Re: Foreign Magic - flavour and crunch

From: Stephen McGinness <stephenmcg_at_7Kfgffa9AErvVQPRlZSHbf2wp-O2CXxlsWg0OReACkC3QNr9LcNWCFoE5uHL9vEqr>
Date: Sat, 03 May 2008 16:39:01 +0100

> I would have thought that countermagic would have the same problems as
> detect and dispel - i.e. be only half as effective. It makes the
> foreign magic more scary and weird, and gives the specialist cults
> (with their countersorcery spells, or whatever) more purpose.

Yup. But that also means that the PCs will be more effective at attacking when they are up against foreign magic users. The weird wizards tehy meet are unlikely to be so scary when their magic is easy to dispel and counter...

Looking from the PCs side of things, I prefer the defensive magic to be where the advantage lies. It will be just as frustrating, scary and odd when offensive stuff just doesn't work like it should.

Or should all the advantage be to the foreigners?

The specialists are still useful - its just that they are useful to attack the foreigner rather than defend against them.

As I said though, I'm asking for opinion. Would you set the difficulty on offensive or defensive magic. If it is both offensive and defensive then there is no real advantage anywhere, is there?

Remember also that I'm looking at this from an RQ perspective rather than an HQ one.

Stephen