Death Spell conversion to RPM

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Nexahs

That makes more sense.

And I agree that the cost is justified I just don't think it's necessary for this particular ritual. I appreciate the info, though.

If you're doing internal damage, you use Fragile: Unnatural. Affliction: Heart Attack needs no damage to kill somebody.

[Humabout]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

If you're doing internal damage, you use Fragile: Unnatural. Affliction: Heart Attack needs no damage to kill somebody.

But the person does get to resist. You dont get a choice when its damage iirc

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Humabout

But the person does get to resist. You dont get a choice when its damage iirc

You do for internal damage. Internal RPM damage is effectively IA with Malediction.

[Humabout]

Ah, oh well! It's been a while since I looked at it. Been on a major scifi binge.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Nexahs

This is my first attempt at converting a vanilla Magic spell to an RPM ritual, so any comments would be hugely helpful. (I also posted this in another thread several days ago but that thread seems to have considerably slowed down.) It's based on Abominable Alteration from GURPS Death Spells.

Cardiomegaly
Spell Effects: Greater Transform Body
Inherent Modifiers: Affliction, Heart Attack + Damage, Internal Crushing (No Knockback)
Greater Effects: 1 (x3)

This ritual transforms the heart of the subject into the heart of an elephant, causing massive internal damage and typically killing the victim due to the organ's inability to pump blood quickly enough.

Typical Casting: Greater Transform Body (8) + Affliction, Heart Attack (60) + Damage, Internal Crushing 2d (No Knockback, -10%; No Blunt Trauma, -20%) (4) + Range, 10 yards (4) + Subject Weight, 300 lbs. (3). 237 energy (79 x 3)

Obviously this is a hugely powerful spell but it seems really expensive compared to the standard magic equivalent (11 energy per Death Spells), am I doing something wrong or is it just harder to outright kill somebody with RPM?

Why is the crushing damage in there? Heart Attack is the usual way to do this and "instant kill" methods are always expensive in GURPS.

Originally Posted by ericthered

If you want to do this cheap, choose an effect that doesn't have such a 'greater effect' explaination. rewriting the spell as a simple heart attack causer will cut the cost to a 3rd.

That's one way.

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

The way you should do the spells from Death Spells is actually Internal Damage + Altered Traits (Fragile: Unnatural) [-50]

This is another - and an intriguing one at that.

[Nexahs]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Why is the crushing damage in there? Heart Attack is the usual way to do this and "instant kill" methods are always expensive in GURPS.



That's one way.



This is another - and an intriguing one at that.

I got a bit caught up in the verisimilitude of "if your heart suddenly doubled in size, it'd hurt." I'm going to rework it with the Altered Trait and Heart Attack combo, I'll repost it when I'm not on my mobile.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Nexahs

I got a bit caught up in the verisimilitude of "if your heart suddenly doubled in size, it'd hurt." I'm going to rework it with the Altered Trait and Heart Attack combo, I'll repost it when I'm not on my mobile.

You don't need to combo them. Heart Attack is for "your heart stops, and magic/medical knowledge can save you," while Altered Traits are for "your heart explodes and you drop dead instantly."

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Nexahs

I got a bit caught up in the verisimilitude of "if your heart suddenly doubled in size, it'd hurt." I'm going to rework it with the Altered Trait and Heart Attack combo, I'll repost it when I'm not on my mobile.

You'll be wasting energy on the Altered Trait - Fragile: Unnatural means you instantly die at -1xHP, bypassing that Death Check, not that any possible Death Check (such as that from Heart Attack) instantly kills you.

The idea of tacking on Fragile: Unnatural to make the spell more capable of killing you brings up another question. Would Vulnerability: This Ritual (or perhaps just the damage type of the Ritual) be acceptable to most GM's? It's a way to double, triple, or quadruple the damage of your ritual for a fairly small added amount of energy (doubling costs between +2 - for Rare (This Ritual) - and +6 - for Common (Damage Type) - which with Internal Damage would only be enough to buy +2 or +1d+2 to damage).

If it's an option, something like Greater Transform Body (8) + 3d Internal Crushing (8) + Altered Traits, Fragile: Unnatural (10) + Altered Traits, Vulnerability x4: This Ritual (4) + Subject Weight, 300 lb (3) would cost 99 energy and would on average instantly kill anyone with up to 21 HP (and if you're incredibly lucky, or spend some Destiny Points or whatever to maximize your damage roll, you can instantly kill a foe with up to 36 HP). Greater Destroy Body would be better, provided you're willing to drop the "turns your heart into that of a horse" bit (have it explode your heart instead), as it would drop cost to 90. If you're required to use a Common category of damage instead, that would be +24 to total energy - but a 114-123 energy ritual that instantly kills pretty much anyone that fails to resist is a pretty solid ritual.

EDIT: For those that find this game-breaking, one alternative to outright disallowing it (which is perfectly acceptable - it's an exploit, particularly with the This Ritual version) would be to make the Vulnerability only apply for purposes of Death Checks. That is, if I rolled only 6 damage on 3d, and the target had HP 12 or lower, the x4 would increase my damage to 24 and kill them instantly. If, however, the target had more than HP 12, the x4 wouldn't be enough to get them to their first death threshold, so they'd actually only take 6 injury.

[Bruno]

I wouldn't allow it as part of the same ritual - otherwise I can't help but think of a ritual effect race condition and then my programer brain explodes trying to debug it.

Cast the Vulnerability ritual then target them separately with a damaging effect.

[Humabout]

Id call that a major cheese, Varyon. It's there by RAW perhaps, but I wouldnt allow that. If you want four times the damage, pay for four times the damage. If theres an accessibility limitation, slap it on the damage per normal rules.