OLD Magic Question

TiwazTyrsfist · May 7, 2017

Just got my copy of OLD today, and I'm reading through the Magic section, and I have a question related to how extending casting time works.

Let us say that I cast Abjure Metal to give myself Soak 10 vs Metal for 1 Day.
This should cost 5mp (Soak 10) + 6mp (Duration 1 day) = total of 11mp

If I cast this with an extended casting time of 1 hour that's a reduction of 3mp.

My reading of the section on this is that, the reduction is virtual?

So, I could cast this with a MAG score of 8, but it still costs 11mp, is this correct?

Did it work differently earlier in the playtest (actual mp cost reduction so the spell would only cost 8mp)?

Morrus · May 7, 2017

That is correct, and I can't remember but I think maybe it did in one of the playtest iterations. It's been a while!

TiwazTyrsfist · May 7, 2017

Okay, another magic question.

Suppose I want to create a Flaming Broadsword.
Now, Infuse Fire, by my understanding, would not increase the damage, it would just make the broadsword to fire damage instead of slashing. Or possibly Fire AND Slashing, but still the base amount of damage, 3d6.

If I wanted the sword to do it's normal 3d6 slashing damage, PLUS an additional 1d6 Fire damage (the way a the Flaming enchantment works in D&D) would I need Evoke, Infuse, or both?

Also, is there a way to make my sword do an extra 1d6 fire damage with every attack as long as the spell duration, or will Evoke's general nature as an instant effect mean that even if I give the spell a duration, it will only trigger once and then I need to recast?

Morrus · May 7, 2017

Infuse fire would change it to fire damage. Increasing weapon damage in the system generally means exchanging attack dice. It's not really like D&D - it's hard to directly increase weapon damage because most of the damage comes from your attack roll. Even legendary weapons don't get extra damage - they just get extra attack dice which you might choose to exchange.

You could use the magic item creation rules to give a broadsword an at-will evoke effect though. That's not so much a spell as creating an enchanted item.

Vampifan · May 7, 2017

The best way to increase your damage is to become more skilled with your weapon. This ruling is from NEW but I assume it also applies to OLD as well. "If the wielder has skill with a weapon type, the size of the dice pool may be added to the damage. For example, skill of 6 (3d6) in knives adds 3 to a laser knife’s damage, resulting in a total of 2d6+3 heat damage rather than the listed 2d6 damage. In the case of melee weapons and unarmed attacks, the size of the STR dice pool may alternatively be used if it is higher."

Morrus · May 7, 2017

Increasing a weapon's damage by +1d6 fire would be quite a powerful spell - its the equivalent of a bonus 2MP fire evocation every attack twice a round for a minute or more. I don't think it would be broken to allow an increase using infuse, but I think it would need to be quite expensive. It wouldn't do to make it easy to cheaply increase weapon damage to 5d6 or more.

Dalamar · May 7, 2017

In regards to the increasing damage part, 8MP of Infuse gets you +2d6 to attribute checks which you could change to +1d6 damage provided you aren't already at your max dice pool. Presuming that getting only the damage, not bonuses to checks, is more of a hindrance than circumventing the max pool is a bonus, +1d6 damage would be worth 6 or 7MP.

Personally, I might go with requiring Elemental Touch and then having damage be 6MP per +1d6.

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Morrus · May 7, 2017

That sounds fairly reasonable to me.

easl · May 8, 2017

Dalamar said:
Personally, I might go with requiring Elemental Touch and then having damage be 6MP per +1d6.

If I were just looking to do more damage, I'd probably think about applying Phasing Attack to the weapon for some duration. It won't help against unarmored opponents, but for any opponent with more than 3 points of armor, it's on average better than +1d6 damage.

TiwazTyrsfist · May 10, 2017

Okay, Couple more magic questions where I'd like your intentions again.

1. My understanding is that when using enhancements, you need a casting skill equal to or greater than the cost of the enhancement. Like, to Mindwipe (6mp) you would need a Compel skill or 6.
But what about variable effects? Like Shared Perception. If I do all 5 senses, do I need Compel 3 (base cost) or Compel 7?
Likewise, if I want to drop a massive fireball dealing 10d6 with Evoke, do I need Evoke skill of 20?

2. What about General enhancements (Range, Duration, Area). If I want to make a spell permanent, do I need a casting skill of 21?

3. In the Create section, it gives an example that if you cook pasta in Created water, when the spell duration ends, the pasta becomes dry again. What about things people consume? For example, if the PCs were lost in a desert without water, and one has Create and Secret of Water, can they subsist on Created water, or will they go back to being dehydrated when the spell's duration expires? If magically created food and water CAN provide sustenance, is there a minimum duration you need to hit to avoid suddenly being hungry and thirsty when the spell runs out?