass action spells.

 

 

Doc

 

Woo, nifty idea there. A huge Def vs SFX Magic (or something) that only works when a certain number of people are within a certain area.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested)

 

Woo' date=' nifty idea there. A huge Def vs SFX Magic (or something) that only works when a certain number of people are within a certain area.[/quote']

 

Could give a whole new meaning to the term Shield Wall.....

[Markdoc]

Re: High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested)

 

I see the magic colleges developing some kind of magical military equivalent of the pike block.

 

If you want to retain the look and feel of medieval warfare then you get massed units which, when they retain their cohesion and numbers can frustrate large magical battlefield spells. Thus you need to break down the men in the old fashioned way before you can mop up the ones running away with your mass action spells.

 

In Dymeria (the biggest empire in the current game) they have colleges of battle magic, where mages are trained to be basically living artillery. They work in teams of 20 (a "battle" - the basic Dymerian unit), usually two adepts and 18 apprentices of various capabilities. In battle, one mage concentrates on offensive spells while the other holds an action or manipulates defensive magics. The apprentices assist with either Aid spells to pump the Adept's spells up or support their casting, or cast minor defensive magics to deflect arrows, telekinese charging warriors away, etc. This lets the adepts focus on big, flashy killing spells, teleporting their elite warriors on top of enemy spell casters or into the middle of pike blocks or similar tricks , turning the ground to mud, etc.

 

I'm not sure protecting the troops alone would be enough to retain traditional tactics. In my game, telekinesing a really big chunk of something and then hitting any infantry silly enough to gather en mass with it is a favourite - even if they are protected with antimagic, that won't stop a perfectly non-magical 20 ton rock. Likewise, it wouldn't stop you moving your own troops about the battlefield by magic, or using images or invisibility: there's a lot you can do without directly interacting with the enemy soldiers.

 

However, if you wanted the traditional feel alluded to above, you could have a system of magic where mages could dampen out each other's spells within a certain radius (perhaps up to the active points of their own largest spell, or something similar): perhaps as a perk, or alternatively as a limitation on magic*. That might make an interesting system: a more powerful mage would be all but immune to lower level magic - but would be reduced in power, making himself vulnerable to attack. It'd give a fantasy world with a very different feel.

 

cheers, Mark

 

*actually, now that I think about it, a system very much like this was in force in Tim Powers's book The Drawing of the Dark: the world's two most powerful wizards are present at the siege of Vienna, but neither can do anything while the other is there. However, they don't dare leave because the other one could instantly win the battle if his power was not held in check. As a result, they sit and watch while the siege is fought by conventional means.

[Lucius]

Re: High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested)

 

Why do I feel like I'm in Valdemar now?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

And the inevitable palindromedary

[Markdoc]

Re: High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested)

 

Why do I feel like I'm in Valdemar now?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

And the inevitable palindromedary

 

Who's Valdemar?

 

Cheers, Mark

[Doc Democracy]

Re: High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested)

 

isn't it Mercedes Lackey's world or heralds and soft soap romances?

 

 

 

Doc

[jaws]

Re: High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested)

 

Mages Retribution:

 

10d6 Killing attack - Trigger (when the person who bought this spell dies) - Area Effect 1 hex, 2 levels megascale. 1 charge ever -4, focus, uses focus up in use (caster's body) can never replace. Not vs the ground (-0) non ranged

Then all the extra time ect stuff to originally cast it.

 

Kill the mage and everything the 5 kilo's in a circle around him takes 10d6 K. But the spells doesn't blow the earth up or open up a hole to the magma.

 

This is excellent. If it is common for a spell like this to be in effect on spell casters, even if they all don't have it, people will think twice about our tight killing a spell caster. Perfect for worlds where spell casters are rare.

 

Imagine the chain reaction of one spell caster dying if you have a high population of spell casters that have this. It would be like popcorn. Kaboom end of civilization.

 

However if you remember limitations need to be limiting. So 1 charge never recovers for a dead person is not limiting. Irreplaceable focus is not limiting either.

 

However considering the focus, disintegrate mage is probably a very common spell.

 

Hrm. Leap of Faith: Megascale Superleap, UAO, AoE, Megascale Area.

 

Watch that first step, it's a doozy.

 

Not sure how to build it to allow for safe landings, but if you're not overfond of the populace of a place, sending them all a half mile into midair and then letting them fall wouldn't need a safe landing.

 

Unless I am mistaken a leap automatically allows for a safe landing as long as you land form the same hight you leaped from.

 

Best to use flight UAA

 

My personal favorite suggestion is Selective. (and using the laws of averages means you only have to roll for those who matter)

This means you don't really know who gets it but it will swing the battle to a more positive result that looks like they have guys who are well trained or vetrans rather than a more dramatic "superhuman army". It also doesn't affect the opposition no matter who they are. with the reverse being true for "curses".

 

Forgive the new guy... I didn't quite get that...

 

Hmmm. Perhaps something like transform' date=' megascale, turns target landscape or geographical feature, (forest, mountain), into a living being with extra limbs and multiform, plus various other appropriate abilities such as life support breathe under water and so on. This would be why the Elven forest seems particularly eery and is capable of informing its inhabitants that there are trespassers about or 'disappearing' said trespassers without any pointy eared help at all, also the kraken island or the insanely immense rock troll.[/quote']

 

Wouldn't that be a summon? With that SFX

 

I see the magic colleges developing some kind of magical military equivalent of the pike block.

 

If you want to retain the look and feel of medieval warfare then you get massed units which, when they retain their cohesion and numbers can frustrate large magical battlefield spells. Thus you need to break down the men in the old fashioned way before you can mop up the ones running away with your mass action spells.

 

Doc

 

This is excellent. Though there still are many ways around this, it is an excellent start. You can have formation units trained with a special skill while working in unison.

Such as Magical Resistance Training Skill

If you specially train units that works cohesively where there is at least 1 element per X(5 suggested) AP. They make a Skill vs Skill Roll or just a straight skill roll with AP penalty to resist any spell with an AoE that includes at least 10% of the unit (This makes obscenely large units to resist every single spell just as dangerous as no unit at all).

 

Very much like a trained Spell Resistance (such as the **oh no he is going to say it** d20 system has) based on unit tactics. Justified as the will of many vs. the will of one.

 

Just an Idea to make combat units effective and more than just cannon fodder.

 

I'm not sure protecting the troops alone would be enough to retain traditional tactics. In my game, telekinesing a really big chunk of something and then hitting any infantry silly enough to gather en mass with it is a favourite - even if they are protected with antimagic, that won't stop a perfectly non-magical 20 ton rock. Likewise, it wouldn't stop you moving your own troops about the battlefield by magic, or using images or invisibility: there's a lot you can do without directly interacting with the enemy soldiers.

 

True but at least it gives them a fighting chance again. It also means that mages need to sacrifice more of their learning time to learn sneaky tactics and additional spells instead of just sticking to *blow them all up* spells.

 

Also attacks are at least partially mundane now so they can be stopped by mundane means (however spectacular they may need to be).

 

*actually, now that I think about it, a system very much like this was in force in Tim Powers's book The Drawing of the Dark: the world's two most powerful wizards are present at the siege of Vienna, but neither can do anything while the other is there. However, they don't dare leave because the other one could instantly win the battle if his power was not held in check. As a result, they sit and watch while the siege is fought by conventional means.

 

I hadn't heard of this but its good. So all spell casters have a Suppress (up to highest AP power) all other mages magical abilities AoE, Always On, NCC.

[Lucius]

Re: High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested)

 

Who's Valdemar?

 

Cheers, Mark

 

M. Lackey's land of Heralds and Herald Mages.

 

I don't know if she grew up reading comics or what, but her characters strike me sometimes as being very much overpowered comic book superheroes in a fanasy setting. Enough so that you sometimes wonder what the soldiers are hanging around for, if not for "spell fodder."

 

Mind you, I'm not saying I don't like her characters or her stories. But some of them have powers that probably break a standard Champions game's active point limits.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary says "and what is it with these Companions, anyway?"

[The Monster]

Re: High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested)

 

In Dymeria (the biggest empire in the current game) they have colleges of battle magic, where mages are trained to be basically living artillery. They work in teams of 20 (a "battle" - the basic Dymerian unit), usually two adepts and 18 apprentices of various capabilities. In battle, one mage concentrates on offensive spells while the other holds an action or manipulates defensive magics. The apprentices assist with either Aid spells to pump the Adept's spells up or support their casting, or cast minor defensive magics to deflect arrows, telekinese charging warriors away, etc. This lets the adepts focus on big, flashy killing spells, teleporting their elite warriors on top of enemy spell casters or into the middle of pike blocks or similar tricks , turning the ground to mud, etc.

.

 

 

A set of apprentices casting various Aid spells makes for an extremely powerful wizard. I've used this scheme a couple times, and it's always really scary until the players twig onto the fact that the apprentices are fairly easy to take down, and once they're gone the main villain is much less awesome. Even a simple team of three (Aid INT for the spellcasting rolls, Aid END, and a Force Field or other defense) works very well. (It also plays into the one advantage NPCs really have over PCs - teamwork. I've seen almost no PCs who were built primarily to assist other PCs.)

[Zorak1003]

Re: High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested)

 

I like the 10 plagues a lot better than the blessings- Almost any of those would end up giving you a really nice, stress-free, prosperous- and hence BORING- Fantasy Realm.

 

Just because you CAN do it in the system doesn't mean it would be good for the campaign. (Like the harmless looking self propelled wagon in the original Magic Items book- Essentuially a CAR that used no fuel. Horrifying in its implications to the world.)

[Blue Jogger]

Re: High power magic (Brainstorming welcome and requested)

 

Alter Terrain

 

This is the spell for making mapmakers cry. It raises mountains from molehills, bends the course of mighty rivers, creates (nearly) bottomless chasms and generally alters the landscape to the wizard's liking. Luckily, few mages have felt the need to spend their magical energies in this direction.

 

5d6 Major Transform (Terrain into other Terrain), +1 Area Effect, +1/2 Any type of Altered Terrain, Megascale +1/2 (225 active points, Affects a 220 km radius)