Sorcery Melee

[corwyn]

So I'd like to use sorcery to augment my Swashbuckler. Looking at Sorcery, I see Penetrating Weapon, starting at 44 points for Divisor 2. WTF? For that cost I could get Sunbolt 11!

Would it be out of line to just make a melee range weapon attack out of innate attack? Why are there no melee attacks in Sorcery?

[Varyon]

As GM, I'd have no issue with you having a "spell" that's actually a summonable melee weapon (using either Innate Attack with Melee or Natural Weapon from Pyramid #3/65)... but note that when you switch to it, you'll be unable to use any other magic until you dismiss it (OK, so if I were GM, I'd only have the summoned weapon negate a chunk of your Sorcery of equal value, but that's not the RAW way Alternate Abilities works).

Honestly, for an "any weapon in my hand gains an armor divisor" spell (as opposed to "I can temporarily enchant any weapon to have an armor divisor, potentially arming my entire party with such," which I assume is how the current spell functions), my inclination would be to simply let you apply Armor Divisor to some amount of damage (using the guidelines for Modifying ST-based Damage), and so long as your weapon doesn't exceed what you've invested in, it has an armor divisor. Say you've got ST 13 (1d thr) and a Fine Rapier (thr+2 imp). If you buy Armor Divisor for 1d+2 imp - 1d+2 imp would cost [12.8], adding AD (2) is +50%, so would add [6.4], which rounds up to [7] - then you should be fine using that weapon. If you then pick up a Very Fine Rapier (thr+3 imp), putting AD (2) on 1d+3 imp would cost [7.6], which rounds up to [8]; that's more than you paid for, so your armor-piercing enchantment won't work for that until you buy up the spell. Of course, considering it's an Alternate Ability, there's no reason not to have bought it for [10] (it costs [2] as an AA either way), which will cover you up to just shy of a 2d+2 imp attack. But that's me - you'd have to see what your GM would be willing to go for.

[corwyn]

I'm looking at something summonable probably. The character is a female spy in a swashbuckling campaign, so usually she cannot hide a full-sized weapon on her. I was considering just going with dagger and small rapier but then I thought of a summonable full rapier. I also considered taking signature gear which would allow me to "summon" it once per session and just go with a dagger.

[acrosome]

Warning: Varyon tends to engage in some pretty extreme house ruling. You are warned. But isn't there a whole book called Power-Ups: Imbuements for things like "any weapon in your hands gets an armor divisor"?

I'm not being cheeky- I never really use it so I don't remember it perfectly.

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by acrosome

Warning: Varyon tends to engage in some pretty extreme house ruling. You are warned. But isn't there a whole book called Power-Ups: Imbuements for things like "any weapon in your hands gets an armor divisor"?

I'm not being cheeky- I never really use it so I don't remember it perfectly.

There is, and I have it but was looking for some other abilities as well. Imbuements also has some stuff I want like extending reach.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by acrosome

But isn't there a whole book called Power-Ups: Imbuements for things like "any weapon in your hands gets an armor divisor"?

There is. Its mechanics are incorporated into Thaumatology: Sorcery and used in the Penetrating Weapon spell that corwyn found too expensive.

However, looking at that effect it works by using Affliction (Advantage) to give someone else an imbuement ability. If you only want to use an imbuement yourself, on a weapon you're holding, it should be possible to design that at lower cost.

[zoncxs]

Originally Posted by johndallman

There is. Its mechanics are incorporated into Thaumatology: Sorcery and used in the Penetrating Weapon spell that corwyn found too expensive.

However, looking at that effect it works by using Affliction (Advantage) to give someone else an imbuement ability. If you only want to use an imbuement yourself, on a weapon you're holding, it should be possible to design that at lower cost.

The cost of 44 is if you want to be able to cast that "Spell" and also improvised spells.

Sorcery spells can only be cast one at a time. You can learn spells permanently by paying 1/5 the cost.

So, you would need:

Sorcerous impowerment 4 [50]
Penetrating Weapon 1 [9] (Bought at 1/5 cost)


This lets you cast any spell you want that cost no more that 4 points total, or you can cast Penetrating Weapon on any targeted weapon you want.

You can forgo the sorcerous impowerment all together and simply take Penetrating weapon 1 [44]. Its still expensive, but this lets you cast it on ANY weapon and gives said weapon that modifier.

Another option, if what you want is to summon weapons, is in Sorcery too: Create Object.

Its just as expensive, 56 points for level 1, +4 per additional level.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by acrosome

Warning: Varyon tends to engage in some pretty extreme house ruling. You are warned.

Heh, that's fair.

Originally Posted by acrosome

But isn't there a whole book called Power-Ups: Imbuements for things like "any weapon in your hands gets an armor divisor"?

Correct; in fact, IIRC, most weapon enchantments like Penetrating Weapon in Sorcery are actually built using Imbuements (there are guidelines for turning a skill into an Advantage that they make use of).

Originally Posted by corwyn

I'm looking at something summonable probably. The character is a female spy in a swashbuckling campaign, so usually she cannot hide a full-sized weapon on her. I was considering just going with dagger and small rapier but then I thought of a summonable full rapier. I also considered taking signature gear which would allow me to "summon" it once per session and just go with a dagger.

If you want her to be able to summon a weapon, consider finding or creating a spell that will grant her Payload (Cosmic: Hammerspace +50%). Assuming she has ST 10, two levels of Payload will let her carry up to 4 lbs, and would cost [3]. As a Sorcery spell, that would be something like Affliction (Advantage, Cosmic Payload +30%; Extended Duration 30x 60%; Fixed Duration +0%; Sorcery -15%) [17.5], rounded up to [18]. This would give you the ability to grant anyone (including yourself) the ability to stow and retrieve up to BL/5 (in the case of someone with ST 10, 4 lb) worth of stuff in "hammerspace," which basically looks like you stow and retrieve it from nowhere at all (so it looks more like summoning and dismissing than drawing and sheathing), for 90 minutes. What happens to whatever is stowed there when the spell expires is up to the GM - items might just fall down in your hex, show up stowed properly (rapier in a sheathe at your belt), be stuck in hammerspace but become accessible again if the spell is cast on you again (so you can just keep your rapier stowed indefinitely, then when you need it cast the spell to get access to it and draw it; note if the GM rules things this way you could get away with a much shorter duration), or be lost forever (or until someone might find it inconveniently, if you try to use this to dispose of the One Ring or whatever). As a known spell, it would only cost [4], and IIRC you'd only need Sorcery 1 to qualify for it. Note this solution does require you to have a weapon to stow in your Payload - it doesn't give you a weapon!

EDIT: As with any time you design a new power (or, in this case, Sorcery spell), and in particular any time you make use of a Cosmic Enhancement, you'll want to check with the GM to make certain this is OK (also you'll want to find out what happens if the duration runs out and you still have something stored there - it would be decidedly unfun to have an expensive weapon basically wind up destroyed because you failed to retrieve it in time)