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Thursday, July 2, 2020

Revised GURPS Magic - Rebuke Evil

Ulf recently learned Rebuke Evil.

This spell first appeared in the DFRPG Kickstarter, here:

Rebuke Evil

It's basically an AD&D Holy Word modified to GURPS.

We're using the spell, but with two modifications:

- Rebuke Evil is an Area spell, but unlike normal Area spells, you cannot exclude areas from the casting. It doesn't make sense that you could, say, exclude one hex to avoid destroying an Evil foe you'd charmed or captured, or avoid destroying that Skull-Spirit you pretend isn't Truly Evil when your friend creates one, etc.

- The "running away" affect is subject to the usual rules about Fear mechanics. Intelligent foes can choose to stick around and just suffer a penalty, or flee and avoid it. Unintelligent foes just run.

I am tempted to make it only work in a radius around the caster, but that weakens it a bit too much. It's not a barbaric Shout, after all, it's a spell, with all of the upsides and downsides of that.

Is there a Rebuke Good? I can't say either way at this point.

3 comments:

  1. I like the No Exclusion Zones ruling.

    I also think in my game it'll nail Excommunicated people as though they were Evil. Or would that be too much on top of the -3 for beneficial Divine spells?

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    1. It seems a bit much - if you're going to get your butt smote by the heavens, I think you should get -15 for that. Maybe "Truly Evil" is a 0-point feature for creatures, but also it could easily be a downgrade from Excommunicated to Truly Evil. Get the -3 for beneficial Divine spells and be affected by anything that affects the Truly Evil.

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    2. Yeah... I like that. I'll keep Excomm at -10 and have the "Branded Evil" upgrade at -15.

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