Newbie Casting time question

[Mr_Wuggles]

I am in a game where there is a cap of 17 for Int and Magery 4, making a cap of 21 with technical spell skill. I have a pure necromancer and find that spending 30 turns standing around to make a zombie after my old one dies in battle quite annoying. Is there any way to reduce the cast time of spells or a single spell aside from raising the technical level of the spell?

[lexington]

No, your only real option is to put more points into the spell itself (Thaumatology goes out of its way to shut down any attempt to reduce casting time).

Casting times are designed to give games a certain feel, as much as present a limitation on the power of mages. You shouldn't be making zombie in the middle of a fight, you should be showing up with them and casting quicker support spell during combat. If the setting is supposed to be one where mages casually reanimate bodies as they pass then the GM should have altered the spells to reflect that.

[Mr_Wuggles]

Nnn Okay, that is what I thought. Just a little disheartening when you go into battle with zombie companions and they are all killed off and the rest of your group is either too far off to come help you, or too busy with their own enemies to worry about the ones charging for you.

Thank you for the help though.

[lexington]

I suggest talking to your allies about this problem. A zombie flanker is very valuable and you can supply them with an army of bodies to coordinate with. Buying better armor and weapons for them is a good investment. Consider getting Pyramid 3/1 for better zombie options.

[sir_pudding]

For what you spent on IQ+Magery you could easily have gotten Ally (and with your apparent point total probably a fractional cost Ally at that) with Summonable and Trigger (Corpse).

[Mr_Wuggles]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

For what you spent on IQ+Magery you could easily have gotten Ally (and with your apparent point total probably a fractional cost Ally at that) with Summonable and Trigger (Corpse).

Hmm I will run this by my DM and see if I can do this. Thank you for that idea. I never thought of that.

[ErhnamDJ]

Maybe you could buy some Summonable Allies that could be used in combat to give a similar effect?

If you really want to use the spell, though...

If you could get it up to skill 30, it would only take eight seconds to cast. Then you could use Faster Casting from Thaumatology (page 39) to get it down to a reasonable casting time. But that's going to be incredibly expensive. Both in terms of character points and energy.

You would need +9 skill levels [36]

And then 28 extra energy to cast it in one second. Which is something you'd want to buy anyway. A bargain for only 84 character points.

You'd probably need a perk to get access to Faster Casting too. You could do this with multiple levels of Compartmentalized Mind. Limited down to 20% normal price, that only costs 10 character point per reduced second of casting, whereas Faster Casting costs 12.

So, if you could get those limited to 10 points per level, then you could go with Skill 30, plus Compartmentalized Mind 7 (-80%) [70]

Were I the GM, you could talk me into high skill and Energy Reserve, but not into seven levels of Compartmentalized Mind. And I wouldn't even need to think about Summonable Allies, which also cost considerably less than either option.

[lexington]

Originally Posted by ErhnamDJ

If you could get it up to skill 30, it would only take eight seconds to cast. Then you could use Faster Casting from Thaumatology (page 39) to get it down to a reasonable casting time. But that's going to be incredibly expensive. Both in terms of character points and energy.

Oh, I missed that one. You need a huge energy source for that to work.

Originally Posted by ErhnamDJ

You could do this with multiple levels of Compartmentalized Mind. Limited down to 20% normal price, that only costs 10 character point per reduced second of casting, whereas Faster Casting costs 12.

How do you figure that?

[ErhnamDJ]

Originally Posted by lexington

How do you figure that?

Compartmentalized Mind costs 50 points. If you could limit it somehow, like a gadget as a giant wizard's hat (Breakable, -20%; SM -2, -20%; Easily Snatched, -40%), then it only costs 10 points per level. Compartmentalized Mind 7 would be [70].

Whereas if you're using Faster Casting, it takes 4 energy for each second the casting time is reduced. Four levels of Energy Reserve costs [12]. So, ten times seven is less than twelve times seven.

[trooper6]

Originally Posted by Mr_Wuggles

Nnn Okay, that is what I thought. Just a little disheartening when you go into battle with zombie companions and they are all killed off and the rest of your group is either too far off to come help you, or too busy with their own enemies to worry about the ones charging for you.

Thank you for the help though.

Why are you so far away from the rest of the party in battle? Why are your companions so disinterested in helping you in battle that they ignore when you are in trouble? How many enemies are you taking on by yourself that they can slaughter a bunch of your zombie allies like that? Why are you taking on so many enemies all by yourself? The problem is not that it takes a long time for you to raise zombies...the problem is either your party doesn't have your back or you are separating yourself from the party and trying to do it all yourself--and also that you are over-relying on one spell.

The Necromancer there has a lot of other spells to use in battle. So pre-cast those Zombies if they all get killed somehow? Start casting Animate Shadow! (base time to cast: 2 seconds) Skill-Spirit (time to cast: 1 second). Diversify!