Friday, January 10, 2014

New Spells From Old

One of the things I've done over the holiday break is make some new action cards for my Warhammer 3rd Ed campaign. The first several were loose conversions of 2nd Edition spells into 3rd Edition spells and blessings.  Here's some Bright Order spells I (re)made:

Click for a larger version.
Choleric Provocation is roughly a lighter version of "Choleric" from 2nd Ed's Realms of Sorcery. In the original, you got to choose who they were angry at, but they also got a lot of extra willpower rolls to try to shrug it off and would only actually attack if they really blew the test. I made it simpler and more elegant, but it lost some of the raw power in the translation. This seemed like a serviceable compromise.

Flashcook was pretty minor in 2nd Ed, where all it did was cook your food. However, I felt the precedent set by the Halfling Chef's meals enabled a 3rd Ed version of Flashcook that would actually be worth the XP.  So, here's a Flashcook that aids later Recovery checks. Cantrip can't do that. To eliminate excessive die-rolling, I made it possible to cook food for the whole party in one roll, and made sure it didn't stack with itself. It's just Rank 1, so it's not particularly potent, but healing is one of those areas where every little bit helps... maybe I should cut the power cost in half so you could make a banquet in a single roll?

Hearts of Fire is probably the best one in the group here, being much easier to use than the version in 2nd Ed. The problem with the old spell was you had to know in advance that you would be needing to take Fear tests, and cast no more than 10 minutes before the encounter. That wasn't likely to happen very often, so the solution was to make it a Reaction. For a relatively modest 4 power, you're getting bonus dice on the whole party's Fear checks, and giving them something useful to do with Boons on those rolls.

Soothing Red Wind is more or less a conversion of Shield of Aqshy, which had already been roughly converted by FFG into Shielding Winds of Aqshy. In the process, they changed the nature of the spell, instead of being protection from fire it was magical armour. It felt like "fire doesn't burn me" was totally a thing that Fire Mages ought to be able to do, so I made a card for it. Making it a Reaction frees up the caster to not have to anticipate the need nor waste a turn casting. The total damage or fatigue prevented is pretty small, but that's actually in keeping with the scale of the existing location and condition cards. It won't invalidate the dangers of a dragon, but it will let you escape from a burning building or most miscasts.

Other Bright Order Spells that I may convert down the road if I find time:
  • Boiling Blood and/or Breathe Fire: Bright Mages really don't need more single-target kill spells, but these at least have interesting visuals to go with them. If I can think of a way to make them interesting instead of redundant, maybe I'll take a stab at them.
  • Burning Vengeance and/or Consuming Wrath: Spells that make people angry and violent. If there's elegant ways to make them distinct from each other, Choleric Provocation, and all those many "white die to certain rolls" actions FFG made, I just might convert them one day.
  • Cauterize: FFG already converted this one, but basically made it an unreliable healing spell that's not worth it unless you have Spell Mastery (or your GM hasn't read the Player's Guide and still lets you spam-cast healing spells). In 2nd Ed, it was a reliable way to save the life of a mortally wounded ko'd character, but it did no actual healing. Also, you could use it to brand people. I've got my eye on it.
  • Inextinguishable Flame: Technically FFG already converted it (into Unquenchable Flame), but the duration of their version is in mere actions (not weeks or months), so a higher-level version that fixes that flaw would be a lot more useful.
  • Ruin and Destruction: This was also technically converted by FFG (into Destructive Fires) but their version takes 8 turns to accomplish, and is thus useless during a fight. So, maybe a faster Rank 5 version is in order? I'm not certain.
  • Taste of Fire: It made booze stronger and food spicier. So, it'll probably just stay "cantrip" unless I can think of some elegant way to make that useful in-game.


No comments: