First GURPS Mage

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Godogma

Has anyone noticed a "break point" in which the minuses add up to making the spell much less effective than it otherwise could have been due to subtracting so much of the damage from the die code?

There's a tiny amount of gain at one or two dice, because you always round up to at least 1 point of damage. So 1d-1 actually averages 2.66 instead of 2.5. It's probably not enough to be significant though.

12d-12 for lightning bolt for example didn't seem to be an effective spell though it did ignore the dragon's 20 armor due to having a metal lance stuffed through it which acted as a type of lightning rod (17d+?? damage lance charge). If it hadn't would have done a mere 8 damage.

Without the -12 it would have done 40 and been reduced down to 20 by the beasty's DR.

Ah, that's true. Lightning spells do roughly 30% less damage per energy point than fire, presumably because of their additional properties (metal armor penetration and stunning). Perhaps you could introduce a "column of fire" spell: same cost as Explosive Fireball, but hits a 2yd radius with full damage instead. After all, you'll rarely be doing significant damage with ExFB beyond 2 yards, and now you'd at least be able to kill several adjacent targets at once.

[vierasmarius]

Oh! Just had a thought for if you did want to consider Innate Attack for some powerful spells. You could probably make it as an Alternate Ability associated with Magery, with whatever special limitations that has (I think you mentioned limited armor). That would keep the cost down greatly, and may fit very well thematically.

[Godogma]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

Oh! Just had a thought for if you did want to consider Innate Attack for some powerful spells. You could probably make it as an Alternate Ability associated with Magery, with whatever special limitations that has (I think you mentioned limited armor). That would keep the cost down greatly, and may fit very well thematically.

Ah? Do tell.

My magery has Double Encumbrance Penalty and Radically Unstable (Confirm) attached to it. Resulting in 6.5 per level, I'd be interested in whatever alternate ability thing you could come up with to help me out.

Which is why I'm pretty much limited to Ultra-light armor, as well as low weight in gear/lots of hideaway pockets. My staff actually eats a fifth of my carrying capacity at 4lbs XD

EDIT: Which is why I try to keep out of close combat as much as possible and what started this particular thread. My vastly enchanted silk padded cloth armor is 4 DR, 5 vs impaling and slashing and eats up almost another fifth of my carrying capacity. 10 ST is fairly crippling when it means you can only carry 20lbs.

[raven_walker]

Okay, various high-damage to individual target spells:

Winged Knife (or other imp damage spell) with high enough skill to shoot for the eye every time.

Dehydrate at high enough skill to cast at some range and bypass resistance.

Shocking Touch (bypasses armor and does 1d+1 per fat.)


Against a group you need to get creative (most spells are either "nerfs" to the opponents or need a multi-spell buildup to be truly effective.)

Stench

Flash

Glue followed by Create Fire or "Rain of" spells.


For the DnD style fireball effect (high damage, large area) you'll need to create a new spell or get an Innate Attack - GURPS magic is intentionally geared more towards the individual melee level of damage-dealing as opposed to the large-area uber attack.

[Godogma]

Originally Posted by raven_walker

Okay, various high-damage to individual target spells:

Winged Knife (or other imp damage spell) with high enough skill to shoot for the eye every time.

Dehydrate at high enough skill to cast at some range and bypass resistance.

Shocking Touch (bypasses armor and does 1d+1 per fat.)


Against a group you need to get creative (most spells are either "nerfs" to the opponents or need a multi-spell buildup to be truly effective.)

Stench

Flash

Glue followed by Create Fire or "Rain of" spells.


For the DnD style fireball effect (high damage, large area) you'll need to create a new spell or get an Innate Attack - GURPS magic is intentionally geared more towards the individual melee level of damage-dealing as opposed to the large-area uber attack.

So I have noticed, which is why I was working toward new spells; a mage isn't quite able to deal with a group of enemies when caught out alone in GURPS without going into turtle tactics mode. Whereas in D&D or Rifts or any number of other systems everyone avoids picking on mages due to cone and other multitarget spells that can really mess up your day.

[vsh]

I don't see why you think Body of ..., Enlarge or Shapeshifting to be turtle tactics. Turn into an elephant and smash them down! Become a giant whirlwind and throw them around!

[Kuroshima]

GURPS combat mages are primary buffers and debuffers. With many spells to create penalties (most of the offensive body control college), many spells that give you awesome offense and defense (Might, Grace, Flight, Body of Air, Shield, Armor, Haste, Great Haste, Enlarge, any blocking spell...) and many fight enders (Flesh to Stone is particularly nasty, and the cost is very low, Spasm means that someone is disarmed).

GURPS Magic is mostly useful outside of combat, allowing you to circumvent many obstacles that would require great resources normally, and shortcircuiting many plots, if the GM has not prepared otherwise (Hello divinations).

If you want to go through the damage dealing route (suboptimal), here's what I suggest:

• Get Magical Styles, and search for the Psychic Guidance perk. This makes actually hitting with your missile spells not cost an inordinate amount of points.
• Get Epic Magic, and see some very nice high powered spells, requiring Magery 4
• Spells that allow no armor are your friends: Lightning based spells, Dehydrate/frostbite, most of the touch spells.

[Godogma]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

GURPS combat mages are primary buffers and debuffers. With many spells to create penalties (most of the offensive body control college), many spells that give you awesome offense and defense (Might, Grace, Flight, Body of Air, Shield, Armor, Haste, Great Haste, Enlarge, any blocking spell...) and many fight enders (Flesh to Stone is particularly nasty, and the cost is very low, Spasm means that someone is disarmed).

GURPS Magic is mostly useful outside of combat, allowing you to circumvent many obstacles that would require great resources normally, and shortcircuiting many plots, if the GM has not prepared otherwise (Hello divinations).

If you want to go through the damage dealing route (suboptimal), here's what I suggest:

• Get Magical Styles, and search for the Psychic Guidance perk. This makes actually hitting with your missile spells not cost an inordinate amount of points.
• Get Epic Magic, and see some very nice high powered spells, requiring Magery 4
• Spells that allow no armor are your friends: Lightning based spells, Dehydrate/frostbite, most of the touch spells.

We're playing in a league much higher than Magery 4 with this character my friend - I have a 150 point unusual background which has currently resulted in Magery 15.

I out magic Elminster. Or the like. Or at least I feel like it sometimes.

[Godogma]

Originally Posted by vsh

I don't see why you think Body of ..., Enlarge or Shapeshifting to be turtle tactics. Turn into an elephant and smash them down! Become a giant whirlwind and throw them around!

Body of ... tends to seem to result in ruined enchanted armor. At least if I'm reading it correctly.

Which means its very faulty tactics. I have a whole hell of a lot of money tied up in enchantments and losing them due to poor choice of spells is a bad thing. Am I allowed to post the text from a "Body of" spell here? Because it sure seems that it definitely is a bad idea to me.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Godogma

Body of ... tends to seem to result in ruined enchanted armor. At least if I'm reading it correctly.

Which means its very faulty tactics. I have a whole hell of a lot of money tied up in enchantments and losing them due to poor choice of spells is a bad thing. Am I allowed to post the text from a "Body of" spell here? Because it sure seems that it definitely is a bad idea to me.

I'm pretty sure when it says that clothes "lose any magic powers they might have had" it means for the duration of the spell, not permanently. For example, Body of Shadow (pg 114) says "His clothing also becomes shadow, but while in shadow form it loses any magic powers it might have had." (emphasis mine) It would be way too harsh to interpret these spells as disenchanting your own armor!

Buffing spells may be the way to go. There are spells that make you practically impervious to physical or magical attack, at which point you can just walk up to your enemies and hit them with spells like Evisceration or Flesh to Stone.

Also, to take advantage of an effective Magery 15 you may want to further boost your ER, or add Regeneration (ER only). Then have at it with 15d Missile spells!

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

If you want to go through the damage dealing route (suboptimal), here's what I suggest:

• Get Magical Styles, and search for the Psychic Guidance perk. This makes actually hitting with your missile spells not cost an inordinate amount of points.
• Get Epic Magic, and see some very nice high powered spells, requiring Magery 4
• Spells that allow no armor are your friends: Lightning based spells, Dehydrate/frostbite, most of the touch spells.

What's Epic Magic from? It sounds, well, epic.