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Old 12-05-2011, 09:09 AM   #1
Allensh
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
Default Fireball spell: getting back up to speed

Ok, I am a recent returnee to GURPS and while perusing GURPS Magic for 4th edition, I noticed something.

The fireball spell for 3rd edition says "Cost: any amount from 1 to 3; the fireball does 1 die of damage for each energy point spent in casting it."

The 4th edition version says this: "Cost: Any amount up to your Magery level per second, for 3 seconds. The fireball does 1d burning damage per energy point".

So...if my character has Magery 3 he can do in one second what it took him 3 seconds to do before? and if I choose to concentrate for 3 seconds (and spend 9 FP) I can do a 9d fireball?

I approve :) I also have seen such changes in other spells as well. Goes a long way towards making mages more useful in Supers games for example, where they could have Magery 5 or more.

Allen
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Old 12-05-2011, 09:19 AM   #2
Kuroshima
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Default Re: Fireball spell: getting back up to speed

Quote:
Originally Posted by Allensh View Post
Ok, I am a recent returnee to GURPS and while perusing GURPS Magic for 4th edition, I noticed something.

The fireball spell for 3rd edition says "Cost: any amount from 1 to 3; the fireball does 1 die of damage for each energy point spent in casting it."

The 4th edition version says this: "Cost: Any amount up to your Magery level per second, for 3 seconds. The fireball does 1d burning damage per energy point".

So...if my character has Magery 3 he can do in one second what it took him 3 seconds to do before? and if I choose to concentrate for 3 seconds (and spend 9 FP) I can do a 9d fireball?

I approve :) I also have seen such changes in other spells as well. Goes a long way towards making mages more useful in Supers games for example, where they could have Magery 5 or more.

Allen
That's right, only throwing it is no longer a free action, but an attack. This means that while a skill 15 mage could before throw a 1d fire every turn for free, now it will attack every other turn instead.

Also, my experience is that in games where Weapon Master and/or Innate Attack are allowed, Magic is very crappy at dealing damage. (Supers, Dungeon Fantasy), as not only it leaves you without FP (and FP is important for everyone, given that you can burn 1 FP for +1 dodge), but it deals low damage per turn, due to it being slow. When you can throw 5d burn fireballs every other turn, ST 13 weapons masters with extra attack, dual weapon attack and two swords do 2d+4 cut 3 times per turn every turn without spending FP. That's 12d+24 in the same time period.
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Last edited by Kuroshima; 12-05-2011 at 09:23 AM.
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