Thrown spells using missile weapon drange adjustments

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by hcobb

I cast Explosive Gem on that powerstone attached to that staff on the other side of the room.

Cute but impractical: There are plenty of thrown spells with better tradeoffs than 5 ST for 1+0 damage. Though I guess destroying the staff would be of some use. Casting it on someone's earring could be more upsetting. Destroying a power stone would make you very unpopular during the post-battle loot-the-bodies phase.

As a variant on your idea, have you considered casting Staff on the enemy wizard's Staff? I think the rules are sufficiently ambiguous it could do almost anything.

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

As a variant on your idea, have you considered casting Staff on the enemy wizard's Staff? I think the rules are sufficiently ambiguous it could do almost anything.

Only one Staff spell can be on the same stick at the same time and you need dissolve enchantment to remove an existing enchantment.

[Steve Plambeck]

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

Speaking of thrown spells, does anyone else apply the -1 DX to hit a figure in an adjacent hex if the wizard can actually touch them? We have always used this houserule to avoid the penalty when the wizard wants to cast a spell on an ally standing next to them.

Not because we were out to make Thrown spells easier per se, but because we wanted to improve the Staff spell (way back when there was only the original, single Staff spell) my old group ruled a wizard could have +1 DX for casting a Thrown spell if it was done Staff in hand. Thus the -1 DX penalty for a target one hex away was effectively canceled out. Our version of Staff also made the roll to cast a Thrown spell on oneself, or an adjacent volunteer who was touched by the staff, much easier: only roll 2 vs DX to succeed (nearly if not always automatically successful). I've been told this is similar to how GURPS does it as well.

(The rest of my old Staff house rules is in another post I can't seem to locate just now.)

I can reliably claim +1 DX for Thrown spells doesn't unbalance the game (if 20 years is a sufficient play-test :) Wizard characters weren't as reluctant to attempt the spells, not that they succeeded that much more often, so it made things just a bit more interesting. But I would be very uncomfortable with increasing their effective range any more than one hex. A little spice goes a long way when flavoring magic.