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Old 08-10-2020, 11:13 AM   #11
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: [Magic] New IQ/A Spells

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anders View Post
A Healing spell to induce labor would be useful for midwives.

Edit: Here's another one, from the Necromancy college:

Extricate Heart

This spell allows you to remove the heart of an opponent, killing him. Your opponent must be completely helpless - bound, drugged, unconscious, etc. - or the spell fails automatically. The spell takes ten minutes to extricate the heart and the subject is in Terrible Pain the whole time, and dies when the heart is removed. The heart seems to dig itself out of the victim's chest. It is in pristine condition and any ritual that uses it as a material component gets a +1 to the roll.

Casting Time: 1 second
Cost: 5.
Note: This may seem like too powerful for a Least spell, but it's really nothing more than you could with a sharp knife and ten minutes. The bonus is that the heart is in good condition, which may be a requirement for certain rituals.
I do not think that would be an IQ/A spell because it would substitute for high quality Surgery tools, time performing the required Surgery (it only takes 5 seconds, so a caster could cast it on 120 people before the first chest explodes), and a high level of Surgury. To make it an IQ/A spell, I would make the casting time 10 minutes, during which the victim experiences terrible pain and the spell immediately fails if they victim is unrestrained (even a drugged and/or unconscious person would flail around enough due to the pain), make the cost 10 FP, and require the caster to make a Surgery-5 roll to remove the heart intact and undamaged (otherwise, it is shredded by the rib shards as the chest explodes outwards).
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Old 08-10-2020, 11:17 AM   #12
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Default Re: [Magic] New IQ/A Spells

That could work, although I would note that the guy casting on 120 people would need an ungodly amount of either FP or skill.
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Old 08-10-2020, 11:31 AM   #13
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: [Magic] New IQ/A Spells

It is not that difficult for your stereotypical villain. Imagine a High Priest of X with Religious Rank 6, Status 5, and Multimillionaire 2 at TL3. They would have $10 million in assets, easily allowing them to purchase 840 5 energy powerstones ($499,800). With a few acolytes on hand, the High Priest could easily pop open 120 chests within ten minutes during the daily sacrifices, have the powerstones put back in their vault, and then clean up for the rest of the day. Within a year, they could extract the hearts of over forty thousand people.

Now, making my suggested changes means that the High Priest of X needs capacity 10 powerstones and could only harvest a fraction of the hearts. They would also need Surgery at a high level to reliably harvest the hearts intact. While they could perform a daily sacrifice of one individual without too much trouble, they would not be able to depopulate entire regions.
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Old 08-10-2020, 01:05 PM   #14
Alden Loveshade
 
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Default Re: [Magic] New IQ/A Spells

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Originally Posted by Prince Charon View Post
I think it might be possible to justify making Temporary Enchantment an IQ/A spell with a different prerequisite or prerequisites, but I'm blanking on the details, possibly due to tiredness. It could have interesting effects on a setting if it were IQ/A, though.
While each GM is of course free to make their own decision, I would lean very heavily against an IQ/A enchantment. Enchantment is IQ/VH and requires Magery 2 and at least one spell from 10 different colleges. It's one of the most powerful spells in GURPS Magic. To me, it's virtually the defining spell of a powerful mage.
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Old 08-10-2020, 01:19 PM   #15
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Default Re: [Magic] New IQ/A Spells

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
It is not that difficult for your stereotypical villain. Imagine a High Priest of X with Religious Rank 6, Status 5, and Multimillionaire 2 at TL3. They would have $10 million in assets, easily allowing them to purchase 840 5 energy powerstones ($499,800). With a few acolytes on hand, the High Priest could easily pop open 120 chests within ten minutes during the daily sacrifices, have the powerstones put back in their vault, and then clean up for the rest of the day. Within a year, they could extract the hearts of over forty thousand people.
That just sounds awesome.
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Old 08-10-2020, 01:37 PM   #16
Say, it isn't that bad!
 
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Default Re: [Magic] New IQ/A Spells

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Originally Posted by Anders View Post
That just sounds awesome.
Therefore, it is not a least spell.
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Old 08-10-2020, 01:51 PM   #17
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Default Re: [Magic] New IQ/A Spells

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Originally Posted by Say, it isn't that bad! View Post
Therefore, it is not a least spell.
This logic doesn't really hold up. The spell doesn't give him 130 points worth of social traits, and it doesn't make gathering up sacrifice victims any easier. Considering the limitations, all the spell allows is killing someone you would already be able to easily kill and removing an intact heart without buying up Surgery to ungodly levels. Maybe on par with low-end IQ/H spells, but I don't think it's that strong.
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Old 08-10-2020, 01:51 PM   #18
Ulzgoroth
 
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Default Re: [Magic] New IQ/A Spells

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Originally Posted by Alden Loveshade View Post
While each GM is of course free to make their own decision, I would lean very heavily against an IQ/A enchantment. Enchantment is IQ/VH and requires Magery 2 and at least one spell from 10 different colleges. It's one of the most powerful spells in GURPS Magic. To me, it's virtually the defining spell of a powerful mage.
In some settings, magical charms are a staple product of the least of mages. You can take the route of saying that they work about as well as real historical examples. But if you don't want to, the highly restrictive placement of Enchant may be inconvenient.

(Alternatively to making an easier Enchant spell, one could use Alchemical Charms - but those are probably way too expensive for many.)
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Old 08-10-2020, 01:57 PM   #19
awesomenessofme1
 
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Default Re: [Magic] New IQ/A Spells

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Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth View Post
In some settings, magical charms are a staple product of the least of mages. You can take the route of saying that they work about as well as real historical examples. But if you don't want to, the highly restrictive placement of Enchant may be inconvenient.

(Alternatively to making an easier Enchant spell, one could use Alchemical Charms - but those are probably way too expensive for many.)
I wouldn't go as far as to make it IQ/A, but I think you could make a much easier and cheaper version of Enchantment specifically for imbuing objects with IQ/A spells. Things like a Belch potion, a Pebble pebble, or Gloves of Reaping and Sowing.
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Old 08-10-2020, 01:57 PM   #20
Say, it isn't that bad!
 
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Default Re: [Magic] New IQ/A Spells

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Originally Posted by awesomenessofme1 View Post
This logic doesn't really hold up. The spell doesn't give him 130 points worth of social traits, and it doesn't make gathering up sacrifice victims any easier. Considering the limitations, all the spell allows is killing someone you would already be able to easily kill and removing an intact heart without buying up Surgery to ungodly levels. Maybe on par with low-end IQ/H spells, but I don't think it's that strong.
As already stated, replacing Surgery, a VH skill, and the surgical tools needed to do the job, as well as the rest of the original write-up, make it not a least spell
That the original write-up allows it to be used as part of efforts to depopulate a region, resulted in a conversation chain I found semi-humorous.

Could it be made into a least spell? Yes. Others have made notes of changes that would help; and I would also add, "requiring the target to be unarmoured."
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