Dresden Files magic

[Rigil_Kent]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Just an FYI, when mentioning the books:

This had to be pointed out to me, because I'm kind of not good at catching things like this. But if you look at the titles of the books, each title has the same number of letters for each word. So "Storm Front" (5 per word), "Fool Moon" (4 per word), "Dead Heat" (4 per word), and so on.

I bring this up because I've seen several people mention "White Knight." There's no book in the series named "White Knight" (5 letters and 6 letters). There's "White Night" (5 per word) and "Summer Knight" (6 per word), but no "White Knight."

Frick. Yeah. I constantly get White Night and Summer Knight mixed up in terms of the second word.

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

There are magical healers in the Council. Listens-To-Winds is a specialist in it. He's also got degrees in medicine from major medical schools, too.

That's the thing. Magical healing is definitely legal (under Council rules) and even respected by the Council, in the Dresdenverse. But it's freaking hard. Magic is just like anything else in the DF, destruction is easy, creation is hard, repair is hard. You have to understand what you're doing to use magic to heal. If you want to use magic to, say, fix a smashed hand, you need to know something about how hands are made and how they work. It's good to know some biochemistry and have some understanding about cells and tissues and so on. The more you know, the better you can use magic to heal...but knowledge isn't easy or cheap.

Then why wouldn't Harry go to "Injun Joe" to get the hand fixed? He's on good terms with him for the most part, particularly post Shagnasty fight. I don't disagree with your presumption - I'm just thinking that most wizards don't bother learning healing because A) it's really fricking hard like you said, and B) some of the concepts creep too close to Necromancy.

Regardless, with the notion that healing is very, very hard (regardless of however one reaches that), how do you reflect that in terms of the game? If RPM, maybe any and all healing spells are automatically Greater plus some other enhancement?

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Rigil_Kent

Regardless, with the notion that healing is very, very hard (regardless of however one reaches that), how do you reflect that in terms of the game? If RPM, maybe any and all healing spells are automatically Greater plus some other enhancement?

All Healing is automatically a Greater effect and the best that can be done is equal to *twice* what mundane healing could do (so 2d). Or, require a +300% cosmic (an additional 60 energy) on all attempts to heal anything higher than 2d.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

All Healing is automatically a Greater effect and the best that can be done is equal to *twice* what mundane healing could do (so 2d). Or, require a +300% cosmic (an additional 60 energy) on all attempts to heal anything higher than 2d.

Is that going to be enough? thats just 30 energy for 2d healing... Its a good start at least.

I'd personally at least require that path of body for healing be capped by physiology and at least one other medical skill.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Is that going to be enough? thats just 30 energy for 2d healing... Its a good start at least.

I'd personally at least require that path of body for healing be capped by physiology and at least one other medical skill.

Yeah, because no one practices it because it's considered too close to necromancy.

[Mathulhu]

The more I read about the Dresden verse from all of you the more I think is that the people can be modeled by low skill RPM casters who are using grimoires, things that count as grimoires, and energy reserve with gadget limitations.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Rigil_Kent

Then why wouldn't Harry go to "Injun Joe" to get the hand fixed? He's on good terms with him for the most part, particularly post Shagnasty fight. I don't disagree with your presumption - I'm just thinking that most wizards don't bother learning healing because A) it's really fricking hard like you said, and B) some of the concepts creep too close to Necromancy.

Regardless, with the notion that healing is very, very hard (regardless of however one reaches that), how do you reflect that in terms of the game? If RPM, maybe any and all healing spells are automatically Greater plus some other enhancement?

By the time Shagnasty appears, Harry's hand is well on the way to recovery - he has most of the function back and knows that, given time, his wizard's constitution will fix the rest. It was the couple of years after the initial injury, first when it looked like the hand would mortify and second when he thought the scar tissue would lose function, that magic medicine would have been helpful. Interestingly I think the Blackstaff may have run some magical first-aid at the time as well as putting that pain-charm bracelet on him, but I'm not sure.

Perhaps we might require physician or surgery as a base skill for healing magic rather than thaumatology suchlike? (Unless, of course, like Kumori, you're actually using all out Necromancy - remember, she left a cold spot where she worked).

[Mr_Sandman]

Originally Posted by Mathulhu

The more I read about the Dresden verse from all of you the more I think is that the people can be modeled by low skill RPM casters who are using grimoires, things that count as grimoires, and energy reserve with gadget limitations.

RPM does seem to be a pretty close fit. From my point of view, sorcerers and wizards in the Dresden-verse aren't necessarily low skill -- they just don't have Ritual Path Adept, so they have to deal with -5 for not having a prepared ritual space, and -5 for casting at adept times when they are doing quick evocations. The enchanted item rules from RPM work perfectly for the foci and other magic tools in Dresden Files, and the charm rules work for one-use items like potions and handkerchiefs with sunlight trapped in them.

The reason I prefer enchanted item granted Ritual Path Adept for foci, rather than treating it as a grimoire or energy reserve, is that in the stories, Harry's rod and staff don't make him more skilled or more powerful in general. They just help him focus his abilities when he's working fast and in less then perfect circumstances. For example, he doesn't use his staff when doing slow, careful thaumaturgy. It only seems useful for quick and dirty evocation.

[Mr_Sandman]

I've been thinking about how to deal with failures on evocation a bit more. At first I was just going to declare that all failures count as critical, but that might not be exactly what I want.

I remember a scene from one of the earlier books where Harry uses his fuego spell without his blasting rod, and it just comes out less focused, instead of a jet of flame, it is a broad wave of fire that sweeps across the space between him and the target. The target still took damage, but it was less, and the surrounding environment took a lot of the effect. I think I have a way to model that, but it might be a bit on the fiddly side.

Evocation would still be casting on adept time, with a -5 penalty, but failure on the roll to cast the spell doesn't mean the spell doesn't go off. It means the spell is not controlled effectively. The margin of failure indicates how much of the effect of the spell goes where the caster doesn't want it, in approximately 20% increments. A miss by 1 indicates that most of the spell (perhaps 80% of the damage, or some effect possible with 80% of the energy gathered?) hits the intended target, and the rest spills out into the environment or the caster. A miss by 5 or more means the energy was completely uncontrolled and backlashes on the caster or causes indiscriminate effects in the environment around the caster.

I'm borrowing from the Fate-based Dresden Files RPG, where poorly controlled spells can result in either backlash (bad effect on the caster) or fallout (bad effect on everything and everyone around the caster). I like the concept, but don't like the way DFRPG gave the player of the caster control of how much of the effect was taken as backlash and how much spilled out as fallout. I would base that on a Will roll. If the player makes the roll, it gives the caster some measure of control over whether he takes the backlash, or it affects people and things nearby. Greater margin of success gives greater control. Again, just making the roll or succeeding by one would shift the balance a bit in the direction the caster wants, and success by 4 or more would allow the caster to completely determine whether there is backlash or fallout.

Anyone have suggestion for handling this more simply? I could see just leaving the bad effects of spell roll failures up to GM fiat, but personally I'd still use something like this as rough guidance.

[Rigil_Kent]

Originally Posted by Mr_Sandman

RPM does seem to be a pretty close fit. From my point of view, sorcerers and wizards in the Dresden-verse aren't necessarily low skill -- they just don't have Ritual Path Adept, so they have to deal with -5 for not having a prepared ritual space, and -5 for casting at adept times when they are doing quick evocations.

One of the things that might work here is that Ritual Path Adept can't be purchased but must be earned through time use, so only very, very experienced wizards - e.g., 100 years or older - will possess it. This would explain why the Senior Council members are so awesomely awesome, like how the Merlin could do those on-the-fly spells like he did in Turn Coat when the traitor threw the mordite (sp?) into the mess.

Originally Posted by Mr_Sandman

Evocation would still be casting on adept time, with a -5 penalty, but failure on the roll to cast the spell doesn't mean the spell doesn't go off. It means the spell is not controlled effectively. The margin of failure indicates how much of the effect of the spell goes where the caster doesn't want it, in approximately 20% increments. A miss by 1 indicates that most of the spell (perhaps 80% of the damage, or some effect possible with 80% of the energy gathered?) hits the intended target, and the rest spills out into the environment or the caster. A miss by 5 or more means the energy was completely uncontrolled and backlashes on the caster or causes indiscriminate effects in the environment around the caster.

That's an interesting mechanic ... a bit clunky, though. I like it but ... I dunno. I have trouble enough with my players griping about range penalties (which is probably why I use the Action range band). Too much evil maths.

[Mr_Sandman]

Originally Posted by Rigil_Kent

One of the things that might work here is that Ritual Path Adept can't be purchased but must be earned through time use, so only very, very experienced wizards - e.g., 100 years or older - will possess it. This would explain why the Senior Council members are so awesomely awesome, like how the Merlin could do those on-the-fly spells like he did in Turn Coat when the traitor threw the mordite (sp?) into the mess.

That's a possibility. Although the Merlin is also acknowledged as the most powerful and skilled wizard in the Council. He could just have Natural Born Caster talent, and really high Magery and skill bought up over centuries, allowing him to deal with all the penalties. Also, I think he had his staff with him, so he could have been using it as a focus.

Originally Posted by Rigil_Kent

That's an interesting mechanic ... a bit clunky, though. I like it but ... I dunno. I have trouble enough with my players griping about range penalties (which is probably why I use the Action range band). Too much evil maths.

That's my hesitation, too much math and an extra die roll. Like I said, I might just say to my players that as GM I adjudicate the effects of missed spell casting rolls, and use the ideas I laid out in that post as a rough guide.