Wild idea I got in another thread, but it might be playable as a spell.

Anyhow, the idea is that the mage needs to go somewhere else, fast. Usually he can do this by elemental dragging him with Movement power, granting speeds upwards of 240 km/hour.

Or he can fly there using Levitate, giving speeds around 50-70km/h depending on grades of initiation.

But if he's in a real hurry, he needs a new spell. A specialized one.

Basically I want to upgrade the Levitate spell with the Extended Spell option in MiTS, but applying it to movement speed, rather than area.

Increasing area, or mass is linear, but increasing speed is squared, so if (relatively speaking and pseudomathematically) we say +1 DL adds 10 times the mass, then the same +1 DL should be able to buy the squareroot of 10 in speed.

Thats 3,16 something, so lets say its 3.

The new spell thus reads: TN 4, +2S Drain, movement MagicxSuccesses(up to Force)x3

Examples:
Old spell uninitiated mage: 36m/rd - 43,2 km/h
New spell uninitiated mage: 108m/rd - 129,6 km/h

Clearly not unbalanced. But what do you think? - Would you allow it?

Scenario no. 2. More speed needed. Same theory, that its harder to accelerate than to increase mass. But this time, we square the DL. Base DL is M or 2, 2 squared is 4 or Deadly.

This version moves you MagicxSuccesses(up to Force)x10

TN 4, +2 D Drain:

Ver2 of new spell by uninitiated mage: 360m/rd - 432 km/h

Would you allow This version in your games? - As it provides no protection from the speed, nor any tools to react fast enough, it carries its own hazards to use.

I've looked over your numbers and read up in the MiTS. I would allow version 1, but not version 2. The increase from S to D does not merit the extra speed.

Although it would be fun to watch a guy maneuver at 400 kph with serious stun...

I can see one way this is unbalancing. With the extra speed the floating dagger trick becomes worthwile even if you rule it requires a complex action to hurl it at someone and give them a dodge test Vs sorcery sucesses.

Any mage able to summon a spirit with psychokinesis and movement can rather easily reach speeds of 250km/h.

Levitate can realisticly reach speeds from 40-70km/h depending on how high force, and how initiated the mage is.

Therefore It seemed logically to me, that with a mere drain of M, there should be ways to improve the effect of the spell.

Even if you rule Drain of D+2, then you'd take Voluntary Target, and Touch Range to get back down to D. - Effectively you remove the floating dagger problem, as you now have to keep touching the dagger for it to move.

But then again, a simple houserule that each swipe with the dagger is a complex action, and a damage code that is less than most handguns, less than other combat spells etc. and it becomes a curiosum thats not really handy.

So what about the mage who is flying at 250 km/h and dumps out his bag of steel quarter inch ball berings (that incidentally are also flying at 250mph until released). Sure they are no longer under the power of the spell, but they still have inertia.

I've heard that bikers used to drop steel ball berings behind their bikes when someone was driving too close for their comfort. The berings would bounce off of the pavement and rip holes in the radiator, dent and chip the body, and pulverize the windshield. And that is to a car going 65mph or roughly 104.5 km/h.

Also, levitate can affect any target as long as its total mass is accounted for. Would this spell only be limited to affect the caster, or could you hold a dikoted and sharpened spike in your hand and instantly accelerate it to 250 km/h? The levitate spell also has a sustained duration which means that every action you could send it in a different direction, or rushing at a different target.

The spike trick is pretty sick when the mage doing it is sending it off at a speed of 45 km/h but 250? Although, google says that bullets travel from 180 to 1500 m/s or 648 km/h to 5400 km/h, so who knows. Maybe it isn't that sick after all?

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1999/MariaPereyra.shtml

Well, I do see the problem.

But Levitate is Not Use Skill or Magic Fingers (and at that, Magic Fingers doesn't have a speed rating listed, read like that, you could move any object anywhere in LOS in one action, technically you could argue that would be prtty lethal to get hit by.)

Magic Fingers give +2 TN, to all actions done with it. Levitate is not a fine manipulation spell, so unless the caster is moving himself, he has only limited feeling with the object. Just rushing a knife at a person, is not the same as hitting with good skill.

This means that to toss something at someone else, you have to default to QUI for your combat test. And no its not hard to parry something thrown at you, compared to parrying someone in melee with you, the opponent moves his sword faster than at 250km/h.

The opponent also gets to dodge, its not specified in the spell description, but to me its "understood" as its mentioned other places under manipulation spells, that they are solved as normal attacks.

Finally, the dikoted knife can still only deal Moderate Physical damage as its base. It wont, in fact, improve its damagecode that its Dikoted. Levitate dictates that a dangerous object deals M damage, regardless of what object it is.

This means the caster is rolling QUI vs. TN4+4 for defaulting + whatever cover/vision etc. and the target can Dodge. If he hits, then the target takes Moderate damage at F(speed/10) modified by normal impact armor (see Clout for precedent).

Err... Yea, thats a weakness, the Power can exceed a massive amount. I'd houserule that, to a quick maximum Power equal to the spells Force. (which is not without precedent, see Fling)

Then the mage has a pretty flying dagger, that he can attack with vs. TN8 or worse, dealing ForceM damge to those he hits. Most people have alternatives more effective than that, so now the spell is balanced.

Alternatively, it could be ruled that the spell is so powerful that it can only be cast as an instant, and that it moves you for 1 combat round only, so you could sort of "blink" your way around. - But thats an idea for another spell entirely.

As you have it explained, it makes a ton of sense. But putting a cap on the power is the big issue.

Even if the mage were to get 1 net success without a cap to the power of the object he was launching he would be able to do 25M damage minus impact armor.

There are plenty of better spells to do damage with, but you can't use your lightningbolt spell to ALSO fly; and who knows, you may find yourself in a situation where rolling your QUI with TN: 8 to chance at getting 25M damage modified by impact armor worth the try.