Thaumaturgy and Attacks?

[citadel97501]

Hello all,

I am running a game, and I was writing out a villain who uses Thaumaturgy to create explosions, and I was wondering how best to do this with Focus slots, and Refinements?  Basically I can't figure out what school this should be?

Crafting?
-I was thinking of calling them potions with an 8 stress hit but this seems way under what is necessary to actually kill someone?  Since you need 14 stress to one shot someone at minimum if you count Consequences?

-However if you can add aspects to increase the damage this could be sufficient, as he has a skill of 4 with 2 aspects that is 16 stress minus their defense?

[Haru]

What you want are enchanted items or potions. You can put any thaumaturgy spell effect on it, and it has a base power equal or below your lore skill. You can specialize your thaumaturgy(crafting) or ritual(crafting) in power or frequency. Power increases the base power of all items, frequency increases the number of uses per session. You can also use focus items instead of specializations to increase those.

You can also use an enchanted item slot to increase an items power, but simply giving him what amounts to a 14 shift weapon is pretty much insane. Though probably doable, if he put all his powers into just that.

The entire rules for enchanted items and potions can be found in YS279. I suggest reading up on it, and we can discuss more specific questions on it.

[Lamech]

Hello all,

I am running a game, and I was writing out a villain who uses Thaumaturgy to create explosions, and I was wondering how best to do this with Focus slots, and Refinements?  Basically I can't figure out what school this should be?

A landmine (you step on it and it explodes) is a 0 strength ward with a landmine spell attached to it. A landmine needs shifts of power equal to its weapons strength, another 2 shifts of power for each zone it affects, and as many extra shifts as the villain wants. It attacks using a "skill" equal to the shifts of power put into it. (All the shifts of power including the ones powering the weapon and added area.)  The other option with thaum is artillery style. Cast the spell and hit some place far away. (Or close by.) These generally don't get a weapon strength. You need to spend shifts equal to what the attack (no dice rolling) and then two shifts for each zone that is hit.

Crafting?
-I was thinking of calling them potions with an 8 stress hit but this seems way under what is necessary to actually kill someone?  Since you need 14 stress to one shot someone at minimum if you count Consequences?

You will probably want to use potions (or items) that mimic evocation for this. The potion strength needs to be weapon+2*number of zones. Then you roll one of your skills to attack.

-However if you can add aspects to increase the damage this could be sufficient, as he has a skill of 4 with 2 aspects that is 16 stress minus their defense?

If he uses the potion as a landmine yes.

P.S. If you are wondering why someone would add shifts to a landmine that don't increase weapon or area, its so you can have a attack which is basically a really good punch. Depending on the GM you might not be allowed to use a weapon ten attack and have the taken out result be: they are knocked unconscious, but are all fine shortly their after. I assume the villain will just blow up the PCs.

[UmbraLux]

I am running a game, and I was writing out a villain who uses Thaumaturgy to create explosions, and I was wondering how best to do this with Focus slots, and Refinements? 

Potions are probably easiest - and easily abused.  But they'll get him between 1-2 x Lore of effect.  Probably going to be -2 (or more) as an explosion - that's the cost to target one zone.

Basically I can't figure out what school this should be?

It could be any form of thaumaturgy which fits the 'explosion'.  Summoning & binding elementals to 'explode' later, crafting a bomb of alchemical fire, creating a chaotic transformation spell to rip things apart, poison gas via biomancy, or even simple destruction through entropomancy.  It's less a question of which form / type is needed than a matter of how a wizard's form preferences flavor his rituals and results.

Crafting?
-I was thinking of calling them potions with an 8 stress hit but this seems way under what is necessary to actually kill someone?  Since you need 14 stress to one shot someone at minimum if you count Consequences?

-However if you can add aspects to increase the damage this could be sufficient, as he has a skill of 4 with 2 aspects that is 16 stress minus their defense?

If using potions, he's limited to 2 x Lore or less.  To go past that he'll have to work out a full ritual...which means he'd need a significant amount of time at the location.

[InFerrumVeritas]

Your potions strength is Lore+Specializations+Focus Items (although that last one has been debated, so make sure your group is okay with it).  Some forms of Sponsored Magic or Items of Power may also increase this.  See the relevant threads on this board for examples.

You may further increase the strength of a potion two ways: 
-Use additional enchanted item/potion slots to increase the potion strength +1/extra slot used.  YS280
-Boost the effect on the fly or at the time of creation by invoking aspects.  Each aspect invoked increases the shifts available to the potion by 2.  You may also choose to take a compel to get this bonus for free.  YS280

[UmbraLux]

Your potions strength is Lore+Specializations+Focus Items...

A minor point - "Specializations" should be singular.  You only ever get one at a time.  Doesn't usually matter, it's pretty easy to hit the max of 2 x Lore.