Rolling 3 or 4 on Staff Spell

[Shostak]

What's the bonus for rolling a 3 or 4 when casting Staff V?

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by Anthony

The easy way to give a bonus without it being worth continually recasting to get it is something like:

Double Effect: allows upgrading a staff twice (so direct from wood to staff 2), as long as you know the appropriate spells.
Triple Effect: allows upgrading a staff three times, as long as you know the appropriate spells.

That's interesting. I would not have thought that creating a staff higher than Staff I would require multiple castings in the first place, unless you had created a lower staff before you knew the higher staff spell.

But I kind of like adding that sliver of difficulty, especially if there is a risk on a 17 or 18 of something bad happening, such as the staff being broken (say, on a 17) and/or being destroyed including any built-in items like powerstones (say, on an 18).


Really it seems to me that the higher staff spells are already overloaded with bunches of benefits that already come too automatically for my tastes.

In general, for spells like Staff which have no clear way to double or triple their effect, I'd tend to just have a 3 or 4 result in no cost to cast the spell.

I like the idea of adding a few points of bonus mana you don't know you have until you first cast a spell. And/or limiting it only to use with the staff arcane zap. (Of course that means the GM needs to make the staff roll.) I might limit it to an unknown random amount, and/or apply only to the first one or two zaps (or maybe castings) with the staff in hand.

[Helborn]

Another option would be to say that on a 4, it costs no ST. On a 3, it not only costs no ST but you have, somehow, created a Staff II without knowing the spell.

For Staff II, a 4 costs no ST and gives 4 pts of Mana without using XP, a 3 costs no ST and gives 6 pts of Mana without using XP and you have created a Staff III.

etc.

BUT this effect only happens on a 1st casting of a given Staff spell. On subsequent castings a 3 or 4 only costs no ST

But this should be under House rules.

[hcobb]

What happens if you roll a 3 on any other enchantment or potion brewing?

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by hcobb

What happens if you roll a 3 on any other enchantment or potion brewing?

I say that you get to start a new thread at no ST cost. ;)

[David Bofinger]

I like Anthony's idea, but I'd also be OK with the staff starting full of as much mana as it can hold.

[Helborn]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

I like Anthony's idea, but I'd also be OK with the staff starting full of as much mana as it can hold.

2200+ XP for a roll of 3????

I think that's way overboard. Even my suggestion below may be overpowered.

[hcobb]

A wizard can recharge 5 mana per day or 8 days of full time work to recharge 40 mana.

Making 5 Staff castings per day it would take 43 days on average to get a 3, unless a lesser wish (or charm) was used.

[Helborn]

Originally Posted by hcobb

What happens if you roll a 3 on any other enchantment or potion brewing?

Then you get a triple effect - either a potion that adds 3 instead of 1 or heals 3 instead of 1, etc or lasts 3 Turns for 1 ST point, etc. I would not allow, for instance, a 3 to make an item self-powered.


I would make the following quote mandatory for ANY attempt to get a critical success roll
Note: GMs do not have to allow repeated attempts to perform some nearly-impossible task (ITL 9)