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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: rpmarsh on October 18, 2010, 09:20:16 PM
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I started my campaign and I have one Wizard in the party. So far he throws around fire smartly enough but the thought occurred to me. What other element could he want with an attack when fire covers 9/10 harmful substances to throw at monsters?
Assuming he chooses refinement when he gets a chance. Why would he want to choose another element?
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Well, he might not want fire for attack, but fire's REAL easy to compel if you're trying to say, catch a falling teammate or do anything that's not attacking.
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Partly as flavor, partly to pull of non-lethal spells (non-lethal fire isn't fun, it is hard), and partly because you have to. For specialization, you need to stack your bonuses. In order to have +3 Fire Power, you have to have +2 Power and +1 Power in other elements. It gives you flexibility as well. If he goes Earth, suggest an earth grapple spell that holds things still (which is good on humans if you still need to kill them). I don't think a fire-grapple would be quite as possible.
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I started my campaign and I have one Wizard in the party. So far he throws around fire smartly enough but the thought occurred to me. What other element could he want with an attack when fire covers 9/10 harmful substances to throw at monsters?
Assuming he chooses refinement when he gets a chance. Why would he want to choose another element?
I suppose it depends on the kind of consequences and aspects you might want to inflict on people. It would be difficult to justify a Grapple maneuver with Fire evocation, for example. And most consequences are going to be harder to hide or explain. For example, "Nasty Burns" might raise more questions at a hospital than "Broken Ribs". And if you're just trying to stop some runaway kids who stole your Blasting Rod, do you want to throw Fire at them, or is it better to take them out with something more subtle (like tripping them with an Earth Block)?
Fallout from a failed Evocation will be very different as well, depending on the element you use. Fire evocation fallout will tend to set things "On Fire". Air evocation fallout might knock "Everyone Prone" or kick up "Lots Of Dust". Spirit evocation fallout could give everyone "Splitting Headaches".
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If you want to stun, it's sort of hard to do with fire. Earth and Air give you access to lightning, as well as a myriad of other options other than "I waste um' with a fireball!". Air can do nasty less than lethal evocations, and earth is good for immobilizing or manipulating EM fields. Spirit is a useful tool, but most combat evocations that are really effective break one or more of the laws.
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For pure leech-burning destructive force, nothing beats fire. But as stated above, the other elements offer various forms of flexibility that any one element would have trouble with. It's hard to ground magic with fire, but water can do it. It's hard to knock people down (without burning them) with fire, but earth or wind could do it. If you want to destroy a door completely (along with part of the wall and perhaps the whole building if the fire crews take long enough, fire's your tool of choice -- but spirit could slam open the door with far less collateral damage. It's hard to imagine any reasonable defense based purely in fire. A wall of fire might hold something back through intimidation, but even a determined opponent willing to risk a few burns might have trouble getting through a wall of rock or even force. For more of a Warlock bent, you can melt heads with fire, but short of that mind control is not a strong point for fire.
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In order to have +3 Fire Power, you have to have +2 Power and +1 Power in other elements.
Control and power bonuses are 'stackable' together in a pyramid, so Fire Power +3, Fire Control +2, Air Power +1 is an acceptable pyramid.
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Control and power bonuses are 'stackable' together in a pyramid, so Fire Power +3, Fire Control +2, Air Power +1 is an acceptable pyramid.
Either way, you still need it to stack. Also, I like to keep my power/control equal, if I can. So a two tier works for me.