06-17-2018, 12:09 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Austin, TX
|
Levitating the undead
Yesterday, in our weekly GURPS campaign (well, one of them), we ran into a situation. One of our mages tried to use the Levitation spell on an undead creature (basically a free-will zombie). Then someone else noticed that the spells says, "Subject must be a living being." So the GM disallowed it.
The GM's word is final (mostly - we all GM, so it would have to be something egregious to get anyone to speak against it). I was wondering, though, whether that's how the spell was meant to work. An undead creature isn't alive, but it isn't dead, either. It moves and makes decisions and so on. So, is the Levitation spell meant to exclude the undead or not?
__________________
Play Ogre? Want an interactive record sheet? Want a random dungeon? How about some tables for that? How about a random encounter? |
06-17-2018, 12:28 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
|
Re: Levitating the undead
As you say, it's up to the GM, but I'm fairly sure that the "living being" restriction should actually be "animated being" - consider Apportation, for example, which can move non-living things as well as living, but gives "living beings" a Will roll to resist. I'm pretty sure that undead, golems, and so forth should also get a Will roll to resist Apportation.
|
06-17-2018, 08:23 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: New York City
|
Re: Levitating the undead
The version of levitation for non-living things is Apportation, see Magic p.142.
|
06-17-2018, 10:14 PM | #4 |
President and EIC
Join Date: Jul 2004
|
Re: Levitating the undead
Interesting question, and I might have allowed it, but it's definitely a knife-edge. I surely cannot say "what I meant" at this remove. I am almost sure I ever considered the edge case of undead. Would it have worked on a vampire, which is not living but also by definition not dead, and is certainly animated?
|
06-17-2018, 10:24 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Mar 2013
|
Re: Levitating the undead
The ruling is fair since the description is clear. I may go either way in game though.
|
06-18-2018, 07:02 AM | #6 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
|
Re: Levitating the undead
Agreed. There are a lot of spells in GURPS Magic that are hazy about "living" vs. "animate." You have to call them on a case-by-case basis, but the intent of Levitation is that it works on characters that take turns in combat, use skills, etc., as opposed to inanimate objects.
__________________
Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
06-18-2018, 07:51 AM | #7 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2004
|
Re: Levitating the undead
Quote:
Quote:
|
||
06-18-2018, 01:03 PM | #8 |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
|
Re: Levitating the undead
|
06-18-2018, 01:21 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
|
Re: Levitating the undead
Quote:
[1] Long story short and avoiding spoilery-stuff, the party kept a sensory-deprived obsidian jaguar from having its "killbot switch" activated, and carried it out of the dungeon to sell to the temple [2]. [2] I'd previously established that the temple in town was an acceptable place to dispose of all religious loot, not just generic things like incense the temple could safely use. The cleric doesn't get any increase in value for selling evil idols to the Temple (where they would for the incense... or for selling that idol to sketchy cultists). Obsidian Jaguars are guardians of holy sites and temples and servants of clerics. At the very least, it's like the evil idol, and therefore vendor-able at the temple. I ruled the temple could actually reprogram it because there was some contemplation of taking it as an Ally and that's just too awesome to turn down.
__________________
All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table A Wiki for my F2F Group A neglected GURPS blog |
|
06-18-2018, 03:49 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Nov 2004
|
Re: Levitating the undead
I don't think I've ever played in or run a party that wouldn't go to great lengths to reprogram or otherwise suborn such a thing to their service.
|
|
|