Staff Countermeasures

[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.

[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?

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by Bill_in_IN

What was the DX adjustment for such a detailed shot?

I gave it to the player at no penalty. To my recollection, creation spells are never described as having DX adjustments, and there is no mention of one in the discussion of creating a controlled fire in the Fire spell description.

[Bill_in_IN]

Originally Posted by Shostak

I gave it to the player at no penalty. To my recollection, creation spells are never described as having DX adjustments, and there is no mention of one in the discussion of creating a controlled fire in the Fire spell description.

Cool. GM call. That may be especially true since he moved up next to the wizard.

Since I'm still getting re-acquainted with ITL, that does seem to fit my fuzzy memory until I look into it. Discussions like these gives me things to go and look up in ITL, Melee, and Wizard that our outside of my current re-familiarization plan.

One thing that I told my son, who has recently played some with me, was that if I make a mistake in applying the rules, it will be consistent for all characters on the board. That way, there should, theoretically, be no undue advantage to any character in the course of play.

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by Bill_in_IN

One thing that I told my son, who has recently played some with me, was that if I make a mistake in applying the rules, it will be consistent for all characters on the board. That way, there should, theoretically, be no undue advantage to any character in the course of play.

That sounds prudent, at least for that particular session. I'd have no compunction about revisiting rules for a more informed decision between sessions that would be used going forward (assuming everyone remembered!).

[Bill_in_IN]

Originally Posted by Shostak

That sounds prudent, at least for that particular session. I'd have no compunction about revisiting rules for a more informed decision between sessions that would be used going forward (assuming everyone remembered!).

Well...I've always been good about owning up to my mistakes. I don't look at my roll as GM as being God even though the general rule is that what he says goes.

I told my son that some people get soured on such types of games because of GMs that get off on playing God. They ruin it for everyone.

The example that I used was when his youth league game had a really bad umpire. One so bad that parents from both teams went looking for an umpire in the crowd to replace him.

[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!