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Old 03-10-2018, 12:35 AM   #1
Lameth
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Spell help for Firestorm

I need help creating a spell similar to what was seen in Harry Potter half blood prince used by Dumbledore. Firestorm. The spell is supposed to be a massive spray of fire from his wand or staff that wipes in circles and encompasses a massive or small area. As the spell is produced and up and running, burning all in its effects the caster can also call down streaks of fire to attack targets. Sort of rain of fire mixed with wall of fire and fire ball. See YouTube for the scene.

I need help designing this as a spell of legend of my world using the normal raw spell rules, not powers or RPM. Any help in designing it would be great. I’m seeing it as a spell that few wizards can conjure and even mentioning it causes fear in others. To say a wizard can do it is seen most times as a false boast until it’s seen. A spell of mastery and legend.

Last edited by Lameth; 03-10-2018 at 12:42 AM.
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Old 03-10-2018, 02:03 PM   #2
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Spell help for Firestorm

Sounds like Rain of Fire (Magic p.74) Exactly what it looks like are special effects. If you want it to be more impressive, give it a more elaborate description. If you want it to be mechanically scarier, you could up the damage -- say, by extending the "for double cost" line to cap at Magery rather than 2, so Dumbledore can rain down 3 or 5 or 9d fire everywhere.

Since the spell has a duration of a minute, the mage is free to throw Fireballs or Explosive Fireballs at individual targets while they're still getting rained up. Or put up that Wall of Fire, if they like. (One of the advantages of the basic magic system and the short GURPS turn length is that you can build effects out of smaller components, without needing one giant elaborate "ninth level" spell doing it all at once in "one spell" that takes longer to cast.) Again, feel free to describe those fireballs as particularly spectacular parts of the rain pouring down at particular targets, rather than flying straight from the mage's hand to the target.

The master wizard might well have prepped those additional effects ahead of time with Delay or Suspend Spell in order to trigger all the effects together, putting up the Wall of Fire when the Rain starts.
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Old 03-10-2018, 10:45 PM   #3
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: Spell help for Firestorm

I forget, is there any particular reason why you cannot overlap persistent area effects in GURPS Magic?
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Old 03-11-2018, 07:14 AM   #4
mlangsdorf
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
Default Re: Spell help for Firestorm

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
I forget, is there any particular reason why you cannot overlap persistent area effects in GURPS Magic?
You can overlap distinct effects, like Glue/Grease + Create Fire, but you generally can't stack the same effect. Two Create Fires cast on the same hex do not do double damage.
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Old 03-11-2018, 08:57 AM   #5
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Spell help for Firestorm

Oh, the mention of stacking Area spells reminds me: there's a Weather spell called "Spark Storm" that you might use as a model for making a Rain of Fire variant that drops Fireballs. Spark Storm is a Windstorm that also drops a lightning bolt at random, one per turn. So it might serve as a balance comparable for a Rain of Fire that also dropped one Fireball per turn.

(Not that I was ever a big fan of Spark Storm. Too expensive for the effect, so it loses in the action marketplace to the competitors for your multiple turns of Concentrate and FP.

And ironically, the bigger you make it, the less effective it as, as it's exactly one bolt per turn in the entire area. Imagine a Spark Storm the size of the Earth! Awesome, right? Well, that adds one lightning bolt per second to the 100 or so that normally hit the Earth every second, round the clock. No one will notice except a very careful statistician... better stick to the two orcs in the 10' room.)
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