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As a GM, have you ever struggled against “easy magical solutions?"
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<blockquote data-quote="Jfdlsjfd" data-source="post: 8461201" data-attributes="member: 42856"><p>Struggled? Actually I have found that players are lacking creativity and innovation when it comes to using magic, perhaps because they have had previously bad experiences or fear to be shut down. I design adventure around the known capabilities of PCs. It doesn't mean it's a get-out-of-jail card, but its useful, much like expanding any other resources. You can do forensics with Medicine, you can cast speak with dead: both are ways to gather informations, and not to get the whole truth. I think struggling DM are those who didn't prepare a clue that could be given by the spell without giving away all the story. Or fear that "who did it?" would be obvious to the victim. </p><p></p><p>However... unless the assassin is clueless, he knows that (say) magic spells from level 1-3 are common. If they are common, there certainly is a specialized unit that can access them. And if the PCs are involved, chances are the victim would be worth sending a specialized unit. So if you're an assassin worth its salt, you take that into account. Killing doesn't silence. So you cast Darkness before killing your victim, rending its testimony less useful (but he could hear something, to give a clue to the PCs). And you cast speak with dead yourself so it renders the spell non-working for 10 days (and the less-intelligent-than-PCs policemen will just say "drat the magic doesn't work, we give up"). Or you disguise yourself as someone else (there are spells for that) so the victim is sure he was killed by a young actress from the Opera when he was in fact killed by an axe-wielding barbarian. If the victim is famous or noteworthy, Raise Dead is only a 5th level spell... so he'll probably defile the corpse to make it more difficult (just in case the PCs solve not the case but the problem by trivially chanting a few magic words and say to the family "yeah, yeah, he was dead, what's the fuss?").</p><p></p><p>As a GM, you know the players and their capabilities. If one decided to spend resources to acquire magic (Ok SWD is a clerical spell but in general), this choice should give them <em>some</em> edge at some point, an occasion to shine. The key to not making the magical solution moot is to simply consider that in a environment where such solutions are known, countermeasures exist. Making it interesting is that the solution was implemented sloppily, so the players still get an advantage, but without spoiling anything. </p><p></p><p>Fortresses changed a lot with the advent of the gunpowder. There is a strong chance they would be very different if they could be assaulted by the 347th griffon-mounted airborne regiment. Is it a struggle? I take it as an opportunity to ponder about the world design. There is no reason to limit magical investigation spells anymore than fireballs. Would one make all enemies resistant/immune to fire as soon as the characters hit 5h level? No, of course. Would trolls be instructed not to walk in close formation when operating near enemy spellcasters? That's Tactics 101 as taught at Howard's School of Torchbearing.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jfdlsjfd, post: 8461201, member: 42856"] Struggled? Actually I have found that players are lacking creativity and innovation when it comes to using magic, perhaps because they have had previously bad experiences or fear to be shut down. I design adventure around the known capabilities of PCs. It doesn't mean it's a get-out-of-jail card, but its useful, much like expanding any other resources. You can do forensics with Medicine, you can cast speak with dead: both are ways to gather informations, and not to get the whole truth. I think struggling DM are those who didn't prepare a clue that could be given by the spell without giving away all the story. Or fear that "who did it?" would be obvious to the victim. However... unless the assassin is clueless, he knows that (say) magic spells from level 1-3 are common. If they are common, there certainly is a specialized unit that can access them. And if the PCs are involved, chances are the victim would be worth sending a specialized unit. So if you're an assassin worth its salt, you take that into account. Killing doesn't silence. So you cast Darkness before killing your victim, rending its testimony less useful (but he could hear something, to give a clue to the PCs). And you cast speak with dead yourself so it renders the spell non-working for 10 days (and the less-intelligent-than-PCs policemen will just say "drat the magic doesn't work, we give up"). Or you disguise yourself as someone else (there are spells for that) so the victim is sure he was killed by a young actress from the Opera when he was in fact killed by an axe-wielding barbarian. If the victim is famous or noteworthy, Raise Dead is only a 5th level spell... so he'll probably defile the corpse to make it more difficult (just in case the PCs solve not the case but the problem by trivially chanting a few magic words and say to the family "yeah, yeah, he was dead, what's the fuss?"). As a GM, you know the players and their capabilities. If one decided to spend resources to acquire magic (Ok SWD is a clerical spell but in general), this choice should give them [I]some[/I] edge at some point, an occasion to shine. The key to not making the magical solution moot is to simply consider that in a environment where such solutions are known, countermeasures exist. Making it interesting is that the solution was implemented sloppily, so the players still get an advantage, but without spoiling anything. Fortresses changed a lot with the advent of the gunpowder. There is a strong chance they would be very different if they could be assaulted by the 347th griffon-mounted airborne regiment. Is it a struggle? I take it as an opportunity to ponder about the world design. There is no reason to limit magical investigation spells anymore than fireballs. Would one make all enemies resistant/immune to fire as soon as the characters hit 5h level? No, of course. Would trolls be instructed not to walk in close formation when operating near enemy spellcasters? That's Tactics 101 as taught at Howard's School of Torchbearing. [/QUOTE]
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