05-12-2020, 07:26 AM | #11 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
|
Re: Avoiding Deathtouch? (or touch spells in general?)
Quote:
|
|
05-12-2020, 07:37 AM | #12 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
|
Re: Avoiding Deathtouch? (or touch spells in general?)
Quote:
__________________
GURPS Overhaul |
|
05-12-2020, 07:49 AM | #13 | |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
|
Re: Avoiding Deathtouch? (or touch spells in general?)
Quote:
You can dodge, of course! You can parry, just not with an unarmed parry. A weapon parry is fine. You can't block because that's really just parrying with an exceptionally well-armored hand. If you want to invent special edge blocks or whatever that let a shield work at a penalty (for receiving the blow far from the arm, where the shield isn't supported), go right ahead. However, the baseline assumption is that your arm rests directly behind the point of contact, separated by about as much protection as heavy armor, which the spell could go through. I do agree that distance should matter! So should contact. If your target isn't (1) in contact with the armor in question and (2) less than a yard away, then the spell won't do anything. People leaning against castle walls or standing on battleship decks are protected by thickness; they'll be a yard or more away. People standing behind ordinary walls are protected by not being in contact. But few shields are a yard thick, or hover in front of the wielder without any point of contact. Using a Dancing Shield, or a regular one with Telekinesis, would permit a block.
__________________
Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
|
05-12-2020, 07:54 AM | #14 | ||
Join Date: Sep 2007
|
Re: Avoiding Deathtouch? (or touch spells in general?)
M11 specifically includes shields in the description of what doesn't help.
Quote:
Quote:
There's also the badass alternative: go ahead and Parry (or Aggressive Parry), accepting the damage from the spell, so that your Parry can possibly damage that wizard making an unarmed attack on you. (Just another reason to use that yard of reach from your Staff...) |
||
05-12-2020, 08:00 AM | #15 |
Join Date: Sep 2016
|
Re: Avoiding Deathtouch? (or touch spells in general?)
There does seem to be a Murphy here where you can parry with a puny dagger to avoid harm but if you block with the massive surface of a heavy shield you trigger the spell!
|
05-12-2020, 08:20 AM | #16 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
|
Re: Avoiding Deathtouch? (or touch spells in general?)
Quote:
__________________
-- MA Lloyd |
|
05-12-2020, 10:37 AM | #18 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
|
Re: Avoiding Deathtouch? (or touch spells in general?)
Try thinking of it not in terms of physics with a modern mindset, but in terms of the laws of magic. The arms and armor of a warrior are intimately connected to him in magical terms, symbolic of his role as well as borne by him in long association (the law of contagion). Touching any of that stuff is magically equivalent to touching his body.
(Still doesn't help explain allowing Parry to get away with things Block can't. But it's a reasonable rationale for Dodge-only which renders details about thicknesses and materials* and distance irrelevant. Plus, possibly more interesting way to think about it in a game that has magic in the first place. Realistic magic is the kind that doesn't exist.) -- * Mundane materials, that is. Materials with magical properties might become valued for just this reason. Shields get made with a thin layer of lead under the covering or behind the shield precisely to block Deathtouches. Any amount of lead will do. Maybe the holy symbols painted on the crusader's shield have the same effect. Sword pommels have crystals to buffer and disperse such effects, because pure crystals are much more attractive to corrupting mana than an already impure physical body. Imagine your own details with a magical explanation, and add the color and flavor you like. |
05-12-2020, 12:32 PM | #19 | |
Doctor of GURPS Ballistics
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Lakeville, MN
|
Re: Avoiding Deathtouch? (or touch spells in general?)
Quote:
This gets into technicalities and precise nature of shield use that are best subsumed into a general case of abstract shield usage, and even if unsupported: A typical medium shield that is on the larger side 36" diameter, befitting a 72" fighter, would have your hand a half-yard away from the edge. Even a large shield like a scutum, gripped in the middle, will have the hand something about 24" from the top of the shield, and 20" or so along a curve away from the center. So in any case, the death energy can flow for less than a yard to something you're contacting.
__________________
My blog:Gaming Ballistic, LLC My Store: Gaming Ballistic on Shopify My Patreon: Gaming Ballistic on Patreon |
|
05-12-2020, 12:35 PM | #20 |
Doctor of GURPS Ballistics
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Lakeville, MN
|
Re: Avoiding Deathtouch? (or touch spells in general?)
Still noting your tongue-in-cheek symbol, the thickest battleship armor that I could find was the 660mm armor of the Yamato's turret face . . . still less than a yard!
__________________
My blog:Gaming Ballistic, LLC My Store: Gaming Ballistic on Shopify My Patreon: Gaming Ballistic on Patreon |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|