Can Player use Third Hand perk to cast touch spells?

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by thom

So the latest player in my group wants to be able to use a small shield, and then take the Third Hand perk to cast touch spells (primarily healing/buffing) on his fellow PCs. What does the Groupmind think of that? I've never had that idea come up, & I could go either way-which is why I'm asking...

thom

No. Third Hand as presented in Pyramid #3/61: Way of the Warrior is simply the Akimbo (Shield) perk with some extra verbiage.

A *new* perk specialized for magic might be in order though.

[thom]

Thanks for all the help guys! I hadn't considered all the ramifications - especially what Fred & Christopher brought up. I'll think more about the magical perk, and if I come up with one I'll run it by here first...

thom

[Culture20]

Alternative: use a round shield, and cast the Staff spell on the long wooden handle before attaching it to the shield, then touch friendlies with the handle when buffing/healing.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

No. Third Hand as presented in Pyramid #3/61: Way of the Warrior is simply the Akimbo (Shield) perk with some extra verbiage.

A *new* perk specialized for magic might be in order though.

Ah! Akimbo from Gun Fu is what I couldn't rememb er the name of.

The player might be able to get by with touching friendlies with his elbow or something. He might not even need a Perk for that if he's already past the Gesture problem with Skill Level. "Laying on of hands" might be just stereotype.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Ah! Akimbo from Gun Fu is what I couldn't rememb er the name of.

The player might be able to get by with touching friendlies with his elbow or something. He might not even need a Perk for that if he's already past the Gesture problem with Skill Level. "Laying on of hands" might be just stereotype.

I'd probably allow any touch, but GURPS Magic has so many special snowflake rules it's hard to remember at times.

[Mavelic]

Hi,
I'd say no, because a perk is too limited in effect to allow this kind of power.
Basic p.100 says :
"No perk should provide wealth, social standing, or combat bonuses."
For me, it's clearly a combat bonus or very similar.
My thoughts.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Mavelic

Basic p.100 says :
"No perk should provide wealth, social standing, or combat bonuses."
For me, it's clearly a combat bonus or very similar.

Those are more what you'd call... guidelines. The latter two have been broken, and arguably so has the first one - Cheaper (Gear) lets your Wealth go further, things like Brotherhood, Citizen (for citizenships beyond the free one every character gets in their home country), and Courtesy Rank grant social standing, and there's an entire class of Combat Perks. See Powerups 2: Perks for details.

[thom]

So I explained to the cleric PC that (as Fred pointed out) he can't cast healing spells unless he forgoes any attacks on his turn. But he still wants a shield's benefit, and to be able to cast healing spells on adjacent party members. So I'm gonna take a leaf from D&D and make the following Magical Perk:

Combat Casting
You can cast beneficial touch spells while wielding a shield. You must use the hand wielding a shield to do so, and you cannot have anything else in that hand besides a shield.

How does that look?

thom