Favorite GURPS:Magic Spells

[Crispythemighty]

Wither Limb
Melee (H)
Caster strikes target on a limb. That limb withers and is considered crippled (as per Basic p.420). Armor does not protect against this spell. The target also takes 1d damage.
Duration: 1 minute per FP used
Cost: 3+
Prerequisite count: 3

[Cybren]

Hows about Throw Spell. Range penalties? Fa!

[Nymdok]

Personal Faves...


regular : Flash
melee : Buring Touch
missile : Fireball
area : Darkness
blocking : Deflect Energy

[Crispythemighty]

Throw Spell
Missile (H)
This spell is cast at the same time as any other spell making that a missile spell.
Duration: Until thrown
Cost: 3
Prerequisite count: 2

In my variant, all ranges penalties are based on the ranges table (basic p.550) with the following modifiers

Regular spell range penalties are doubled.
Information spell range penalties are divided by 4.

With that in mind Throw Spell is still useful but not as much. I might lower the cost for my games.

[rosignol]

Originally Posted by Crispythemighty

Just list one spell for each class (regular, melee, missile, area, information, and blocking) and why to like it (don't want to take away the reason people like to use it). :)

Regular: Blur. Fast to cast, and I have yet to encounter a melee pc who didn't like giving the people swinging at them -5 to hit.

Melee: I'm not really big on melee spells, altho I do like Shocking Touch.

Missile: Sunbolt. Unlike other missile spells, certain defensive spells don't work on it, and it's in the same college as many other useful spells, such as Hawk Vision, Blur, Infravision, Continual Light, and Invisibility.

Area: Force Dome. I know, it's not *intended* to be used as a cage, but Glue or Rooted Feet make it difficult for the other guy to leave the affected area. Or you could do what some of my favorite meat-shields do and cripple (or dismember) the badguy's foot/leg, causing them to be stunned and fall down. By the time they've recovered, they're domed. Or doomed, if I'm doing the silly accent that session.

Information: Seeker/Trace. IMO, the single most useful information spells around, for reasons that should be obvious. Greatly expedites just about any fetch quest.

Blocking: Return Missile is really hard to beat, especially in >TL4 games.

[Not another shrubbery]

I like the Knowledge spells in general... possibly my favorite(s) are the Divination spells, which are great for adding flavor to fantasy campaigns.

One of my first threads was a look at humorous variations of the standard versions in Magic :)

[Crispythemighty]

Deflect Energy
Blocking (H)
Deflects one energy attack that will hit subject. Deflected attacks continue to travel past intended target. Counts as a parry for penalties on multiple parries.
Duration: Instantaneous
Cost: 1
Time to cast: Active Defense
Prerequisite count: 1

In my variant, blocking spells are used just like Active Defenses (half spell skill + 3). As a bonus most defensive options and advantages give bonuses, example: Retreat.

[Crispythemighty]

A few spells I wouldn't change...

Flash (Same)
Regular (H)

Darkness (Same)
Area (H)
Cost: 1
Area Cost: 1 per yard (not affected by high skill)

Never did like limits on spells like this... Building a huge fireball over 10 seconds and spending 30 energy to do 30d fireball to destroy a stationary target or vehicle is pretty cool... although it could be a little abusive.

Fireball (Same)
Missile (H)
No limit on number of seconds you can build the fireball.
Casting time: 1 second+

Burning Touch
Melee (H)
Touched target takes 1d fire damage per energy used. Use Brawl or other unarmed skill to attack.
Cost: Any amount up to your Magery level per second. The fire does 1d burning damage per energy point.
Casting time: 1 second +

Removed the ignores DR part of Burning Touch... its cool but ignores all DR except natural DR... what is natural DR? Fur, Scales, thick hide, GM fiat... and why?

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Crispythemighty

Removed the ignores DR part of Burning Touch... its cool but ignores all DR except natural DR... what is natural DR? Fur, Scales, thick hide, GM fiat... and why?

Why - because basically otherwise it sucks. Terribly. It's a horrible choice compared to using Fireball and being way the heck out of melee combat, which is usually a terrible place to be as a mage.

All the elemental Touch spells bypass DR, as does Deathtouch (which is a little vague but I think it bypasses natural DR as well).

Natural DR is DR that isn't armor or magic. Seems pretty clear cut to me - if you can take it off or have it removed without HP damage, it's natural. This does mean I'd give a monster with iron plates bolted to it the benefit of natural DR.

What's a bigger problem is all the touch spells that don't have a proper damage type - and shocking touch doesn't have any of the normal effects of lightning, unlike most of the lightning spells. I've fixed that in my game.

[Crispythemighty]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Why - because basically otherwise it sucks. Terribly. It's a horrible choice compared to using Fireball and being way the heck out of melee combat, which is usually a terrible place to be as a mage.

I can't disagree that if I had a choice I'd stand in the back and throw fireballs. Although a melee spell doesn't go off if you miss (?) or they successfully defend (Magic p.11). So you can keep trying until it hits or you lose it from some other means. So, in some instances and some character types it can be useful.

Originally Posted by Bruno

All the elemental Touch spells bypass DR, as does Deathtouch (which is a little vague but I think it bypasses natural DR as well).

Natural DR is DR that isn't armor or magic. Seems pretty clear cut to me - if you can take it off or have it removed without HP damage, it's natural. This does mean I'd give a monster with iron plates bolted to it the benefit of natural DR.

That clears that up. I don't know if I like it still but now I know what they mean.

Originally Posted by Bruno

What's a bigger problem is all the touch spells that don't have a proper damage type - and shocking touch doesn't have any of the normal effects of lightning, unlike most of the lightning spells. I've fixed that in my game.

Agreed. Although Shocking Touch notes that is has the same properties as Lighting. What effects is it missing?