Indentifying Spells (while they are being cast)

[Christopher R. Rice]

Soooo I was wondering, I know its a bit DnD'ish but how would one go about identifying a spell as it was being cast at you. I was thinking something like this:

Indentify Spell (Technique)
Hard
Default: Thaumatology-10; cannot exceed Thaumatology.

This technique allows you to identify a spell being cast in your presence. When learning Indentify Spell, base Thaumatology on Per, not on IQ. If you cannot observe your opponents spell rituals add an additional -5 penalty, if he has no rituals add -10! These can of course be bought off as normal.
If there are multiple types of magic you must specify by type, furthermore a different skill might be required for different systems, for instance Ritual Magic might require the Ritual Magic skill, not Thaumatology.

(Based on the Time Spent rules use of -10 to do something *instantly*)

But I'd like to know what others might use in there game.


Ghostdancer

[Dinadon]

You can already make a Thuamatology roll at full skill to identify spells, see Magic p.9. At most I would add a penalty based on the prerequisite count, but only counting spells you don't have. A technique seems like overkill...

[rosignol]

Originally Posted by Dinadon

You can already make a Thuamatology roll at full skill to identify spells, see Magic p.9. At most I would add a penalty based on the prerequisite count, but only counting spells you don't have. A technique seems like overkill...

Dunno, a penalty based on your opponent's lack of ritual does seem reasonable and appropriate.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Dinadon

You can already make a Thuamatology roll at full skill to identify spells, see Magic p.9. At most I would add a penalty based on the prerequisite count, but only counting spells you don't have. A technique seems like overkill...

The way I read it (and I could definitely be wrong!) is that you need to observe it being cast, thats why I thought a higher penalty for observing it instantly.

Originally Posted by rosignol

Dunno, a penalty based on your opponent's lack of ritual does seem reasonable and appropriate.

My thoughts exactly. Problem is the box is a bit vague. How long does it take to figure out what spell is what? Do you need to wait after your opponent has cast it, before, somewhere in the middle?

Ghostdancer

[Captain-Captain]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Soooo I was wondering, I know its a bit DnD'ish but how would one go about identifying a spell as it was being cast at you. I was thinking something like this:

Indentify Spell (Technique)
Hard
Default: Thaumatology-10; cannot exceed Thaumatology.

This technique allows you to identify a spell being cast in your presence. When learning Indentify Spell, base Thaumatology on Per, not on IQ. If you cannot observe your opponents spell rituals add an additional -5 penalty, if he has no rituals add -10! These can of course be bought off as normal.
If there are multiple types of magic you must specify by type, furthermore a different skill might be required for different systems, for instance Ritual Magic might require the Ritual Magic skill, not Thaumatology.

(Based on the Time Spent rules use of -10 to do something *instantly*)

But I'd like to know what others might use in there game.


Ghostdancer

Practically speaking it's difficult. Many spells have a 1 second casting time and at typical skill levels professional wizards have you only need to whisper and wiggle a couple of fingers and for the well advanced 20+ skill level characters, yoyu merely think a spell into existence.

This effectively makes Counterspell fairly useless.

I'd suggest the following modifiers: ! turn spell -1. Skill 15-19 -3 Skill 20+: Convince the GM why your character is entitled to make that roll at all.

[mlangsdorf]

A skilled Thaumotologist should be able to figure out what spell someone is casting by reading the changes in the local magical environment. He doesn't look at the rituals that the caster is using.

I'd probably give a substantial penalty (-8 or more) to identify magic if no rituals are used, but I'd allow it.

[benz72]

GIven that magery adds to thaumatology I'd agree with mlangsdorf above with the caveat that the prospective perceptor MUST have at least magery 0. Anything less is a purely theoretical understanding without being able to observe the fluctuations occurring in the first place.
For comparison, one does not recieve a penalty to defend against an attacker with ATR (not the first one at least) no matter how fast he is (that I know of).

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Captain-Captain

Practically speaking it's difficult. Many spells have a 1 second casting time and at typical skill levels professional wizards have you only need to whisper and wiggle a couple of fingers and for the well advanced 20+ skill level characters, yoyu merely think a spell into existence.

This effectively makes Counterspell fairly useless.

I'd suggest the following modifiers: ! turn spell -1. Skill 15-19 -3 Skill 20+: Convince the GM why your character is entitled to make that roll at all.

Which was one of my issues in my current campaign when one of the PC's simply asked of me "What is Mage X casting?" I like your approach, thanks, might alter and modify it for my purposes :)

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

A skilled Thaumotologist should be able to figure out what spell someone is casting by reading the changes in the local magical environment. He doesn't look at the rituals that the caster is using.

I'd probably give a substantial penalty (-8 or more) to identify magic if no rituals are used, but I'd allow it.

Ditto. So Magery 0 is a definite prerequisite for the Technique. Has this ever come up in your DF game btw?

Originally Posted by benz72

GIven that magery adds to thaumatology I'd agree with mlangsdorf above with the caveat that the prospective perceptor MUST have at least magery 0. Anything less is a purely theoretical understanding without being able to observe the fluctuations occurring in the first place.
For comparison, one does not recieve a penalty to defend against an attacker with ATR (not the first one at least) no matter how fast he is (that I know of).

I agree (other than the whole moving to fast for your opponent to fire a ranged weapon at you though; since they do take a penalty for your speed)

Has this ever come up any of your games? If so how did you deal with it then?

Also, as Cap brought up, if you don't know what spell your opponent is using how the heck is Counterspell even remotely useful? You wouldn't just cast the spell every time and hope you knew the spell that was being cast against you. Your FP would go bye-bye in no time.

Ghostdancer