Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - [Thought exercise] A Lich capturing an Angelic Emissary?

SolemnGolem · 05-07-2017, 05:52 PM

As I flew around China in recent months, I kept a folded A4 sheet of jottings on this topic, while I browsed my GURPS PDF collection on my Kindle Fire.

The Kindle Fire was recently stolen when I rode on Amtrak. But the thief was kind enough to leave behind the folded A4, thus sparing me the labor of rewriting all the notes.

In the interests of redundancy, I transfer my jottings in this post. I would normally keep it on Google Drive, but Google isn't reliably accessible in China.

Quote:

Phirazaldaea, avatar of the Wardkeeper
ST 18
DX 12
IQ 12
HT 15
HP 25 (meaning it can take up to 150 HP damage before dying, and its high HT means it will likely make its survival rolls at negative HP)
Will 15
Per 12
DR 5
Dodge 11
Parry 12
Sp 7
Move (Air) 19 (Enhanced to 38) (gives a -8 to hit when flying)
MR 4
Regenerates 1HP/hr
No blood or vitals

From Basic Set and Magic:

Control Limb (resisted by Will), ranged works. However, impractical due to Will resist plus MR and Rule of 16. Final difficulty 19.
Total Paralysis, starts with a -5 to target head if melee is even possible, then resisted by HT/MR/Rule of 16. (21)
Could cripple a wing: must do at least 13+ HP to a wing.
Fireball - up to Magery level/sec, up to 3 sec (possibe 18D damage, travels at up to 25 yd/sec, which isn't fast enough to actually hit the angel if it's flying. To actually hit, need a success roll on skill Innate Attack (Projectile) ).
Lightning - (18D-18 damage, but Acc 3 and travels at 50 yd/sec, meaning it could hit angel even at top speed.

Pyramid issues:

3-48 p5 Assassin's Blessing gives +3 to rolls if attuned to the angel, though the "capture" intent may violate the "assassinate" requirement. p8 Magic Bullet (3D+3(2) pi++ could be useful.
3-28 p20 (Ritual Magic, Symbol Drawing, Thaumatology) could give +3 to +6 (with +1 or +2 to final roll if more than one day was used in casting), ritual could give +5 to rolls if over an hour is spent on prep. Additional possible modifiers: +3 unique materials, +5 for statue of Phirazaldaea (sympathy), +2 for bloodied angel wing feathers (contagion), +4 for knowledge of full secret name and titles (name), +5 for sacrifice of Wardkeeper's bishop
3-24 p20 Void Bolt (18D cosmic crushing dmg ignoring all DR + protections at Acc4)

Power Ups 1 Imbuements p11 allows imbuements for spells, consider p8 Guided Weapon (ignore range penalties, needs concentration), p9 Homing Weapon (ignore range penalties and doesn't need concentration).

The above is my research of actual relevant stuff for the specific thought exercise. However, delving through all the materials also turfed up a lot of stuff that wasn't related to the question but was highly useful for statting up the lich itself and other aspects of my campaign, like squirrels. I'll attach these bits in a spoiler as they're not directly germane to the original post.

Spoiler: