Blocking Magic Internally - Help

[Tedronai]

Sanct covered my issues re: narrative / mental stress sufficiently well.

[Mr. Death]

I like the idea of the thaumaturgically-justified grapple. With that method, you could also put on a bunch of aspects through the casting to tag and invoke to keep the upper hand in the event of a wayward roll.

[InFerrumVeritas]

Note that without a specific power or stunt, these are all outside the realm of evocation.  Others have implied this, but I thought that should be made clear.

I had a villain who instilled a magical block with earth evocation.  He created a series of wide circles (threshold, which I let him treat as armor, so half spell strength effect).  If the characters cast through it, or walked through it, their power was limited (spell effect shifts were reduced by a number of shifts equal to the threshold value).

[Lavecki121]

Well the thing is he is a close range practitioner. So he can only do magic at close range. What I wanted was for him to hit something equivilent to Chakra points and disrupt the flow of magic. He also only has channeling and no thaumaturgy.

I originally tried to do this but it was voted that it would be too complicated:
Place a block on the mental stress track so that the mental stress couldnt be used for magic abilities such as backlash or activiation.

[Sanctaphrax]

Block on the mental stress track? What's that?

Regardless, a simple offensive block spell that blocks magical actions but not mundane ones ought to work just fine. I would allow that with Evocation, personally, but I can see why some people might not.

[Lavecki121]

Block on the mental stress track? What's that?

Was an idea I came up with that is like "i deal 8 stress" instead of dealing actual stress. They cant use that stress for abilities, but can still take that stress for attacks

[Tedronai]

Was an idea I came up with that is like "i deal 8 stress" instead of dealing actual stress. They cant use that stress for abilities, but can still take that stress for attacks

That's not a thing you can do. 
Blocks prevent actions  Such as casting a spell.  Filling a stress box, however, is not an action.
Even if you DID manage to 'block' those stress boxes, they'd still be able to 'roll up' any spent stress into higher boxes, or even consequences, if they felt like it.

[Mrmdubois]

Yeah, I see what you're saying Lavecki, block the filling of stress tracks for offensive use but allow the filling of it for defensive use.  I think it should just be kept simple though, do mental stress damage and actually fill in the stress box, or just block the actions your opponent could take that would fill in those stress boxes.

[sinker]

So from what I gather it seems like the block is the ideal solution, other than the fact that it isn't a long term concept.

I think the old adage "There's more than one way to skin a cat" is fairly appropriate here. If you want a short-term quickly applied solution, then a block is ideal. If you want to remove their ability over the long term deal physical stress (as you are physically striking them) and then find appropriate consequences (which can be invoked to prevent casting) when they are inflicted. At the most extreme case one could alter aspects as the result of a take out/concession.

[Mrmdubois]

Well, yeah.  The reason the thread was created was to find out quick in combat solutions to complicating spellslinging for casters.  In particular the options of a Spirit Channeling martial artist.

Because of Spirit's flexibility it isn't really unbelievable to imagine a caster could utilize it to hit the mental stress track, or set up a block on Discipline for preventing spellcasting.

[Tedronai]

find appropriate consequences (which can be invoked to prevent casting) when they are inflicted.

The problem here being that Consequences are chosen by the player of the target, not by the player of the attacker.  The most you can do on that front is to flavour your attack to bias consequences in the general direction of consequences you would find desireable, and then hope for the best.

[Sanctaphrax]

Because of Spirit's flexibility it isn't really unbelievable to imagine a caster could utilize it to hit the mental stress track,...

Not unbelievable, just unfair. And in this case, narratively inappropriate.

...or set up a block on Discipline for preventing spellcasting.

You don't set up blocks on skills. That's not how blocks work.

[Mrmdubois]

Yeah, I'm a little rusty on Block mechanics myself.

[Lavecki121]

Not unbelievable, just unfair. And in this case, narratively inappropriate.

I dont believe that it is unfair. Mental stress doesn't come up that much (at least in my games) unless you are a caster. The fact that I am cutting off their magic, which they need mental stress track to do, is why I suggested it. So it does make narrative sense.

That being said. The block is probably the easiest way to do this. This would allow me to use the block on different targets. (restrict magic on caster, movement on brutes ect).

[Mr. Death]

I dont believe that it is unfair. Mental stress doesn't come up that much (at least in my games) unless you are a caster. The fact that I am cutting off their magic, which they need mental stress track to do, is why I suggested it. So it does make narrative sense.

No, that's what makes it make a little bit of mechanical sense.