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Old 07-29-2019, 12:18 PM   #10
Skarg
 
Join Date: May 2015
Default Re: Creating "nukes" with the Blast spell?

This seems to me like one of those things a GM needs to decide how they want the version of the spell known in their campaign to work, because it does have some fairly large implications.

Mainly "can a wizard with Blast Trap use it to make deadly exploding arrows, or not?" Because if they can, it's a rather deadly and efficient technique.

In theory, an army can employ a wizard with Blast Trap, powered by apprentices at $25/week for 25 ST/day, to crank out approximately one 3-die Blast Trap per day per apprentice - so something like $5 per 3-die blast trap.

That's definitely worth stocking up arsenals of 3-die exploding arrows and crossbow bolts, for anyone who can get access to them, which would be even more annoying than Hcobb's also-annoying idea that arrows with Brand on them do extra damage.

It's also rather a more powerful use of Blast Trap than using it as a trap, which further implies to me that no, you can't use it for that, or else it would say so, and/or be named differently.

As for how much damage an explosion does to a multi-hex creature, I think it's up to the GM to figure out. I would say it depends on where the explosion happens - if it's on the multi-hex figure or in its hands, I'd tend to think it just takes the "in the same hex" damage only, with the rest of its body being shielded by the part being hit up close. If the center of an explosion were away from a multi-hex figure, I'd tend to think each hex within range could get damaged separately, though of course any armor would apply to each roll.

And for the item mentioned above with two 1d+1 Blast Traps on it, both going off at once, that wouldn't be 2d+2 but two 1d+1 effects, which makes a big difference if armor is involved.

Blast Trap can still be ultra-evil though, as unless some restriction is added, you could cast it on multiple innocent-looking small objects in a single hex to make a very deadly hex.


(BTW, in my original TFT campaign, I had a single bow with an otherwise-unknown enchantment which would allow arrows fired from it to be charged for explosive damage - at age 12 or so, I thought it was very cool (it was inspired by a TV show) and it was fun to watch it lay waste to foes like nothing else, but it was clearly overpowered and got retired out of a growing desire for a game less about people getting easily wiped out by powerful magic items.)

Last edited by Skarg; 07-29-2019 at 12:22 PM.
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