Yes and no.
When casting against multiple adversaries, there's no problem IMO. It's the "pile on" on one character that's broken.
Of your 2 solutions, I would prefer the one where each instance of choosing multicast grants one more copy.
BUT it doesn't solve the dumb, dumb, dumb problem of PeIg "cold fatigue" spells being way more efficient when multicast than a higher level damage spell, which my idea solves:
- With the normal rules, you create more cold, and the target is more fatigued
- With mine, you create more cold, and the target is actually wounded, just like if submitted to a colder (higher base) spell.
Similarly, it still makes it worthwhile to take Mastery 1 (multicast), since you get twice the bag for a measly 05XP.
Sounds like there's support for the Might Soak rule. How does "All creatures with a Might Score have an effective Might Soak score equal to (Might Score/2) which only affects spells, powers, etc. which target their Might"?
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Quite fine IMO.
It means that the Dragon with Might 40 and soak 15 will still be felled slightly more easily by a might stripper than by a damage spell (the might stripper will first deprive him of his powers, then kill him, whereas the damage spell will have to inflict wounds), but the difference is slim.
Yes.
Advantages IMO:
- Less dice rolls
- Coherence with the non-linear nature of Ars damage: 100 times the size (+6) means +12 damage, not *100.
- It makes higher-levels spells at least as efficient against 1 opponent as spending 1 season to get Mastery 1 (multicast). The multicasting still has the advantage of flexibility
- It means that multicast low-levels PeIg "cold fatigue" spells are less efficient than multicast PeIg "cold damage" spells, not a lot more: 3 multicasts such spells will inflict +10 damage, not 3 fatigue levels, as he is cold enough that he is wounded.
- While it overall weakens multicasting on a single target, it nonetheless allows spells that have no chance to go through a given defense to still pierce it, thus prolonging the life of weaker spells without making them overwhelming*
- Before: Cast 3 lvl 10 DEO at a single target. With the soak, it's useless if it has might soak 10+, wherehas, before, if meant loss of 30 might.
Now: It does 20 damage, so it may hurt that MS 10 target, but the overall damage is lessened.
Read above for the advantages
It is not as illogical as it may seem. And it solves a recurrent question of these boards
For exemple, say I invent a dagger of Ice (+5 damage) variant with Group target (+2 mag) and +1 size, but I descrive the spell to that all the shards are directed towards 1 people (you've certainly seem things like this in anime, if only with missile fire). How would you rule it?
- Some GM would say "no"
- Some would say yes, and allow anywhere between 2-100 attacks at +5 damage
- I'd say the relentess assault does +20 damage (+5 + 5/3 added magnitudes).
This works just like the third exemple.
If your target is in the middle of a fire, adding a second fire will elevate the temperature somewhat, but it won't double it, nor will it count as a separate, totally unrelated fire.
Feels better now?
Might strippers are frighteningly effective, as has been demonstrated times and times again on these boards. Ask the question if you doubt me, I'm sure some people will enjoy demonstrating to you their power, especially combined with multicasting. Xavi, for exemple, quadruples the creatures might for hermetics. At the demand of his players.
Take your might 40 demon. It is powerful, and has, say, soak 15. Nothing exceptional here. Polymathes, the dragon from RoP: M, has MM 41 and soak +24.
It is thus, on average, immune to sword strikes, and he laughs at the flambeau's PoF, despite his casting total of 60.
Now, his friend as a PeVi CT of just 50, and DEO 10, mastered only once (05XP).
Each round, while his friends struggle, he strips 20 might from your powerful demon.
In 2 rounds, the demon has no might pool, and can't use any power.
In 4 rounds, the demon is dead. Make that 3 rounds for multicast 2 (15XP) or CT 55 and DEO 15
How's that for formidable and frightening? The other PC could have dragged it down, light wound after light wound. With PeVi, he's toast in 4 rounds, period.
Now, with Might soak 20, the power of a DEO is roughly comparable to that of the flambeau: Without multicasting, you need at least DEO 25, CT65, whereas, to inflict a light wound, the flambeau need on average a lvl 25 voice spell, CT65 too.
Sure, the flambeau can hurt other things, but the DEO is more efficient (and gets more with multicast)
With Pe 10, Vim 05, Stamina 2, penetration 2, multicast 1 and a dice roll of 05, any newly-gauntleted magus can cast a lvl 05 DEO at a Might 20 critter (that's supposed to be reasonnably serious opponent) and strip it of 10 might per round.
With Pe 13, Vim 10, Stamina 2, penetration 3, multicast 2 and a dice roll of 05, that's 15 per round at a Might 30 creature. And we certainly ain't talking of an archmage here. With some sympathetic connections, he could easily target a might 35-40 creature.
For the record, I had NOT noticed you had might stripper, it's more of a general issue
Totally agreed.
[rambling]Laetitia will be 20 years older than the older PC, but with 40XP/year post gauntlet, which amounts to another 10 years. That's quite a massive difference.
As a rule, I see nothing wrong with a character benefiting from special rules and exceptions IF every player agrees and IF every player can benefit from similar exceptions.
As it is, I'd have liked for the troupe to be consulted before: Negotiating special advantages and exceptions with the GM only brings back bad memories, both IRL and on the web: Andorra was literally plagued with conflicts over vortigern's character.
It's also a justice issue: I hate when some players play by the rules, fitting their concept into existing limits, only to discover afterwards that you could negotiate freedom from the rules, and that another player just did in a massive way. It just ain't fair.[/rambling]
As you wish, but, with all due respect, the only person here that finds that overpowered for the creatures is Arya and... Well, when she says a might 40 demon is dangerous and frightening... Aside from newly-gauntleted characters, she's just wrong.
My second example above shows a gauntlet-level character killing a might 30 demon in 4 rounds at worse. With a little preparation, he can probably target and kill a might 40 one in 6 rounds.
Note that, even if he doesn't kill them, they'll be greatly weakened (definitively!!!) once half of these rounds are gone: At round 3, the might 30 demon has no might pool, and his might SCORE is 15. At round 4, the might 40 demon has a might score of 25. From "Prince of Hell" to "Simple demon", just because he annoyed a fresh magus of the OOH...