I have created an Auram specialist wizard who has mastery 2 (penetration, multiple casting) on The Incantation of Lightning (CrAu35). Is the following the correct reading or intent of the rules? (Yes, I know having both Incantation of Lightning and Pull of the Skybound winds is exuberant...)
The spell allows magic resistance so it automagically hits - no aiming roll required.
The Aurum form definition of "individual" specifically includes "one bolt of lightning" so it works against targets of any size which potentially includes a mouse or a castle
It deals its damage to a single target and "those near the target" make a 6+ size stress roll or fall over. How far is "near"? I assume touch range - if it was voice range it would include the caster.
If I cast it on a castle does everyone in the castle potentially fall over? I think I would rule those near the point of impact rather than near the object - but I need to get my rules lawyer parma up
As a magnitude 7 spell it qualifies as a powerful mystical effect and causes warping in the target (usually posthumously).
With the multiple casting mastery (2) I can cast 3 at the same time (as per the errata one additional copy per level of mastery) with a separate roll required for each but they still all auto-magically hit. The targeting penalty on p87 doesn't apply because no aiming is required (though it should actually be called aiming penalty).
If I also had the fast casting mastery I could cast six in a round - 3 fast cast and 3 normal (if I could stay conscious through that).
Now we come to the weird one. The corrected character sheet has a formula on it "Multiple Casting (+ stress die – no. of spells, vs 9) Int+Finesse=TOTAL". Now this isn't anywhere in the rules and is likely a 4E reject according to several threads I found - but it is on the "corrected" character sheet which makes it suspect - and there has been plenty of time to fix it if it were wrong. I think the mastery cost covers this already so this formula is almost certainly obsolete. Though if my storyguide doesn't like me killing three in a round I can see him rolling this out.
I believe that this is for Aimed multi-cast spells. If you Aim at several different targets you get a penalty depending on the number of targets. This spell is not an Aimed spell so it doesn't matter. The spells all hit where the caster indicates (assuming that they penetrate).
No warping for the person hit. The target is the lighning bolt - which of course is warped (and if you cast 4 high-level MuVi spells on it, it even gets a warping score.
So if you ever come across a singing lighning bolt, you'll know what happened.
Anyone that ever was close to a lightning strike would say Voice range and more, not all lightning strikes are equal, but one that makes a really big boom, you can risk getting floored even a hundred m away.
The description i´ve been given is that it depends on how the sound wave hits you, if the strike was in such a way that the sound from "start to end" all hits you at the same time as a single wave, its easy to fall over even if you´re far away, while if the "bang" becomes a drawnout rumble with just a short "crack" from the point nearest to you even a "close" hit wont smack you so hard.
Of course, the strength of the lightning makes a huge difference. Having seen a lightning strike and not leave even a mark as well as making an insanely loud noise while creating an explosion along the ground that created a 100+m long and 2m wide and deep ditch, well the difference is extreme to say the least!
As the lightning in the spell comes from the caster and he is prepared for it, he should be reasonably ok, and people behind his aiming point should be ok unless surprised by it.
However, people on the sides of the lightning where the sound wave hits from the whole lightning are probably the ones most affected.
Impact of course. Otherwise you would have to have a lightning spell that somehow hits the WHOLE castle. Sure you can make such a spell but i doubt its worth it.
As with the other spell, the target of magic here is a weather phenomena, not what the lightning created by that magic then hits.
I see that the form specifies the target as the phenomena though the spell also specifies the recipient as a "target" (for this and Pull of the Skybound winds) - probably an unfortunate overloading of the word target. My impression is still on balance that the recipient is "affected" by a powerful mystical effect.
So that is why there is a bang. Its a very loud song sung very quickly.
This has been discussed elsewhere at great length - the agreement is that "Target" (capital "T") refers to one of the 15 Forms and an Individual/Group amount of that Form (or etc.), and "target" (small "t") refers to whoever is intended to suffer/benefit from the spell. (If Corpus or Mentem, even Imagonem, often one and the same.)
But I disagree with your conclusion, mainly because the rules don't use Target/target when defining "warping", nor do they rely solely on the (painfully ambiguous) term "affected" - see Pull of the skybound winds intent? - #16 by Cuchulainshound
