 SM Shattershield spell - ward nuke? |
 Sep 4 2006, 08:35 PM
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Moving Target  Group: Members Posts: 750 Joined: 9-August 06 Member No.: 9,059  |
Shattershield is a SM (pg. 165) spell to destroy mana barriers (spell of the same name, wards, lodges), nothing more than a limited Death Touch, so the drain is (F/2 - 3).
(Yeah, that latter is pretty likely; we're talking about real counterspelling, not SR3 remote support.) This is horribly, horribly broken and makes destroying all reasonable wards pretty much automatic. Cast Shattershield at Force 9 for a DV of 1. The astral barrier has a structure and armor value of Force. You simply aren't going to see wards with a force over the creator's magic (DV = Force physical drain? Unhealable? No thanks.) But let's be generous and assume a Force 10 magical lodge. Attacks on structures automatically hit - they only resist with their armor rating. Normally that's Armor x 2, or straight Armor for indirect combat spells. (I assume astral barriers get to roll force as respresenting their usual spell inhibiting effect for spells cast through them, and because they have no object resistance to be overcome.) Structures have no condition monitor - you only have to do as much damage as the structure rating, but in the case of astral barriers you have to do it all in one attack because they regenerate. So our Force 10 barrier needs to take 10 boxes of damage in one hit from Shattershield to go down permanently. Let's say you're a stock mage just out of char gen rolling 10 dice against the barrier's 10 dice. You only need to get one net success to do Force 9 + 1 = 10 damage and destroy it. How long to do that? One casting? Two? Three? Certainly not so many that you won't risk a measly physical DV 1. And that's the most powerful astral barrier you're most likely to run into and a basic character with no advancement or twinking. Take your starting mage against a Force 5-6 ward and you'll be smoking them on your first try. Or more realistically, your spirit of man will be running around like a lunatic blowing up every ward in sight for you while you're chortling about all of those quickened spells you carry around under your advanced masking ever since you figured out this trick. Obviously this can be handled to some extent by just letting the astral barrier roll Fx2 for damage resistance. But even then you're just slowing the character down on the common end of Force 5-8 ward. Even if you throw in a rare believable Force 9 reflecting ward, Shattershield only hurts astral barriers, so it doesn't even matter if you roll poorly and get it blasted back in your face. Maybe this isn't the worst thing in the world. It is 5 karma eaten up for no other purpose, so not every magician will want it. But for those who do, it changes the balance of power in the astral security race quite a bit. No more repetitive push through attempts until you roll well, no more needing extra net hits to bring a focus/spell/spirit through with you, and no more mages willing to blow karma to make an easily destroyed ward permanent, I should think. |
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Posts in this topic
Slithery D SM Shattershield spell - ward nuke? Sep 4 2006, 08:35 PM
hyzmarca The owner of a ward knows when it is destroyed, re... Sep 4 2006, 08:54 PM lorechaser I see it the way hyz does.
This is, as you said... Sep 4 2006, 09:02 PM Slithery D Spoofing is immensely more difficult than in previ... Sep 4 2006, 09:16 PM Cold-Dragon shattershield is also for those moments where a fe... Sep 4 2006, 09:29 PM Slithery D I also disagree that it's all that easy to des... Sep 4 2006, 09:35 PM hyzmarca The very best use of Shatershield ever was in a To... Sep 4 2006, 09:47 PM hobgoblin QUOTE No, I have no idea why the GD couldn't h... Sep 5 2006, 05:54 AM Cold-Dragon A smart dragon will wait for the opportune moment ... Sep 5 2006, 05:58 AM 2bit Doesn't anyone think the real culprit here is ... Sep 5 2006, 04:29 PM hyzmarca Well, you can shoot an assualt canon for 0 DV drai... Sep 5 2006, 05:03 PM lorechaser Because guns are better'n mages.
I was so p... Sep 5 2006, 06:10 PM Gort Heh, that's a foolish mage. You can cast a for... Sep 6 2006, 02:54 AM Cold-Dragon "Haha, I put up a mana barrier against your s... Sep 6 2006, 03:24 AM lorechaser Gort: You can. But if you have the gun, you didn... Sep 6 2006, 06:50 PM Lantzer I liked Slithery's look at the issue.
One th... Sep 6 2006, 11:59 PM hobgoblin yep, blowing away that ward would be like neo putt... Sep 8 2006, 03:20 AM SL James That was in the first movie. Sep 8 2006, 05:00 AM WhiskeyMac The part where they go to rescue Rogue and Wolveri... Sep 8 2006, 05:45 AM Cabral Psh. I thought you were talking about the actual c... Sep 8 2006, 07:00 AM
hobgoblin heh, guess i have so many wolverine refrence in my... Sep 8 2006, 09:40 AM  |
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