Spells: Broken, but how broken?

[ehrbar]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Question: what do you mean by "Crushing and burning" and similar notes, for example on Fireball? Damage can't be of two types - it has to be either crushing, or burning.

Is there an explicit declaration of that anywhere?

The problem is, by the GURPS FAQ, a Fireball inflicts damage by blunt impact, which is pretty obviously crushing. However, it also is a ball of 570°F flame that can set things on fire. It seemed simplest to make it both kinds of damage. Same thought with Icy Breath, which is specifically both ice and cold air.

If it has to go one way or the other exclusively, Fireball/Explosive Fireball is probably crushing (like Ice Sphere) with a sets-things-on-fire special effect, while Icy Breath is burning like Breathe Fire with a note that it can't set things on fire.

[talonthehand]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Question: what do you mean by "Crushing and burning" and similar notes, for example on Fireball? Damage can't be of two types - it has to be either crushing, or burning.

It could be crushing with incendiary (at least in powers that works).

[ehrbar]

Originally Posted by talonthehand

It could be crushing with incendiary (at least in powers that works).

The only listing for incendiary I see in Powers says it enhances burning attacks by making them more likely to cause things to catch on fire relative to their damage. It can't be applied directly to a crushing attack.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by ehrbar

Is there an explicit declaration of that anywhere?

It would seem either meaningless or impossibly confused when applied to the rules for wounding modifiers.

Originally Posted by ehrbar

The only listing for incendiary I see in Powers says it enhances burning attacks by making them more likely to cause things to catch on fire relative to their damage. It can't be applied directly to a crushing attack.

Basic page 105. Any attack that is not burning can be incendiary.

[Diomedes]

Originally Posted by ehrbar

The only listing for incendiary I see in Powers says it enhances burning attacks by making them more likely to cause things to catch on fire relative to their damage. It can't be applied directly to a crushing attack.

That's an option in Powers; the rules in the Basic Set apply Incindiary to any attack but burning, in which case it is essentially a linked one-point burning attack. See page B433.

[ehrbar]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Basic page 105. Any attack that is not burning can be incendiary.

That's what I get for looking in Powers instead of Basic. Okay.

[ehrbar]

Okay, damage types made singular for Fireball, Explosive Fireball, and Icy Breath. I think that's all of them, based on my word search.

[Neosys]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

But Sunlight explicitly says it _is_ harmful to Vampires. You'd do better to ban the spell (and Priests of the Sun God) than to make peculiar rulings like this.

Besides, the issue is not allowing Regular spells to be cast at planetary sizes for relatively affordable energy costs rather than any sort of misguided "Save the Vampires" crusade. :)

I must have misread the spell description; My bad.... And in hindsight, you're right that banning a spell is better than make snap-rulings on their use....

[ehrbar]

Originally Posted by Neosys

I must have misread the spell description; My bad.... And in hindsight, you're right that banning a spell is better than make snap-rulings on their use....

Ah, but my unofficial errata (linked in my sig) didn't ban the use of the spell, it just makes it expensive to make really, really big. To make a Mirror the size of Earth under 4th Edition GURPS as printed cost a mere 42 energy, easily done by any ritual circle; under my revision, it costs 7,500,000 energy.

Granted, that works out to just as impossible as a spell-specific ban on castings that large, but it's a general rule applied to the whole universe of Regular spells, and is within an order of magnitude of how much such magic cost in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd edition GURPS.