[Magic] Battlemages and their favourite spells

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by nanoboy

Create Animal (Swarm of Wasps) was probably the most effective use of a spell in combat that I've ever seen. There are direct countermeasures, but if you're not expecting it and aren't wearing environmental armor, it's probably lights out.

See the thread Created Animals, and their Training for some thoughts directly relevant to this.

[Jasonft]

God help the other side if you have a few decent mages and they don't.

A previous GURPS campaign we had to deal with an invading army. A really, really big army. They had some magic items with specific spells in them, but no true caster types with spell lists.

We had six journeyman mages.

Invisibility, Strength, Haste and/ or Great Haste, Armor, Flight or Hawkflight. The whole stack of buff spells went on the party member with Absolute Timing and about half a round later he would be in the middle of their camp doing All Out Attacks until 3-5 rounds before the Invis dropped. When his Absolute Timing started giving him warnings he just flew back into the trees and was gone.

The Flight/ Hawkflight was kind of a necessity because he was also wearing heavy armor and would have been at least Medium encumbrance without it.

We never quite managed to stop the army, but they had the most nervous troops that world had seen.

[Captain-Captain]

Originally Posted by Sword-dancer

and the next spearman will spear you to death.

Nonsense. Your Flame Jet will cut him down where he stands.

[hal]

As others have mentioned, a lot depends on the circumstances in which the battle mage finds himself in. It also depends on what his role in the battle shall be, as well as what the goals of the combat might be.

One spell that can change the face of mass combat battles involving cavalry is that of the spell SUMMON ANIMALS. For 3 fatigue and 2 to maintain, one can summon a single horse. But for 6 fatigue and 4 to maintain, one can summon ALL horses within a 10 mile radius. Three mages working together to cast this spell in a ceremonial casting, can make it so that the opposing army's horses will be summoned to head towards where the mages are located. What makes this spell of particular interest is the fact that there are no saving rolls involved on the part of the horses. If the spell works, they come. Short of keeping your horses in a no mana region, or other similar counter-measures, there isn't a whole heck of a lot that a cavalryman can do.

I don't know what else was discussed in the created animal thread mentioned earlier in the posts, but one particularly nasty application of the spell is to summon carnivorous bats and sending them after mounted knights horses. Usually, those bats will inflict on the order of 1d6 cutting damage unless the horses are wearing barding. Cloth barding only stops 1 point of damage IF the entire horse is covered by it. As an added bonus, knights or cavalrymen who are riding the horses being attacked, will need to make horse control rolls at a penalty equal to the wounds taken (up to a max of 4).

1 on 1d6 will do only 1 point of damage after the cutting bonus is added.
2 on 1d6 will do 3 points of damage after the cutting bonus is added.
3 on 1d6 will do 4 points of damage after the cutting bonus is added.
4 on 1d6 will do 6 points of damage after the cutting bonus is added.
5 will do 7 points, and 6 will do 9 points after cutting bonus is added. Those bats can do some really NASTY damage.

Knights whose horses are being attacked will need to either ignore the bats and pray they can get the mages who unleased the bats on them, or they need to ignore the mages and concentrate on killing the bat swarm. Even if they do that, they will usually inflict only 2 points of damage against the bat swarm, possibly 4 in a single turn. It takes 8 points to disperse a bat swarm.

What would probably help the original poster is if people here were to submit mages built upon 100 or 150 points, and create the spell lists for the submitted characters. This way, the original poster can use the examples generated for this thread - and have mock arcane battles. He can then try the spells against other mages, and against other fighters, and finally other mages AND fighter groups.

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by hal

What would probably help the original poster is if people here were to submit mages built upon 100 or 150 points, and create the spell lists for the submitted characters. This way, the original poster can use the examples generated for this thread - and have mock arcane battles. He can then try the spells against other mages, and against other fighters, and finally other mages AND fighter groups.

Thanks for the suggestion Hal, but that is not neccessary. I forwarded the link to the rest of my gaming group, and a couple of them have been following this thread.

The suggestions that you have all given, as well as comments regarding "one size does not fit all", have been excellent. Ta muchly.

[hal]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

Thanks for the suggestion Hal, but that is not neccessary. I forwarded the link to the rest of my gaming group, and a couple of them have been following this thread.

The suggestions that you have all given, as well as comments regarding "one size does not fit all", have been excellent. Ta muchly.

Aw shucks, and here I was gearing up to try and create a FUN warrior/mage for use with the Elves versus Banestorm orcs scenario...

Nine 75 point orcs plus one Orc leader at 112 points (ie 50% and 75% cost of mage) versus 1 Elven Mage of 150 points. Objective of the Orcs is to penetrate 50 miles into the woods. Objective of the Elf sentry/warrior is to deny the Orcs their victory conditions.

The test is to see how well such a mage MIGHT fare (or not) against such foes. ;)

Ah well, I'll behave.

:)

[genin]

Of course, some of the *rest* of us might be interested in the outcome of your Elf vs. Orcs skirmish.

So I say: "Go ahead, Hal!"

(or maybe, "No, don't behave! Please?")

- Genin

[rosignol]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

So, my questions are thus:

What would you put down as your top ten spells for a battle mage, and why?

What are good spell combinations, that is which spells work well together? And I am interested in both offensive and defensive spell combo's here.

Ways to hose melee types:

Return Missile.

It generally isn't necessary to resort to Reverse Missiles or Missile Shield, once someone with a missile weapon gets a missile thrown back at them, the mage is added to the list of "things the melee types get to deal with". For some reason, very few archers/crossbowmen are willing to find out just how many times a mage can do that particular trick.

Hawk Vision + pretty much any missile spell.

Hawk Vision gives you a bonus that offsets range penalties. It allows a mage with Innate Attack (missile)-12 to be effective with a turn or two of aiming. 'nuff said.

Create Animal.

This is a great spell. Create a wolf, sic 'im on someone. Then create another one. Then another. Then another. Have them all-out attack the victim's unarmored bits. They won't do much damage, especially if the victim is wearing armor, but they will give the victim something to do other than swinging at you.

Rooted Feet or Glue

Another great spell, especially for mages who carry a staff. Root that pesky sword-swinger in place, step out of his reach, and teach him why he shoulda brought a reach 2 weapon by whacking him over the head repeatedly.

Fumble

Pure awesomeness. It's a blocking spell. You can cast it in addition to whatever other (one-second-casting-time) spell you cast that round. The only downside is that the fatigue cost is significant. Stand behind the meat-shields and use it to hose the enemy's defense rolls, the meat-shields will *love* you for it.

Ways to hose other mages:

Magic Resistance.

Cast it on one of your meat-shields and tell him to beat up the mage. The mage will be casting spells on the meat-shield at -10 or so. *fizzle*

Enlarge.

Potent, long-lasting, and massively increases the fatigue cost to cast regular spells on the target.

Hush or Strike Dumb.

Completely hoses mages who have spell skill of less than 15.

Strike Blind

There's a -5 penalty to cast regular spells on targets you can't touch or see.

The ultimate nasty combination for people with lots and lots of Energy Reserve is probably Walk Through Earth, Earth Vision, and Flesh to Stone. Dive into the ground, cast Earth Vision so you can see your victim (-1 for having a spell active is better than -5 for not being able to touch or see the target), and cast Flesh to Stone from a yard underground. The only real counter is to cast Earth Vision and start trying to hit the underground mage with Regular spells. If your mage doesn't know Earth Vision, your best bet is to run.

[WingedKagouti]

Enlarge combos well with Body of Wind, if you have the FP/skill to handle the cost of course. Use Enlarge first, since BoW doesn't increase in cost with the targets size. ST 40+ and IT:Diffuse strikes hard and isn't put down easily (+2 SM Enlarge if the recipient has ST 9+, +1 SM for ST 14+). Skill 20 for both spells is highly recommended, even though it may be a massive investment of points.

Purely as a defense against melee/archers Body of Air works well, and you don't need more than 15 skill to make it free to maintain.

Sensitize followed by Agonize will incapacitate anyone failing the resistance rolls (HT based, so a decent choice against mages). Start with Frailty if want to be sure it works (and you have the FP/ER to spend).

[Lupo]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

So, my questions are thus:

What would you put down as your top ten spells for a battle mage, and why?

I wouldn't dare to say they are the "top ten", but I can list a few spells that are comparatively better than similar spells in their category:

- Melee spells: generally speaking, they suck! If you want to fight, why not create a warrior? He'll do similar or more damage, more accurately, each round, without fatigue cost... Flame Jet is FAR better than any Melee spell. Melee spells are useful only for high-DX, low-ST warrior mages.

- Missile spells: never take Fireball. Lighting is far better; reduced damage but improved Acc and 1/2, metal RD counts as 1 and, more importantly, the target must roll vs. HT - 1 for each 2 points of damage, or be Stunned. Concussion might be better yet, due to its "mass stunning" side effect.

-Other uber-effective spells are: Flash and Smoke.
Reverse missile is king vs. archers.
Armor is somewhat costly for what it does, Shield and Blur are better.