[Magic] Combat-usability of Wizards

[TJA]

Hello together,
GURPS Mages work on a quite tactical level.

Combat in D&D allowed Mages in this system to not only have some one-shot-killers, but also get away with huge amounts of canonfodder easily.
D&D Mages could toss out about 9 * 9 levels per day - either in one encounter or split over the day.
Also, with missiles, there was no "to-hit" roll and no defense - beside an resistance roll to ignore or half damage ...

To simulate this in GURPS, you could use Modular Abilities, Wild Cards skills or Powers.

Did anybody actually *use* one of those systems?
With success?

How did you do it?

[TJA]

Also, what *Spells* are usable for such game in GURPS?

Deathtouch and Flesh to Stone come to mind ...

I cannot find "Meteor Swarm" in Magic :)
Powers could do that, of course.

I am aware, that there exists some writeup for "Magic Missiles" ... as a Power.

But what more "regular" Spells to use?

Background: My mage player is unsatisfied with GURPS Magic since years.
I wanted to create a Mage enemy for them as encounter - just to show off :)

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by TJA

.

I cannot find "Meteor Swarm" in Magic :)
Powers could do that, of course.

I am aware, that there exists some writeup for "Magic Missiles" ... as a Power.

But what more "regular" Spells to use?

Rain of Fire is going to be your bet for a meteor swarm equivalent. IIRC, there's a Pyramid that's got rain of Essential Fire, which is even worse.

[TJA]

Originally Posted by DAlillama

Rain of Fire is going to be your bet for a meteor swarm equivalent. IIRC, there's a Pyramid that's got rain of Essential Fire, which is even worse.

2d-5 is about 5, when using the strong version.
Could start to disturb them :)
Sadly, it does not work in a dungeon ...

But then, Create Fire or Essential Fire may fill the niche - for those, i would need to lookup the Area attack rules again. Without such, the damage will be to small.


Thanx for the suggestion!

[Gnome]

I have created my own powers-based magic system designed to supplement the skill-based system in GURPS Magic. I don't want to post all the details here, because I'm still harboring hopes of publishing it as a Pyramid article at some point, but the basic gist is that Magery becomes a Talent that helps with the activation rolls of magical abilities, which are categorized into the usual spell colleges, and Magery is also a prerequisite, often at some minimum level, for magical abilities. Each such ability has some level of the costs fatigue limitation as well as a requires attribute roll (Will+Magery) limitation and the magical power modifier. (I chose Will as opposed to IQ because I wanted to model a "sorcerer" type who has a lot of innate power not necessarily related to scholarly learning).

For example, my Fire College includes an innate burning attack that ends up costing 3 points/level after limitations, and you can buy one level per level of Magery, so a Dungeon Fantasy wizard type with Magery 6 could have a 6d burning innate attack, with the option of buying some additional enhancements as power-ups.

I hope this helps. I found that once I got going using the rules in the powers book, the abilities were actually really fun and easy to design!

[TJA]

Originally Posted by Gnome

For example, my Fire College includes an innate burning attack that ends up costing 3 points/level after limitations, and you can buy one level per level of Magery, so a Dungeon Fantasy wizard type with Magery 6 could have a 6d burning innate attack, with the option of buying some additional enhancements as power-ups.

How did you manage this "cost per level"?
I can only find "Costs Fatigue" and this is a flat 5% per FG used - per usage, not per level.

:-O

Ahh.
I can remember something from Psionic Powers, where those levels are just distinct Advantages. Right?

[Lamech]

Originally Posted by TJA

How did you manage this "cost per level"?
I can only find "Costs Fatigue" and this is a flat 5% per FG used - per usage, not per level.

The cost is the CP cost I think.

I thought that Modules Abilities help with that fatigue cost, but after re-reading, it seems tombe that using Modular Abilities or Wild Talent does not help with the Fatigue cost ... they just give ways to know formerly unknown Spells or Skills, but nowhere effects on fatigue costs are mentioned.

It helps with fatigue if you get advantages. So if you have a 15 point slot and you want to shoot fire you can get
Fire Blast Innate Attack: 5d burning (requires IQ roll*-15%, Not in Water -10%, Inaccurate 3 -15%). Boom! Costs no fatigue.
Then if you want healing switch to the healing slot ect.

*This also makes it a mental ability, so it can go in a modular ability slot. How convenient.

[Gnomasz]

Originally Posted by Lamech

Fire Blast Innate Attack: 5d burning (requires IQ roll*-15%, Not in Water -10%, Inaccurate 3 -15%). Boom! Costs no fatigue.

Innate Attacks don't work underwater without enhancement, so Not in Water is not a valid limitation.

Back to the topic, one of my players came out with a little combo:
1. Summon+Control / Create Fire Elemental (Body of Flames could work, too).
2. Invisibility
3. Flight for mobility, just to be more scary.

Hang Spell + any missile Spell would be awesome, too (helps with "out of FP after second missile" problem, if caster has time to hang 9d Explosive Fireball and than rest).

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by TJA

How did you manage this "cost per level"?
I can only find "Costs Fatigue" and this is a flat 5% per FG used - per usage, not per level.

:-O

Ahh.
I can remember something from Psionic Powers, where those levels are just distinct Advantages. Right?

GURPS Powers has Rules for figures the value for combing Variable +5% With Cost Fatigue where you calcuated the cost based Damage (so Max is taken into acount) and how much Fatigue it costs per level... so that it can be built as 1 advantage

[TJA]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

GURPS Powers has Rules for figures the value for combing Variable +5% With Cost Fatigue where you calcuated the cost based Damage (so Max is taken into acount) and how much Fatigue it costs per level... so that it can be built as 1 advantage

Found it on p101.
Thanx :)

Let´s try:

Fire Blast Innate Attack: 10d burning (requires IQ roll*-15%, Not in Water -10%, Inaccurate 3 -15%, Costs Fatigue -30%) 25p.

Costs 1FP per level used, up to 10d.

Right?