Question about Amulet enchant

[Mistofshadows]

I'm a bit confused on how the Amulet spell works. (My apologies if this question has been asked before, I couldn't find it.)

Amulet
Enchantment An amulet is an item that grants the wearer magic resistance against a specific spell. Amulets are often enchanted with several Amulet spells, to cover a wide spectrum of effects. Although most amulets are pieces of jewelry, any item may be so enchanted. It is even possible to tattoo an amulet onto its wearer! The enchanter uses the lower of his skills with Amulet and the spell being opposed. Amulets also work against variants of the base spell: an amulet against Fireball also works against Explosive Fireball.


It says it gives you magic resistance... then gives an example of a fireball... yet under magic resistance direct damage missile spells like that aren't subject to magic resistance... so it's using an invalid spell in the description... or does it function differently?


Magic Resistance only interferes with spells cast directly on you. It provides no benefit against Missile spells (which are cast on the wizard’s hand and hurled at you), attacks by magic weapons, or information gathering spells that aren’t cast directly on you.

So... by that logic... even if a spell has a resistance roll... it doesn't help if it's a missile spell?


I'm a bit confused what the point of the Amulet Enchant is if the example doesn't even work.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Mistofshadows

I'm a bit confused on how the Amulet spell works.

I'm a bit confused what the point of the Amulet Enchant is if the example doesn't even work.

What you do is abck up and look at Talisman the previous Spell. Talisman is even a prereq for Amulet. Talisman offers a broader range of benefits and Amulet should probably use the same verbiage as Talisman.

So if you have a Talisman for Fireball it gives a bonus to the Active Defense v. that Spell (usually Dodge). An Amulet should work like a permanent Talisman but I suspect an unartful edit obscured that.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

What you do is abck up and look at Talisman the previous Spell. Talisman is even a prereq for Amulet. Talisman offers a broader range of benefits and Amulet should probably use the same verbiage as Talisman.

The verbiage about fireballs is in fact cut and pasted from talisman (Talismans also work against variants of the base spell: a talisman against Fireball also works against Explosive Fireball.) and is similar to the Ward spell. It is somewhat annoying that each effect has its own unique mechanics.

[Mistofshadows]

That makes a certain amount of sense... that said... they didn't fix it in the errata.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Mistofshadows

That makes a certain amount of sense... that said... they didn't fix it in the errata.

<shrug> We don't get much errata anymore.

If you wonder why it wasn't fixed earlier including in 3e after it appeared in Grimoire (though it seems to have first in Middle Ages and Vikings) and the answer is probably that it hasn't ended up being used much.

It may well have been a good match in the creator's mind for Real World "amulets" that were suposed to protect agaisnt X but Gurps has too many different Spells to make specialized protection look really attractive.

[Mistofshadows]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

It may well have been a good match in the creator's mind for Real World "amulets" that were suposed to protect agaisnt X but Gurps has too many different Spells to make specialized protection look really attractive.

Yeah... I'm just in a Harry Potter style campaign.. and most of the spells are missile spells so it's a bit useless as worded. It will probably get slightly more useful when we hit other settings... it's just frustrating... a permanent version of the talisman spell would be really useful.

But yeah, I can see why it wouldn't get used much... (outside of having college magic) spending two points for a useless spell... probably didn't get used that much.