Caster level in Grim Tales example

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Here's a thought I'm having:

It looks like I could deal 5d4 damage as a touch for .5 Levels or 10d4 Close Range for 2 Levels, but absolutely nothing in between. Maybe I'm reading the formatting wrong, but moving a spell from Touch to Close is 2 levels? But free if I make the spell 2 levels, increasing the cap. Which is only useful like that to a 10th level caster.

How do caster levels work here? Improved Caster Level? I doubt it, since you could never really get more than 10 dice.

Hmmmm. I'm trying to find a way to trade pain/cost for multiple targets. Area of Effect is what makes casters really scary - like our 3d6 fireball farther up. It's only a kernel of an idea, but the more I look at spellcasting in all of its form, the less I like tying level to damage to area. It's just not linear in utility.

--fje

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

It looks like I could deal 5d4 damage as a touch for .5 Levels

Actually, 5d6.

Or 10d6 [sic] Close Range for 2 Levels, but absolutely nothing in between.

You could stay at 5d6 max (1/2 level), and move it to close (free). But if you make any changes at all, 1/2 always rounds up. (The only way to keep a 0 level spell as a 0 level spell is to use it unchanged.) So this would be a 1st level spell.

You could then add Area of Effect for +1 level, making a 2nd level spell that would do 5d6 area, as a burst, line, cydlinder, or 15 foot cone.

If you start out with a 2nd level base, your damage cap is 10d6, but this is a touch spell. Adding any kind of area of effect bumps it to 3rd.

0th: 5d6 Touch
1st: 5d6 Ranged Touch, Close Range.
2nd: 5d6 Area, Close Range
2nd: 5d6 Ranged Touch, Long Range
2nd: 10d6 Touch

I don't want to say much more than that since I'm already seeing (more) problems with Range. More comments are welcome but I might not answer questions till I've mulled it all over some more.

This is what I get for doing my design work on leg two of a 14-hour flight.

How do caster levels work here? Improved Caster Level? I doubt it, since you could never really get more than 10 dice.

Two options in the skill based system.

• Fixed: In this variant, caster level is equal to ½ the caster’s skill ranks in the applicable skill.

• Variable: All spell effects based on caster level are determined by the result of the spell check, with caster level equal to the spell level, +1 for each point by which the check exceeds the DC.

EDIT: Brief revelation.

Some modifications are "soft" and some modifications are "hard." By this I mean, because of the way the damage caps work, going to area of effect ALWAYS adds a "hard" +1 level. There is no way that a base 0 level spell can be AoE.

I think the same could be done with the damage caps-- +5 to the damage cap would also be a "hard" modification.

I could force any given spell-- taking all other modifications off the table-- to stick within the damage cap maximums in the DMG for both single target and AoE spells.

I should be able to take a 0 level spell (5d6 single) and make it a 3rd level (10d6 AoE) by adding the same amount as it would take to change a 3rd level (10d6 single) to a 6th level (15d6 AoE).

I believe it should be +1 for AoE and +2 per +5dice increase, but my brain just ran out of gas.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Isn't 5d6 a bit much Hooah! for a 0th level spell, though? With the flexible class sytem and knowing just about nothing about the rest of your system, would it then become feasible to build a Fast dodgy AC-beastie with just enough juice to rip out that one spell all day long while staying in melee combat?

The low cost of touch spells presupposes the weakness of caster characters to melee combat ... the balancing factor is the fact that they usually get their head handed to them on a plate.

If you could, say, take this caster skill as a Core Skill for Johnny Speedball, could he run around doing 3d6 Touch "Burning HAND" at 3rd level?

With the BCCS system, for instance, I decided to racially lower the DCs of some spells. For the evil Elekolni, it was Inflict. I discovered that, rather easily, I could create a 1st mag wizard that could rip out a 2-round Blindness effect as a standard action within 10' ... or 5 rounds at touch (I think that's how it went). The party thought they could get the wicked snot, as they battled some hench-uglies ... but came at him one or two at a time. MISTAKE. He could whip that touch attack out ALL DAY. The big fighter was the first to go blind, then the next fighter, and the next, and the next.

Finally it was a Charismatic hero with a longsword he didn't even have proficiency with left chasing the guy down the street.

Darn you Aura of Grace. Darn you.

(He eventually got away.)

It's not available to PCs, so I LIKE how that turned out (oh the wailing and gnashing of teeth) but it illustrated the utility of a good touch attack. If you can get the dice up to where the average damage is about 14 (4d6) you can force MDTs on most human baddies at 5th level on an average roll.

Which is ANOTHER thing my players thought of before I did. You no longer really NEED big fat damage dice in Modern/GT, you just need to hit the average MDT threshold of the foe to really wreck their day.

--fje

 

[BryonD]

Isn't 5d6 a bit much Hooah! for a 0th level spell, though?

IMO (at least on very brief consideration) it wouldn't automatically be a problem because you don't have discrete spell levels / spell slots. Not all "L0" spells are created equal and the more equal "L0"s have a higher DC. Maybe DC for 1/2 level starter spells could be 14+<number of dice>, to a max of 5 dice. But that added twist is probably more than would be required.

All that from the hip and open to being shot down