Re: [dq-rules] Three things magical

[Bruce Probst <bprobst@netspace.net.au>]

On Mon, 22 Jul 2002 20:59:28 -0000, "jcorey30" <jcorey30@yahoo.com> wrote:

>1)	Mages get an exp discount for an MA above 15 on all general 
>knowledge spells.  I did not know this, and boy was my Hero level 
>fire mage pissed off when he found out!  I did not give him the exp 
>back, but that is ok, because?

Easy to miss because (a) it's only in 3rd edition (and one of the few 3rd
ed. changes I actually like) and (b) even in that edition, it's hidden in
the XP costs section ....

>2)	I did not know that spells invested in items (rings, amulets 
>etc) still had to be prepared!  My Fire Mage was walking around with 
>so much jewelry; he looked like 'B.A.' Baracus with a flamethrower.  
>Given the number of times he saved the party's butt with fireballs in 
>consecutive pulses, I almost decided to declare everyone in the party 
>retroactively dead!

No, invested items do *not* have to be prepared; however; I don't blame you
if you're reading the 3rd ed. rules and asking "where does it say that?"
This is a clarification from Arcane Wisdom.

>3)	This was my own "house rule", but I used to allow desperate 
>characters to use endurance to cast spells.  Does anyone else play 
>this way?  This makes it incredibly risky for the spell caster?

I do not and would not use such a rule.

I have a different house rule though: adepts can expend *extra* FT to cast a
spell.  Each additional point raises the chance of success by 5%, but also
incurs a risk of an "overload".  The chance is (extra FT spent, squared).
We're still muddling on the exact effects of an overload; we don't want them
to be just like a normal backfire, but we don't want them either too trivial
or too horrible.  The point of the rule is to allow the adept to cast those
hard-too-cast spells if/when they need to ... at risk of something
unfortunate happening, and of course at the risk of running out of FT to
cast *other* spells.  (It also makes the "spend 2x/3x/etc. FT" backfire
results potentially *very* nasty!)

----------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce Probst              bprobst@netspace.net.au    ICQ 6563830
Melbourne, Australia      MSTie #72759  SCA #80160
"Well, look at that.  'Breach hull, all die.'  Even had it underlined."
ASL FAQ              http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/mantis/ASLFAQ