 Energy Aura and Spirit queries, Physical vs. Stun? Energy Engulf? |
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 Nov 15 2005, 01:46 PM
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#1
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Shooting Target  Group: Members Posts: 1,965 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Edinburgh, Scotland Member No.: 2,032  |
The party mage has a force 3 fire elemental on hand and orders it to attack a genericorp goon. The Fire elemental charges in and attacks, doing Str/2 stun damage as an unarmed attack and gets +4 fire damage on that. Now fire damage follows the rules in the combat section, meaning it does physical damage.
Now we have an attack that depending on your reading could be doing two types of damage that are resolved radically differently. What damage is done? The two options as far as I can tell are that either:
Secondly, all fire elementals have the engulf power and the energy aura power. The engulf power deals damage equal to the creature's magic and is resolved as a melee attack. The energy aura power adds +4 to the DV of mele attacks made by the creature. Does that mean that a force 3 fire elemental is doing a base of 7 damage (3 magic +4 for energy aura) on its engulf attacks? Isn't this a lot? Thirdly, is there really anything to stop someone from summoning a different-energy variant of one of the elementals? IE: Say I'm wanting the offensive abilities of a fire elemental during a lightning storm. Could I summon a variant of the fire spirit which uses electricity on all of its attacks rather than fire? |
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Nov 15 2005, 03:44 PM
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#2
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 7,089 Joined: 4-October 05 Member No.: 7,813 |
the "storm spirit" thing is perfectly doable... you will need at least force 6, but if you look you will notice that as optional powers, air spirits can choose elemental attack and elemental aura. now, technically, it doesn't say this, but i would personally rule they cannot choose fire :P
as far as the other stuff... i would presume it's all physical fire damage, personally. SR4 seems to have done away with half and half attacks, such as the old shock gloves. and yes, 7 DV is quite a bit, but keep in mind this is a fire spirit engulfing someone in flames... it's kinda like getting hit by a flamethrower, except the flame is sentient. naturally, it's going to do quite a bit of damage. |
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Nov 15 2005, 04:37 PM
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#3
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,965 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Edinburgh, Scotland Member No.: 2,032 |
How come? I had a really cool idea for a heat haze/mirage spirit (ever had a run in a desert?) which was basically an air spirit with the fire energy aura and possibly elemental attack. You can just see guards looking out into the desert, calling back to base that all was clear, then being cut down by autofire as a bunch of runners emerge from the heat haze where the light had been curved right round them (concealment). Check and Check on the other stuff... |
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Nov 15 2005, 11:43 PM
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#4
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 7,089 Joined: 4-October 05 Member No.: 7,813 |
i would consider your desert heat/haze spirit to be a fire spirit, personally :P
i dunno, maybe if you had a desert shaman (unable to summon fire spirits) i would allow it... |
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Nov 16 2005, 12:26 AM
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#5
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,965 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Edinburgh, Scotland Member No.: 2,032 |
Ah, but fire spirits can never have the concealment power. If that spirit were to exist then it pretty-much must be an air spirit. I can understand not givng water spirits fire aura, but IMHO the 3 different energy types could easily be applied to an air spirit givine mirage (Fire, also works as Steam or Smoke), storm (electricity), and blizzard (with cold, naturally) spirits. Water could probably take Cold and become an Ice Elemental, or possibly even Electricity to become a hair-dryer-in-the-bath-tub-elemental which could be explained by conditions at the time of summoning (actually chucking a hair-dryer in a bath tub is one idea, just don't do it whilst you're in the bath tub). If water elementals weren't vulnerable to fire I'd also suggest giving them the fire aura to become a boiling-water elemental. :D Earth would be most likely to take Fire or Cold elemental attacks for a magma or avalanche elementals respectively. (any better names for them?) IMHO you could possibly even make a being of living electricity (a living lightning bolt) using a modified fire elemental too. |
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