Haha, yeah I forgot to tell you. They bulldozed the place down and put new university owned apartments on top of it. If you want any apartment, we can always say that she lived at my old apartment complex, BrookHollow off of E. Lindsey on Biloxi Dr. That place was a total dump, and was about 3.5 miles from campus.
WARDS A ward is a defensive ritual to protect a person or area against a particular type of supernatural threat. You can create a ward against magic and unnatural creatures (e.g., undead or spirits), but not against “mundane” threats like human beings – including casters, mages, and adepts – as only the supernatural is vulnerable to such a broad countermeasure. (In other words, the GM decides which racial templates include the 0-point feature “Affected by wards.”)
You may cast a ward on a specific subject or as an area effect. If successful, the margin of success is the penalty to detect the ward (unless the caster wants it to be blatant, in which case it’s the bonus). The effect depends on what’s being warded off.
Spell Wards Wards against magic are very common; such a ritual requires a Lesser Control Magic effect. If successful, the ward resists hostile spells (anything the subject attempts to resist, whether aware of it or not) being cast on the subject or into the area. The caster of that spell must win a Quick Contest of Path skills for his spell to take effect; if he’s targeting a protected area, he need only win once, not once per subject. The hostile caster uses the same Path skill and modifiers (e.g., for using multiple Paths or for being a non-adept) that were used to the cast the spell. The ward’s creator uses the Path skill and modifiers that were used to cast the ward.
If the hostile caster loses or ties, his spell fizzles against the ward. He may cast another spell, but he is at a cumulative -1 in the Quick Contest; unless one of his attempts manages to break through, he’ll eventually be “locked out” of the ward. If he wins, he is no longer affected by the ward at all! On top of that, the ward’s effective Path skill drops by 1 against spells cast by every other caster. Thus, if enough casters can penetrate a ward, it will eventually become useless. A ward can only be “healed” by recasting it.
A ward against spells is not a ward against spellcasters. If a mage can’t cast spells on a subject, there’s nothing preventing him from picking up a baseball bat and getting hostile in a much more direct way!
Monster Wards In most campaigns, supernatural creatures are affected by wards; the GM decides on any exceptions to this rule. Lesser Control Spirit can create a ward against angels, demons, fairies, and similar spirits. Lesser Control Undead protects against ghosts, vampires, zombies, and so on. In some games, even certain living creatures are considered “supernatural” enough to ward; for example, it may be possible to ward off lycanthropes (but not normal humans) using a combination of Lesser Control Body and Lesser Control Mind.
The ward resists any appropriate creature that tries to harm the subject in any way or that tries to cross (or attack across) the barrier of an area-effect ward. The beast must win a Quick Contest: the higher of its HT or Will (plus any Magic Resistance) against the Path skill the caster used to create the ward, the latter adjusted for any modifiers that applied at the time of casting.
If the creature loses or ties, it can try again on subsequent turns, but every attempt is at a cumulative -1. If it wins, this ward no longer affects that creature, and the ward’s effective Path skill(s) is reduced by 1 against every other threat! Thus, if enough creatures can penetrate a ward, it will quickly become useless. A ward can only be “healed” by recasting it.
Post by Rigil Kent on Dec 13, 2014 21:27:41 GMT -6
Any chance you're watching "Constantine" on NBC? Because the mill house set is now my mental image of what the inside of Doctor Solomon's house looks like.
FYI, noted this on the "Symbol Drawing" skill (which we know functions in the Dresden-verse given how Harry is constantly drawing circles.)
In traditions where magical power flows from the caster, nature, spirits, etc. as opposed to the symbols themselves, the symbols provide a focus that aids magic use. Roll against Symbol Drawing before each ritual. On a success, add half your margin of success (round down) to your skill with the next ritual you conduct over the symbols.
Sofia has a 12 (currently) so if you rolled a 10, perhaps, that means you'd gain a +1 to a ritual (probably using ritual path magic instead of Sorcery.)
Post by Rigil Kent on Feb 22, 2016 12:06:14 GMT -6
Regarding the Armor conditional ritual (DR 5) and her sorcery spell (DR 15, front hex only), I was reviewing and I think that, if you want to do that again, both of these spells may be running concurrently but the sorcery spell only applies to the front hex while the armor conditional ritual cover all hexes. This is probably the way to go.
Pulled from the PM cause I know you said you were terrible about those and nothing here is supah-secret, so ...
Feb 23, 2016 17:14:35 GMT -6 labrat said:
I also want maybe a spell that she could use in conjunction with the ones she currently has at her disposal in order make her attacks more efficient. One example would be able to sculpt her Flame jet into a "cone" rather than a ray, so that it would be more difficult to dodge. It would be more useful against fast moving vampires. Another suggestion would be use a "hanging" spell to make the effects more powerful. So maybe do an extra 1d of damage or something.
Have done some additional reading and I have some feedback.
Creating a charm that will allow you to "shape" your existing flame jet is doable, but is fairly advanced. Essentially, you would be creating a charm that does the Shape Fire ritual. Based on what I've figured out, to cast that charm you would have to first roll 3d6+2 with a target of 15 or less. A 16 causes a crit fail at half power of the spell (in this case that would be 21) and 17 or 18 is at full power (42). Either is bad. If successful, you then roll to check against Quirks - this is a 3d6 check seeking 14 or less. So definitely not impossible, but Sofia would be aware that she's starting to get into some more advanced applications of magic (using one spell to alter another), so there's that.
You cannot use RPM to increase the damage of a Sorcery spell. There's actually a note or two about that very thing, but I have noted the request.
Currently, you have Thaumatology-18 so you can have 18 conditional rituals or charms active. You mentioned wanting the following (or at least, I'm extrapolating that):
4x Armor charms (Silaha) - casting is 3d6-1, target number is 15 or less. Quirk check is 17 or less on 3d6
The above mentioned Shape Fire. Not sure how many you want there. Casting is 3d6+2 (15 or less); Quirk check is 14 or less on 3d6
Sleep - casting is 3d6+1 (15 or less); Quirk check is 15 or less on 3d6
Far Hearing - casting is 3d6+1 (15 or less); Quirk check is 15 or less on 3d6. Lasts 10 minutes and you will automatically make Hearing checks w/in 200 yds for eavesdropping purposes
Ice Slick - casting is 3d6 (15 or less); Quirk is 16 or less on 3d6. Lasts 10 minutes (can dispel), is 3 yds of ice. See GURPS: Magic for spell effects (think it requires immediate DX check?)
Beyond that, I don't know what kind of rituals you want 'hanging' ...
Post by Rigil Kent on Sept 21, 2016 10:20:14 GMT -6
So, important question here: with Giger planning on introducing a new PC who is going to be a caster (eventually), the idea was obviously for him to become Sofia's apprentice. That said, what needs to happen for her to make that decision? In the Dresden Files books, it was easy to understand why Harry took Molly as his student, what with Molly being the daughter of Harry's best friend and this option being the only way to save Molly's life. I'd like to sort of avoid that if possible and have been trying to figure out some possibilities. You said, at the conclusion of the previous run when Giger mentioned his intent to intro this guy and I mentioned having him be her apprentice, that you did not think Sofia was really ready to have a student - how do we change that? What needs to happen for her to realize that she is ready? Interesting note: in the DF books, several people admit that teaching someone else is almost a necessity to really improve your own abilities because you have to start reviewing the basics again, this time with the experience of many years practice so you have a better understanding of what you're supposed to do.
What I have (thus far) come up with is this:
As the new mistress of Bavinger House, Sofia now has access to places she did not before, including what could be Solomon's "office" (for lack of a better term.) Within this office could be photographs of the planned new PC ("Jenks", I believe Giger was going with) and various notes indicating that the boy is dangerous / important / both / neither / something else entirely. This would, if nothing else, draw her attention.
Retconning him into the background: Obviously, this would have worked better if we knew from the get-go that Giger wanted to have this character, but let's presume that nearly each time Sofia went to Neutral Grounds, "Jenks" was present, likely in the background. For that matter, Sofia already know that he is a potential caster due to either Solomon pointing him out in the past or her just having interacted with him on her own.
As I understand it, Giger is planning on "Jenks" being more of a probability manipulator and an illusionist, so none of his spells are going to be particular vulgar (so not many hurled fireballs and all that). With that in mind, I had the thought that he might be a "walking nexus" or something, with Giger suggesting a very mystical-sounding "he could be a Moment waiting for its Time" ... I don't know how we'd actually handle that, but it sounds really cool.
Ideally, I'd like to end volume 6: Clean Slate with "Jenks" becoming her apprentice (so he isn't when we start), but if that turns out to be irritatingly complicated, we might have to discard that notion.
So...yeah....I have no idea what happened but I just saw this. I hope you didn't think I was ignoring you. Let me think on it and get back to you tomorrow.
FYI, the more prep work I've done, the more I'm inclined toward Jenks not being her apprentice in the next installment and then Something Happens that she witnesses which makes her realize that A. he needs training and B. he's a potential asset in some fashion.
FYI, the more prep work I've done, the more I'm inclined toward Jenks not being her apprentice in the next installment and then Something Happens that she witnesses which makes her realize that A. he needs training and B. he's a potential asset in some fashion.
I think that is probably the best option just because it has more in the way of role playing. I was also thinking that maybe there may be a reason why she specifically needs to be his apprentice. Maybe he has done something or is something that the council would not approve of and so the only option for him is Sophia. Or maybe something has happened within the council that makes Sophia distrustful of them. I expect Sophia will probably bristle at the thought of having an apprentice initially. I mean she is probably not in a good head space right now with her total recall, her gaining a son, losing a mentor, and not to mention wrestling with the fact that she is THE wizard in her area. She has a lot to process. The only logical reason for her gaining someone to look after and foster magical abilities is that there are no other options.
*EDIT* Just reread this your original posts and the above answer seems like something that you would rather avoid. So to answer your question of how do we get Sophia ready to take on an apprentice? My first answer would be time. She needs some time to get used to her own situation before she can see to the needs of others. Second, would be to build her confidence. She needs some swagger to convince herself that she is ready for this. Third would be the hook. Something that piques her interest (and more importantly, her curiosity) as to why Jenks would be a good asset.
Gigermann: Minecraft server is now using Snapshots. The old world is in the library. The old world has been saved. The old world is in the library. The old world…
Feb 2, 2014 17:07:41 GMT -6
Magman: I cannot believe that I was able to install, play Baulders Gate 2 on windows 7.What a great game!! Boo also thinks so.
Mar 16, 2014 18:12:32 GMT -6
Rigil Kent: Have you never played BG2? It's actually even better than the first one.
Mar 18, 2014 16:48:37 GMT -6
LabRat: I keep finding really cool features on this page. Like that tiny participated button in the top corner. I just clicked on it...mind blown!!
Apr 25, 2014 13:15:31 GMT -6
Magman: How does one disable their antivirus software? It keeps preventing me from updating Hero lab for some reason.
Jun 4, 2015 17:19:27 GMT -6
Rigil Kent: You should be able to right-click and disable it.
Jun 5, 2015 23:22:01 GMT -6