Houserule Idea - always resist with critical success instead of Rule of 16

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

The odd thing about Magic is that it was never completely updated for 4e. :)

What I was talking about can also be found in BASIC SET, p. 241.

Update GURPS Magic as much or as little as you want, spells automatically overcoming resistance on a critical is in BASIC SET.

[Yako]

Originally Posted by Qhaysh

You could also set a relative limit, so to say. For example a cap of resisting attribute + 6. Against average people, the effective skill would be 16, as usual. For more remarkable opponents, it would be a little higher (FREX HT 16 would make for a skill cap of 22).


Here's a better example: Mr. Archmage knows Stone to Flesh at 25. First, he tries his spell against Mr. Average who, as one would expect, has HT 10. Since the cap is Attribute+6, Mr. Archmage rolls vs. 16 (Mr. Average's HT of 10, plus six); while Mr. Average rolls against 10 (his HT).

If Mr. Archmage tried to affect Mr. Resistant (HT 16), it would work like this: Mr. Archmage would roll against 22 (which corresponds to Mr. Resistant's HT of 16, plus six); and Mr. Resistant would roll against 16 (his HT).

This means that skilled opponents will always have better chances of affecting more vulnerable opponents, but not overwhelmingly so. You could always lower the cap to attribute+4, for example.

I'm not very good at statistics, so I won't crunch any numbers. But I'm pretty sure there's an acceptable margin there somewhere, just not sure if it's really attribute+6.

I did toy with that, but since +6 comes pretty close to "only on critical successes" (if someone with a skill six higher than yours rolls a 10, you need a four or lower to win, if he rolls 8 or lower, you cannot win at all, better chances when he rolls a sixteen or such...), I rather go with that because this way, I needn't fiddle with the effective skill for the contest.


Hmh, okay, in this case I see even more readon to go with my houserule.
Goodbye magic resistance threshold of sixteen!^^