True Sorcery: Air Lore & Controlling Tornadoes Created Thereby...

[Pbartender]

(I'm cross-posting this here from the Green Ronin boards, in case someone here has additional insight...)

In True Sorcery, one of the options for the Air Lore talent is to create a tornado. It sucks people up, deals a lot of damage, and the Raging Wind example in the book lasts for 1d10+5 rounds.

It also states:

While a tornado’s rotational speed can be as great as 300 mph, the funnel itself moves forward at an average of 30 mph (roughly 250 feet per round) for the spell’s duration.

That's 50 squares every round. Youch. A lot of potential for destruction there, for the DC of the spell.

So the question is: How do you determine where the tornado moves every round? The book doesn't really clarify, and putting complete control in the hands of the caster seems a bit much.

 

[Koewn]

Not near my books, so I can't read the rest of Air Lore, but my absolute first thought was "you don't", the "move forward" phrase means you point it in a direction and stand back. That's without recalling the rest of the Talent, though, so I may be way off base.

...and I just remembered that I dumped that document to text so I could work on it remotely.

Now that I've read Air Lore, I'm standing by that - if you combine the understanding of the tornado section with what's stated in the Base Effect of Air Lore, you're basically picking a spot for the funnel to come down, then it heads off in a single direction you specify (just as if you had invoked a light breeze). It's the mechanics of a tornado having a single-point funnel that causes the difference.

That being said, there ought to be another modification you can add to the spell to be able to change the wind direction (and direction of a tornado) during the spell's duration. Wouldn't know what to price it at though.

I've never noticed a lot of True Sorcery chat around; is it just well-hidden there or merely very sporadic?

 

[Pbartender]

Not near my books, so I can't read the rest of Air Lore, but my absolute first thought was "you don't", the "move forward" phrase means you point it in a direction and stand back. That's without recalling the rest of the Talent, though, so I may be way off base.

Good call and one I'd agree with. I must have missed the "forward" part of "move forward".

I've never noticed a lot of True Sorcery chat around; is it just well-hidden there or merely very sporadic?

It's pretty sporadic on the GR boards. There's actually alot more TS discussion on the Iron Heroes message boards (it being the system TS seems to be most commenly used with) than anywhere else, though there's an occassional thread here as well.

 

[Koewn]

Iron Heroes? Huh. I'll have to take a peek then.

Me and the other DM in the group have been hobbling together our grand "DND The Way We Want It" to inflict on our players; I'm planning on sticking in True Sorcery (and now, it seems, a lot of SW:SAGA)

I'm curious to see how much SW:SAGA's "Use The Force" may end up like True Sorcery, actually, and kinda hoping it kindles some larger interest in TS.

 

[JohnSnow]

Sounds like you and I have a similar "perfect D&D" in mind Koewn.

Mine draws some bits of Iron Heroes as well. Stunts, challenges, zones, and token-activated class abilities replacing per day ones are the big things I'm planning to lift from IH.

I think I'm gonna be melding True Sorcery with the force rules from Star Wars Saga Edition to get my ideal D&D magic system.

I just hope the WotC guys end up thinking along the same lines when they get around to designing 4e.

 

[igavskoga]

Honestly, True Sorcery was the first thing I thought of when I first heard it would be using a single skill. I'm interested to see how Saga Edition shakes things up in greater detail - I have a feeling I'll be borrowing liberally from it for my own house rules system. I'm already halfway there on my own as it is.

More to the question, just so I can feel like I'm slightly on topic here I'd have pretty much read it the same way Koewn did. Seems like a sound reading to me.

 

[Pbartender]

Back to the topic for just a moment...

Two more points were brought up over on the IH forums.

First, the fact that a spell's effects cannot exist outside it's range. In other words, if you want the tornado to exist farther than 60 ft. away from you, you have to increase the range (and therefore the DC of the spell) by a great deal.

Second, that the TS augmentations tables have a listing for "direct the spell within range (+20 DC)".

So, here's the ruling I'm going to make until I hear something different from "official" sources:

The tornado moves away from the caster in a straight line, until it reaches the maximum range of the spell, at which point the spell ends.

The player may use the "direct the spell within range (+20 DC)" to control the movement of the tornado, but if the spellcaster moves the tornado outside the maximum range of the spell, the spell immediately ends.


Sound fair?

 

[ValhallaGH]

sounds fair