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Old 07-30-2018, 11:51 AM   #1
Chris Goodwin
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Hillsboro, Oregon, USA
Default Five New Practical Magic Spells

This is a thread for rules discussion and questions regarding the spells in the latest stretch goal. Article is online here: http://thefantasytrip.game/news/2018...pells-for-tft/

My question: can Ferment be used on living targets? I can see at least two ways it could be, each with its good and bad points:
  • Gut flora. Improve someone's overall gastrointestinal health with probiotics, or make them utterly miserable in the short term and with potential long term effects
  • Causing infection in wounds, or controlling it (see also "angel's glow").
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Old 07-30-2018, 12:08 PM   #2
larsdangly
 
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Default Re: Five New Practical Magic Spells

I haven't thought much about Ferment yet, but I really like Summon Scout! A great little addition to the spell list that will provide a lot of utility to creative, proactive players.
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Old 07-30-2018, 12:44 PM   #3
JLV
 
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Default Re: Five New Practical Magic Spells

Actually, I think they're all pretty good -- and a perfect example of something TFT needed more of back when it was first published. I'm glad we're seeing that lack being "officially" rectified now, that's for sure! ;-)
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Old 07-30-2018, 01:27 PM   #4
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Default Re: Five New Practical Magic Spells

Summon Spy:


Can the casting wizard listen through the animal spy's ears?


For that matter, smell things through the spy's nose?
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Old 07-30-2018, 09:28 PM   #5
luguvalium
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Default Re: Five New Practical Magic Spells

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Goodwin View Post

My question: can Ferment be used on living targets? I can see at least two ways it could be, each with its good and bad points:
  • Gut flora. Improve someone's overall gastrointestinal health with probiotics, or make them utterly miserable in the short term and with potential long term effects
  • Causing infection in wounds, or controlling it (see also "angel's glow").
Do "germs" as we know them exist on Cidri? Germ Theory is only 150 years old on Earth before that diseases, fermentation, etc could have just as easily been explained as magic.
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Old 07-31-2018, 12:32 AM   #6
zot
 
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Default Re: Five New Practical Magic Spells

Quote:
Originally Posted by stefanj View Post
Summon Spy:


Can the casting wizard listen through the animal spy's ears?


For that matter, smell things through the spy's nose?
I've always taken "see through the eyes of the summoned beings, images, or illusions" to mean "perceive through the senses" but according to the RAW, it's only seeing. A wizard can hear through the ears of a Proxy, though.
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Old 07-31-2018, 12:35 AM   #7
zot
 
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Default Re: Five New Practical Magic Spells

Excellent new spells!

It looks like Pathfinder requires an IQ roll instead of a DX roll, but I didn't see that actually stated in the spell.
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Old 07-31-2018, 08:26 AM   #8
David Bofinger
 
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Default Re: Five New Practical Magic Spells

Quote:
Originally Posted by luguvalium View Post
Do "germs" as we know them exist on Cidri? Germ Theory is only 150 years old on Earth before that diseases, fermentation, etc could have just as easily been explained as magic.
  1. Just because germ theory doesn't exist is no reason to think germs don't. Cidri is, as far as we can tell, meant to be in our universe. The laws of the universe are the same there as here, we just haven't discovered all of them.
  2. It's easy to forget that Cidri is not just a pseudo-mediaeval setting, it's also a post-apocalyptic one: heir to remnants of the learning of many alternate Earths, gathered by the Mnoren. Some of them had "space travel" - it's not clear what that means but at worst they were almost as technically advanced as we are. Clearly the Mnoren technology was much better than ours, and their science as well. A lot of that knowledge will have been lost, but the germ theory of disease is so useful I'm betting that at least Scholars and Physickers will know it.
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Old 07-31-2018, 08:41 AM   #9
David Bofinger
 
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Default Re: Five New Practical Magic Spells

If a reptile man wizard casts Summon Scout, does he get a lizard instead of a mammal? What about a merfolk getting a fish? Or does it depend on the environment?

I don't like the omniscience of Pathfinder but I'm not sure how else you would do it. You don't want people repeatedly casting the spell to learn more and more, so you can't have them asking questions. The way it's done at least avoids that problem. (It reminds me of Greg Egan's Quarantine, where the characters get split into two quantum states, follow both paths, meet up at the end and decide which path was better, the one that wasn't better vanishes. Egan's version is much more powerful.)

If there's going to be a Friendship spell then there should be a Hostility one as well, with the reverse effect, but maybe it doesn't make them hate the caster.

It might be interesting to have a spell that made everyone unable to understand each other's speech, and perhaps even unable to understand why everyone else was talking funny and only they were unaffected. (I'd like to call it Babel but that doesn't make sense.)

Hard to imagine very many people will learn to Delete Writing. I presume it also erases drawings, paintings, etc.?
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Old 07-31-2018, 11:08 AM   #10
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Default Re: Five New Practical Magic Spells

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Bofinger View Post
Hard to imagine very many people will learn to Delete Writing. I presume it also erases drawings, paintings, etc.?
Is there a spell that would undo just burning the thing? Because I'm having trouble imagining spending an IQ point for a spell when you can just throw a document into a fire, or tear it up, or eat it I guess.

[Okay! Three dice against Strength for your character to jam the entire death warrant down their gullet before the guards get it away from you.]
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