First GURPS Mage

[teviet]

I only remember one combat mage I played; she got a lot of mileage out of Invisibility, Hush (on herself), and Shocking Touch. (She had plenty of magery and had bumped Shocking Touch to the level where she didn't need to speak and got 2d+2 for free.) Plus of course Lightning when she needed to hang back. She also had a spear with the Staff spell.

I never found anything really in the mass destruction department, other than rules abuses that no sane GM would permit. A mind-controller can cause a lot of trouble with Mass Daze, but unless the enemies are really clustered together, it gets prohibitively expensive.

TeV

[roguebfl]

Though at [300] the Mage can afford to invest in Energy Reserves (Magic)

[Kalzazz]

Mage has some ER magic, 20pt power item, and some powerstones . . . not sure exactly how much

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

300pts, TL 4

Im the DM for this fiasco

Ideally want suggestions for the common occurence of 'you, the dozen orks with axes, 10 yards, ready go!'

Teleport somewhere else. Flying to higher than axe throwing range should work too. Twelve to one odds is bad news for *anybody* in GURPS - a 300 point specialist fighter is not going to win this fight either unless he has a huge tech edge or the orks tactics are totally idiotic.

GURPS spellcasters can be about as effective combatants as similar point value fighters, maybe even a little better if you can set up the fight to take advantage of their specific abilities - but unlike the situation at high levels in D&D, even in the best case they are not going to be capable of inflicting far greater damage than those fighters, nor of defeating vast numbers of weaker foes.

[roguebfl]

Force Dome , Flight, and Reverse Missiles are a GURPS Combat Mage's Friends.

(so say walk on air instead of flight, but there are some issues with that)

[Godogma]

Ok, then someone with some familiarity with the system please help me stat those spells in a fairly balanced way or the like?

GURPS has the advantage of customize-ability over D&D, but honestly the lack of effective combat spells on the PC vs group of mobs level kinda precludes pulling one's weight in a small group.

And needing tons of actions to deal with a group of enemies is a serious flaw. Bunkering down is an effective technique I suppose, but it defeats the purpose of actually killing the badguys.

[benz72]

Originally Posted by Godogma

Ok, then someone with some familiarity with the system please help me stat those spells in a fairly balanced way or the like?

Those are straight out of Magic... already statted for you.

[benz72]

For dealing with the original situation my best set of options would be

1) avoid it (illusion or movement spells)

2) trick them (mind control the biggest one, scare them with an illusion)

3) negotiate with them (persuasion, other mind control)

4) fight them (any combat spells)

The thing about GURPS is that there are so many more productive things to do with enemies then just smack them into oblivion. You can confuse them, subvert them, set things up so they take on another enemy for you.... the game world is your oyster.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Godogma

And needing tons of actions to deal with a group of enemies is a serious flaw. Bunkering down is an effective technique I suppose, but it defeats the purpose of actually killing the badguys.

Thats the point of Reverse Missile... they use their own actions to kill them selves ;)

[Godogma]

There is no CHAIN Lightning spell and the explosive spells aren't that great as presented in the book and there is no equivalent of magic missile in the system either.

Kindly read the question if you're going to proffer an answer please. (benz72)

If they're using missiles. In answer to roguebfl's last statement.