Spell: Inflict Wounds by Touch (Harming Hand)

[Hierax]

This thread is about spells that cause damage by a mere touch.

Please feel free to critique my version and/or to post your own versions...

(rep to those I can spread it to!)

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I wanted to create a spell something like the D&D Cause x Wounds, the various Death Touch spells, and the Black Hand of Set from Conan:

Inflict Wounds 6 (Hierax’s Hand of Harm)

Effect:

HKA 2d6 plus 6 points of Piercing (both Resistant and Non-)

 

Target/Area Affected:

One Character

 

Casting Time:

Delayed Phase

 

Casting Procedures:

Focus, Gestures, Incantations

 

Duration:

Instant

 

Range:

Touch

 

Magic Roll Penalty:

–

 

END Cost:

1 Charge

Description: When a priest casts this quick prayer, he lays his hand upon a living target creature and channels a black burst of crackling deadly negative energy into the body of the victim, inflicting terrible wounds and pain. The more powerful the priest is the more damage the touch inflicts and the more it pierces through the target’s defenses. Anyone slain by this spell is left with blackened hand-print. The touch only harms living creatures, it does not affect inanimate objects nor animated non-living constructs. Since undead and unliving creatures are powered by negative energy, this spell cures any such a creature of a like amount of damage rather than harming it (treat as a simplified Heal of same Active Points). Unlike a Drain attack, the wounds remain even if the target wasn’t slain outright but they do heal normally.

 

Game Information: HKA 2d6 vs. ED [2d6+1 with EGO 15, 3d6-1 with EGO 20, 3d6 with EGO 25, 3d6+1 with EGO 30…] (30 Base Points), plus 6 points of Piercing (both Resistant and Normal Defenses) (+30 Base Points); (60 Active Points); Charges (one; -2), Concentration (½ DCV; -¼), EGO instead of STR increases damage (-0), EGO Minimum (10; -½), Extra Time (Delayed Phase, -¼), Focus (OIF – Divine Holy Symbol or Relic, -½), Gestures (-¼), Incantations (-¼), Not vs. Constructs and Objects (-¼), Only When Serving The God's Purposes / Religious Restrictions / Divine Favor (-½), Power Defence or Defence vs. Negative Energy Attacks Counts (-¼), Required Hands (one-handed; -0), Side Effects - Heals Negative Energy Creatures and Undead (Side Effect can be beneficial; +0) (-5; 10 Real Points).

 

Options:

·

Scaled:

1 DC and 1 point of Piercing (both Resistant and Normal) per Level of Priest

·

Weak:

1d6+1 with 4 points of Piercing

·

Strong:

3d6-1 with 8 points of Piercing

·

Faster:

don’t allow anything less than Delayed Phase to stick to the Sword & Sorcery flavour

 

·

Slow:

Extra Segment (-½)

[requires house rule to allow caster to track target]

.

 

·

Slower:

Extra Phase (-¾)

[requires house rule to allow caster to track target]

.

 

·

Slowest:

Extra Phase, Delayed Phase (-1)

[requires house rule to allow caster to track target]

.

 

·

Non-Fanatical Priest:

add Requires a Skill Roll (Faith), -6 to Roll.

 

·

Spell Point

(instead of Spell Slot) Casting: remove Charges Limitation, 6 END to cast.

 

·

Penetrating instead of Piercing:

Remove Piercing from base power, add Penetrating (x2; +1) or Penetrating

and

Armor Piercing.

 

·

Saving Roll

to Avoid or Reduce damage:

http://www.hierax.com/hero/house/saving_throws.pdf

 

·

Ranged:

Add Ranged Advantage. Ray attack instead of Touch.

 

·

Lingering:

add Lingering Advantage to allow multiple attacks with the same spell in a short span of time.

Categories: Necromancy, Destruction, (anti-) Healing, ...

 

Caster & Spell Levels: 6/3

 

Design Notes: I went with HKA because Drain really wasn’t an efficient way to build this effect because the wounds fade far too quickly for the Active Point cost relative to the effect of Heal. NND or AVLD Does BODY are too expensive of ways to get past the armor of the target touched and Armor Piercing and Penetrating didn’t quite feel right either, and I liked the way that Piercing scales nicely with the level of the priest, so I went with it. Warriors get a bonus to their weapon attack damage based on STR so it makes sense that Spell-Casters should get a bonus to the attack damage of their spells (sort of like the Fantasy Hero suggestion to use an INT Min) based on their willpower (EGO); I could have gone with a No Range RKA but why bother when HKA already adds damage, just change it to the appropriate Characteristic; furthermore, following the logic of Mental Paralysis I could have had EGO instead of STR be a -¼ Limitation but I figured that Spell-Casters are likely to have as high an EGO as Warriors do STR so it is -0, IMO. Optionally, the EGO Minimum could be scaled by the level of the spell as +1 EGO per level of the spell (16 EGO for the 6th level caster’s spell depicted here at the HERO default power-level), but I think that a bonus derived from the Average baseline CHA of 10 is sufficient (15 EGO = +1 DC, 20 EGO = +2 DC, 25 EGO = +3 DC, 30 EGO = +4 DC, …).

 

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To make comparisons easy I tried to to stay close to the Fantasy Hero System Grimoire format and list my spell at the 60 Active Point HERO default power-level.

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: Spell: Inflict Wounds by Touch (Harming Hand)

 

I like it. Just out of curiosity, how did you arive at the EGO minimum of 10? And that is is a -1/2 Limitation?

[Hierax]

Re: Spell: Inflict Wounds by Touch (Harming Hand)

 

Warriors get a bonus to their weapon attack damage based on STR so it makes sense that Spell-Casters should get a bonus to the attack damage of their spells (sort of like the Fantasy Hero suggestion to use an INT Min) based on their willpower (EGO).

EGO Min of 10 is the same cost as a STR Min of 10 (-½).

 

Roughly speaking my thinking for doing so was that:

• 10 is the CHA average so anything above it is above average and thus worthy of a bonus and anything below it is worthy of a penalty.

• when even a high EGO bonus is taken into account, comparing the results of this kind of HKA to either a Drain BODY and to a Heal BODY the Standard Effect comes to roughly the same for the same power (AP) level, so that the attack is actually balanced against the restoration of the attack (at all power levels) ! (the regular Drain or KA NND, Does BODY were too weak to balance out with the healing)
  

[Coyotecloudchas]

Re: Spell: Inflict Wounds by Touch (Harming Hand)

 

I love the idea of having EGO add to the HKA damage, and having an EGO min. Very creative!

I would rather people buy this spell as NND (Magic Force Field, Undead), Does Body though because this spell SHOULD be expensive to buy with points and mostly in the hands of villains anyway.

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: Spell: Inflict Wounds by Touch (Harming Hand)

 

EGO Min of 10 is the same cost as a STR Min of 10 (-½).

Yes, I understood that part, but how did you arive at the "10 Min" = -1/2 lim? Is there something in the book(s) that gives such a guideline? I seem to remember a "STR Min - Limitations" table in 4th ed., but that one tied the min to the AP of the weapon/power(s) involved.

[Hierax]

Re: Spell: Inflict Wounds by Touch (Harming Hand)

 

ah, I see the page reference:

H5er.479 or H5e.328

[Ockham's Spoon]

Re: Spell: Inflict Wounds by Touch (Harming Hand)

 

I built some Spectral Gloves for a Fantasy Hero campaign once, which were sewn from the skin of a spectre. The effect was to allow the character to have a "bare-handed" strike that by-passed armor (for ninja-type characters who used martial arts attacks a lot). I built it as a naked Armor Piercing advantage for up to 8 DC of attack for bare-handed strikes. But based on your description, the HKA seems like a better way to model your spell.

 

My initial reaction would be to build this as NND Does BDY, but upon reflection, I think that Penetrating would be better. Armor wouldn't stop the damage, but it would prevent a full contact touch so it might lessen it. And I love the Side Effect vs. Undead - no advantage or limitation but nice flavor!

 

________________________________________________________

The rich scare me. They can already evade taxes. - Grim Reaper

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: Spell: Inflict Wounds by Touch (Harming Hand)

 

ah, I see the page reference:

H5er.479 or H5e.328

D'oh! I must have flipped past this page a dozen times without seeing that table!

 

We need a "slap yourself in the head" smiley. Something like this :doh

[Frenchman]

Re: Spell: Inflict Wounds by Touch (Harming Hand)

 

I've always used a Drain Body for harm-touch spells and the like. Since there's a rule somewhere that a character always takes at least 1 stun for each point of body dealt, it works nicely as what it is meant to be: A dangerous, if not out-right deadly, touch spell that ignores mundane defenses that does a great deal of lasting physical harm compared to the amount of pain it inflicts.

[Hierax]

Re: Spell: Inflict Wounds by Touch (Harming Hand)

 

The problem with Drain is precisely that the harm is not lasting. That's one of the reasons why I went with a Killing Attack instead.