gereh
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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To cite the 1E MtAw bookI'm very confused by your #1. Is that something from 2e? Because nothing ever works like that in 1e extended casting.
#2 is a mechanic that does exist in 1e (it's how you check for exceptional success, and in the unofficial errata it's how you soak up Paradox for extended spells), but it's not at all how I'd read it. The successes are either Potency or a unique primary spell factor; either way, extended spells have no primary factor, so you decide how many you want, adding to the target number, and then you start rolling to achieve them. The obvious analogy is Forge Thaumium (which, now that I look at it, actually has the same "no listed limit" issue).
So the first success provides all the "basic factors" of the spell, now the question becomes what does count as "basics factors" for the phantasmal weapon spell and you could argue that the weapon/armour rating modifiers are part of this. (It also comes with the fact that you have a whole role of successes you can use, while in the second method of ruling it that doesn't have to be the case, meaning an extended cast version may be at disadvantage to instant cast which never should be the case.p.120 said:The target number of successes depends on all the factors described in the Imago. The first success on an extended casting provides all the basic factors listed above for an instant casting: 1 point of Potency, one target, and a one-turn Duration (for transitory spells) or one hour/scene Duration (for prolonged spells). Extra factors are gained by adding more successes to the target number. To determine the target number required, use the charts below, adding the successes listed for each factor.
It's not spelled out but it is implied that you need at least the amount of dots, if not higher, to apportate something, as you would need to manipulate it (which would be Matter 4 for a bomb)I mean, yes, that's the sensible way to rule it, as I said to begin with. It's not at all obvious that this is the case from the spell, though.
p.234 said:She can, with the appropriate dots of Forces, Matter or Life (Matter 2 for a brick, for example, or Life 2 for a guinea pig), draw an item through a scrying window to her current location if the object, creature or energy source is small enough.
"Burst of Speed" as a buff should not be understated, because it let's you get around enemies and in position where they can't attack you as they need to perceive you to cast magic on you.I'd dispute the "wouldn't win in a direct fight". Forces and Prime have few combat-relevant buffs (Magic Shield being the big one), and Supernal Dispellation isn't a very good combat buff-remover because it has to beat Potency and the Potency of extended-cast buffs is usually too large for an instant-cast dispel to win (this is the best thing about Eyes of Ain Soph - they have a no-roll Supernal Dispellation as third attainment, so they can remove buffs mid-combat).
They get +Mind amount of dice to roll if they have it set up that all the points get added to Presence but that doesn't equal to +Mind amount of successes. While Prime gets reduced from the successes. If we say a die has a 60% chance to be a success (because of crits and stuff) than Prime 5 would be around equal to have 8 extra dices on the roll (0.6*8 = 4.8 successes on average). Or did I miss something?So the Obrimos has Magic Shield giving -Prime to all the Mastigos' direct magic attacks, but the Mastigos has +Mind to any that are rotes (because Supreme Augmentation)
I don't know where Euphoria and Zeal come from (I tried Crtl+F on all the 1E Books I have as PDF and couldn't find anything). Also if Supreme Augementation is used to raise Resolve and/or Composure to get more maximum Willpower, you would not be able to get +Mind amount of dice on the Psychic Spells.and doesn't drop until full agg (because Euphoria) and gets better boosts from Willpower (because Supreme Augmentation raising capacity to 10 and Zeal giving +5 dice/+3 resistance per point).
Psychic Assault and Sword are rolling on dicepool that gets reduced by opponents Resolve, which is the favoured resistance stat for Obrimos, so that more or less counters the +Mind bonus one can add to the spell, meaning you just roll a "normal" dicepool so it gets reduced to be just a standard spell. So the only advantage towards your normal level 3 attack spells would be that they are convert, but with counterspell prime you can still counterspell them anyway. (Not saying they aren't good but they aren't really balance breaking good spells)Mana for attack spells is a wash; the Obrimos has All Of The Mana and can recover it in-combat, but the Mastigos' Psychic Assault, Psychic Sword and Psychic Domination are covert/costless. Thunderbolt is very good, though (at least, in the lethal form which ignores Defence), so I don't think the Mastigos would outright have an advantage.
Psychic Domination is really strong but that's a Mind 5 spell, I'm okay with those being super powerful.
On good spells: With Force 4 one can turn Sound or Light into Fire or Electricity and it lasts for the whole scene, which means in case of electricity that it's a "constant flow" which means one needs to make a strength roll to even get out of the effect, and you suffer 4-10 bashing damage per turn for Electricity (which can't be blocked) or 1-6 lethal damage from fire. And not only is that DoT (because once you are on fire you keep it until you do something against it) it can also be a AoE (meaning you don't actually have to perceive the target and only know the general area they are in and magic shield doesn't protect one from it as it only works on spells targeting one directly and normal armour doesn't protect against electricity), also can be combined with something like sound mastery that let's you create the sound and than transform it and as both use the same dice pool you only have the standard penalty from combined to worry about so if you get to Force 5 you can create Fire or lightning at a target and only have a 2 Dice penalty.
And of course the most likely most broken spell "Imbue Item" because not only makes it so that you can prepare spells meaning you don't have to pay the mana cost at the moment, you can actually imbue multiple spells in the same item (yes it costs mana but who cares if you have high enough prime you can get that back no problem). And as there is no rule about how many imbued items one can have (only real limit seems to be how many spells one can have active which you can get around via combining spells) a Mage can use imbue item to cast multiple spells without the normal dice penalty for combined spells as they would have cast the spell in as a "Extended Cast" beforehand, not only that they could have multiple item imbued with the same spell and have them trigger on the same "gesture" that way it would be possible to cast a spell multiple times in the same turn. And in contrast to spell combination you can have multiple spells with the same effect on the same item. Meaning you can cast multiple spells that deal agg damage at the same time all dealing their damage, allowing you to one-shot almost anyone. It's completely bonkers. It also allows you to cast "Supernal Dispellation" as an "Extended Cast" (which would get us to the question again about how many success you can stack on an extended cast action). Or you create a weapon that cast a spell on hit.with a raised potency from Extended Cast so "Counterspelling" becomes a lot harder. Still not sure how that got through playtesting.