Quick DFRPG Questions: Evocation vs. Attacks and Stealth

[Archmage_Cowl]

Just gonna throw a notation in here. Me and my crew just had a session today using the rules that you can use evocation blocks as a "reflexive" action in response to an attack and i have to say it didnt seem at all OP(over powered) to me(and we had two magic on magic duels) It  just made the magic user harder to hurt at first but then suddenly like two rounds later when they dont have any stress left to spend on spells they didnt seem so high and mighty anymore.

My personal oppinion on it, is its not OP or anything because it causes the mage to be harder to hurt earlier on but they have to sacrifice ALOT of their magic stamina for it. Just in case that helps in anyway. If not sorry for disturbing you guys.

[iago]

Just gonna throw a notation in here. Me and my crew just had a session today using the rules that you can use evocation blocks as a "reflexive" action in response to an attack and i have to say it didnt seem at all OP(over powered) to me(and we had two magic on magic duels) It  just made the magic user harder to hurt at first but then suddenly like two rounds later when they dont have any stress left to spend on spells they didnt seem so high and mighty anymore.

My personal oppinion on it, is its not OP or anything because it causes the mage to be harder to hurt earlier on but they have to sacrifice ALOT of their magic stamina for it. Just in case that helps in anyway. If not sorry for disturbing you guys.

Yeah, I think if people house-rule it to be reflexive, the system won't break. Ah, resiliency -- something I dig about this implementation.

[void]

Where this might break down is in conjunction with the spin-based house rule for reducing mental stress.

GMs take care when combining aftermarket alterations.

[Knave]

I'm in two minds about this one. 

What I don't like about it is that it removes some of the 'Wizards need to think ahead' theme, and secondly without the 'sacrifice your next action' part it gives you an extra potentially lasting magical action (i.e. spend the next exchange maintaining the spell and you'd have acted twice in 3 exchanges).

On the other hand it does allow for the nail biting defence at the last second when the moster leaps out of the closet.

hmmm...

Maybe require it to be a rote?  That works from a sort of 'reflexive trained reaction' point of view.  It also means that if someone uses a shield bracelet or something similar and hasn't 'readied it', you could slap them with an 'unprepared spel/ wonky evocationl' tag.

[iago]

After some back & forth on the dev list we're settling in where we say that no, reflexive defenses aren't in the system as written (they aren't), but if you want to allow them here are some considerations [insert Billy's spiel from above here]. I think that lets everyone tune this to the place where their players are happiest but lets us keep the system firmly oriented in the I-didn't-have-time-to-raise-my-shield moments from the source material.

[Knave]

Cool.  Having a player say, 'I'm getting ready to launch my shield as soon as I see anything even vaguely nasty' pretty much always wins initiative in my game anyway 

[luminos]

Cool.  Having a player say, 'I'm getting ready to launch my shield as soon as I see anything even vaguely nasty' pretty much always wins initiative in my game anyway 

In my game, that might win a false alarm that I would make them still pay mental stress for putting up a shield. 

[Deadmanwalking]

In my game, that might win a false alarm that I would make them still pay mental stress for putting up a shield. 

I'd have it do both. 

[Knave]

Well yeah, but then the cat always jumps off the closet before the monster bursts out of it 

[exploding_brain]

Messing with your players that way can be a lot of fun, but common etiquette in FATE 3.0 suggest that you to offer the payer a fate point for it.

[Deadmanwalking]

Personally, I'd leave off the Fate Point, but I would legitimately give them an auto-win on Initiative in such situations at least as often as I messed with them, so there'd be a definite balance there.

[jhosmer1]

Thanks for the help, everyone!  I appreciate it.

Sorry I didn't answer earlier... I think I didn't understand how the notification system works here and was looking at my e-mail box wondering why no one was responding.   I guess a little of Harry's computer ineptitude is rubbing off on me.