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At 10:42 AM 9/13/04 -0400, you wrote: <br>
<br>
<font face="Courier New, Courier" size=1><blockquote type=cite cite> 1)
Turn Undead: Spell will force the undead (Dead, Ghosts, Vampires,<br>
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">That's more a problem
with the core rules. Given how important the gods are to the world,
Priests should have been a part of the core rule books, along with the
creation rules. For v2 this oversight can be corrected.<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Courier New, Courier" size=1 color="#FFFFFF">Religion plays
some part but not a major part. To me its the adventuring idea for
a 'common' person. Sometimes there are religious sidelines or views
of personal adventureers or enemy but maybe that's why I don't play with
much Priests is they weren't a major part. The next PBEM soon I'm
going to do might have good reason for a priest but can't realistically
say why one would be there. So its a limiting factor. for me.<br>
<br>
2) Energy Web [or Spider Web]<br>
<br>
Notes: I know astral web is there. But that's a BMC 4 spell<br>
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">Because Astral web DOES
exist I would think this is better of being an actual web of sticky
strands, and make it more of a Kotothi spell.<br>
</font><br>
<font size=3 color="#FFFFFF"></blockquote>There are 2 versions. The
basic sticky version which catches weak folks and the energy version
which catches more stronger forms. Its slightly different than the
Astral Web. Kotothi? Didn't think we could do that sort of
thing....but an interesting idea for Great Spidiers :)<br>
<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Courier New, Courier" size=1><blockquote type=cite cite>
3) Deafness<br>
<br>
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">Silence does the same
thing, though it's side effects are pretty harsh. Deafness is more of an
annoyance than a hinderance (hearing is not a targeting sense for most
races).<br>
</font><br>
I would change the chaos spell to "Deadly Silence" due to it's
effects and make a Sidhe/Elder spell of Silence that just eliminates all
sound within the volume (by quelling the air spirits so that sound does
not travel). <br>
</blockquote><br>
<font size=3 color="#FFFFFF">Silence as far as I've seen only prevents
noise. This does the opposite. It makes you not HEAR noise or
things. Thus the deaf part. Not the same thing. This is
a big deal if used right. A small tactical unit of enemy fighting
with a leader. You make some deaf the front line folks can't hear
orders and thus chaos ensues. A real orgaznied battle is
lost. Your going down a hall and a guard is to your back you cause
him deafness..he doesn't notice..and blam you knock him out...Sound
sphere does the last part of your suggestion so no need to create
that.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Courier New, Courier" size=1><blockquote type=cite cite>
4) Sensory Powers<br>
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">All of these spells are
nice fluff, but unless the mechanics are overhauled such that sensory
tests become important I don't see them ever chosen or even used. Any
player I have encountered, unless he is a real hairy roleplayer will turn
up his nose at these spells in favor of more practical ones.<br>
</font></blockquote><br>
<font size=3 color="#FFFFFF">That's their loss. We all know folks
want the best spells. The most destructive spells. I'm not
that way. This is why my spells were probably 80% that do NO damage
at all. They work with other aspects and in many cases are BETTER
than destructive spells. It adds spice to the game and also allows
non-lethal methods to the normal hack-n-slash typical games.
Sensory powers is just like that allows a thief to do his job
better. A bounty hunter to track his prey faster. A scout to
scout for a army better. Many many things. I'd pick such
spells over a simple Fire Power which is all typical of most games.
It takes flair to use such spells and experienced gamers not ones who
depend on the blade and fire balls all day :)<br>
<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Courier New, Courier" size=1><blockquote type=cite cite>
5) Animal Powers <br>
This family has the following member spells:<br>
Alignment: Shamanic<br>
<br>
Note: Slay the Tame, WildNess and Music could be put into<br>
this family group. <br>
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">Slay the tame makes no
sense for this - these powers seem to imply dealing with animals, not
whacking them. :}, and is properly shamanic. Wildness does fit.<br>
</font><font size=3 color="#FFFFFF"></blockquote>It could though be
reasoned on a humane nature. A shaman might want to slay a dog with
rabbies that is trying to kill a little girl in a barn. In that way
it could be good for shamans. If you believe they are there to
protect nature and help mankind deal with nature. But
on a purely offensive power yeah it might not fitt well. <br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Courier New, Courier" size=1><blockquote type=cite cite>
A) Animal Sight<br>
<br>
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">Good one. Fits the
shaman mythos.<br>
</font></blockquote><br>
<font size=3 color="#FFFFFF">A simple hawk/eagle flying in a valley could
give great advantage to a shaman :)<br>
<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Courier New, Courier" size=1><blockquote type=cite cite>
B) Animal Disruption<br>
This spell is like Abandon but for Animals only. It allows
ALL<br>
animals in the effected radius area to suddenly go berserk or
crazy.<br>
of animals like Bear.<br>
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">Problem is, it's not
like abandon at all. Having some sort of "go apeshit" spell
just to cause confusion seems kind of weak in a shaman point of view. I
would think a more useful variant would be something like "Animal
Guard", which calls any animal within the range to the caster's
defense. This could be abstracted with the creation of some sort of
"swarm" rules (which needs to be added to P&Pv2) in which
the aggregate "creature" is a swarm of birds, rabbits, etc with
some total "Hit points" to disperse and OCV+DCV total based on
the EL of the spell. Being a swarm there are no "deadly hits"
allowed on it (no vital point) Likewise the damage done on successful
hits. Even the AV can be upped as the spell gets higher (increased
number of entities in the swarm means your damage is eliminating a
smaller percentage at a time, perhaps even inflicting no significant
impact.) Obviously some sort of "recharge" time is required
after the spell is used (in days), or an area you have to move (100x
range) in order to be able to recast the spell.<br>
</font><br>
<font size=3 color="#FFFFFF"></blockquote>Its not how you use it in your
mind that may be wrong. Like the sample if your surrounded by enemy
and you disrupt nearby animals it could mean life or death to
escape. A swarm idea is limited to ants, bees, birds, bats really
with only ants and bees really doing any swarm damage. This just
creates the animals go ape as you say and flee the area. How this
is done is up to the referee. But if bandits see deer leeing the
area they are tracking or bears chasting out toward them (but not at
them) then they might think second to enter that area. It doesn't
hurt the animals just scares them to flee the area. I'd think twice
of entering a small forest area if I saw all the animsls from snakes to
bears leaving that area in a frenzy all at once. I'd be a bit
scared. In reality I've seen such effects right before a earthquake
or eruption by volcano.<br>
<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Courier New, Courier" size=1><blockquote type=cite cite>
B) Animal Speed<br>
This spell increases the speed of a animal in a given range<br>
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">This should be like
friendly currents in that it can also SLOW a creature's speed.<br>
</font><br>
<font size=3 color="#FFFFFF"></blockquote>Good point. I wasn't
thinking of that. Good idea. But I'd have to increase the
range maybe. Not sure ....but a typical horse chase that could be
helpful. <br>
<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Courier New, Courier" size=1><blockquote type=cite cite>
E) Animal Talk<br>
This spell allows the caster to learn information from a
animal.<br>
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">I would chuck the
percent roll and fixed result in favor of a fixed chance based on EL and
a table that details the quality of information gained based on the INT
of the creature. An INT 1 creature may be able to respond at best a
reply of "I sensed thing like that here", with perhaps a one or
two day time frame (one day, two day, many day). At int 6 you have human
level responses. At Int 5 you get the low-grade moron human level
responses, but certainly more than you would get with a dog or something.
<br>
</font></blockquote><br>
<font size=3 color="#FFFFFF">I thought about that. Had version 1 do
that with a small table. But it failed and looked real stupid trust
me :). I think a subconscious non-intelligent answer fits best
since not all animals can reason at the same level. But if others
feel they can create a effective table for this all power to them
:) I just failed. <br>
<br>
<br>
</font><font face="Courier New, Courier" size=1><blockquote type=cite cite>
F) Animal Summoning<br>
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">Would need to be refined
a bit to differ from "Animal Guards", if that idea is used.
Otherwise something like this is useful for the Shamanic arts.<br>
</font></blockquote><br>
<font size=3 color="#FFFFFF">Yep. A basic Tarzan yell :) <br>
<br>
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</font><font face="Courier New, Courier" size=1><blockquote type=cite cite>--------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
6) Camouflage<br>
This spell acts like a Chameleon and will hide the person in
the<br>
terrain he is in. It does not act like an illusion but simply
distorts<br>
the terrain and phyiscal appearance of the person TO those who are
seeing.<br>
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">I would say that
anything that starts to distort the terrain starts to bring it into the
realm of wizardry. Simply saying that the person takes on color/texture
of the terrain will mesh with the spell name and purpose. This differs
from elf invisibility since in that case the forest is actively helping
the elves (branches bend slightly to cover exposed portions, or the
canopy alters so that light dappling makes it harder to see the target,
the ground absorbs the noise of movement, etc.<br>
</font></blockquote><br>
<font face="Courier New, Courier" size=1 color="#FFFFFF">This was a hard
spell to explain. I didn't want a simple illusion or the lef
version. The elf version I don't see as active but you do?
Branches actually help? Wow. I see it more as the elf using
it as a skill to know wher eto hide and how to use his environment.
In this spell I wanted a basic chameleon spell but one that didn't work
like a pure illusion. Maybe osmoene else can explain it
better.<br>
<br>
Richard, how do you explain the Elf ability? Active or as a
skill? Maybe that should be clarified.<br>
<br>
</font>
<BR>
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