Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 09-01-2010, 08:41 PM   #1
Sunrunners_Fire
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Default How to resolve this situation?

Energy Reserve: 10
Regeneration (Extreme: 10/second) (Energy Reserve Only)

Time to Cast Spell: 2 Seconds.
Energy Cost: 20

Please forgive the arbitrary numbers, I'm trying to narrow it down as far as reasonable to define the situation. I have a mage with regen reserve, who wants to cast spells with long casting times and also cost more energy than he has available on a second-by-second basis.

Can he cast the above spell, as he can spend 10 energy per second (20 total at the end of the 2 seconds) for the duration of the spell's time to cast?

Does the answer change (and how?) if he uses ceremonial magic instead?

(I have an opinion of how this works, as the GM running the game for the player in question, but I'd like others opinions and ideas to make sure I'm interpreting it correctly.) :)
Sunrunners_Fire is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-01-2010, 08:47 PM   #2
Diomedes
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Dallas, TX
Default Re: How to resolve this situation?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire View Post
Please forgive the arbitrary numbers, I'm trying to narrow it down as far as reasonable to define the situation. I have a mage with regen reserve, who wants to cast spells with long casting times and also cost more energy than he has available on a second-by-second basis.

Can he cast the above spell, as he can spend 10 energy per second (20 total at the end of the 2 seconds) for the duration of the spell's time to cast?

Does the answer change (and how?) if he uses ceremonial magic instead?

(I have an opinion of how this works, as the GM running the game for the player in question, but I'd like others opinions and ideas to make sure I'm interpreting it correctly.) :)
He needs to have all 20 EP available at the last second of casting, ceremonial magic or no. That said, unless he has limitations on his ER, he can combine them with his FP to get to 20 (unless you've decided that the setting prohibits that, of course).
Diomedes is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-01-2010, 09:05 PM   #3
munin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Vermont, USA
Default Re: How to resolve this situation?

This issue comes up frequently with the Draw Power spell. No, you have to spend all of the spell's energy at the time of casting, not during the ritual.

"At the end of the last second of concentration, make a success roll for the spell ... On a success, mark off the spell’s energy cost against your FP ..." (p. B235)
munin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-01-2010, 11:08 PM   #4
benz72
 
benz72's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Chagrin Falls
Default Re: How to resolve this situation?

For the cost, bump the regen rate down a notch and throw the points into expanding the reserve. THough it is impresive to be able to throw a 10 fp spell every second indefinately it is not as useful as being able to pull out the bigger guns when needed (and still have an amazing recovery rate).
__________________
Benundefined
Life has a funny way of making sure you decide to leave the party just a few minutes too late to avoid trouble.
benz72 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-01-2010, 11:27 PM   #5
Sunrunners_Fire
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Default Re: How to resolve this situation?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Diomedes View Post
He needs to have all 20 EP available at the last second of casting, ceremonial magic or no. That said, unless he has limitations on his ER, he can combine them with his FP to get to 20 (unless you've decided that the setting prohibits that, of course).
Quote:
Originally Posted by munin View Post
This issue comes up frequently with the Draw Power spell. No, you have to spend all of the spell's energy at the time of casting, not during the ritual.

"At the end of the last second of concentration, make a success roll for the spell ... On a success, mark off the spell’s energy cost against your FP ..." (p. B235)
Ah. Something I reference when discussing this with the group. Thank you both.

Quote:
Originally Posted by benz72 View Post
For the cost, bump the regen rate down a notch and throw the points into expanding the reserve. Though it is impressive to be able to throw a 10 fp spell every second indefinitely it is not as useful as being able to pull out the bigger guns when needed (and still have an amazing recovery rate).
Heh. The numbers were selected to simplify the question, not to represent the characters' actual capabilities. Thank you for the suggestion though. :)

...

Now to figure out how to make the energy accumulate while casting (even if only ceremonially or something) so that he doesn't need to buy a 10k ER.
Sunrunners_Fire is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-01-2010, 11:28 PM   #6
PK
 
PK's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dobbstown Sane Asylum
Default Re: How to resolve this situation?

Your mage player cannot do that. Energy for spells is not spent "per second" -- it's all spent at the end of the ritual, at once. There are a few exceptions -- primarily missile spells -- but they're just that, exceptions. The rule is that you have to pony it all up at once.

Now, said mage could certainly concentrate for 2 seconds, then spend 10 ER and 10 FP. He'd get the ER back the next second, but he'd be tired as all heck . . .
__________________
Reverend Pee Kitty of the Order Malkavian-Dobbsian (Twitter) (LJ)

MyGURPS: My house rules and GURPS resources.

#SJGamesLive: I answered questions about GURPS After the End and more!
{Watch Video} - {Read Transcript}
PK is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-01-2010, 11:32 PM   #7
Sunrunners_Fire
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Default Re: How to resolve this situation?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty View Post
Your mage player cannot do that. Energy for spells is not spent "per second" -- it's all spent at the end of the ritual, at once. There are a few exceptions -- primarily missile spells -- but they're just that, exceptions. The rule is that you have to pony it all up at once.

Now, said mage could certainly concentrate for 2 seconds, then spend 10 ER and 10 FP. He'd get the ER back the next second, but he'd be tired as all heck . . .
Then what would be a good price for the ability to do so? (Outside of buying that 10k ER, of course.) And how would I build that ability?
Sunrunners_Fire is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-02-2010, 02:40 AM   #8
PK
 
PK's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dobbstown Sane Asylum
Default Re: How to resolve this situation?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire View Post
Then what would be a good price for the ability to do so? (Outside of buying that 10k ER, of course.) And how would I build that ability?
You'd need to buy enough ER to cover the largest spell you wish to be able to cast. If you plan on casting 30-energy spells on a regular basis, you'll need at least ER 30. You certainly shouldn't need ER in the 10,000 range unless you're planning on casting some very scary spells!
__________________
Reverend Pee Kitty of the Order Malkavian-Dobbsian (Twitter) (LJ)

MyGURPS: My house rules and GURPS resources.

#SJGamesLive: I answered questions about GURPS After the End and more!
{Watch Video} - {Read Transcript}
PK is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-02-2010, 05:53 AM   #9
Ze'Manel Cunha
 
Ze'Manel Cunha's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Stuttgart, Germany
Default Re: How to resolve this situation?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire View Post
Then what would be a good price for the ability to do so? (Outside of buying that 10k ER, of course.) And how would I build that ability?
There's two easy things you can do there, first you can simply state that in your setting mages put energy into their spells during the casting process at a rate of (total cost)/(casting time), similar to how missile spells are done.

That's a perfectly reasonable and sensical setting requirement, not only would it answer your issue, but it also more closely resembles most fictional representations of casting where mages are accruing energy and building spells during the entire casting process.

Barring that, the next easiest thing to do is introducing a Hold Spell variant, which allows the mage to continue to put energy into a spell until it reaches the threshold energy to be cast.
Ze'Manel Cunha is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
ceremonial magic, energy reserve, magic, regeneration, spells

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:35 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.