Spells for creating weapons

[thedanster7000]

One of my players wants to make his character able to create weapons made of ice using magic. I thought about using Shape Water, Freeze, and Armory skill to do this but it seems a bit slow and complicated. Is there a way to do this?

[sir_pudding]

Ice Daggers is a missile spell that does this. Otherwise you probably want a new spell.

[Bicorn]

I'd probably let them have a custom spell based on Create Item. It'd let them make weapons and tools made of magical ice that melt when dropped. That the items are ice instead of "solidifed illusion" or whatever Creations are is basically just a special effect.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Bicorn

I'd probably let them have a custom spell based on Create Item. It'd let them make weapons and tools made of magical ice that melt when dropped. That the items are ice instead of "solidifed illusion" or whatever Creations are is basically just a special effect.

I would go with the Create Object idea but change the prerequisites so your creating an ice object, not an illusion.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Refplace

I would go with the Create Object idea but change the prerequisites so your creating an ice object, not an illusion.

Another vote for this solution. Just add a clone of the Create Object spell to the Water college and set the prereqs -- I think I'd just go with Freeze (which entails Shape Water and Create Water).

I'm assuming you're using the standard magic system (as seen in Basic and GURPS Magic), of course. If "using magic" means something else in your game, there'd be a different answer.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Another vote for this solution. Just add a clone of the Create Object spell to the Water college and set the prereqs -- I think I'd just go with Freeze (which entails Shape Water and Create Water).

I'm assuming you're using the standard magic system (as seen in Basic and GURPS Magic), of course. If "using magic" means something else in your game, there'd be a different answer.

I agree with this as well. Also note that the ice melts, not vanishes when its no longer touching someone.

[sir_pudding]

Objects made with Create Object can fool people, and I suspect the intent here is that these weapons look like ice sculpture.

I would also have it give +2 damage to objects used as weapons (which doesn't stack with Icy Weapon).

[thedanster7000]

I think I'll go with a create object clone then. Would the quality of all the weapons be cheap, with the Icy Weapon bonuses?

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by thedanster7000

I think I'll go with a create object clone then. Would the quality of all the weapons be cheap, with the Icy Weapon bonuses?

I would just put in some fluff about "supernaturally strong ice" because you really don't want to be messing around with density and weapon weight.

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by thedanster7000

I think I'll go with a create object clone then. Would the quality of all the weapons be cheap, with the Icy Weapon bonuses?

Depends on how "realistic" you're being, I think. Realistically, yes, a weapon made of regular ice would probably count as cheap-quality at best. But if you're doing that, you should probably discount the spell's energy cost even more, compared to Create Object, since that doesn't create cheap-quality items, and it would be unfair to charge as much for a spell that does.

Alternatively (and this is what I'd do), you could just say "to heck with 'realism', this is a wizard creating magic weapons out of magic ice!", and let them have full weapon quality. Honestly, if you're giving the Icy Weapon bonus, you're probably already beyond the realm of just "frozen water" - stabbing someone with an icicle just below the freezing point of water is not going to add +2 damage to whatever impaling damage the icicle would do.

Actually, you could make the spell a bit more interesting by making the cost variable depending on the weapon quality: something relatively low for cheap-quality, slightly higher for good, and expensive for Fine or even Very Fine.