From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Don't believe me? Take a look at the spell that was included in GURPS > MAGIC for 4e. There, we have a spell called Essential Wood. It produces > wood that has three times the normal DR of wood, three times the Hit > points of wood (that is, if I recall it correctly, my memory does play > tricks on me!), and it become resistant to fire. But when it does burn? > It burns (again, if I recall correctly) three times longer than ordinary > wood. Any one of these things using the original GURPS MAGIC rules from > GURPS 3e would have required massive amounts of enchantment to accomplish. > With the spell in a creation form however, it is amazingly cheap to > create. I've made a couple of changes and clarifications as house rules for my game which I felt rather thuroughly patched most of the problems I had with 4e Magic. (not all, but most). These came about after players in my game cast Essential Wood on a shield, and got a critical success. I went and re-read the spell description to think up a suitable critical effect, and nearly fell off my chair when I found out all the fantastic stuff it does permenantly at an incredibly low cost. I was honestly stuck for anything BETTER to happen.
Rule 1, which was stolen from someone on GURPSNet or the forums: any spell which creates or "ennobles" matter is temporary - ennobling includes Essentialising, and making it more durable/solid/immediately useful to adventurers. Earth to Stone ennobles matter, Stone to Earth does not. Any currently Permanent or Instant spells instead have a duration of 1 hour, which can be maintained at half casting cost. This lets wizards create stone walls, essential water, essential wood, etc and have it useful both over the duration of a short combat encounter, and longer roleplay type encounters, without lasting for long enough to entirely substitute for regular matter. This temporary matter can be dispelled, and vanishes when taken into a no-mana zone. Rule 1a: any such created matter which is significantly transformed by mundane methods is rendered permanent - drink Essential Water, eat Essential Food, burn Essential Wood, and there are no weird side effects when the spell runs out. Once "transformed" in this way, it is perfectly normal - it cannot be dispelled and does not vanish in a no-mana zone ... but see Rule 2 Shovel Essential Earth into a pile - it'll still disapear at the end of a spell. Use it to create mud bricks, and then bake them - I'll probably let it stay, but you'll have to maintain it until the bricks are done. Change Essential earth to metal and forge the metal into swords and I'll let you have swords made from Essential Steel as long as you remembered to maintain Essential Earth, Earth to Stone, and Stone to Metal all the way through the forging process. You probably needed Essential Fire and some really fantastic tools to work it as well :D Rule 1b: You can also make this created or ennobled matter permanent by working an enchantment, for 200x the usual casting cost. This "enchanted" matter is normal and does not disapear in a no-mana zone and cannot be dispelled... but see Rule 2. Rule 2: Permanent Essential matter is not an ongoing spell effect - it even occurs naturally in particularly exotic locations. However, it is a *magical* substance and behaves very strangely in No Mana zones. The only predictable effect is that it immediately reverts to a normal form of matter. Other things may happen at the GMs whim, depending on the situaiton. Essential fire may vanish completely, even if it's burning off of fuel that normal fire can use. Essential Stone may crack or soften, essential Metal may discolour or soften or bend, Essential Wood may warp and twist. GM reserves the right to be cruel, funny, or kind. Emily. --"I hit him so hard he fell off the Internet." - Penny Arcade _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
