- Location
- Utrecht
Well, then I know what I want to try making
This sword is going to be so... Edgy
[WHF] The Broken Mirror - A Divided Loyalties Peggy Sue
Well, then I know what I want to try making
This sword is going to be so... Edgy
*Chaos Warrior looks at Spiky sword*: Hail to Tzeench, Architect of Fate sister.
*Vampire, seeing the warrior get drained*: Don't be silly she is clearly one of us
If we have multiple thorns, I wonder if this is a case where it would actually be worth it to make multiple similar items.
A Mindrazor that can Steal Life would be something that would be very valuable for the Empire. And, actually, not just for the Empire. They'd be exceptional diplomatic gifts to either Estalians or Bretonnians.
K von Carstein
Likes to go for a walk
- Location
- Belgium
- Pronouns
- He
I thought there was at the moment no one in the Grey College who can make staffs.
SuperSonicSound
Shadowmancer of the Shadow Cabal
No one willing to do it as a full time job.
- Location
- Earth
That was true in DL where the staff maker died before Mathilde made Magister. I asked if he happens to still be alive here and got that answer:
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- Location
- Utrecht
We're still talking enchanting multiple items with Battle-magic level effects, right? An extremely difficult and dangerous process that risks one or more of those people blowing up. Oh, and we're also the only ones that can do this (cos of windherder), and it takes 2AP because it's Battle magic.
I'm sure we'll make a Dozen of these blades. The second coming of Alaric the Mad.
We'll be lucky if we get this right once. Let alone multiple times...
No one willing to do it as a job, so that every magister can have a staff. There are people who can make staves... we just have to hire them to do so.
Thinking some more about Life stealing mindrazors, what would be truly valuable is if we could combine it with the animate shadow Terror mastery.
A human hero whose shadow can wield a Mindrazor and heal their material self in the process would be a step change more powerful. The enemies of existence have their own cheats, and this would genuinely make a difference. Herohammer was a bit juvenile excessive, but it did reflex some truth of the setting.
We only risk that if we do so with too low Magic. We won't so the risk doesn't exist.
A human hero whose shadow can wield a Mindrazor and heal their material self in the process would be a step change more powerful. The enemies of existence have their own cheats, and this would genuinely make a difference. Herohammer was a bit juvenile excessive, but it did reflex some truth of the setting.
We only risk that if we do so with too low Magic. We won't so the risk doesn't exist.
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Pronouns
- He/They
It's still risky: see the burnscar on the person who made the dragon flask. It's just less risky. You can never get high enough magic to reliably cast battle magic, so you can never safely enchant it.
- Location
- Utrecht
Assuming we only do the Enchanting. Battle Wizards are people too, and a Battle wizard blowing themselves up is still a terrible outcome.
Remember Sunscryer? Battle wizards exploding next to you is not a good thing either.
Edit: I wonder if Mathilde could notice a Battle wizard is about to miscast before it becomes unmanageable.
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SuperSonicSound
Shadowmancer of the Shadow Cabal
Question, are there any staff turners at for instance the bright order that could make a better staff for channeling Ulgu than our ulgu brethren? I only ask because the Staff of Volans works with all winds of magic and was made by a Bright wizard lord. Presumably they've got to have part of the secret sauce that allows for the creation of staffs that can channel any wind, obviously I'm not expecting the +2 to magic that the staff of volans grants (which is like probably +4 in the widened magic scale that DL and this quest operates under)
- Location
- Utrecht
Found a sufficiently misty sword, and added powerstones to it
I guess maybe the Staff Maker does not have to be a Grey Wizard?
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- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
You don't need to be a wizard of the same Wind you're making a staff for, but it really, really, really helps.
Also, tangentially:
SuperSonicSound
Shadowmancer of the Shadow Cabal
Huh, weird, I guess there must be some other very powerful quirks when it comes to the Staff of Volans +2 magic alone doesn't seem that incredible that merely getting hold of it is enough to win a duel.
consequences
Not A Nice Person At All
- Location
- Jerkville
I think we're missing the point here. If we do an item of Mindrazor, can we anchor it to a hilt and pretend we have a lightsaber? And most importantly, can we pick the color?
Not for us - for our assorted ducklings, retinue and whoever we are protecting at the time.
I think it would only come in Grey sadly... unless we wind herded maybe, then we might be able to get a mix of colors I guess
It would a hell of a thing to put into a paper 'so I invented this whole new sort of enchantment because grey is a boring color'.
Fayhem
Definitely not an escaped SCP
- Location
- At large
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Obviously, I'm not the QM, but to comment on why I suggested the combo in the first place: there seems to be a disconnect between what the fandom thinks of when they think of Okkam's Mindrazor, and what the flavor text for the spell in the TT indicates. The fandom, as illustrated by somebody right here in this thread a few posts later, seems to think of the spell as enabling the caster to cut enemies with the power of their mind. But the text from the TT is:
Which seems to indicate it's attacking the minds of enemies, not their bodies. Which in turn raises the obvious question of "wait, what about mindless enemies then?" The TT makes no provision for any difference in effects when attacking mindless enemies with the spell, but the flavor text seems to strongly suggest there should be.
You could rule that as "the flavor text is off base, and it actually works like the fandom thinks it does" or you could equally validly rule it as "the flavor text is correct, and the TT rules work like that to facilitate actual play and make it so that e.g. Skeletons aren't weirdly overpowered vs. Grey mages." So I suggested the combo to basically cover our bases: if it's ruled that Mindrazor inflicts mental damage, then it doesn't overlap with the Flaming Sword of Rhuin because that quite clearly does straight-up physical damage.
I looked at Steal Life a few times, but ultimately leaned away from it. The reason being concerns over inadvertent Dhar production. If Shyish is pouring into our body as part of the return mechanism for Steal Life (i.e., first Shyish affects the enemy to steal their life force, then Shyish gives that energy to the caster) then if we have any other Wind-based magic active in our body it will mix and produce Dhar. This is in-universe consistent, and also seems to be tacitly the major balancing factor preventing Mathilde from using her item slots to rock like 8 buffs at once from every Wind in the Colleges.
Now, you may be thinking, "but doesn't Ghyran present exactly the same risks with the Seed?" And you would be correct, it absolutely does, and it actually in fact has in DL-canon done exactly that - it just did it after we got the Kragg Belt so it didn't ultimately make much of an impact. But using the Seed means that either:
a) We have assessed our need for healing, and made an executive determination that either there are no current risks of Dhar or our need for healing is dire enough to justify the risk.
OR
b) We have been hurt so badly that the Seed auto-triggers, which absolutely meets the criterion of "our need for healing is dire enough to justify the risk." Because if the Seed auto-triggers, it's because we'd die without it.
However, there could be any number of instances where all of the following conditions were met at once:
1. We'd be at risk of Dhar if another non-Ulgu Wind enters Mathilde's body.
2. We don't have a sufficiently dire need for healing to justify that.
3. We still need to hit bad guys with our sword.
So that's why I ultimately decided against arguing for a Steal Life sword, as sexy as the idea sounds. With no Kragg Belt, it makes it way too possible/likely that we could find ourselves in a situation where we have to choose between not using our primary weapon or giving ourselves incurable Dhar poisoning by using our primary weapon, for the sake of an effect we didn't even currently need.
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Pronouns
- He/They
My ruling on this: Mindless enemies aren't affected by the "mind" part, but magically animated enemies are highly affected by the "I'm swinging some magic through you" part, so it evens out. Against summoned ghosts and the like that are simultaneously supported by outside magic and have minds it's even more deadly than usual.
The only time it would be truly ineffective would be versus mechanical enemies or fortifications. It simply can't kill something that is neither animated by a mind nor by magic.
Note: Animals have minds, so it'd work fine on a warbeast.
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- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Pronouns
- He/They
If it were any other wind, that'd be true*. But Ulgu does illusions, meaning that changing the colour of something is within its range.I think it would only come in Grey sadly... unless we wind herded maybe, then we might be able to get a mix of colors I guess
It would a hell of a thing to put into a paper 'so I invented this whole new sort of enchantment because grey is a boring color'.
*mostly - emanations of pure magic have the colour, but once you start creating something real the colour of the thing overcomes the colour of the magic.
Note that undead creatures do have minds (and souls). That's why they can walk and fight. There's a piece of their soul bound to the corpse that can perceive the world around them and control their physical remains to execute their orders.
They're pretty stupid, but they still have something for Mindrazor to hit.
They're pretty stupid, but they still have something for Mindrazor to hit.
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- Location
- Earth
I've been rereading DL recently and found out that Mathilde has read at least some of the ledgers of who traded with Alkharad
And the information inside them is apparently juicy. If we ever get out of AP hell - so most likely never - we can go looking if they are that stupid here too.
- Location
- Utrecht
i reread those chapters. Mathilde really did the empire a solid. Pity we probably won't be able to repeat that deed without Kragg's kit.I've been rereading DL recently and found out that Mathilde has read at least some of the ledgers of who traded with Alkharad
- Location
- Earth
With what we have now, we'd likely lose that fight.
We'd probably try the first hit with our Anti-Vampire gun instead of the sword and hope for a good hit.
He'd likely either react by trying to close the distance and gut us or cast a ranged spell.
Funnily enough, we'd do better if he tries a ranged spell. While he has 28 Martial and 34 Learning, Mathilde has 30 Learning and +20 bonus against Necromancers which Alkharad is.