[UA] Re: Pharmomancy

[Chris Milne]

On Wednesday, April 05, 2000 6:32 PM, Peter Hindman 
[SMTP:strev at arches.uga.edu] wrote:
>
> From: Chris Milne <khris at clara.net>
>
> >On Tuesday, April 04, 2000 3:36 AM, Peter Hindman
> >[SMTP:strev at arches.uga.edu] wrote:

<snip the previous quoted bits 'cos they're too long>

>
> >I like it. I reckon it'd take a bit of playtesting to
> >choose between the "fixed" and your "variable" method in
> >terms of balance, but it's a nice idea. Thanks. Just one
> >question: is the adept allowed to flip-flop the minor 
blast
> >roll? If they can, then they've got a much better chance
> >of forcing a high-rank check.
>
>    It's a magic skill check, magic schools are
>    automatically obsession skills, so yes, it's 
flip-floppable.

I just meant: are you allowed to flip-flop the roll for the 
purposes of determining the check level?
As usual, I failed to explain myself well, but you answered 
the question anyhow
:-)

> Notice, however, that if for example
> an adept had a skill of 55%, the minor blast wouldn't
> force a check any higher than rank 5--if the adept rolls 
a 12, a flip-flop
> makes it 21 and forces a rank 2 check, but there's no way 
to flip-flop a
> 39 and make it a rank 9 check.

Very true. I obviously didn't think it through enough. D'oh 
 :-)


>    Three answers come to mind:  1) No matter what, you 
force a rank-5
> check.  With the significant blast, that means the single 
attack is really
> _three_ attacks.  That's not bad at all.
>    2)  Apropos of 1), the attack is almost certain to be 
devastating on
> any 'normal' (i.e. average Mind, few Hardened notches) 
person.  If you use
> it on Eponymous, or on an experienced Duke with a high 
mind score, well,
> that's like trying to shoot the Killdozer.  Bad strategy.

Well, yeah, but if you roll low, you've still only really 
inflicted a rank-5 check. Same as any school's minor blast, 
which is a bit of a dud from your hard-earned siggie. Guess 
it pays to have a back-up plan.

>    3)  Maybe the Significant blast does minor blast-style 
damage in
> addition to the madness checks?  Hmm...how about, the 
Significant blast
> forces a second madness check based on the _ones_ die 
rather than the tens
> die--the statistics will depend on the duke's skill 
level, but that will
> make the average check somewhere around rank 6 or 7--plus 
minor blast
> damage from brain trauma, stress hormone secretion, etc. 
 This makes it
> comparable to the Pornomancer blast (minor blast damage 
that you _can't
> heal_).

That could work. It's not a big blast, but maybe that's in 
keeping with the school as one of the less violent ones.

Thanks again for being my sounding board   :-)



Chris

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