GURPS Magic - Weapons Enchanted With On-Hit Effects

[Zan Lynx]

I ran this past a GM a while ago and he vetoed the idea. So it is out for any of his games.

But it still seems like an awesome idea! And I am not sure if the rules allow it or not.

The idea is a wizard's staff enchanted with Power, Link and Shatter. The Link is set to cast Shatter on every strike.

This would of course be excellent for combat as with every hit the enemy's armor would take damage, eventually falling apart. It would also be great for intimidation, as the wizard would shatter paving stones each time he slammed his staff down while walking.

The game balance problem is that the weapon gets a "free" extra attack that the user doesn't have to spend a turn casting. And if this was allowed more spells could be enchanted into the staff making it even worse. A Paralyze Limb, Deathtouch, Shatter staff anyone?

But, in terms of the Magic rules, is a weapon strike a valid Link effect for an item's automatic spell casting? It seems that it should be.

[gilbertocarlos]

Read the shatter spell, if you don't do damage enough to break, it doesn't do damage. So, if the armor has DR4 HP10 and you roll 13, your spell failed, it's good as new. You can have a staff who do that, read below the spell, the cost to make one is 500FP, converting into $, we have $16500, however, you can't use shatter while at the same time attacking to harm the guy inside the armor, unless you have Extra Attack.

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by Zan Lynx

The idea is a wizard's staff enchanted with Power, Link and Shatter. The Link is set to cast Shatter on every strike.

This would of course be excellent for combat as with every hit the enemy's armor would take damage, eventually falling apart. It would also be great for intimidation, as the wizard would shatter paving stones each time he slammed his staff down while walking.

The game balance problem is that the weapon gets a "free" extra attack that the user doesn't have to spend a turn casting. And if this was allowed more spells could be enchanted into the staff making it even worse. A Paralyze Limb, Deathtouch, Shatter staff anyone?

But, in terms of the Magic rules, is a weapon strike a valid Link effect for an item's automatic spell casting? It seems that it should be.

While it is well within any particular GM's rights to say it doesn't exist in their game, what you are proposing is perfectly rules legal.

Originally Posted by gilbertocarlos

Read the shatter spell, if you don't do damage enough to break, it doesn't do damage. So, if the armor has DR4 HP10 and you roll 13, your spell failed, it's good as new. You can have a staff who do that, read below the spell, the cost to make one is 500FP, converting into $, we have $16500, however, you can't use shatter while at the same time attacking to harm the guy inside the armor, unless you have Extra Attack.

The part about the Shatter spell is accurate (if you want cumulative damage, then you should use Weaken).

I see no reason why you would need Extra Attack. The activation of a Linked spell has no attack requirement (unless that is what triggers your Link), it has no requirement of any action other than what may be specified in the link itself.

Gilbertocarlos, what leads you to believe you need an extra attack?

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

Gilbertocarlos, what leads you to believe you need an extra attack?

He's saying you need Extra Attack if you want to shatter your opponent's armor AND strike their now unarmored body in the same turn.

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

He's saying you need Extra Attack if you want to shatter your opponent's armor AND strike their now unarmored body in the same turn.

Ah, ok, that wasn't clear. If your staff skill is sufficient, you could alternatively use a Rapid Strike.

But you certainly could just attack, and do normal staff damage (reduced by the target's DR) at the same time as damaging the armor for following attacks.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

The part about the Shatter spell is accurate (if you want cumulative damage, then you should use Weaken).

Weaken is once per hour. Rive in theory will do the job, except that you don't normally use the rules for object damage to damage armor. The other problem is getting the spell to go off as an on-hit effect. Based on Flaming Weapon (+2 damage = 0.6d), +1d6 burning damage (followup) would be 1,250 energy, and +1d6 corrosive damage (followup) would be 2,500 energy.

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Weaken is once per hour. Rive in theory will do the job, except that you don't normally use the rules for object damage to damage armor. The other problem is getting the spell to go off as an on-hit effect. Based on Flaming Weapon (+2 damage = 0.6d), +1d6 burning damage (followup) would be 1,250 energy, and +1d6 corrosive damage (followup) would be 2,500 energy.

Good point! Missed that one. Might work well to do the link to cast Weaken and then Shatter in succession!

[Zan Lynx]

Originally Posted by gilbertocarlos

Read the shatter spell, if you don't do damage enough to break, it doesn't do damage. So, if the armor has DR4 HP10 and you roll 13, your spell failed, it's good as new.

Not quite. The spell description states that Shatter is similar to Weaken, which ignores the object's DR. So if the armor has HP 10 and I roll 13, that piece of armor is destroyed until it is repaired.

If DR was included, it would be very difficult to Shatter anything.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Zan Lynx

Not quite. The spell description states that Shatter is similar to Weaken, which ignores the object's DR.

Unfortunately, the spell does not specify how it's similar to weaken, so we have no idea if it ignores DR.