09-27-2019, 10:21 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pacheco, California
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What's the furthest away a Knock spell can be attempted?
I attempt to cast a Knock spell on that door we saw earlier that is two levels down and twenty hexes across, with no line of sight and while wearing iron armor. I roll a 16. Do we hear a distant explosion? (c.f. ITL 20)
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09-27-2019, 10:37 PM | #2 |
Join Date: May 2015
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Re: What's the furthest away a Knock spell can be attempted?
Lock/Knock is a Thrown spell, and I'd say either that it does require sight, or at least knowing exactly which hex you are aiming for (the latch), or else you can't even target it. I'd probably also limit minimum adjDX to about 5 (the auto-success level) when trying to abuse or ignore the range penalty.
You do bring up a good point in that the trap-triggering effect is very ill-conceived, because 1) Thrown spells in general aren't supposed to have any effect at all on failure (q.v. ITL 136, paragraph 7) no doubt because of this very sort of potential abuse and 2) it's often very desirable to activate traps, and this would give a near-certain ability to do so for 1 fatigue at any range. Better might be to require two rolls - one to cast the spell, and another to actually open the door and not set off a trap instead. Such a rule could also help restore a bit of the usefulness of non-magical lock-picking and trap detection skills that otherwise can be bypassed by Knock. And it seems to me to make sense, because a magic spell might be able to work a mechanism, but understanding the fullness of all the unseen mechanisms seems like something magic might not be very good at. When the Knock spell is cast on something with more than just one lock on it, the spell might activate a mechanism other than the lock, which might set off a trap or might just make a click that doesn't unlock anything. Mechanicians and good locksmiths might thus have figured out some tricks to try to counter the Lock spell... Last edited by Skarg; 09-27-2019 at 10:44 PM. |
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