Meta-Spells: Delay

[Nihimon]

What's a "CM"?

My GM has instructed me that I'm only allowed to spend additional points on Advantages/Disadvantages, etc. that are already in my class template or racial template.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Nihimon

What's a "CM"?

Compartmentalized Mind. Which it sounds like your GM won't allow you to take.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Nihimon

What's a "CM"?

My GM has instructed me that I'm only allowed to spend additional points on Advantages/Disadvantages, etc. that are already in my class template or racial template.

Compartmentalized Mind (GURPS Basic, pg 43), and I don't believe it is an option for the Dungeon Fantasy Wizard template either by default or as a power-up. I don't believe you've specified which Race you're taking, but it isn't likely to be available to any of the DF Races either. You may, or may not, be able to negotiate with your GM in order to get it as a power-up. Can't hurt to ask. (You would want: Compartmentalized Mind (Limited (Wizard Magic Only), -20%; No Mental Separation, -20%) [30].)

[Nihimon]

Thanks.

For the record, I've chosen High Elf Racial Template and have a total of 450 points to spend.

The GM prefers level-less systems, so he wanted us to go ahead and have a fairly developed character rather than actually advancing in level over time. For the time being, we're really still learning the system, and mostly doing scenario combats during our lunch break at work so that we can all learn the rules better.

The description of how Delay works in the Magic book leaves a bit to be desired. The GM seemed reluctant to allow me to do this, so I was hoping to get a semi-official response that would make him more comfortable about it.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Nihimon

The description of how Delay works in the Magic book leaves a bit to be desired. The GM seemed reluctant to allow me to do this, so I was hoping to get a semi-official response that would make him more comfortable about it.

Something to keep in mind with Delay is that, apart from the upkeep cost and "spells on" penalty, it has the disadvantage of not really being under the caster's control. If it's triggered by a command word, he may speak it accidentally. If it's triggered by injury, it may be wasted (for example, the barmaid slaps him leading to premature Invisibility. Hrm... maybe that wouldn't be so bad afterall.) If the spell is cast into a clay talisman and triggered by breaking it, it requires at least a Ready action to activate, could be broken accidentally, could be stolen and used by someone else, etc. The point is, a Delayed spell is not just "1 spell free-to-cast reflexively", there are limitations based on how exactly the spell is delayed. Whether those limitations will be enough to change the GM's mind is another question though.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Nihimon

The description of how Delay works in the Magic book leaves a bit to be desired. The GM seemed reluctant to allow me to do this, so I was hoping to get a semi-official response that would make him more comfortable about it.

PM Kromm (Sean Punch; GURPS Line Editor) and/or Rev Pee Kitty (Jason Levine; GURPS Assistant Line Editor) with your questions if you'd like an official response. They are usually rather nice about taking the time to answer questions; though if you're going to do that I'd suggest asking detailed and precise questions with as much information provided by you as possible (to make it easier for them to answer and answer quickly).

You may also wish to consider Hang Spell, if its' available.

[Snaps]

Originally Posted by Nihimon

The description of how Delay works in the Magic book leaves a bit to be desired. The GM seemed reluctant to allow me to do this, so I was hoping to get a semi-official response that would make him more comfortable about it.

He seemed reluctant to do the snapping fingers thing and have Fly go off next round?

That is exactly how the spell works. If he doesn't want that then he might just want to not allow delay at all. (In which case you are kind of screwed. IMO Delay is what makes a high powered wizard powerful).

For my characters I would often pick up an obscure language and use that for all of my delayed spells trigger words. Or I just had them tied to an action, like: "When I draw my sword, activate my delayed Flaming Weapon spell upon it."

[Nihimon]

Originally Posted by Snaps

He seemed reluctant to do the snapping fingers thing and have Fly go off next round?

As I said, we're all just now really starting to learn GURPS. We're introducing new rules as we feel we're ready for them. We've just recently started using the rules for critical results in combat. I think it's more a question of him wanting to make sure he understands it clearly enough to be sure he's doing it right.

Thanks everyone for the helpful and friendly advice.

I think I'll try to write up a very clear and concisely worded question and send a PM to Kromm.

*snaps his fingers and disappears in a puff of smoke*

[Witchking]

I often use Delay to prepare for any time I know our party is going to enter combat...

Delay + Blur (5 pts) to keep the fragile DO NOT DISTURB offensive whatever from having to Defend very often...

Delay + Armor (5 pts) to take the well armored (DR 6ish) fighter and make him nigh invunerable (at least in 150ish pt total games) with DR 11ish

Delay + Invisibilitiy (lasts a minute) and someone gets to be a wrecking ball...

Best part is you can set up 1,2, 3 or more of these prior to the Combat even starts...often I will leave myself just a handful of FP/Powerstone/etc (after using the Alchemical Stimulants/Paut/etc pre combat) for emergencies and just have some fun with my staff and the occasional spell of opporuninty.

But pick a friend and give him a power word...and watch them gleefully yell BIFF!! SOCKO !! and ZOWIE!!

Delay and Link can be used to significantly alter the terms of an engagement before the battlemap ever comes out.

Good Luck and I would say you are off to a promising start magister.

[Kuroshima]

At 450 points, you can probably do this:

Magery 6 from the Wizard template
Magery 3 from the Elf power-up (That's in DF11: powerups, elves are allowed to take up to Magery 3 above what their professional template gives them)
IQ 18

That will give you a base spell level of 25.

Get Delay and Maintain Spell.
Delay now costs 0 to maintain. This means that Maintain Spell will provide 5 duration intervals per FP spent. Maintain spell has it's cost reduced by 3, so baseline, you get 30 hours of delayed spells, and they don't count as spells on.

Now, get:
Armor and Shield
Blur
Haste
Great Haste
Physical stat boosts
Body of Air and/or ethereal body
an insta-kill spell like earth to stone

and spend some time delaying them and then casting maintain spell on them. Remember, for the insta-kill spell, you will be at as penalty when you actually cast it, since the target was not present when you delayed it (see Delay for that), but you should have enough skill to eat the penalty as long as you're close to the target, and still end up with an effective skill of 16+ (more is useless, since you're bumping against the rule of 16). Remember that a wizard's staff reduces range penalties by 2, and is dirt cheap!

And yes, you could define whatever triggers you like, and the spell takes effect on the next turn.

Mind you, at that power level, unless you take such a route, you're not going to be competitive with other characters when it comes to offensive combat contribution (the only spells worth casting are save or die spell, and you spend a significant amount of resources each time). As a wizard, you should go for support, and not for damage. Leave the damage to the knights and swashbuckers. Oh, they will LOVE having Great Haste cast on them, and both ST and DX boosts will make them significantly more effective.

Remember, with Magery 9, you could have a delayed +9 ST, +9 DX, +9 HT, Haste 9, Shield 9, Armor 9, Great Haste, Blur 9 to hypervitaminate a knight or swashbuckler, who will gain 2d+5 to swing damage, +9 to hit, +4.5 to basic speed, +11/+12 total to dodge, and will be able to act twice in a row, with the first being an All Out Attack for extra crumminess, and without the penalties since you take a non-AoA maneuver afterwards. You turn him into an unhitable killing machine, for a minute. It takes you a long time to prepare all that, but it's worth it.

Oh, and get Recover Energy, and remember that while resting, you get 1 FP and 1 ER every 2 minutes (You will need a large ER and FP pool for the above, since the +9 DX costs 36 energy, 33 with the high skill discounts. You want to keep ER and FP pool at similar levels to maximize recovery times)