Counterspells ?

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Hamakto
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Re: Counterspells ?

Post by Hamakto »

smathis wrote:Am I the only one confused about your stance on this?
I was trying to not be confusing here. After doing two separate play tests, there was never a situation that came up where counter spells would even be applicable. To be honest, we rain a very loose combat system. Almost rules lite.

Based on what I saw on how spell casters functioned, I am not sure it would be beneficial to even expend the effort to counter a spell. With the large fluctuation in the chance of getting off a spell, it might not even be a worthwhile action to take to stop the first caster from casting the spell.

Anything that adds any sort of negative modifier would be pretty brutal to a spell caster in general.

If counter spells would be added to the game, I would go with a system like this: (Wiz1 is the casting wizard, Wiz2 is the counter spelling wizard)

Wiz1 rolls his spell craft check
Wiz2 rolls a dX. Where X is equal to their spell craft check. (example: Wiz2 has +5 spell craft check, so they roll a d5)

To determine the spells effects, you subtract Wiz2 from Wiz1's roll and use the following simple rules:

if Wiz1's roll is successful, use the modified die roll
if Wiz1's roll failed, but was successful before the negative modifier of Wiz2. Then they do not lose the spell.
If Wiz1's roll was a failure, then normal failure rules apply.

On the next action of Wiz2, they re-roll the same dX that was applied to Wiz1's spell. If they do not cast a spell on their next action, then the penalty goes away.
Andy
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smathis
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Re: Counterspells ?

Post by smathis »

Hamakto wrote:I was trying to not be confusing here. After doing two separate play tests, there was never a situation that came up where counter spells would even be applicable. To be honest, we rain a very loose combat system. Almost rules lite.

Based on what I saw on how spell casters functioned, I am not sure it would be beneficial to even expend the effort to counter a spell. With the large fluctuation in the chance of getting off a spell, it might not even be a worthwhile action to take to stop the first caster from casting the spell.

Anything that adds any sort of negative modifier would be pretty brutal to a spell caster in general.
Thanks for clarifying. I like your amendments to the counterspell idea and your insight is very helpful. What you've posted looks workable to me.
Darksyntax
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Re: Counterspells ?

Post by Darksyntax »

Counter spells, are something i am greatly fond of as most of my childhood was spent divided between CCGs and RPGs. I would suggest looking at how other systems of gaming handled them, if only as an exercise.

First in Last Out. in the order in which all spells are resolved in the great CCG of the early 90's. Futher Spells were given speeds, some required effort (perhaps having somatic components) on the part of the the planes-walking-wizard as such they could only be played during his turn, these generally were far more powerful in nature.

Other spells were far easier to cast, having instant effect -- these spells are typically weaker in nature.

Finally there were spells that they could only be answered by those of like speed, these were reserved for "counter spells".

perhaps in a traditional RPG setting the answer is simply to break spell casting into segments with a few segments of "surprise". These segments are glossed over when A.) no counter spells are known by any party. or B.) when the caster is at a lower level and doesn't yet understand enough to undo when is being done by the aggressor.
Harley Stroh
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Re: Counterspells ?

Post by Harley Stroh »

John Adams of Brave Halfling Publishing sat in to help us hammer out the first draft of the counterspell rules. He mentions it in passing here:

http://bravehalfling.com/?p=584

Props to John for weathering three addled gamers alternately shouting, "Are you mad?! Think about the phlogiston!"

A man of true mettle, that John Adams.

And thank you to everyone weighing in here with your ideas. We're looking forward to hearing your feedback on the beta. This isn't the end of the counterspell conversation, but the beginning.

//H
The lucky guy who got to write some Dungeon Crawl Classics.

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serendipitous
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Re: Counterspells ?

Post by serendipitous »

Very old thread! But I brought it up b/c I myself am loving the simple, implementable and cost-included counterspell option esp. as polished up by GnomeBoy.

And, as a fairly newbie judge, it's an education to read through the discussion, debates, & comments. So a belated thanks to all y'all who shared your thoughts here.
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