Dragon Warriors

Does this mean that in your games, if a hidden Sorcerer were to cast say Burden on a Knight who is not aware of the Sorcerer's presence, not to mention the spell, then the Knight doesn't get to roll EVASION but automatically succumbs to the spell?

I would be wary of having anything be able to completely cripple a spellcaster's spellcasting ability with a single die roll and the Burden spell description does not say that it prevents spellcasting, nor is it specific about what it prevents the trapped characters from doing. If it were me, I'd reduce Defence and Evasion to zero, reduce movement to 0.5m per round, but still allow spellcasting (maybe only spells of 4th rank or below, though, to represent those spells that require simpler movements to cast). The force isn't so strong as to prevent the trapped characters from breathing, so it isn't preventing all muscular effort - slow crawling and gestures required for spellcasting are fine (but both would be full-round actions - one cannot crawl and still cast a spell).

Bear in mind that any spell effect that debilitates or kills a character on the roll of a single die is VERY frustrating for a player, especially one that doesn't allow other characters to come to their aid (Tangleroots, for example, can be cut away, Transfix ends if the character is attacked, which I'd interpret to mean that a sharp slap from a fellow adventurer will snap them out of it, and so on).

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Cobwebbed Dragon (Lee)

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Well, isn't that a good question...

Picture the scene - you're going about your business poking around an eldritch ruin and you suddenly feel your weapon grow heavier in your hand, your armour seems to be pulling you to the floor, and your lungs feel like they're being crushed as they struggle to draw breath into your body. As you collapse to your knees, pushed down by strong hands you cannot see, you notice the floor around you seems to be vibrating with a strange energy. [Makes an Evasion check] With a Herculean effort fueled by panic, you manage to rise back to your feet and stagger a few steps out of the area of effect. [Or] Overcome by the pressure pushing you into the ground, your weapon becomes too heavy to hold, falling from your hand to rest immobile on the ground without clattering, the curious meaning of this strange behaviour lost on you as you, too, crash into the ground, trapped as if a slab of heavy stone were lying across your back. Gasping for air, you call weakly for your comrades to save you.

So, yes, I probably would allow an Evasion save against area of effect spells that the character didn't see coming.

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Cobwebbed Dragon (Lee)

https://www.cobwebbedforest.co.uk/
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In palladium fantasy, 1ed revised the 'dodge' action was a full 'attack' or combat action. I like that system, rather than trying to hit someone you could dedicate yourself to avoiding the sword swing rather than trying to block it.

Same thing, you'd be caught unaware, by default according to book 4 unless you're actively checking for abnormalities. Works for me, you'd just walk into the trap unless you state that you are avoiding something, then check vs PERCEPTION.

Also that part about clinging onto a rope or letting go, you only check EVASION if you let go of the rope, not if you stay fast.

I figure its necessary to see who the guy is responding to. One javelin fine, but if 3 guys chuck javelins, you're hard pressed trying to dodge all 3. A shield would be nice to have.

And strengthening shield rules would be great.

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And so the show begins!!!
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Cobwebbed Dragon...thank you for your houserules on illusions. They truly expand these previously seemingly one-dimensional spells to include many more possibilities.

More ideas for creative spell use:
- Banish to remove persons (eg: the princess) and keep them safe from harm.
- Create a mud-monster type Phantasm that can hide and blend in on floor or ceiling, can (with a successful hit roll) grapple the victim and render him immobile.
- Upon victim being successfully grappled as above, followup with a Fossilize on the Phantasm to "lock" the victim in place indefinitely.
- Create a Phantasm for basically anything the caster needs: rope, ladder, container, cloak/covering, shield, weapon, shelter against wind/water/flame/sand/storms.
(GM has to rule on whether the caster is able to exercise the fine control needed to create the various items, eg: high enough rank, or roll against Psychic Talent, etc)

It doesn't say one way or another, but plenty of other aura type spells move with the caster, so I don't see why not. In fact the only instance of an aura not moving with the caster I can think of without research is Impregnable Sphere.


If I was GMing I'd say no for two reasons. Firstly, it seems like common sense that in order to plot a course to a new destination (even using Astral Gate) you need first to know where you are now. Also, to me it makes a mockery of the downside of Astral Gate "...the Gate will emerge onto another plane of reality and any character passing through will then be lost forever..." if it is so easy for the sorcerer to evade it. Note that it doesn't say the traveller might emerge in another plane of reality, but that they definitely will. Maybe those other planes of reality can't even sustain human life or be compatible with our laws of physics!


I'm not sure a Burden spell is a 100% guaranteed way to neutralise a sorcerer (astronauts experiencing heavy gravity during takeoff or reentry for instance can still move their hands, although not necessarily lift their arms), but leaving that aside I suppose the only way to incapacitate a mystic would be to negate their senses so they don't know where or onto whom to cast their spells. Of course they will have countermeasures to a lot of mundane means of obscuration (Darksight, Allseeing Eye, Clairvoyance, Hidden Target, Trance and good old ESP/Premonition).

Cheers,

-Kyle

This makes Fossilize a better option if you want to immobilize somebody and then kill them at your leisure; just take to the statue with a sledgehammer. For added gore terminate the spell once you've smashed them to rubble

Cheers,

-Kyle

I was once a player in a campaign (not Dragon Warriors) with a GM who seemed to think his job was to "beat" the players, as if he was competing against us. If there was a rule he could interpret in a way that would screw us over, he would. Never went that way for his NPCs though...

He would have definitely disagreed with you Cobweb.

Cheers,

-Kyle

I love this idea of using spells in combination to obtain a result not possible with a single spell. I can't think of any others offhand though. Anybody?

Cheers,

I agree that the consequence should not be interpreted so lightly. But the new rulebook says "...A Sorcerer must take three Combat Rounds to visualize his intended destination before casting astral gate. Unless he takes this precaution, there is a 60% chance that the far end of the Gate will emerge onto another plane of reality, and any character passing through will then be lost forever..." So there is a 60% chance that can be taken if the Sorcerer is certain to be dead the next combat round...


The rulebook says "... the Burden spell causes the pull of gravity to become so overwhelmingly strong that any being standing there will fall down and be unable to move until the spell expires..."

That's where I got my idea that this can disable or at least severely cripple casters who need to make gestures, like Warlocks, Elementalists and Sorcerers.

But yeah this is quite open to interpretation. For example Cobbwebbed Dragon's interpretation above that restricts the caster to 4th rank spells and below.

Come to think of it, perhaps Illusion can be used to silence casters...


But Fossilize targets only 1 victim, while Transfix gets up to 8. I think I will choose Transfix most often.