[CONAN] Magic missiles and other damaging spells

[Cheomesh]

I read through the sorcery section of the main rule book just now. I saw a few spells that do HP damage, but I didn't spot any that fell into the traditional RPG direct damage projectile spells - the magic missiles, acid arrows, firebolts and the like. Could be that I missed them, however - it is rather late.

Are these added in any splat books? It's not exactly Conan, at least not from the tales I've read, but I'd imagine somewhere in the Conan world some sorcerer had taken to knowing at least a something he could throw at an enemy to hurt him. I was formulating a Khitai based campaign and I thought about one of the pre-made characters (or enemy characters) having something like the haddouken things up his sleve; was more or less silly at the time but it did get me thinking.

M.

 

[Jeraa]

Secrets of Skelos has the Fire sorcery style. It has some damaging spells. Other then that, no.

Alchemical items are another source of damage.

 

[Boneguard]

Anbd to a certain extain, "traditional" RPG direct damage spell don't fall into the Conan Universe. In all of REH books when sorcery was used it either fell into the Charm/Hypnosis, Summonning, Necromancy category. So dammage was always a secondary effect to the spell.

 

[Ichabod]

Out of the 2e book for direct combat:

1. Gelid Bones - essentially save or die, not ranged though
2. Dread Serpent - (use a staff), save or die, 20' range
3. Agonising Doom - 4d6 per round, Will save to act, only vs. less than 8HD, requires Death Touch
4. Death Touch - make save, stunned, fail save ..., touch only
5. Draw Forth the Heart - 4d6 or die, ridiculous number of requirements
6. "magic missiles" - Use Telekinesis/Greater TK to fling alchemical missiles, poisons, whatever
7. Defensive Blast - Can be a "fireball", defensive only, limited range, taps you out

#6 is the standard method to respresent a sorcerer as artillery, a la D&D wizards. Fire Style, best I can tell, is horrid. I believe it's intentionally horrid at raining fireballs on people precisely to not create a D&D wizard. Other books have shooting snakes as arrows and such.

I'm completely opposed to how powerful Gelid Bones is as a combat spell. Sure, it's touch only, but ranged combat in Conan (except for cases like throwing Demon-Fire) sucks. At least other save or die/"die" spells have significant level requirements and/or greater PP costs. I'd say Death Touch is brutal, but I've had a character be Death Touched three times - having an opponent at 12th+ level means you aren't likely weak yourself.

 

[kintire]

Anbd to a certain extain, "traditional" RPG direct damage spell don't fall into the Conan Universe. In all of REH books when sorcery was used it either fell into the Charm/Hypnosis, Summonning, Necromancy category. So dammage was always a secondary effect to the spell.
Anbd to a certain extain, "traditional" RPG direct damage spell don't fall into the Conan Universe. In all of REH books when sorcery was used it either fell into the Charm/Hypnosis, Summonning, Necromancy category. So dammage was always a secondary effect to the spell

.

Thugra Khotan would like a word about that!

The horde had halted. From the extreme wing rushed a chariot, the naked charioteer lashing the steeds like a madman; the other occupant was a tall figure whose robe floated spectrally on the wind. He held in his arms a great vessel of gold and from it poured a thin stream that sparkled in the sunlight. Across the whole front of the desert horde the chariot swept, and behind its thundering wheels was left, like the wake behind a ship, a long thin powdery line that glittered in the sands like the phosphorescent track of a serpent.

"That's Natohk!" swore Amalric. "What hellish seed is he sowing?"

The charging knights had not checked their headlong pace. Another fifty paces and they would crash into the uneven Kushite ranks, which stood motionless, spears lifted. Now the foremost knights had reached the thin line that glittered across the sands. They did not heed that crawling menace. But as the steel-shod hoofs of the horses struck it, it was as when steel strikes flint--but with more terrible result. A terrific explosion rocked the desert, which seemed to split apart along the strewn line with an awful burst of white flame.

In that instant the whole foremost line of the knights was seen enveloped in that flame, horses and steel-clad riders withering in the glare like insects in an open blaze. The next instant the rear ranks were piling up on their charred bodies. Unable to check their headlong velocity, rank after rank crashed into the ruins. With appalling suddenness the charge had turned into a shambles where armored figures died amid screaming, mangled horses.

As would the Black Seers

But the next attack came swiftly. They all saw it--a white puffball of smoke that tumbled over the tower-rim and came drifting and rolling down the slope toward them. Others followed it. They seemed harmless, mere woolly globes of cloudy foam, but Conan stepped aside to avoid contact with the first. Behind him one of the Irakzai reached out and thrust his sword into the unstable mass. Instantly a sharp report shook the mountainside. There was a burst of blinding flame, and then the puffball had vanished, and the too-curious warrior remained only a heap of charred and blackened bones. The crisped hand still gripped the ivory sword-hilt, but the blade was gone melted and destroyed by that awful heat.

 

[Jeraa]

Except those aren't spells - they are alchemical items. The first seems to be Flame-Powder (2nd edition core book), while the second is a Hellfire Puffball (Secrets of Skelos).

That is where a scholars battle "magic" comes from - alchemical items. The OP wanted spells, not items.

 

[kintire]

Except those aren't spells - they are alchemical items

Neither are used by anyone else, ever. They look a lot like spells to me: with material components in the first case, and we have no idea how it was done in the second. If they were alchemical items, everyone would be using them! At the very least, Turan would be deploying that cavalry charge destroying powder in every flippin' battle!

 

[Jeraa]

But they are alchemical items. Just because no one else in the stories were ever stated to use them doesn't mean only scholars could. I even provided you the books they are stated up in. Only scholars and temptresses have Craft (Alchemy) as a class skill, so for anyone else its not easy to make either one. Its still possible, but its far easier for a scholar to do, which is why mostly scholars would use it.

Whether or not they appear as spells or items to you, they are alchemical items in the rules.

At the very least, Turan would be deploying that cavalry charge destroying powder in every flippin' battle!

Unlikely. Flame-powder only lasts an hour after spreading out on the ground, and would require a massive amount to stop a cavalry charge. And if it was still used, after one or two times the enemy would know what you were doing, and either move to attack from a different direction, or wait an hour. Either way, wasting the powder, the money and time spent making it, and the labor to spread it out.

 

[kintire]

But they are alchemical items

You say that as if its a fact. The OP is talking about sorcery from the books, and in the books they are described as magic, cast by a wizard (or wizards) the distinction between "Alchemy" and magic is an arbitrary one.