[Sorcery] Continual Light

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Plane

P93 has a "but not energy" parenthesis regarding the 10-second duration.

There is however a "Energy dissipates after 10 seconds" disclaimer later for 'hazardous energy'.

P94 does prohibit Extended Duration but it sounds like for non-hazardous energy you wouldn't even need it?

So the issue here is this: Create [Energy Type] creates a defined amount of energy, measured in kJ, which is equivalent to saying it caps the product of the power (in kW) times the duration (since 1 kW for 1 second = 1 kJ). By reducing the power, you can increase the duration as much as you want. For example, by settling for producing light equal to a 60-watt lightbulb, you could make Create Visible Light last for over four hours. But can you increase the total energy produced using Extended Duration? The answer seems to pretty clearly be "no". As an aside, note that Create Visible Light is permanent insofar as if you used it plus a solar panel to charge a battery, the energy in the battery wouldn't magically disappear at any point.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

But can you increase the total energy produced using Extended Duration? The answer seems to pretty clearly be "no".

You don't need to, because you can just create more by buying more levels of create. The same would go for covering more area - you'd buy more levels and burn the energy faster, except that the 15 kW cap only allows a very slight increase in area.

A 15kW cap on the rate of spending buys a very bright light, especially if its 100% visible light, assuming it's a point source. If the Light spell just creates light that evenly illuminates the whole area as if by direct sunlight from above, it requires about 1.3 MJ per minute. If by a point source about 10 feet in the air in the centre of the effect, it needs about 0.4 MJ and the source is very intense (such that it'd quickly overload the eyes of anyone looking at it from right under it). This is using the table in Enhanced Sense, which says that this area has -1 to Vision for poor light (because it says you only get +0 in 'Direct Sunlight', which is very ungenerous, IMO).

I can see two ways of extending the duration of the Light spell. The first is to change the duration to 'indefinite', so the sorcerer merely pays 1FP every minute to keep the light going. The other would be to change the accessibility to 'Accessibility, Limited to lighting a 10-yard radius for one minute times the spell levels squared' (which may not even justify reducing it's cost reduction). The latter gives a fixed duration (the sorcerer can only cancel the spell by casting Cancel Spells) of one minute multiplied by the square of the spell level (I'd be okay with the sorcerer being able to cast other spells without it ending, given their complete lack of control over the effect once it's cast).

However, even this leaves you needed enormous levels in the spell to get more than an hour or so of duration, and the spell effect is stationary, not attached to an object. This can be fixed by making it an affliction, but giving it a massive duration without an insane cost is probably going to require 'cheating' if the brightness is to be retained. Dropping the brightness to torchlight (-3) would give 100x the duration, and seven levels would gives a duration of half a week, eight levels one of a little over a week.

[Michael Thayne]

Rupert—

Totally agree with you on everything you said. Many of the points you make I'd tried to cover in earlier posts I made in this thread.

[JulianLW]

Forgive me for not reading all of this thread before butting in.... I don't know if anyone has suggested this before, but:

If you're looking to extend the duration for a Create advantage - which according to Powers requires spending character points - you might use something like Christopher Rice's hack from Monster Hunters Power-Ups 1 from "Slayer's Strike."

He adds "Slayer Points, 5/level" to the advantage, and this is a single-use Impulse Buy point that refreshes each session. If a CP makes permanent a quantity of the Created material worth 10% of starting wealth, a quick Google search shows that a 15kW light tower costs about $15,000.

<https://steadypower.com/product/magnum-mlt4150-mobile-light-tower-15kw/>

I would also add a limitation indicating that the Created light had to be attached to an object, that it wasn't truly permanent, etc.... But that's how I'd do the extended duration.

[Christopher R. Rice]

You don't spend points to stabilize energy with Create, only matter.