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Old 01-31-2024, 01:25 PM   #1
Deathwindfr
 
Join Date: Nov 2022
Default Innate attack skill for shooting with magical items?

Dear all,

The Innate Attack skill "represents trained ability with a “built-in” ranged attack: fiery breath, super-powered energy bolts, etc." as described in the Basic Set Characters P 201.

The detailed description the skill only evoke powers coming out of hands and eyes.

What about using a magical (wand, ring, etec.) item to shoot fireballs or death ray?

Is it also Innate Attack?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.
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Old 01-31-2024, 01:34 PM   #2
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Innate attack skill for shooting with magical items?

Generally speaking, yeah, you'd use Innate Attack for that. Note this is the skill used by mages to hit with missile spells (they roll against their skill with the spell to cast it, but actually attacking with it uses Innate Attack). Of course, if wands/staves/magic rings/etc in your settings have specific nuances to their use rather than largely feeling natural, you could introduce a skill - probably DX/E, although /A or even /H could be justified - that covers their use (possibly different required specializations of the same skill for each type of device). Note this would mean an untrained user would be at a penalty to use it (-4 for /E, -5 for /A, -6 for /H) rather than being able to just roll against DX.
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Old 01-31-2024, 06:34 PM   #3
dcarson
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Default Re: Innate attack skill for shooting with magical items?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
Note this would mean an untrained user would be at a penalty to use it (-4 for /E, -5 for /A, -6 for /H) rather than being able to just roll against DX.
You might also have a default from weapon skills. While pointing a ring on a finger of a clenched hand is not the same as pointing a pistol I'd think there would be some default. Or a staff from a rifle.
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Old 01-31-2024, 08:01 PM   #4
ehrbar
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: Innate attack skill for shooting with magical items?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Deathwindfr View Post
What about using a magical (wand, ring, etec.) item to shoot fireballs or death ray?

Is it also Innate Attack?
Since this is GURPS, it depends on how the magic item works.

Assuming default/standard GURPS Magic, what a magic item usually does is allow the character to cast the spell, at which point the character uses the usual aiming skill for the spell, which is (usually) Innate Attack.

However, there's no particular reason a "magic wand" with a shooting-beams effect not constructed using the default magic system might not instead use, say, Beam Weapons skill.
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Old 02-01-2024, 07:06 AM   #5
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Innate attack skill for shooting with magical items?

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Originally Posted by ehrbar View Post
However, there's no particular reason a "magic wand" with a shooting-beams effect not constructed using the default magic system might not instead use, say, Beam Weapons skill.
Innate Attack (Beam) already exists, one of the required specializations of IA.

Given that most fantasy games are pseudo-medieval tech, often without a great deal of variation in tech in the areas players will visit, the /TL skill for Beam Weapons doesn't seem any more appropriate to me. You could use it anyway -- but both BW and IA are DX/Easy, and both require specialization. So really, that's just a name change to "Beam Weapons/TL 3 (Magic Wands)". (Might as well just call it "Wands" for syntactic sugar, though sometimes changing names can be an annoyance when using software tools.)
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