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Old 05-20-2018, 08:03 AM   #11
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Enchanted STAVES and STAFF enchantment

I always read "cast by or through" as referring to the spell the enchanted item can cast -- let's say a Fireball wand.

The item can cast the Fireball spell, drawing FP from its wielder. That's the normal case, with no Powerstone. Add a Dedicated Powerstone, and the item can also cast a Fireball without needing as much energy from its wielder. But there's a third case -- the mage casts the Fireball himself (perhaps he's learned higher skill by this point) and draws energy from the Dedicated Powerstone in his magical tool to do so. That's "casting through" the item.

The Powerstone isn't dedicated to the item; it's dedicated to the spell, tied into the pre-defined enchantment(s) that are a permanent part of that item.

Having a Staff with a Powerstone dedicated to the Staff spell would make it really useful for casting the Staff enchantment on other staves. It wouldn't make it a general-purpose Powerstone at half cost. The Staff spell and item aren't casting any old spell the mage casts while carrying it. To do that, you'd need a staff enchanted with every spell in the book, so the staff itself would be casting any spell you tried.

Last edited by Anaraxes; 05-20-2018 at 08:06 AM.
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Old 05-20-2018, 12:55 PM   #12
hal
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Default Re: Enchanted STAVES and STAFF enchantment

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Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
I always read "cast by or through" as referring to the spell the enchanted item can cast -- let's say a Fireball wand.

The item can cast the Fireball spell, drawing FP from its wielder. That's the normal case, with no Powerstone. Add a Dedicated Powerstone, and the item can also cast a Fireball without needing as much energy from its wielder. But there's a third case -- the mage casts the Fireball himself (perhaps he's learned higher skill by this point) and draws energy from the Dedicated Powerstone in his magical tool to do so. That's "casting through" the item.

The Powerstone isn't dedicated to the item; it's dedicated to the spell, tied into the pre-defined enchantment(s) that are a permanent part of that item.

Having a Staff with a Powerstone dedicated to the Staff spell would make it really useful for casting the Staff enchantment on other staves. It wouldn't make it a general-purpose Powerstone at half cost. The Staff spell and item aren't casting any old spell the mage casts while carrying it. To do that, you'd need a staff enchanted with every spell in the book, so the staff itself would be casting any spell you tried.
I suspect that you and I diverge a little on how normal, dedicated, or exclusive powerstones function in a campaign as far as Rules as written are concerned. Then again, maybe I have the wrong of it - so take this for what it is worth...

NP's, DP's, and EP's (Normal Powerstones, Dedicated Powerstones, and Exclusive Powerstones respectively) are essentially divided into two camps of effect:

NP - can be used at will, to power spells or help power enchantments that cast spells.

Both DP's and EP's can only be utilized by enchantments laid upon the Stave and LINKED to the powerstones directly (thus making either DP's or EP's more energy efficient). They cannot however, be used to power any other spells as a consequence of this.

STAFF only permits one to extend the reach of the spell caster casting any non-enchanted spell THROUGH the stave itself.

I guess the best way to treat this by analogy is thus:

Non-STAFF staves, are not magically conductive. STAFF enchanted Staves on the other hand, become conduits allowing magical energy to course through the stave and enhance the reach of the spell caster, etc.

The more I look at the wording of how a mage can access a powerstone built into his staff without needing to actively TOUCH the powerstone is this...

Normally, a mage has to be holding a powerstone in order to extract energy from it. He can wear it as a pendant, or for instance, keep it in a leather pouch hanging from his belt. If that's the case, he has to take it out of the leather pouch and actively HOLD the powerstone in order to draw energy from it.

So, if STAFF as an enchantment turns a non-conductive stave into a conductive stave - that would seem to fit the entirety of the STAFF spell description on page 70, or the Magic Staff section on page 13 of GURPS MAGIC.

So, can someone cast a 30 point powerstone upon a wooden stave, thereby making it a powerstone? Yes. Can they cast STAFF as an enchantment linked to the already existing powerstone, and gain any benefit of 2x power or even 3x power? STAFF as a spell doesn't exist. STAFF as an enchantment does exist.

In the end? GM's can rule as they see fit and make their own game universe conform to their own vision. But I think the rules for POWERSTONES are pretty much tightly written so as to exclude certain wiggle room for use in the campaign. But, that's just my own opinion in the matter...
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Old 05-20-2018, 01:27 PM   #13
evileeyore
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Default Re: Enchanted STAVES and STAFF enchantment

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Originally Posted by hal View Post
Can they cast STAFF as an enchantment linked to the already existing powerstone, and gain any benefit of 2x power or even 3x power?
IMO no. That is not the function of the Staff enchantment. However they can now 'touch' a Powerstone set into the staff without having to actually touch the stone itself.

Also IMO turning an item with multiple Powerstones in it into a magical item (regardless of type or function) does not 'turn the stones into one Powerstone'.
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Old 05-20-2018, 06:27 PM   #14
dcarson
 
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Default Re: Enchanted STAVES and STAFF enchantment

In a way the STAFF is symbolically the mage. This means they are touching the powerstone and touching the target of the spell the staff is touching, or are that 3' closer when they cast. This would*imply you really don't want a voodoo practitioner to get their hands on your staff. Spells that work better if you have relevant items should work real well if you have someone's staff.
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Old 05-25-2018, 08:00 AM   #15
garfield
 
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Default Re: Enchanted STAVES and STAFF enchantment

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Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post
Also IMO turning an item with multiple Powerstones in it into a magical item (regardless of type or function) does not 'turn the stones into one Powerstone'.
my interpretation:
The phrase 'turn the (Power)stones into one Powerstone' is meant as a simplification for bookkeeping.

I would understand the Powerstones in the staff linked by the staff-spell. So they would only recharge 1 energy/day, starting with the biggest stone until it is full and then going to the smaller stones, one by one, after all the bigger ones are full. But this behavior is similar to a single Powerstone.

The limit of the many small stones in a staff is, that the maximum power that can be drawn is the size of the biggest stone. So no single spell can require more energy than the biggest powerstone in the staff. With the examples of Fireball, Major Healing, and Hawkflight that means, that the staff has to have at least a single Exclusive Powerstone of size 3 or a single Dedicated Powerstone of size 4 in order to be able to cast Hawkflight at all. A combination of one size 2 and 100 size 1 stones would not be able to cast Hawkflight ...
But this staff would be an item that can provide in sum 204 energy for the dedicated spells. And if it is empty, it would take 102 days to fully recharge, just like a Powerstone of size 102. So it might be simpler for bookkeeping to note, that the staff has 102 energy stored, but you can take out only 2/turn.
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