Below is my recent discourse with the editor, Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch. First, we tackled Flying Attack, which he confirmed we used correctly in play. Stripe: Using those rules, on the turn of a character with Move 6 who runs 6 hexes, he can now jump using Flying Attack for farther distance? Kromm: Yes. Stripe: So, the character with Move 6 can run 6 hexes then use a Flying Attack to jump 2 more hexes, is that correct? Kromm: All absolutely as intended. I then led Kromm through Valter's Delay/Maintain scenario step by step making sure we have everything 100% RAW, and he conquered. Then, I summed it all up, but left out mention of casting on an item, because we had not yet devised that solution when I sent the e-mail. Stripe: Now, say the warrior who has had Grate Haste cast on him goes off to battle. The Delay's triggering event is, "The warrior speaks the word, 'Abracadabra!'" The wizard sits in his armchair at home. The warrior can speak the word, "Abracadabra," and Grate Hast would then take effect on the warrior's next turn, correct? Kromm: Correct. A normal person could hear the word "Abracadabra," so that's an acceptable trigger. There would be a one-second wait for activation. Both conditions are as per the Delay spell. Stripe: If so, what modifiers, if any would apply to the roll for Grate Haste? Kromm: I'd say -2: -1 for Maintain Spell and -1 for Delay. In effect, the energy pool powering Maintain Spell is a "virtual wizard" with two spells to worry about: Maintain Spell and Delay. Stripe: The only issue I saw was that Delay states: "This spell is cast on another spell to delay its activation until a certain thing happens in the linked spell’s presence – that is, in the presence of the item or area on which the linked spell was cast." Kromm: The spell is annoyingly worded. The intent was that Delay be cast on an inanimate object or an area, not a person, and that the object or area then casts Delay's subject spell on a subject near the item or in the area. But the wizard could just cast on an amulet hanging around the warrior's neck! All this does is introduce a minor material components requirement. As you can see, he came to the exact same conclusion we did. We can simply cast all the spells on an item. The catch-all: Stipe: Rules as written and canonically speaking, is this contrivance completely legal? Kromm: See above. The main downside is that Maintain Spell won't last forever; it maintains Delay in 10-hour chunks. Any given chunk is cheap for a skilled mage, but even a week is 17 intervals. The lesser downsides are the Great Haste roll being made at -2 (Maintain Spell and Delay) instead of at -1 (just Delay) and the need for an item that could be lost or stolen. The wizard is also at -1 (Great Haste) for a long time because he can't end a Delay that's no longer his. Now, about Knight's training costs: Stripe: In a Dungeon Fantasy game using the training costs from The Next Level , p. 43, how does one assess costs for Knights who may use points during battle to increase melee skills? Kromm: One doesn't! Training costs are for training , not for spontaneous improvement. That's one of the knight's upsides. Stripe: They still must pay $20 to improve those skills, right? Kromm: No. The cash cost isn't for the right to spend earned points but for the training needed to spend earned points. Since knights don't need that training for combat skills, they don't need to spend the cash. Archie's question about standing I included: Stripe: If a leg is crippled in combat, can the victim stand after falling? Can the victim kneel? Kromm: No and no. "You can still fight if you assume a sitting or lying posture" rules out kneeling or standing, while "you have the Lame (Missing Legs) disadvantage" points to p. B141, where it says, "Using crutches or a peg leg, you can stand up and walk slowly." I guess if you happened to have crutches handy, you could stand and fight at Move 2 and -6 to DX and skills. However, p. B421 does not say, "you have the Lame (Crippled Legs) disadvantage," which would give better mobility. Another question that arose while skirmishing with Archie: Stripe: Along those same lines, can a character with a crippled leg in combat use Giant Step, p. MA131? Can a person sitting or prone or crawling or in other postures use this option? Kromm: Giant Step buys an extra step. As long as you are capable of taking a step in the first place, you can use that option. Someone with Lame (Crippled Legs), or who's prone or crawling, can step; he's just slow. Someone who's sitting would be out of luck! (Even then, the kind GM might allow Giant Step to add one step to "no steps," allowing someone to step once when he normally couldn't step at all.) Lastly, I asked about enchanting with Low-Tech locations: Stripe: When mixing enchanting by armor location rules in Magic , p. 66, with the new hit locations from Low-Tech , how is one to determine cost and energy? Kromm: There's no canonical answer. Still, you could add up the percentages in Low-Tech – head (30%), neck (5%), torso (100%), arms (50%), hands (10%), legs (100%), and feet (10%) – to get 305% of the weight on the Armor Table for a "full suit," and then use (percentage)/3.05 instead of the numbers on p. 66 of Magic. Skull (20%) would be 20/3.05 =6.6% instead of 5%, arms would be 50/3.05 = 16.4% instead of 15%, and so on. Then you could use the same principle for new locations; e.g., knees (5%) would be 5/3.05 = 1.6%. I understand that there are still questions on the table, but that was by far enough for one e-mail. We'll get other questions sorted in due time.
