I suppose I’m making something wrong as I can’t find any reference to this topic yet. But surely this must have come up before ?
Touch Spells
I haven’t really found any rules to handle this.
As it is, any touch spell (be it runic, divine or sorcerous) requires the caster to stay in contact with the target for the whole casting time.
Okay, so a combat round is 5 seconds, so that mere combat action required to cast a “Casting Time 1”-spell could be handled with a successful Unarmed (or Martial Arts) attack.
Perhaps you could even make this a simple attack (i.e. +20%) as you do not intend to actually do damage with your fist but only want to touch your foe.
Even so, you’d actually need to make this an opposed roll, which in itself causes the problem of taking damage when the attack is parried (see page 60 RQ Deluxe). If it is parried, would you still allow the spell effect to take place (you touched – or rather were touched by – the foe’s weapon/shield not the foe himself)? Or would you demand a persistence roll for taking the damage from the parry and if that failed you lose the spell before it takes effect ?
It’s getting far worse when the Casting time is longer than a single combat action. How do you handle the keeping in touch ? Grappling is no option as you are not allowed to cast spells while grappling.
Or do you completely ignore the rules and allow the casting and then a keeping the charge until you successfully touch an opponent ?
Concentration Spells
Looking at the sorcery spells in RQ Deluxe I find that many are touch spells. Actually, all sorcerous spells that deal with damaging the opponent are touch spells (Diminish, Tap, Venom). So this is really an issue.
Being loathe to find the sorcerer in melee trying to touch his opponents (with the above mentioned rule mechanism dilemma) while all the time provoking free attacks I found the Sense Projection spells and thought Bingo. That thought lasted about a second or so, for when I saw that this spell is a concentration spell I realized that you can’t cast spells. Thing is, they are actually writing that you can cast spells through, but you simply can’t, as your combat action is spent keeping the concentration !
You’re suggesting to try a Combine ? Yeah, great, combine Touch Projection, Sight Projection and the actual spell (let’s say a Diminish CON), that’s a whopping -30% to all skills involved, including – of course – the Magnitude. 3 MP (and 5 skills) to get a touch spell through ?
What happens when the duration of spells is different ? The book mentioned a combined use of “Form/Set” and “Animate”. The first is instant, the latter is concentration. Chuckle, now what ? Casting Time 3 to allow a single swipe of the opponents’ weapons at their wielders (Magnitude, Combine, Target, Animate Bronze, Form/Set Bronze; all at -20%, 3 MPs… oh, and you’d need to develop weapons skills too).
So, how do you handle these issues I’m struggling with ?
Sigh, guess I should have stayed with runic and divine magic and never dabbled in sorcery.
Touch Spells
I haven’t really found any rules to handle this.
As it is, any touch spell (be it runic, divine or sorcerous) requires the caster to stay in contact with the target for the whole casting time.
Okay, so a combat round is 5 seconds, so that mere combat action required to cast a “Casting Time 1”-spell could be handled with a successful Unarmed (or Martial Arts) attack.
Perhaps you could even make this a simple attack (i.e. +20%) as you do not intend to actually do damage with your fist but only want to touch your foe.
Even so, you’d actually need to make this an opposed roll, which in itself causes the problem of taking damage when the attack is parried (see page 60 RQ Deluxe). If it is parried, would you still allow the spell effect to take place (you touched – or rather were touched by – the foe’s weapon/shield not the foe himself)? Or would you demand a persistence roll for taking the damage from the parry and if that failed you lose the spell before it takes effect ?
It’s getting far worse when the Casting time is longer than a single combat action. How do you handle the keeping in touch ? Grappling is no option as you are not allowed to cast spells while grappling.
Or do you completely ignore the rules and allow the casting and then a keeping the charge until you successfully touch an opponent ?
Concentration Spells
Looking at the sorcery spells in RQ Deluxe I find that many are touch spells. Actually, all sorcerous spells that deal with damaging the opponent are touch spells (Diminish, Tap, Venom). So this is really an issue.
Being loathe to find the sorcerer in melee trying to touch his opponents (with the above mentioned rule mechanism dilemma) while all the time provoking free attacks I found the Sense Projection spells and thought Bingo. That thought lasted about a second or so, for when I saw that this spell is a concentration spell I realized that you can’t cast spells. Thing is, they are actually writing that you can cast spells through, but you simply can’t, as your combat action is spent keeping the concentration !
You’re suggesting to try a Combine ? Yeah, great, combine Touch Projection, Sight Projection and the actual spell (let’s say a Diminish CON), that’s a whopping -30% to all skills involved, including – of course – the Magnitude. 3 MP (and 5 skills) to get a touch spell through ?
What happens when the duration of spells is different ? The book mentioned a combined use of “Form/Set” and “Animate”. The first is instant, the latter is concentration. Chuckle, now what ? Casting Time 3 to allow a single swipe of the opponents’ weapons at their wielders (Magnitude, Combine, Target, Animate Bronze, Form/Set Bronze; all at -20%, 3 MPs… oh, and you’d need to develop weapons skills too).
So, how do you handle these issues I’m struggling with ?
Sigh, guess I should have stayed with runic and divine magic and never dabbled in sorcery.
