In another post by Jeff Wilson, it was stated that my suggestion violated the actual rules structure of GURPS regarding pentegrams and/or Summon Demons.
I took a moment to take a critical look at the rules and came to the following conclusions... 1) Demons can be summoned into a pentegram or they can be summoned outside of one, in which a Summoner might take refuge for reasons of safety. 2) No where does it state that if you attack a controlled Demon, you lose your control over said Demonic creature. In those aspects, Jeff Wilson is of course correct :) However, in carefully reading the aspects involved - per the rules in GURPS MAGIC for 3e, page 62, you will discover that a mage may not cast spells across the barrioer posed by the pentegram itself either. Either you're inside the pentagram with the Demon as you cast your spell against the Demon, or you have opened the pentagram and let the demon out. Also note, that no where in the rules for Demonic Summoning does it state that an attack against a Demon releases it to do as it will. What it does state however, is that if you summon the Demon, you have one chance in a contest of wills to force the demon to undertake ONE task as set forth by the summoner. Note that my suggestions were outside the rules. Note too however, when I speak of modifying rules - I'm already of the understanding that the houserule is against the rules as written ;) For me, I enjoy discussing magic in general. I also have taken the time to look at rules and the implications of those rules when it comes to game play and/or a hypothetical of "What if magic really worked as written" point of view. The Alaconius Lectures were written with that viewpoint in mind and generally, I try to stay carefully within the confines of the rules. In this particular case however, I'd like to point out that there are some spells in GURPS GRIMOIRE that I believe violates the foundation as laid in GURPS MAGIC for GURPS 3e. There are also spells that I feel violate a certain "magical physics" or princples of magic to some extent. Take for instance the concept of mana and mana null regions. If there is no mana present, magical effects are not possible - correct? Riddle me this then: What is Essential Water? How does one produce Essential Water? Is it teleported in from the Elemental Plane of Water? Is it created from nothing? Is it an enchantment process turning ordinary water into Elemental water? GURPS MAGIC for 4e created a new spell called "ESsential Wood" that did for wood what ESSENTIAL WATER did for water. Yet oddly enough - the properties of Essential Wood made them better than if you created specific enchantments on ordinary wood. Specifically, increased DR, flame resistence, and if I recall correctly, Hit points. Magic and the words "internal self-consistency" don't seem to be meant to be used in the same sentence right? Myself? If I don't like something, it gets changed. Personally, I don't like using ST + IQ in a contest of wills between Demon and Human. I'd far rather use a simple WILL stat and make it such that Powerful Demons have a strong power of WILL, while weaker demons have a lesser will stat. Imagine if you will having an imp whose WILL was only 7. Imagine too that most Humans have a WILL of 10, with some Mageborn having higher values of WILL. Usually, the Imp is going to suffer a large number of failures compared against the human summoners. But every now and then, even a lowly Imp is going to win out against the summoner. Same thing is true with the more powerful Demons. Usually, with a WILL of say, 20 for a powerful Demon Lord, he is unlikely to lose a contest of WILLS with a human whose will is only 12. If you use WILL + Summon Demon spell versus WILL + WILL for a Demon, it becomes a contest of actual summoner Will plus skill versus raw will in a demon. There is room for houserules in GURPS and it can make a dull boring compaign become a little more colorful. For example, the alternative powerstone table I created a long time back was based on Cunningham's Stone Magic plus GURPS CABAL playtest notes in order to create more "flavor" regarding one college powerstones. Another GM might say "Hey, I like the fact that Summoning any creature required a triangle inscribed in a circle while a pentagram is strictly a circle of protection. Any attacks out of a pentagram nullified its protections. For that GM, this is how magic works - having someone say "But that's not the rules" is strictly a non-issue for the GM who has invested time in a houserule or customization rule. As long as the players know of this in advance or are advised of the rules change - I'm all for it. So, back to the situation at hand, a clarification is in order: Strictly speaking, a Mage can order as part of his "task" of the summoned demon "You shall stand in this room,on this spot, unresponsive, for 4 minutes, and then depart back to Hell without causing any mischief or incidental trouble with your exit back to Hell" For the next 4 minutes, that Demon (if the mage wins his contest of wills) stays unmoving or unresponsive. At the end of 4 minutes, it departs without incidental mischief. If the Mage thinks he has control over the Demon, he can then exit his protected pentegram region and begin casting his spell against the Demon. _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
