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Hello there!

I just got my copy of Riddle of Steel the other day and I am quite impressed with the game mechanics. I had one question (although I'm sure I'll have many more in the following week :-) I was wondering if I could have answered before I run the game for the first time this Friday.

In the Sorcery Chapter, it states that when casting spells of three and spells of many, bonus dice are awarded to the Sorcery pool equal to the character's Art and Discipline. At first reading I assumed that these extra dice were expended and recharged with the normal sorcery pool at the rate of 1 die per hour. But after reading the Talisman gift and the actual descriptions of the derived attributes Art and Discipline, I'm thinking the dice are not spent but awarded to all spells of three or many when cast. Am I correct?

Also since it states under Art that it is the ability to avoid the harmful effects of magic, and that Discipline is the ability to cast rituals safely, why not limit the bonus dice to countering the effects of aging,as opposed to being added to the pool in general?


Thank You for your Attention

GWT

Quote from: ClaymoreAt first reading I assumed that these extra dice were expended and recharged with the normal sorcery pool at the rate of 1 die per hour. But after reading the Talisman gift and the actual descriptions of the derived attributes Art and Discipline, I'm thinking the dice are not spent but awarded to all spells of three or many when cast. Am I correct?

That's correct.

Quote from: ClaymoreAlso since it states under Art that it is the ability to avoid the harmful effects of magic, and that Discipline is the ability to cast rituals safely, why not limit the bonus dice to countering the effects of aging,as opposed to being added to the pool in general?

Six of one and half a dozen of the other, really. Remember that you only need one success in the casting to make a spell work (although extra successes help for duration). I think it's a pretty safe bet that in most cases, the lions share of the pool will be used to resist aging, and it's likely to be more than art (or art + discipline) in almost all cases, so what you're proposing happens anyway :-)

Brian.

Got another question for you. All spells need summoning to be made constant.  The rules state this automatically ages a caster 1-3 months (no check allowed, according to pge 108). Ouch..Ouch...Ouch! I didn't see that on my first read through of the rules. Aging 2 months just to cast a fly spell with a duration of 1 minute is pretty nasty, unless I'm missing something.

Do spells that are maintained suffer the same cause the same automatic aging?

Quote from: ClaymoreGot another question for you. All spells need summoning to be made constant.  The rules state this automatically ages a caster 1-3 months (no check allowed, according to pge 108). Ouch..Ouch...Ouch! I didn't see that on my first read through of the rules. Aging 2 months just to cast a fly spell with a duration of 1 minute is pretty nasty, unless I'm missing something.

Do spells that are maintained suffer the same cause the same automatic aging?

No, that's actually a misprint (or rather, not well explained). It's been fixed in the new printing of the rulebook, and the changes will be put up on the site some time soon.

Basically, that auto aging is only for the specific Mana spells (i.e. the ones that refresh your SP). Any spell that just uses Summoning to make them constant etc only age the caster in the usual way.

Brian.

Ah, thx alot. I tried searching the previous posts first, but with no luck. thanks for the clarification.


GWT

Claymore,

The subject of constant spells & summoning was further elaborated here:

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3612&perpage=20&pagenumber=18

I'll cut-n-paste the post below:

--------begin post from outrageously long rpg.net thread--------------

Tossing in Summoning to a spells makeup is an exception to the age 1 -3 month automatically rule. When added to a spell exclusively for the purposes of sustaining it, it increases the initial TN of the spell by 1, but barring normal casting procedure, does not otherwise force the character to age. In effect, it "ages' the spell, making it last longer.

In principle, aging is the downfall of sorcerers improperly directing energy, resulting in the instantaneous acceleration of their metabolism and deterioration of their cells. If in place of the sorcerer the "target" of a summoned energy becomes the spell being cast, then the spell is bombarded with energy. This energy would therefore be exclusive of the caster

In a "Mana" spell the sorcerer is summoning magic into their body, flooding himself with energy in attempts to replenish a depleted reserve. As it is the same energy that ages him it automatically does just that. Applied to a spell, which is by definition a construct of the same energy, the result is that the spell is "plugged" into the wall as opposed to the sorcerer sticking his fingers into the socket.

To illustrate the various levels of spell duration, I offer the following.

Instantaneous Spell. {No duration, takes effect and goes away.}

1) Amurahn has a SP of 15/19/23, he casts "Freeze" t1r1v2 d0 L3 Movement TN-7 on a pond with 9 dice to cast and utilizes gestures and dialogue (TN is now 5) resisting with 9. He gets 4 successes to cast 5 to resist, yada, yada, yada; it works and he freezes the water. As it takes some time to thaw, the spell is done, but the effect is lasting.

Instantaneous Spell gone Constant

2) Same as above, but this time he gets 8 successes (adds Luck or whatnot) to cast. This elevates the spell into the Constant category, as it will now sustain itself for 2 seconds.

Instantaneous spell, maintained
Instantaneous spell gone Constant, Maintained

3) Wishing to continue freezing the pond, using example 1, in order to maintain the spell he would have to actively concentrate on it and "Tie up" 3 dice in subsequent rounds to continue the spells duration. In example 2, no dice would be tied up, but concentration would still be required.

Constant spell

4) Using the same spell as above as a template, "Freeze" is altered to t1r1v2 d1 L3 +1 {Movement + L3 Summoning} (it's only +1 TN regardless of the level when adding to a Spell of 3, so go for the max!) TN = 9 now. Cast as a spell of 3 of course with 9 dice and using gestures and dialogue to slice the TN of the casting portion to 7, 3 successes are rolled and added to 12 (3 x Draw score of 4) for 15 successes relevant to casting duration only. Thus the spell lasts for 8 minutes without concentration.

Hail

RM