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Old 04-13-2018, 07:47 AM   #1
ArchonShiva
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
Default Shortened spell duration and maintenance

Am I reading these two things correctly:
1. When casting a spell, you can specify a shorter duration than normal. (DFS11, Canceling Spells box)
2. When a maintainable spell’s duration ends, you can pay its maintenance cost to make it last another interval equal to its (shortened) duration.
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Old 04-13-2018, 09:14 AM   #2
johndallman
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Default Re: Shortened spell duration and maintenance

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Originally Posted by ArchonShiva View Post
Am I reading these two things correctly:
1. When casting a spell, you can specify a shorter duration than normal. (DFS11, Canceling Spells box)
2. When a maintainable spell’s duration ends, you can pay its maintenance cost to make it last another interval equal to its (shortened) duration.
Yes ... Deciding to maintain a spell that you'd cast with a shorter duration probably means your plan has changed. I could see it being useful if the maintenance was free and you had some devious scheme that involved a spell that's normally long-lasting cutting out early, but at a time you couldn't predict.
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Old 04-13-2018, 09:25 AM   #3
ArchonShiva
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
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Default Re: Shortened spell duration and maintenance

Well, the entire point is to maintain free spells in one-second increments to skip paying 1 energy to end the prematurely.
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Old 04-13-2018, 10:48 AM   #4
Kromm
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Default Re: Shortened spell duration and maintenance

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Originally Posted by ArchonShiva View Post

Well, the entire point is to maintain free spells in one-second increments to skip paying 1 energy to end the prematurely.
I suppose you could do that if you're really worried about saving an energy point. Me, I'd worry more about the spell not lasting more than a second if I'm knocked out.

I can think many situations where "Oh, no! I got knocked out! This buff on my ally or debuff/area-denial/crowd-control spell on the enemy is going to conk out in one second!" would be a huge problem, but relatively few where "Oh, no! I have to end this spell ASAP but I can't afford 1 FP!" would be even a minor issue. Both are possibilities, of course, but putting spells on a one-second timer means that hitting buffing and crowd-control casters who are already prime targets can really hurt the party that relies on magic, with the only gain being 1 FP saved in the rare situation where, say, you no longer want the barbarian to have Might and Shield because he got mind-controlled.

And you can bet that I'd let enemy casters roll vs. Thaumatology (which covers "letting you recognize a spell cast by an enemy wizard") to realize what's going on! If the PCs can do that to reveal enemy weaknesses, it's only fair to let enemies do it, too.
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Old 04-13-2018, 01:30 PM   #5
ArchonShiva
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
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Default Re: Shortened spell duration and maintenance

Awesome. Interesting decisions with trade-offs are always better than no-brainer or no decision.

I was thinking about spells more useful for exploration than combat, *intended* to be dropped at the first sign of trouble, to increase effective skill for resisted spells.
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Old 08-30-2023, 04:10 PM   #6
sjmdw45
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Default Re: Shortened spell duration and maintenance

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Originally Posted by Kromm View Post
I can think many situations where "Oh, no! I got knocked out! This buff on my ally or debuff/area-denial/crowd-control spell on the enemy is going to conk out in one second!" would be a huge problem, but relatively few where "Oh, no! I have to end this spell ASAP but I can't afford 1 FP!" would be even a minor issue. Both are possibilities, of course, but putting spells on a one-second timer means that hitting buffing and crowd-control casters who are already prime targets can really hurt the party that relies on magic, with the only gain being 1 FP saved in the rare situation where, say, you no longer want the barbarian to have Might and Shield because he got mind-controlled.
I just talked to a player who wants to be able to keep Heat spells on six characters including himself during mountain exploration without being penalized by -6 in combat situations. This trick seems ideal for that case, because spending 6 FP to drop 6 spells is expensive.

(Normally Resist Cold would seem more appropriate but I assume the GM made a ruling that Heat can be capped at some reasonable temperature instead of automatically going to 2800 degrees F.)
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Old 08-30-2023, 07:29 PM   #7
mburr0003
 
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Default Re: Shortened spell duration and maintenance

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Originally Posted by sjmdw45 View Post
I just talked to a player who wants to be able to keep Heat spells on six characters including himself during mountain exploration without being penalized by -6 in combat situations. This trick seems ideal for that case, because spending 6 FP to drop 6 spells is expensive.

(Normally Resist Cold would seem more appropriate but I assume the GM made a ruling that Heat can be capped at some reasonable temperature instead of automatically going to 2800 degrees F.)
Unless they learned Heat way higher than Resist Cold (or they expect temps below -40F) I'm not seeing the advantage... Heat would cost 2FP per person just like Resist Cold.

Unless they're just heating some items of clothing, in which case we get into GM fiats of "how much clothing counts as 'one thing' versus multiple things".
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Old 08-30-2023, 07:56 PM   #8
sjmdw45
 
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Default Re: Shortened spell duration and maintenance

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Originally Posted by mburr0003 View Post
Unless they learned Heat way higher than Resist Cold (or they expect temps below -40F) I'm not seeing the advantage... Heat would cost 2FP per person just like Resist Cold.
Not burning yourself to death at 2800 degrees F seems like an advantage to me. Ditto immunity to cold damage and paralyzation from freezing attacks.

Last edited by sjmdw45; 08-31-2023 at 01:42 PM.
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