Attack into a block twofer?

[Mr. Death]

So a scenario that just popped into my head while writing up another post, I'm curious as to the board's thoughts.

Say a wizard is facing a bunch of ghouls. He wants to create a block, and decides to make that block a big wall of fire to keep them out.

One ghoul is at the head of the pack, and the wizard decides to time the raising of the wall of fire such that the ghoul gets caught in it and (hopefully) incinerated. Then, the block stays up and continues with some duration.

Doable within the rules? I'm thinking it might involve a compel or invoke of some aspect or another to get that extra mileage out of a single casting, at the least. Thematically, it'd make sense (after all, we've seen characters take damage, get injured, or even be taken out by running into blocks in the text of the books), mechanically I'm not quite sure.

[Taran]

By the rules, you can take a spell that hasn't been used yet and turn it into an attack but then it goes away.  So, by the rules, it doesn't quite work the way you describe.

It starts with a wall of fire which is keeping the ghouls at bay.  Then, on the wizard's turn, he makes the wall explode outwards, hitting the ghouls and dissipating the spell.

I think a compel would work well.  I wonder if it would work the same way as an attack.  Turning a block into 'Wall of Fire' aspect that gets invoked for effect.

Or, I suppose, create an aspect right off the bat and invoke it as a compel against the ghouls.  Basically, they get compelled to stay at bay or, if they choose, take damage unless they overcome the barrier.  But then you get into the realm of how many compels can you invoke with a single aspect without spending a FP.

[Mr. Death]

Yeah, I'm thinking of it in kind of the opposite way; not a block that hasn't been used at being turned into an attack, but the formation of the block being an attack, with the block continuing on.

I mean, logically it makes some sense. If you're calling up a wall of fire and there's something standing in the same space as you're putting that wall of fire, it's going to get burned.

[Sanctaphrax]

You can't take multiple actions at once just by describing your action as the sort of thing that would accomplish multiple goals. If you could, every punch would also be an attempt to put a DAZED Aspect on the target.

You certainly can raise a wall of fire that serves as both block and attack, but it'll take two actions.

[Mr. Death]

You can't take multiple actions at once just by describing your action as the sort of thing that would accomplish multiple goals. If you could, every punch would also be an attempt to put a DAZED Aspect on the target.

You certainly can raise a wall of fire that serves as both block and attack, but it'll take two actions.

Yeah, that's why I was suggesting there be a fate point exchange involved somewhere, not unlike how the game book encourages GMs and players to play around with the aspects of their elements (e.g., "OK, your fire wall keeps the ghouls out, but it's FIRE so here's a fate point, the room is now ablaze.")

So I could see maybe a player launching an attack, then invoking something to say, "OK, it hits the first ghoul, can I maintain the force wall I smacked him with and use it as a block?"

[bobjob]

I seem to remember Warden Ramirez doing something similar in White Night when fighting the duel in the Deeps. After doing a little refamiliarizing, YS260 has some rules and an example for redirecting spell energy. The specific rules are:

• The spell must have been maintained from a previous exchange into the current one.
• The spell must not have been used already for its original function in the current exchange.
• You must be able to describe how the energy could plausibly be redirected

And the example text:
Wardens Carlos Ramirez and Harry Dresden have been fighting with White Court vampires in an insane duel to the death gone horribly wrong. Ghouls have also crashed the party, throwing the entire fight into disarray. Carlos has had his water shield rote (page 293) up for most of the fight; its current strength is four shifts. He still has another exchange of maintenance.

In the next exchange, the GM describes a ghoul advancing on the two of them, and it's Carlos' turn. JJ, Carlos' player, says, "Hey, so my water shield is entropic, right? It disintegrates whatever touches it? Can I just use it to intercept the nasty and chew him up, making it into an attack?"

JJ's explanation seems plausible, and Carlos hasn't used the shield to block this exchange. The GM considers this, and she says, "Ok, but obviously that's going to use the spell energy, so you'll be shieldless the rest of the exchange." JJ says he's fine with that; the GM tells him to roll his Discipline (because he's turning the block into an attack and needs a targeting roll), and allows him to attack the ghoul with a Weapon: 4 water attack. He rolls incredibly well, and the GM describes the ghoul being utterly disintegrated as it smashes into the shield.