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Author Topic: Sellswords & Spellsingers, musings on the topic of spells  (Read 462 times)

Offline pancakeonions

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 103
Sellswords & Spellsingers, musings on the topic of spells
« on: September 17, 2018, 03:39:28 PM »
I'm a fan of this neat, simple coop RPG-lite game, but am wistful and desirous of new spells...  The game comes with about 15, which I guess is OK to get started, but it's been out a while and even the most recent expansion does't include any new spells. 

I also wonder what folks thought about the offensive options.  There's about five offensive spells (Frostblast, Magic Dart, Fireball, Deathcurse, and Deathcloud).  All but Frostblast (4) cost 5XP to learn.  It seems Fireball is head and shoulders above the others.  It does 2 points of damage to all critters within a radius-3" area.  12" range.  I guess its silver pieces value is higher, but that's kind of irrelevant (unless you find and plan to sell the scroll, right?).  Shouldn't it be higher XP to learn?  I guess Deathcurse doesn't require a "to hit" roll (just a successful cast), but its high DL (14) and potential for negative outcomes (if you fail, you might take damage) assures that only blood casters and crazy mages will take it and attempt it with any regularity.

I also would have liked to see a simple "light" spell.  I guess I can make one up, but for night time and dungeons/indoors, something like this would have been nice.

What do you think of the magic system?  What spells would you like to see?

For me, I'll be creating more fireball-wielding mages for the foreseeable future....!

Offline Ethelred the Almost Ready

  • Mastermind
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Re: Sellswords & Spellsingers, musings on the topic of spells
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2018, 06:49:19 PM »
Much like you, I find fireball is powerful for its cost.  It does have the problem that it cannot be used near friendly figures without risking damage.  I have played a number of games where a beginner mage with only fireball was left useless as all enemies within range were either in combat or close to friendly figures.
I have done a few things with spells.  One was to increase the XP for fireball and increase the DL by 1. The other is to limit multiple spells being cast within  the same turn (I may well be proven wrong - as seems so often the case - but I cannot find anything stopping a mage from casting three fireballs if they get three activations).