Head Explodie
Physical:Personal: Instant DV: (F/2)+1

When cast on a creature with a brain of some sort, the creature makes an opposed Will+Body check with a -2 modifier against the caster's Magic+Spellcasting roll. If the target loses more than half its physical damage track, round down, then its head explodes in a shower of blood and liquified brain.

I will regret this, but:


Why the -2 modifier? Does having one's head explode kill the person? Are you sure that a drain of +1 is enough for this kind of spell?

Dude, manabolt will kill someone resisting with only his Willpower that costs only (F/2)+1 or something. I think that's a great drain value. Besides, you'll need a high Force to make it work.

I find insta-gib spells to be redundant.

The -2 dice pool modifier is because there's something in your head trying to kill you, and that's not something you can really steel yourself for. And maybe I should change that to (Body+Willpower)/2.

re-read. all combat spells attack you from the inside out.

Is this spell balanced?

a spell which kills you instantly if it deals more than half your health? i'm going to have to go with "no".

What if it's just will+body? And if you don't explode their head, if you get one net success, then you deal them one point of stun damage, whatever you rolled. That's supposed to stand for a headache.

why not just have it be a special effect for a D-damage manabolt?

For PCs. No. Just no.

For the Mad Supermage Antagonist. Why not?

A long time ago I played in a MUD called Dragonrealms. There was this ongoing event in which a fabeled but never seen NPC magician was experimenting with some ancient spells. The only real sign of this experimentation was that sometimes people's heads would explode for no apparent reason. It was fun. Of course, in that game it was common for characters to run around with several extra lives just in case. Spontanious Head Explosion was annoying but not usually fatal.

The thing about the Mad Supermage Antagonists is that you can give that whatever stats you want to give them anyway. Noncanon spell effects can often be reproduced by making them absurdly powerful, so you might as well just give them noncanon spells and be done with it.


Edit: mfb's suggestion is a good one.

Unfortunately this spell is just way too much. If anything, you could theoretically give out this spell. However, I doubt very few will use it. Lone Star will be on you like white on rice when they continue to find corpses missing heads.

White on... brown rice?

There are other easier ways to make people heads explode. Most of them don't cause drain.

What's with the ouch? I'm just being absurd. Or are you being sarcastic? The internet doesn't handle sarcasm well.

Let's run some numbers, shall we?

Your spell is basically a super powered powerbolt in effect. So let's compare it to that.

Your average person has 3 Body + 3 Willpower to resist this spell, -2 for your modifier. (Mind you, most people aren't ready to steel themselves against any spell). so 4 dice. They'll get 1 or 2 successes. Your typical runner mage might have 9 dice (5 magic + 4 spellcasting) so 3 successes. Cast at force 5, that will be about 6 or 7 damage. On average, your typical person is going to die automatically. (6 > 10/2)

Compare this to a powerbolt. Those same numbers will just give you about 1 success to resist, but otherwise it's identical. About 7 damage, which won't kill anyone. It's not any harder to cast than a power bolt, nor does it have any compensating weaknesses.

Even if you add willpower to resist, it will on average give 1-2 more hits to resist. That won't be enough to swing the tide in any reasonable manner against a resist or die spell.

If you really want a head detonating spell, just say their heads explode when your powerbolt spell actually kills them. It can be sort of a signature modification.

I'll just call the powerbolt "head explodie."

A much simple way to do it is to learn manabolt and use the 'head exploding' as a special effect:

light damage: the target gets a headache

Moderate damamge, mild concussion, some blood outa the ears.

Serious: major consussion, blood gushes outa all of the holes in the head.

Death: the target's head explodes, you all taste his brain meat.

This way, you don't need to alter the rules at all, and you can still get what you want.

So manabolt's "head explodie?"

Well, power bolt works on inanimate objects as well, while manabolt does not.

HEEHEE!!! HEAD EXPLODIE!!!

Head Asplode!
Mana LOS Drain: (F/2)+1

Add the net successes from the spellcasting test to the force of the spell. If this total equals or exceeds the number of boxes in the target's physical condition monitor, the target's head asplodes violently in a spray of gore. If the total does not equal or exceed that number, the target instead takes one box of stun damage for each net success on the spellcasting test (but none for the spell's force).

Creatures which can survive having their head asplode have all relevant recovery times doubled. Only works on living beings with heads. Does not work against spirits.

The drain might be a bit much for it being limited that way... you should add in an area effect stun hit to people caught in the blast of the explodie.

Emo: I think this spell fits in nicely with Animerun, the special Emo variant of Shadowrun. I suggest you add an adept power variant of the spell, that requires the adept to hit the target with a flurry of punches, then the target's head ruptures and explodes (spraying impossible amounts of blood in all directions) at the end of the turn.