Re: Magic items (was Transforming abilities) from Light Castle on 2004-05-22 (HeroQuest-Rules)

From: Light Castle <light_castle_at_...>
Date: Sat, 22 May 2004 04:47:47 -0400

OK. Everyone seems on board with the basic premise Peter says here.

On 21 May 2004 at 17:44, Peter Larsen wrote:

> >In other words, is there any consensus on when a mundane ability can be
> >used as resistance to magic?
>
> Sure. Pretty much anytime someone can make a case for it.

So here's what is confusing me.

If I have the feat "Knock down tree" and I use it against a tree, as long as the tree isn't magic in some way, it's resists with 14. It doesn't matter if it is Frail 18, Bendy and Supple 5W, or Thick and Mighty 8W2.

So why is it that if I have the feet "Knock down foe" and I use it against my foe, it now DOES matter whether he is Mighty Thewed 19, or Supremely balanced 2W?

Is this just a case of "humans are different"? Is it a protagonizing thing? Is it just logical inconsistency? Is there some simple point I missed about how magic works?

>It's a love potion, right? So the target could resist with
>Love (Someone Else), Hate You, Mistrust Love, Not Ready for a
>Relationship, Pathetically Slow On the Uptake, Not Interested in Your
>Gender, Death Magic (with a modifier), Hate (the Group You Belong
>to), Stubborn, and so on....

But why? Maybe this is just going to fall into Narrator Fiat about Appropriateness here. But while I buy ALL of those (except death magic) as a resistance to a seduction, I don't buy them as a resistance to a love potion.

I realize that in some way this is a bit of a moot point, because very often you won't be using the system to a simple task like that, but rather to a confict where there is much more of a constellation of abilities in play (and a great deal of the above resistance suggestions make eminent sense). But sometimes you do have straight up tasks, and this may just be a YGMV moment, but I don't like magic abilities working exactly the same as non-magical ones. It seems very odd to me that it is *easier* to resist a love potion than the ability Seductive of the same rank. (Since anything you have that resists magic could also be a viable resistance of the potion, and everything that would resist normal seduction also resists the potion.)