Wards and Landmines

[Madmacabre]

Wards can have a landmine effect attached to them. Essentially its an effect that attacks anyone who tries to force the ward.

How often can the landmine be used before its depleted?

Is it a one shot deal? Or the effect lasts as long as the ward is operational?


For example, if the landmine effect is a fire attack with 6 power levels. Is only the first target forcing the ward affected by it or any and all of those who attack the ward for the whole duration?


Thanks

[KOFFEYKID]

This is a good question, and I dont really know the answer. Harry's wards lasted quite a while in Dead Beat, when Grevain was throwing zombies at it. Hrm. Maybe it just lasts until it breaks. or the damage from the landmine can be set to get pushed out bit by bit?

[Biff Dyskolos]

The ward is a container for an evocation. A landmine with a weapon:3 attack contains 3 shifts of power and when it is set off the evocation is released. If you wanted multiple uses just add multiple evocations. Three weapon:3 attacks would be 9 shifts of power.

IMHO.

[Tharios]

The ward is a container for an evocation. A landmine with a weapon:3 attack contains 3 shifts of power and when it is set off the evocation is released. If you wanted multiple uses just add multiple evocations. Three weapon:3 attacks would be 9 shifts of power.

IMHO.

That's not unreasonable at all considering how much effort Harry put into making those wards with what little Threshold he had.  But, it would be best to have a means whereby they can be done in large sets.  As it was mentioned, Harry's wards went off quite a bit during the zombie assault.  By your method, it would take weeks of doing nearly nothing but setting up that defense.  The "landmine" effect may be an evocation, but instituting it into a ward is very much thaumaturgical.  I figure a ward like Harry's should take no more than a few hours a day to set up half a dozen or so "landmines".  Allowing for the opportunity to add as many as desired if they're willing to put in the time each day.  After a week, that'd be quite a bit.

BUT...a given threshold can only support a certain degree of ward, and therefore the wards can only support a certain capacity of potential.  That needs to be established beforehand so there's a reasonable limit to just how big a ward can be anchored to a threshold and how much oomph can be packed into such wards.

[GoldenH]

I'm inclined to say that a ward landmine going off counts as an attack against the ward. If the ward's strength is overcome, then it can reduce the effectiveness of the ward. This makes sense, as the ward must be absorbing some of the spell in order to protect those inside it.

[KOFFEYKID]

You could work the landmine as if it were a magic item. Dedicate shifts to uses instead of to damage.

[horvagab]

The threshold can act as a limit towards the damage of the evocation, or maybe even the number of "landmines" that can be contained

[crusher_bob]

Since Harry's wards in Dead Beat seem to be able to blast a zombie in one go, that puts the magical land mine at at least power: 7 (zombies had 5 stress boxes and armor: 1).  If the zombie if going to take any consequences, it would need to have even more power behind it.

[Deadmanwalking]

Keep in mind that Wards also reflect attacks, and to break a Ward down you need to attack it. So the Zombies might well have taken quite a bit of damage from that as well as any landmines. Their own attacks deal 2 stress damage to them a piece if reflected.

[Rel Fexive]

There's nothing in the rules that says there is a "use" limit on landmines so to me that means there isn't one.  They keep working until the ward is destroyed.  Oftimes the base "reflect" ability of a ward is defence enough; the landmines are only for when it is breached.  One point of complexity per "use" seems fair if you want to limit them, though.

[Tharios]

There's nothing in the rules that says there is a "use" limit on landmines so to me that means there isn't one.  They keep working until the ward is destroyed.  Oftimes the base "reflect" ability of a ward is defence enough; the landmines are only for when it is breached.  One point of complexity per "use" seems fair if you want to limit them, though.

No, but doesn't Harry worry during the Zombie assault whether they'll have enough juice to handle the horde?  Or was he only worried about that many zombies just eventually breaking the ward anyway?

Either way, it implies a limitation to the potential of the ward.  Perhaps the "landmines" might go off indefinitely...but any single one doesn't go off constantly, and they don't go off all at once.  That implies a somewhat limited number, to me anyway.

Perhaps it works like this...  The threshold determines the maximum potential of any wards anchored to it, and the ward determines the number and/or strength of anything like "landmines" that are attached to it.  The specific numbers I'll leave for someone else to decide.

[Biff Dyskolos]

That's not unreasonable at all considering how much effort Harry put into making those wards with what little Threshold he had.  But, it would be best to have a means whereby they can be done in large sets.  As it was mentioned, Harry's wards went off quite a bit during the zombie assault.  By your method, it would take weeks of doing nearly nothing but setting up that defense.  The "landmine" effect may be an evocation, but instituting it into a ward is very much thaumaturgical.  I figure a ward like Harry's should take no more than a few hours a day to set up half a dozen or so "landmines".  Allowing for the opportunity to add as many as desired if they're willing to put in the time each day.  After a week, that'd be quite a bit.

BUT...a given threshold can only support a certain degree of ward, and therefore the wards can only support a certain capacity of potential.  That needs to be established beforehand so there's a reasonable limit to just how big a ward can be anchored to a threshold and how much oomph can be packed into such wards.

I think we are talking about two different things. The Zombie attack was an attack against a ward. There are rules in the book for that. I was responding, specifically, to the the questions of multiple attacks from a landmine. Which is a special ward which contains an evocation effect.