aiming missile spells

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Close Contact Shots doesn't let you use a melee skill though, you are still rolling against Guns. So by analogy you'd just be rolling against Innate Attack at +4 or +8 and the target gets +2 to defend (and you lose active defenses if you chose to AoA). It might be a reasonable style perk to allow close contact missile spells with an unarmed striking skill, or Staff or a sword skill (for magical staves and wands) though.

I'd allow it, but I'm not sure why you would go for it when the normal Skill is Easy anyway.

[Graey]

Originally Posted by The Benj

I'd allow it, but I'm not sure why you would go for it when the normal Skill is Easy anyway.

The NPC I was asking about this for has a Staff skill of 20 already and rather than upping Innate Attack to a high level also I wanted to couple it with her melee attacks. She is primarily a close combat/melee fighter anyway. And I find it easier to hit in melee (Feint, Deceptive Attack, multiple attacks, etc) than from a distance. Beginning combat with a prepped 6d or 9d Lightning spell doesn't do much good when it never hits.


Thanks for all the answers, guys. I think I will probably end up perking it. It would fit in nicely as a style perk.

[Xplo]

Originally Posted by Graey

Do you have to aim a missile spell at a person/creature, or can you aim at an object (or the ground)? It's rather bothersome having your missile spells blocked. Could you, for example, aim Concussion at the ground amongst a group of baddies, avoiding any chance of it being blocked, and go straight to them all having to make HT -3 checks to avoid stun?

If so, can you aim at someone's shield? If that's the case, why won't it just simply go off if you're aiming at the person and they block it? Does a block somehow deactivate the spell, or does the shield physically block the blast?

GURPS normally assumes that shields are indestructible; this is unrealistic, but avoids extra bookkeeping. There are optional rules for tracking damage to shields and (IIRC) shield penetration, so if you want to use those, and someone tries to block (say) a 9d Fireball, it's entirely possible that it will blow right through the shield.

Spells don't just automatically fizzle when blocked; if the spell isn't powerful enough to penetrate the shield, or you're not using those rules, then the spell physically impacts the shield... but if it's a direct damage spell with no area effect, it's not going to have any meaningful effect anyway.

In the case of an area spell, like Concussion, the hex it's in when it hits someone's shield is the hex where it takes effect. I don't have my books with me so I can't look up what happens when you try to block area effect attacks with a shield. You certainly can aim for a shield, but since there's no penalty to hit the torso, where the spell will detonate whether they block it or not, there's probably no point unless you're specifically trying to destroy the shield, and if a player tries to get creative (e.g. using the blast from Concussion to knock a shield out of someone's hand) it may come down to a GM ruling.

As for blocking all the time being annoying... why yes, it is! There are ways around this, including hitting people from behind, hitting them by surprise, destroying or taking away their shield, using area attacks (choking gas clouds, perhaps?) that can't be blocked, swarming them with attacks so they can't block them all, and so forth.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Xplo

In the case of an area spell, like Concussion, the hex it's in when it hits someone's shield is the hex where it takes effect. I don't have my books with me so I can't look up what happens when you try to block area effect attacks with a shield.

Nope. Concussion in particular is good for this: they can block the $#!% out of it, and still suffer the area stun.

Originally Posted by Xplo

As for blocking all the time being annoying... why yes, it is! There are ways around this, including hitting people from behind, hitting them by surprise, destroying or taking away their shield, using area attacks (choking gas clouds, perhaps?) that can't be blocked, swarming them with attacks so they can't block them all, and so forth.

Yep. Blocking is balanced, not uber.