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Messages - AlanDNelson

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DFRPG / Re: Rituals: Potions vs. Straight Up Thaumaturgy
« on: July 16, 2014, 06:17:34 PM »
Hmmm... good point about the hanky and ghost dust.  The distinction:

Keep in mind, that "potion" in the narrative sense and "potion" in the mechanical sense are 2 different things.

is a good one.

I am going to stress the "Double your Lore" rule, and probably disallow using Lore to make declarations for extra oomph.  Lore is already such an important stat in potion making that getting anymore out of it seems like overkill.

The player in question doesn't actually do a lot of "declaring into existence".  Part of the game for her is she likes coming up with potions that are "generically useful"... so she doesn't leave herself with any unfilled potion slots.



Thanks for your help!




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DFRPG / Re: Rituals: Potions vs. Straight Up Thaumaturgy
« on: July 16, 2014, 05:37:49 PM »
Thanks for all the responses, so far.

The "double Lore" limit actually does help (and make sense)... since in that case "pure thaumaturgy" would be able to create effects which is out of the reach of a potion.

The example from my run is that the ritualist created a potion that would change the surface of any metal dunked in the potion to silver for a short period of time.  (This was not actually used to create silver bullets... it was used to create surgical tools that would actually work on a creature with Inhuman Toughness.)

Maybe I am being a little to "flexible" on the definition of a potion?  If potions are only able to be imbibed and must target the imbiber with the effect... then that would limit the flexibility of the types of things a potion could do quite considerably.  It makes sense... I just don't remember reading anything to that effect.

The only other house rule I can think of is that I could force potion makers to pay for the "shelf life" of the potion as well as the "duration of the potion's effect".  I would be less worried about the flexibility of potions if for some reason potion making was inherently less "efficient".




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DFRPG / Rituals: Potions vs. Straight Up Thaumaturgy
« on: July 16, 2014, 03:16:00 PM »
I have a character with Rituals: Potions.  (i.e.  The only Thaumaturgy she can do is brew potions...)

I am trying to figure out the downside of using Potions vs. straight up Thaumaturgy.

I can create a Thaumaturgical ritual that does X (say, turn lead in to gold temporarily).
There's nothing preventing me from creating a potion that does the same thing.  The potion is actually a little more useful since I can give it to someone else and "bottle the effect" until I need it.

I can't see anything in the rules that actually limits the power of the potion.  For "enchanted items" there is a hard limit based on your Lore skill... but potions specifically say I can invoke aspects (just like I can in mainline Thaumaturgy) to create more powerful effects.

So what's the downside?

     - Alan

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DFRPG / Re: Enchanted Items: What (exactly) is a use?
« on: January 18, 2013, 10:18:56 PM »
Ah... I think I get it.  It STILL seems like in most cases... the block would be better... but I can now at least conceive of rare circumstances where Armor would be better.  (Outnumbered 3:1 or more, for example )

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DFRPG / Enchanted Items: What (exactly) is a use?
« on: January 18, 2013, 09:46:22 PM »
With an single enchanted item slot... a spellcaster with a Lore of 4 can create a single use item that bestows a Block: 4 or Armor:2 effect.

My understanding is that the advantage of armor vs. block is once a block is penetrated... the effect ends.

If a "use" is considered one defended attack... then I can't see how armor would ever be better than a block.

If a "use" is considered one scene... then that makes more sense.  (i.e. either I have Armor:2 the WHOLE scene... or a Block:4 for the whole scene... or until it is breached)

How does this work?


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