Creative Spell Use and Martial Arts. Yeah, I see the connection.

Quote from: DavetheLost;491728Creative Spell Use and Martial Arts. Yeah, I see the connection.

Akashic Brotherhood from Mage ?

Regards,
David R

To me the creative use of spells is the mark of a good Player. IMO, that's the WHOLE Point of playing a spellcaster, i.e. using Magic to accomplish/solve anything that comes up. Figuring out how to use a spell in a creative way, gets the job done...

Just in practical terms, better methods for growing crops, would mean a smaller percentage of people would need to be peasants and cities would probably be much bigger.  You'd also be able to support a much large artisan and mercantile class, and have to do something with the excess labor (Massive armies?  Tombs for the royal family?  Mass settlement of foreign lands?)

Quote from: RPGPundit;491726Oh jesus fuck, just what we need; an online martial-artist pissing match.

Did you know that katanas are completely superior to Western swords in every way?

'Tis true. Samurai used them to cut through tanks.

Quote from: Justin Alexander;491835Did you know that katanas are completely superior to Western swords in every way?

Yeah, but it doesn't matter whose swords are superior because nobody is gonna beat the Yankees in the World Series.

Quote from: Justin Alexander;491460Well, there's no mechanic for them to wear out. But that may be largely because the scale on which they wear out is sufficiently irrelevant to PC adventurers. Several early AD&D modules feature magic which has become faulty due to age, IIRC.

1st doesn't mention it to my knowledge, but 2nd ed. permanentcy spell description notes that the spell (and consequently, magical items created using the spell) might at GM option become unstable after a period of 1000 years or so.
 

Quote from: DavetheLost;491569As for creative spell use, I was DMing one day and had a first level magic user quite effectively kill a large, adult, red dragon with a single first level spell, and no saving throw. The spell was Unseen Servant. During a prior adventure the MU had used Unseen Servant to pack several glass jars full of green slime. When he encountered the dragon he cast Unseen Servant again and had the servant empty a couple of the jars onto the sleeping dragon. then he just sat back and waited.

Hang on...a red dragon?...couldn't it breathe on itself to destroy the slime??
 
The wackiest thing players ever wanted to do in a game I ran was use a Dimension Door spell as a mass driver, putting the gates above each other and cycling a boulder through at ever-increasing velocity. Fortunately for the Forgotten Realms,they couldn't quite figure out how to make a vacuum so the boulders could break terminal velocity, or get the power to last long enough with the psionicist they had. They weren't too far off destroying small cities by crashing rocks into them at near-lightspeed, though.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;491849The wackiest thing players ever wanted to do in a game I ran was use a Dimension Door spell as a mass driver, putting the gates above each other and cycling a boulder through at ever-increasing velocity.

:huhsign: Wow, that's pretty creative, though I would wonder if the characters would have had the background to concieve the idea...

Quote from: Blazing Donkey;491855:huhsign: Wow, that's pretty creative, though I would wonder if the characters would have had the background to concieve the idea...

All the characters would have to know is that the further something falls the harder it hits....

Quote from: Planet Algol;491856All the characters would have to know is that the further something falls the harder it hits....

I don't mean to split-hairs, but how would they come by that knowlege unless they had spent time specifically saying that they were experimenting to determine that "the further something falls, the harder it hits"..?

I mean, missile weapons do more damage the closer to the target they are. For example, at long range, a arrow loses velocity. This is something they may have observed so it would seem counter-intutive for them to have somehow determined that falling distance increases impact.

Ah, endless debate about the social changes that magic "would, in reality" bring about.

Approach A: the rules, and therefore the spells in the rulebook are the physics of the world. Extrapolate from there. Fun may result, but probably only if you're a sperglord.

Approach B: let's emulate a world of magic and mystery, where technology and society is ancient or medieval, but some people can command occult forces. Game on.

I prefer approach B. But then it works much better with my preferred systems of T&T (whimsical on the face of it) or Rolemaster (critical failure will eventually catch up with you, rendering everyday magitech moot) or Dragon Warriors (where clearly the setting takes precedence over the rules).

Most people know that falling further means you hit with more force (hence not to fall off high places). That part I didn't have a problem with. I think the vacuum part of the plan sort of troubled me at the time, but I was still reasonably new to GMing then.

Quote from: Blazing Donkey;491859I don't mean to split-hairs, but how would they come by that knowlege unless they had spent time specifically saying that they were experimenting to determine that "the further something falls, the harder it hits"..?

Because they're not a bunch of Hellen Kellers?

EDIT: An unfair comparison; I'm sure before Sullivan communicated with her she was aware that the harder something falls the harder it hits.

Because they learned not to fall to their deaths while children?

Quote from: Blazing Donkey;491859I mean, missile weapons do more damage the closer to the target they are. For example, at long range, a arrow loses velocity. This is something they may have observed so it would seem counter-intutive for them to have somehow determined that falling distance increases impact.

Trebuchets & Murder Holes.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;491862Most people know that falling further means you hit with more force (hence not to fall off high places). That part I didn't have a problem with. I think the vacuum part of the plan sort of troubled me at the time, but I was still reasonably new to GMing then.

Vacuum is an old idea.