Revised GURPS Magic: Great Haste (for DF Felltower)

After some discussion and a vote, we had a (nearly) unanimous vote in favor of this change.

The only vote that wasn't "yes" was an "other" vote expressing concern that I'd increased the Casting Time to 3 seconds from 2 seconds. That just goes to show how people get used a specific power level - it's always been 3 seconds . . . it's just that most casters have a 20 in it in DF Felltower, and thus cut the time like so: 3/2 = 1.5, round up to 2.

Either way, even one No vote wasn't going to veto this change. We were going with a simple majority for these and this is how we ended up.

Great Haste (Revised)

- 3 seconds, 5 energy to cast; 10 second duration (unchanged)
- Subject's Move (or Step, for Step & . . . actions) is doubled
- Subject gains Extra Attack 1 (on Attack actions) or Extra Concentrate 1 (on Step and Concentrate)
- Subject gains +2 to Active Defenses
- Subject loses 2 FP after 10 seconds, unless subject is the caster.



Notes:

We'll give this a go, and if it turns out to suck, we'll dump it. It is more complex than the original spell, and I expect it will cost time every turn for a while as people say, "I used to get a bazillion attacks and that would be useful here as I do this, and this, and this, and this, and this, then this, and then had a second turn, but now I can't, so I'll do this and this instead." But I think it's a better rule for us in the long run.

I think the drop in FP costs means it's more likely to get used over and over, which is fine, without the usual Lend Energy dance in the middle of a fight. Bad enough after a fight. It also answers the stupid "Can I use Great Haste as an attack?" concept, where you cast Great Haste on a foe, keep away, then throw it again and again - essentially, a cheap way to inflict a non-resistable 5 FP loss on the foe. You can still do that, but even a normal human will take 5 castings and 1 minute of castings by a 20 skill caster to drop to zero. It becomes a non-issue.

This will affect Frenzy, the magical axe in DFT3, when and if the PCs finally figure out where I stashed it in Felltower.