New sorcery spells

dazzah

Mongoose
Just thought I would get some feed back on new sorcery spells Im planning on bringing into my game. Most are actually adapted from RQ3 (Avalon Hill) books and are spells players used to have and miss. I am trying to ensure sorcery remains within laws but also balance spells that create an visible effect without defying laws of physics too much.
Feedback much appreciated.

Stupefacation
Autonomous, Resist Persistence.

This spell affects all creatures with sentient intelligence. It does not affect Fixed INT creature who rely on instinct or creature with no INT.
Each magnitude affects 3 INT of creature. The entire INT of the creature must be affected or the spell will have no effect. If successful the creature stops what it is doing and becomes a babbling idiot for the duration. The target is still aware of his surroundings but no longer reacts to them or knows who or what their purpose is. They will not attack or cast spells, however they will defend themselves if attacked. (The attack would get a +20% surprised bonus) They have a chance of breaking the spell each attack with an unopposed persistence roll.

Encumber
Autonomous, Resist Resilience.

This spell causes the target to feel more weighted down and becomes less agile. They may suffer serious penalties due to this. For each 10% skill the target incurs a +3 ENC and equivalant of +3 AP for calculation of SR only. (This does not provide any actual bonus to armour) If the target total ENC exceeds their STR+SIZ they will suffer the appropriate encumbrance penalty. The targets SR may also be altered and should be recalculated.

Freeze/Burn
Autonomous, Resist Resilience

These are 2 separate spells, that are learnt separately, they are only listed together here for ease. If used to cause injury, Freeze causing cold damage and the Burn fire damage. Although they work the same way, natural immunities of the target might prove one to be effective whilst the other useless. It has 2 different effects the caster can apply when casting the spell
1) The caster can cool or heat a 1 cubic meter or 6 SIZ area for each 10% skill up to either arctic cold or desert heat. This will do no damage but could cause exposure rolls.
2) Alternatively the caster can concentrate the heat/cold and use it inflict intense burn damage on those not protected against such. Every 20% of skill inflicts 1D4 damage to a single RHL, for all creature <21SIZ. (Larger creatures over SIZ 20 would receive half damage as only a portion of their hit location would be affected.) Natural and Magical armour protects against the damage. Worn armour provides only limited protect of ½ its value. This damage is applied once regardless duration.

Magic Missile
Concentration, Resist Evade/Shield Parry

This is effectively a clever alteration of animate spell. It creates a visible arrow like missile out of any material the caster hs to hand. The arrow is tangible and physical in every context. The size and damage of the missile depends on the skill of the caster with the spell. A successful cast merely makes the arrow appear and no other spell can be cast upon this spell to boost it. (eg multimissile)
The caster can cause it to launch itself at his enemy by mere thought on his next CA. Its damage is equivical to table below, and is otherwise ruled as any standard missile attack with the skill chance to hit being equal to grimore skill. The caster can spend CA to aim and modifers apply as any missile weapon. Note that if manipulated to be cast against multiple targets the chance to hit each target is the final modified grimore skill divided by number of targets. (It requires a great deal of skill to control multiple missiles at the same time.)
No DM is applied to the damage and no CMs can be used. However the missile/s can be fired again and again whilst the caster continues to concentrate. It takes 1CA to prepare the missile prior to next launch.
The missile range is equal to the spell range and targets must be within the spells area of effect and direct view of the caster. All armour that deflects physical damage will protect the target. Also any resistances that block physical damage also will apply. Magical defences will not protect the target but dispel magic could be cast at the caster to dispel the spell.
Magic Missile - Grimore skill damage table
1%-10% 1D3 61-70% 1D10
11-20% 1D3+1 71-80% 1D10+1
21-30% 1D6 81-90% 2D6
31-40% 1D6+1 91-100% 2D6+1
41-50% 1D8 101-110% 2D6+2
51-60% 1D8+1 111-120% 2D6+3

Holdfast
As core book but additionally When used offensively on a living being/creature to hold it to the spot; if the target fails persistence roll it cannot move or Evade, and suffers at a -20% penalty to attacks, parries and other appropriate physical skill tests.

Shapechange
As core rulebook, but Ive also rules takes 1CR every 3 SIZ difference to change during which caster cannot take any actions during metamorphasis (afterall I dont imagine its a poof of smoke and you change from a human to wyrm size ready to strike next CA!)
Also that creature skills are at base new born level but can be improved whilst in new form, and caster keeps these skill improvements each time he uses shapechange abilities. eg wyrm tail attack or bite may be 85% in rulebook but thats for a 20 yr old wyrm who has hunted for its prey for 20 years so developed this level of skill naturally. Shapechanging doesn`t give caster any instinctive or knowledge of the species so he must learn this from scratch for himself.)

Blast
Autonomous, Resist Evade

As Deus Vault book but damage is 1D4 every 20% grimore

Lightning Charge
Concentration, Resist Resilience (at time of damage application)

The sorcerer causes particles around the target to gather charge and then unleash there devestating electrical energy upon the victim.

This spell does multiple D6 electrical damage to 1 or more RHL of the target after a period of time dependant on the strength of the spell and the sorcerers skill.
The sorcerer chooses how much damage they wish the charge to inflict up to 6 damage every 10% of their grimore skill. The damage chosen should be in multiple of 6 for ease and the sorcerer must also decide how many HL this will be divided between at this time.
Once successfully cast the sorcerer must continue to concentrate for subsequent CAs to charge the electrical damage up to the max damage initially chosen at which point the damage is rolled and applied if the target fails the opposed roll.
The charge rate is staggered starting at 1D2 up to 20% of grimore skill per CA, 1D4 20-40%, 1D6 41-60%, 1D8 61-80%, 1D10 81-100%, then +1 every 20% skill over 100%.
When applied the damage is rolled in D6s with the number of D6 rolled being the number of dice required for the maximum outcome to equal the chosen damage. The damage is divided equally over the number of HL decided at time of casting.

The damage ignores all armour but any spell protection applies as Wrack spell. If the victim moves out of the spell range before the spell damage is applied, the spell has no effect and dissipates. The magician can cause the electrical charge to unleash at any time when concentrating during charging for reduced damage. In this case every full 6 points of charge currently applied will do 1D3 damage.

Eg Fredrick the Apprentice is venturing in sandy dunes looking for a Root Bane plant for his tutor. He suddenly spots 2 heavily armed orcs with scimitar and shields advancing on his position from 30m. The GM rules they will reach him after 2 Combat rounds.
He has Lightning Charge as one of his favourite spells and so has a Grimore(Lightning Charge) of 62% and Manipulation of 46%. He has 3CA per round. He immediately declared he is starting to cast Lightning charge for a max 12 points of damage. He will aim for 1Hit Location hoping to immobilse them before they reach him. He states he applying 2 point manipulation in Range and 1 point in Targets so to affect both orcs.( He doesn`t expect orcs to have any magical defence, but if given more time would have applied 2 points into magnitude.) Therefore it will take 3 full CA to cast. He rolls a 08 - The spell is cast at the very end of the first round. The next round Fredrick concentrates charging the lightning. Electrical energy sparks and crackles around each orc as they continue to advance and near his position.
The charge will affect the orcs once the charged to 12. His first CA (1D8) charges 7 points, and second CA another 6 which now exceeds 12. The GM states just as the orcs are only a few metres a bright flash of electricity bolts flash through the air.
The orcs has Resilience of 42%. One rolls 22 and wins the opposed test and the other 79 and fails.
One orc is hit by the lightning for 8 (2d6) damage to his 19 (head) the GM states he fails his resilience roll and drops to the ground unconscious. The other orc unaffected by the spell continues to advance.
Still faced with an heavily armed orc, Fredrick states his 3rd CA beginning to retreat. As he has not yet been closed upon by the orc, Fredrick does not have to disengaged even though the orc has reached him. He would be subject to attack as he flees if the orcs initiative allows it to act first. The orc however lets Fredrick flee as he turns instead to inspect his fallen comrade

Common Magic

Refresh
Instant, Magnitude 2, Touch
Runes:

The target, heaving shuddering breaths a moment ago, appears much recovered since the caster’s hand
brushed against him; he throws himself into his work with renewed vigour.

Refresh removes one level of Fatigue from the target.

Forest Cloak

Casting Time: 1, Duration 15, Magnitude 1, Touch
Runes: Plant

Touching the trunk of a nearby tree, the target’s skin seems to shift and warp, taking on the craggy appearance
of moss-covered bark.

This spell allows the target to take on the appearance of the surrounding trees and vegetation, making him far more difficult to spot.
Once the spell is cast, the enchanted creature needs simply to touch and remain in contact with a piece
of living vegetation, and his outward appearance will change to match it. For the duration of the spell, the
target can continue to alter his appearance – each round if he so chooses – simply by touching a new plant.
Whilst positioned close to the vegetation he is mimicking, the target of the spell receives a 30% bonus
on all Stealth tests. If the target moves slowly (no faster than walking pace) through an area of vegetation, he may ‘trail’ a hand, moving it from one plant to another so that his forms shifts constantly to blend in with the environment.
This spell will not work in urban areas, inside buildings or in other locations where there is no vegetation.
 
Ok, to comment on this.

Why not just ban shapechange? Turning into baby monsters probably isn't a viable strategy anyway.

Forest Cloak, what's wrong with bandits cloak?
Refresh, this spell already exists, it is called endurance, core rulebook pg 111.

Lightning Charge: Pretty cool, but it's a lot of actions for something that can be avoided with a single resilience test, especially since Wrack pretty much kills the target in 2 CAs on a failed resilience. Also the main difference seems to be that lightning charge deals all the damage at once, while wrack deals it over multiple rounds.

Holdfast, those are decent penalties for not being able to move, it's a pretty deadly spell anyway.

Magic Missile, nice. what happens if I get more targets? Will the missile hit more targets, or will I just have more missiles?

Encumber: This is essentially a, you go last, and you suffer -20% to everything spell at it's best. Not really worth using IMO. Since Hinder can essentially limit something to Move 1. And Holdfast can stop them dead in their tracks and give the same penalty.

Stupefaction: Nice, a sorcery befuddle.
 
Some minor comments here too.

Stupefaction you probably mean "Grimoire/10 affects 3 INT" rather than Magnitude. Always been a powerful spell in RQ3 and is here too.

I wonder if you could simplify Encumber. Maybe - Target's Armour Penalty is increased by 2 for each Grimoire/10. If Grimoire skill is greater than target's Brawn skill then the target becomes Overloaded.

Freeze/Burn. Should be concentration I reckon.

Magic Missile. Nicely done. You need to give the missile a Size rating though. Possibly each 20% of Grimoire skill equals 1 size. So 43% would be Large.
 
re. Magic Missile: I don't think Animate can make anything fly, so I wouldn't say this is just a clever alteration of it. Also, you should put Code tags around that table.

re. Refresh: what's wrong with Endurance?
 
Cheers guys.

Didn`t see Endurance so have gotten rid of refresh - Thanks all.

Have change Stepefacation to Grimore/10 every 3 INT. Follows the general philosophy of sorcery spells much better - Thanks Deleriad.

My sorcerers love shapechange, just sometimes can be too powerful for developing characters they would lynch me if I got rid of it mixster! Quite keen to see if as they have to develop personal skills for the creature they shapechange into if they focus on only one shapechange, which I would like. Seems more true for a magus to have a favorite and powerful shapechange creature.

On reflection Encumber prob is bit complicated for what its end effects are, might leave this out for now. ty mixster.

Also noted that freeze/burn is identical to blast (Deus Vault) except what is resisted against. Obviously 1D4 every 20% is the sorcery damage level I feel fair in my campaigns! (Think is reasonable as common spell disruption is 1D3 per intensity, and sorcery should be more potent than this.)

Thanks all again.
 
dazzah said:
My sorcerers love shapechange, just sometimes can be too powerful for developing characters they would lynch me if I got rid of it mixster! Quite keen to see if as they have to develop personal skills for the creature they shapechange into if they focus on only one shapechange, which I would like. Seems more true for a magus to have a favorite and powerful shapechange creature.

Ah ok, so they have to spend years in some animal forms for them to be stronger. That's pretty cool.
My current sorcerer has a favored shapechange form, but he does use others. He likes turning into a newt or a gecko for scouting for example. But his combat form is a lizardman (I think they are called Slarg in glorantha)
 
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