[X] My Assistant

[James McMurray]

[Moon-Hawk]

Buggy spells. :love:

[emo samurai]

Customized spells that have lowered drain codes. :love:

[hyzmarca]

The spell creation rules are quite explicit about drain codes. Lowered drain would mean lowered effects in most cases. However, that doesn't stop a GM from making unique spells or pulling one out of an IE's rectum.

[Ancient History]

“No? A little too expensive? Well, if that’s what you’re worried about, there’s always this.” Getting on a stepstool, the dwarf reached up and snagged a handful of yellowed, dog-eared printouts that had been roughly stapled together on the right to open like a book. “Can’t get much cheaper than this, my friend.”

Public Domain Spells, 2053 edition
Public Domain Spells was an e-zine (electronic magazine) published annually on the public grid in the CAS, giving the full formulae for up to a dozen completely legal spells. Perhaps fortunately, the volunteers who ran it gave up a couple of years ago and moved on to Magicknet in an effort to make money. Some meticulous soul printed out the 2053 edition, stapled it together, and apparently left it to molder under a pile of magazines for ten years before offloading it on a poor unsuspecting talismonger, who just handed it to you. Enjoy.

This particular copy contains seven spells. Some of them are less potent than they were a decade ago-the state of the art moves on as they say, but most are still effective and useful in their own way-and all of them have excessive information on their designers and overly elaborate names. Given the relative lack of popularity of Public Domain Spells and its cancellation, “back issues,” either hardcopy or electronic reserve, are actually traded for good nuyen. Who knows, maybe there’s even an old gem buried in here…

[ Spoiler ]

A forward-thinking enterprise in some respects, the PDS editors included both hermetic and shamanic versions of the spell formulae; the latter appearing as high-quality scans of the source object while the former are the usual dense-technicalese text and diagram. The spells are as follows, in this order:
1. “Mason’s Cigarette Lighter” (Ignite 1)
(Note: This is the Exclusive version of the spell, which reduces the drain.)
2. “Mana Barrier” (Astral Barrier 1)
3. “Neddy’s Dragonslayer” (Slay Western Dragon 1)
4. “Orkstaff’s Handy Helper I” (Detect Key 1)
5. “Orkstaff’s Handy Helper II” (Detect Remote Control 1)
6. “Orkstaff’s Handy Helper III” (Detect Coin 1)
7. “Knight Errants’ Basic Bug Barrier” (Bug Barrier 1)
(Note: This spell has fallen out of common use, and could serve as an Inspiration for a more powerful Bug Barrier spell <presented below> developed by the reader.)

Bug Barrier
The bug barrier spell creates a magical shield with effects similar to an astral barrier spell. The barrier’s rating is equal to the spell’s Force and blocks only insect spirits. Additionally, insect spirits that contact the barrier are dealt (Force)L damage. Every two successes on the Spell Test increases the base damage by one level. This damage is in addition to any resulting from astral combat with the barrier.
Transformation Manipulation
Type: Mana 
Range: LOS
Target: 6
Duration: Sustained 
Drain: +2 D

[emo samurai]

Hehehehh... "Slay Western Dragon."

[hyzmarca]

At Force 1 the spell is usefull for cleaning out the magical genepool.

[emo samurai]

What the hell would that spell be? Would it be a drain-reduced manabolt or something that works only on dragons? That doesn't make sense; Bug Barrier could work if it blocked out insect spirits because it was attuned to the insect metaplane. But as far as I know, there is no dragon metaplane, nor is there some sort of dragon aura you could attune it to.

[Kanada Ten]

[emo samurai]

What if it was at force bajillion?

Yeah, I know it's a joke, but seriously, what would that spell be like?

[Kanada Ten]

Geez, if I have to give you time to edit, then you need to give me time!

[e] There was no need of some metaplane for which one needed to attune specific spells for the reduced drain. Below Slay Human would be Slay Jason Alexander. I had a mage with "Weedwack" and "Rodent Barrier", though the latter didn't get the reduced drain code.

This post has been edited by Kanada Ten: May 19 2006, 05:12 AM

[ShadowDragon8685]

I love Slay Western Dragon, Force 1.

Hey, you never know. You might Rule - of - 6 it into the stratosphere, and the dragon might rule-of-1 his resistance throw... :)

[James McMurray]

We had something similar happen in a Rolemastaer game once. We were fighting a dragon that was way out of our league and tearing us apart. I was down to my very last spell and used a word of stunning. It should have washed right off of him because of his high level and innate resistances but I open ended high on my attack roll (kinda like rule of six) and he open ended low on his resitance roll. Man was the gM pissed! :)