Staff Countermeasures

[Shostak]

This creative use of magic came up in a game recently: A relatively humble wizard took away the souped-up wooden staff of a superior enemy mage by maneuvering adjacent to him and hitting it with a Fire spell. It was a dangerous move, but it paid off; the victim, not knowing Destroy Creation, Magic Rainstorm, or Fireproofing, was left without his favored hand weapon and mana reservoir and was thus far more vulnerable to the PCs.

Any other reports of interesting ways to neutralize these arcane toys?

[hcobb]

Fire is not a break weapon spell. If the staff was dropped into a fire hex and left there for the full minute it would burn up, but not after a few seconds exposure to fire.

The classic way of de-staffing a wizard is to engage him in HTH which forces him to drop his Drop Weapon resistant stick.

[Shostak]

The Fire spell gave the wizard a choice: hold onto the burning staff and suffer the consequences, or drop the staff and avoid injury. So, Fire accomplished what Drop Weapon could not.

[Axly Suregrip]

Originally Posted by Shostak

The Fire spell gave the wizard a choice: hold onto the burning staff and suffer the consequences, or drop the staff and avoid injury. So, Fire accomplished what Drop Weapon could not.

Brilliant!

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by Axly Suregrip

Brilliant!

That's what I told the (relatively new!) player who came up the tactic. If he keeps up like this, he's going to be one cunning player.

[hcobb]

Just put the enemy's robes on fire instead.

[Eric Funk]

EDIT: Apologies -- I was searching for GURPS keywords when running across this thread so my reply is in GURPS...

Originally Posted by Shostak

This creative use of magic came up in a game recently: A relatively humble wizard took away the souped-up wooden staff of a superior enemy mage by maneuvering adjacent to him and hitting it with a Fire spell. It was a dangerous move, but it paid off; the victim, not knowing Destroy Creation, Magic Rainstorm, or Fireproofing, was left without his favored hand weapon and mana reservoir and was thus far more vulnerable to the PCs.

Any other reports of interesting ways to neutralize these arcane toys?

Greetings!

Hmm, interesting.

Was it Essential Fire or regular Create Fire?
Create fire creates regular fire (B433) which with 1d-3 can only set on fire alcohol or paper...
A 3d6 fireball on average inflicts 10 damage might set aflame a staff if you hit it (-3 as a weapon). *

Essential Fire, on the other hand sets everything that can burn (B433) ablaze (M75), so would count seasoned wood while the spell is maintained...**

To your question:
Well, our party last week disarmed a wizard by having our party's wizard start a fireball, taunt him, and while the foe riposted the insult our gunslinger emptied a double-barrel rifle point blank, so distraced (-4 to Will rolls!) the foe dropped their missile spell...




*(ok, a 3d6 explosive fireball is a way around a foe's defense)

** A wizard in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy might want to go for a "Dragonbone" (e.g., organic equivalent of neigh-indestructible orichalcum), just 250$ (Gurps Dungeon Fantasy 8: Treasure p. 33).


Take Care!

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by Eric Funk

Was it Essential Fire or regular Create Fire?

Neither! The spell in question was just called Fire, described in The Fantasy Trip's In The Labyrinth and Wizard.

It looks like you are speaking GURPS, which is a great system, but not the one in question.

[Eric Funk]

Originally Posted by Shostak

Neither! The spell in question was just called Fire, described in The Fantasy Trip's In The Labyrinth and Wizard.

It looks like you are speaking GURPS, which is a great system, but not the one in question.

Agh, appear to have drifted forums during a search. Sorry!

[Bill_in_IN]

Originally Posted by Shostak

This creative use of magic came up in a game recently: A relatively humble wizard took away the souped-up wooden staff of a superior enemy mage by maneuvering adjacent to him and hitting it with a Fire spell. It was a dangerous move, but it paid off; the victim, not knowing Destroy Creation, Magic Rainstorm, or Fireproofing, was left without his favored hand weapon and mana reservoir and was thus far more vulnerable to the PCs.

Any other reports of interesting ways to neutralize these arcane toys?

What was the DX adjustment for such a detailed shot?