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.
This seems like a good fix...but it also seems, that for non-epic characters, that wouldn't have done a lot with their turn, this made the spell stronger.
ReplyDeleteDoubling movement, and getting extra attack/concentration, and getting +2 to all defences, is more than many would have gained from ATR, and now it costs less FP for the hasted character.
I think removing the defence bonus is probably enough. Giving a choice between the defence bonus and the movement bonus would maybe be more fair, but that is more complicated, and weirder from an-universe perspective.
It's essentially giving the benefits of All-Out Attack (Double) without the defense loss and a limited form of the movement allowance, and All-Out Defense (one defense) on top of that, without the benefits of AOD (Dodge), the most common one taken in my games because of the movement benefit from it. You don't get nearly the offense out of this you used to with ATR, you don't get the full defense benefit you'd get out of this, and you don't get a lot of choice. So I'm comfortable with my decisions.
DeleteThe 5 to 3 swap on FP seemed reasonable given the effective loss of flexibility.
And if you look at our recent summaries, you'll notice it's gone from "every fight you must have Great Haste" to "it's useful for some combatants in some circumstances." That alone makes me certain the above revision works fine in DF. How it works outside of DF, I don't really care at all, because we're unlikely to play a game using GURPS Magic that isn't DF Felltower at this point.
I've been privately debating dumping the Extra Concentrate benefit because it's not used much now, and I'd rather not have it be a caster self-enhancement for speeding up magic. But we'll see.
It seems identical to taking AOA (Double), and then a *stronger* version of AOD (because it adds +2 to all defences and not just one), and then movement bonus which might be bigger and might be smaller than AOA movement, depending on circumstances.
DeleteSo it's like a slightly stronger but unflexible ATR, instead of the standard flexible ATR.
Which makes sense, and wanting it to only cost 2 FP makes sense, but the final version where it is strong like that seems bad. If it still costs 5 FP it would make sense, but there are other reasons why 5 FP breaks the game.
On paper, it's too generous. In actual play, it hasn't been as abused or abusive as the original spell, and not overpowered, either.
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