<<I have however played with the spell some more, and have gotten better hits, but still it's far from where it ever was before. Is it possible to target where the tree drops, without it being a targeted spell?

Storrmm>>

I had this spell before the magic rewrite and find it much, much more effective now, simply because it's much more reliable in terms of the damage it does. The effects of the earlier version were, as far as I could tell, totally unpredictable.

--Elvena

I just wanted to pop in and say that BB is not a horrible spell, however, it seems like it's also not a very "newbie-friendly" spell either. I have 82/82 PM/Harness and first thing's first, I can't cast any higher than a 14 straight prep and cast. If I want to try and effect something with it, I have to cast with a prep 10, harness 6 or 8 in order to hurt it...a 14 mana straight prep lands nothing harder than a "glancing" or "grazing" strike to vipers. Also, due to it's extreme difficulty to cast (I can't cast it until I get a full prep), it has no chance of helping me out when I'm in trouble.

When I plan it out, I can prep and cast HB on a second viper, and then prep and cast a BB on a second viper while I'm killing the first one and it weakens the viper enough...so it's somewhat of a utility spell when it's planned, however, that takes 30 mana...which is hard to comeby in a lot of rooms in vipers.

The bottom line on this spell is, it's not horrible...but it's also very difficult and it has a lot of limitations (I couldn't cast it anywhere in grave worms, goblins, etc.) Even if the terrain issues are resolved, I'd only get it as a "newbie-helper" spell that I could use to quickly dispatch a goblin or something when I was taking a new Ranger out hunting. However, perhaps with more ranks my results will change and I'll see it becoming more useful. Right now it's too hard to cast and too mana-hungry for my tastes.

-Teeklin Tessenoak, Proud Ranger of Elanthia
P.S. I also like rolling my eyes at things right before I smash them. ;)


"Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entre." -Dante Alighieri

I personally have no problem with it being another Harawep's Bonds pre 2.1 spell, where it's just not useful till you hit a certain point. I just think that if that is the case, it should be made a higher-tier spell is all. It's just very difficult to put mana in, on par with harawep's bonds (albeit a little bit harder in my experience).

Meanwhile, I went into cougars and played around a little. Took me 4 casts of 10 prep/8 harness to kill one cougar...so it's not OVERpowered. However, it did knock it off balance(or down) every time, so it was functional for using 18 mana in the sense that it screwed the cougar up even if it didn't deal hardly any damage. (All four casts hit the same area, otherwise it might not have died).

It's something that I can play with, just not a spell I would choose over blend if things were getting hectic in vipers if ya know what I mean. I'm going to play around with casting it right when I get a full aim and then firing...maybe that'll be some fun testing with vipers(I don't actually know if I can knock vipers down with it).

-Teeklin Tessenoak, Proud Ranger of Elanthia


"Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entre." -Dante Alighieri

I think one of the key components of the BB spell that is being overlooked is its ability to knock critters down fairly frequently. Isn't it a great thing to quickly knock down and imbalance a critter?

Besides allowing you to kill your oponents easier with a weapon (after they get knocked down and become imbalanced), it can obviously help you with your ranged weapons training, evasion and defensive training as well (that's if you can't or choose not to kill the critter with one cast).

I don't think there should be a lot of ranger spells that can kill every critter at your hunting level with one or two casts. This is a good combo spell to use with your existing weapon skills, or possibly to use with other combat spells (present and future). The ability to knock critters down also adds to your available combat repetoire and gives you even more combat style options.

I think Rangers should take advantage of the variety of skills, spells and abilities they have in order to choose different personality traits, tendencies, combat styles, etc. For example, If your character doesn't like the idea of knocking down live trees, don't use the spell or don't put so much mana into it. If you think it's overpowered for your combat taste and prefer killing critters with your weapons instead, don't use the spell. Not every spell is meant to suite everyone's style!

I think Ranger spells that work in combination with our other skills best suite the general Ranger populace, because those spells can be used in various ways to customize our different personalities and styles. I think BB is an interesting, fun-to-cast, and a very fitting Ranger spell. Good job.

Shillen, a cuddly cub Ranger

>PS.. I believe the success of this spell is not PM/HARN based, but rather stat -v- stat based. Higher level, higher stats better chance of getting a better hit, or hiting it at all. PM like the GM stated only factored in how much mana you could stuff into it..::shrugs:: I could be wrong.

In general, this is how combat spells work now. If they're TM spells, that determines most of the damage. Otherwise it's mostly stat-based. PM and HA only really affect how much mana you can put in, and mana mostly adds new effects to a spell (dropping a tree instead of a branch) and overcomes resistance. That's part of the change to make TM spells the damage kings, I believe. Since BB is a Spell vs Agility spell, it might be interesting to see the agility, reflex, and charisma of the people who really like it and those who don't. My guess would be the ones who are finding the spell useful for them have high agil/reflex relative to their level.

On a personal note, I find the spell useful for the knockdown function moreso than the damage. Being able to knock an enemy flat on its back for minimal mana is a good thing, even if the critters in DR tend to have springs attached to their backs so that they pop right back up after falling down. At the least it messes with their balance for long enough to get in an attack. BB isn't the greatest damage spell, but it makes a nice combat aid spell in my (admittedly limited) testing with my ranger in TF.

Kalyn

Just wanted to provide a little feedback about this spell. Personally, I think it is very nice for my skill level (220's PM and Harness). I usually do a straight prep of 35 mana and it seems pretty devastating for critters around my level. So far, I've gotten consistent one-hit kills on guardians, genis, frostweavers and adan'f mages. Adan'f warriors are usually knocked flat at that prep but manage to survive. I plan to test it in dragon priests tonight to see how it does on critters that are a good big above my normal hunting.

Example:
An Adan'f shadow mage closes to pole weapon range on you!

You belt out, "Timberrrrr!"

The shadow mage moves into a position to parry.

You retreat from combat.

An Adan'f shadow mage closes to pole weapon range on you!
You feel fully prepared to cast your spell.

>cast mage

You waggle your fingers at an Adan'f shadow mage.
Small globes of blue and orange light appear and dart upward like fireflies.
With a loud CRACK a massive pine tree breaks free and falls from above!
The pine tree lands a powerful strike to its chest!
Roundtime: 3 seconds
An Adan'f shadow mage sinks to the ground in a rustle of cloth and covers its face with the hood of its cloak. Slowly the movements of the cloaked creature stop.
The shadow mage's chain hauberk falls apart!
The mage's skull-tipped staff disappears, the shadows melting away.

The finger waggling isn't pretty but it does seem to do the job.

Erlo

>>I might stop by Shard this week, so maybe I'll see you around and we can test the spell out together in malchata. =)


Hmm...I'll probably stay out of malchata for a very long time. I had to drag a deader out of there once and that was plenty of excitement for me. Would be interested to see how Spirit Dancers and Dragon Priests hold up though :)

Erlo

>> One of the things that confuses me is how can Agility be involved in spell casting

>> > For Spell vs Agility spells: The caster will use discipline, charisma, reflex and agility and targeted magic.

The misnomer in the statement is probably 'The caster will use.' It would have read much more clearly had it been stated as 'The spell will draw its power from the caster's.' There are stats involved with the actual casting but those are not what we are discussing here. Its two different things (rather like magical resistance and magical defense). There is casting the spell and then there is the calculation for the offensive power (for lack of a better word) of the spell.

GM Damissak

I'm having trouble with understanding why charisma or targeted magic being a factor in this formula with ranger spell in the first place. Wouldn't the fact that ranger's are not likely to have traded either of these aspects much, be a major disadvantage in the new format for spell casting. Could this be why the majority of our offensive spells?

Thanks,
Dread

I agree that charisma plays too big a factor in SvA spells. Also despite the fact that we were told which stats are involved in contested magic, we were never told to what degree. So for instance if something is resisting our magic we have no idea what would be most beneficial to train. We just have to guess.

>>Do you know to what degree Charisma is affecting your magic? =P<<

No idea.


>>Just train everything needed to improve your side of the forumula, and you'll be fine.

Mazrian <<

That'd be nice if I had an infinite number of TDPs. But the fact is we need to put them where it will most benefit us. To say "train everything" isn't really realisitic.

Sevo

>>That'd be nice if I had an infinite number of TDPs. But the fact is we need to put them where it will most benefit us. To say "train everything" isn't really realisitic.<<

If you want to be better with BB, your TDPs will most benefit you in Agility, Reflex, and Charisma. =P Have fun.

Mazrian

Still not seeing where charisma should have any effect whats so ever on spell use or effects. So your butt ugly and not every pleasent to be around. This should effect a spell how?

Thanks,
Dread

>According to Damissak (in the WM folders, I believe), that's not what charisma is. I believe he described it as "charisma is to external what discipline is to internal" - paraphrasing, of course.

Charisma is both appearance (to a degree; there aren't really very many ugly adventurers in DR) and, much more importantly, force of will and personality. Charisma is how well you can impose your will/thoughts on another person through whatever means. IMO and obviously in the opinion of the magic team, Charisma is a perfect fit for the resistance formulas.

Kalyn

When dropping an entire tree on something can we add the possiblity of it getting trapped underneath the tree?

Kinda like it's webbed and have escaping factor into freeing one's self?

It's my post. You can't have it.

Mazrian

agrees with motarra

>You roll your eyes at a giant black leucro.
Small globes of blue and orange light appear and dart upward like fireflies.
With a loud CRACK a massive pine tree breaks free and falls from above!
The pine tree lands an apocalyptic strike (So that's what it felt like when Grazhir shattered!) to its abdomen!
Roundtime: 4 seconds
A giant black leucro collapses to the ground, yelping like a lost puppy calling for its mother until finally it ceases all movement.

Can't argue with a single cast kill spell on a critter that teaches me everything but evasion and prime weapon and leather well. True I tanked it's balance first.

Didn't get much action on a geni however.

Arrys

Hey Rigby,

Any chance you can change BB, so in caves it's still possible to drop the rock flakes (you know, the sling ammo kind)?

I remember some change was made to FoS to allow something similar. I think..

Slingers would appreciate it if you can.

Thanks in advance.

I believe Rigby said to bug it as ATTN ROOM OWNER and then explain why you think the terrain should be compatable, from the room, that is.

I'm a bit confudes on how the internal parts of this spell works Vs barb magic resistance. I was doing a number of tests with the spell and it seems barbs get a magic resistence to the spell. I'm confused as to why they get this. The spell is not direct at them, its directed to a branch or tree. I would think relexes, evasion, and armor hinderence, (perhaps even discipline) would be the only thing that could help someone resist this spell (even barbs).

Is there a reason it was made to be able to be resisted?

Falk

Resistance is Futile.