There are many ways in our game to ren- der an opponent completely helpless. These in- clude effects like Web and Paralysis, tying them up physically (thus making them immobile from the neck down), or just hitting them until they drop unconscious.
Once a person has been incapacitated, it is not too difficult to kill them. This is repre- sented by a Killing Blow.
To give a Killing Blow, you must stand over the victim, placing your weapon or your hand on their torso, and remain that way while you recite “Killing blow one; killing blow two; killing blow three.” This should be done in a normal speaking style and should take at least three seconds. This is to allow others to try to stop you from giving the Killing Blow.
If anyone strikes you during the count (even if the strike does not affect you), or knocks your weapon away, then the Killing Blow is interrupted and fails to kill the intended vic- tim. Most spell attacks will also prevent the killing blow from succeeding. (Damage caus- ing spells definitely will, but a Disease will not, for instance.)
If more than one person attempts to give a Killing Blow, it is the person who starts first who will get the “credit” for the kill. The sec- ond person cannot come along, say the Killing Blow faster, and then claim to be the victor.
If you are given a Killing Blow by some- one who was not aware that you had already been given one, do not say “no effect”—just remain silent.
A Killing Blow must be struck on the torso of the victim—an arm, leg, or shoulder is not
sufficient. The blow cannot be struck on a mov- ing target.
If you have Waylaid someone, you must wait for the body to come to rest before you can deliver the Killing Blow.
A Killing Blow can be delivered by any- one, whether they have a weapon or not. You can do this with your bare hands.
Some creatures are immune to normal weapons. To be effective, the Killing Blow must be applied with a weapon that can damage the creature. A carrier from a Wand may not be used to apply a different type of killing blow, nor may a per-day ability (unless it changes the car- rier type of a weapon, in which case a weapon may be used to apply that carrier).
For example, if a creature is affected by silvered or magical weapons but not normal weapons, the Killing Blow must be applied with a silvered or magical weapon. In such a case, using a hand to perform the Killing Blow would not work. When using such a weapon on such a creature, you must state the weapon type; for instance: “Killing blow one, killing blow two, killing blow three Silver.”
A Killing Blow cannot be Dodged, Par-
ried, or otherwise avoided through Game Abili- ties or spells. It will bypass all protectives such as Magic Armor. However, a Killing Blow may be defended against with a Cloak or Bane verses the carrier (such as a Cloak verses Necromancy against someone performing a Killing Blow with a Drain carrier), assuming all other rules are followed; for instance, you cannot call a
Cloak if you are unconscious.
Administering a Killing Blow while you have a Prepare-to-Die skill active will immedi- ately expend the Prepare-to-Die skill.
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Every call in our game is based on two things: The effect and the delivery. The effect describes how your character will react and the delivery tells how that effect was given to you. Deliveries are important for defensive pur- poses. Certain effects will negate certain deliv- eries. For instance, A Spell Shield will negate a magical delivery and a Magic Armor will ne- gate a weapon delivery.
However, once the effect affects you it does not matter how it was delivered.
For example: Finther is hit by a Weak- ness gas and now suffers from a weakness ef-
fect. He can have that effect removed by a Re- move Weakness, a Purify, or a Dispel. The fact
that the effect was caused by a gas and not a spell makes no difference to the treatment.
Effects
There are a lot of effects, from monster abilities to spells to alchemy, and the sheer num- ber may seem overwhelming to new players. However, these effects are consistent and fol- low easy to understand patterns.
Some effects can be Resisted, Cloaked, or
Baned depending on the delivery, qualifier, and effect group. If the effect is Reflected or Baned, the one who used the Reflect or Bane is now the official “caster.” Bane will act as a Cloak when used against Ingested delivery, a trap, or a Killing Blow.
For example: Belthivis has a magical item that gives him the power to Cloak Binding once per day. If he is hit by any Binding effect from the Binding group, the Cloak will negate it. It makes no difference how the effect was deliv- ered—it could have been through a spell, a
monster attack, alchemy, or a magical weapon attack for instance—he will be able to Cloak
it.
Most effect defenses are simple Protective spells. If you are hit with an attack and have more than one automatic Protective that could protect you from the attack, you may choose which Protective to call.
For example: Darlissa has a Magic Ar- mor and a Poison Shield spell active. Accord-
ing to the rules, these will be used up auto- matically if she is hit with the appropriate type of damage. She is hit by her enemy Vorin swing- ing a sword and calling “5 weakness poison.” She can choose which protective to call (al- though note that she must call one of them).
Identical effects do not stack. No person may have a second copy of the same effect ac- tive at the same time, whether caused by a spell or alchemy or any other source. Therefore, you cannot have both a Poison Shield active from a
spell and a Poison Shield active from an elixir. You can, however, have one of each Blade spell active, as well as one of each reversible spell (such as a Chaos Blade and an Earth
Blade) since they are separate effects. The newest identical effect will always override the older ones. This resets the dura- tion of the effect if it had a timed duration.
For example: Rendal is hit with a Paraly- sis gas thrown by a troll. Five minutes later, he
is hit with a Paralysis spell from a goblin. Even
though one was from a gas and one was from a spell, the effects are the same. Rendal will have to restart counting the ten minute duration from the time he was hit by the spell.
Deliveries
Packet: All packet attacks are delivered by throwing a packet or by touching a packet to a target. This includes spells, gas globes, and some arcane attacks. The packet only needs to touch the target or any possession of the target to have an affect. Archery packets obey the weapon rules (see below).
Poison attacks (whether through alchemy or from a monster) are represented by orange packets. Arrows and bolts are represented by blue packets. Spell packets, therefore, can never be orange or blue.
Weapon: This includes all blows from all weapons including arrows, bolts, thrown weap- ons, and claws.
If a weapon attack includes a damage num- ber or is a fighting skill that requires the words “Prepare to Die,” then the blow needs to hit a valid target.
For example: Ena is fighting against a group of undead. that are calling “4 Normal” so she takes all damage that hits a valid target. One undead swings at her saying “Prepare to Die, 50 Slay!” She blocks the swing with her sword, and so takes no damage because her sword is not a valid target.
“Prepare to Die” calls such as Slay and
Eviscerate are not considered “effects” and should be called even when using another ef- fect.
Example 2: Ena has a Sleep Poison on her weapon and decides to slay a troll with it. She would say “Prepare to die, 30 Sleep poi- son slay!”
Example 3: Ena knows the monster she is fighting is only affected by magic, so she de- cides to use her Disarm skill with the Magic Blade spell that was cast on her. She would say “Prepare to die, Magic Disarm.”
Weapons can also be used to deliver cer- tain effects such as a ritually created “spell strike.” In these cases, the weapon needs only to touch the target or any possession of the tar- get in order to have an effect.
For example: Ena is still fighting undead
when another runs up and attacks, saying “Spell Strike Bind!” This undead also hits her sword, but since her sword is one of her pos- sessions, the spell affects her.
As with any weapon strike, all weapon safety rules must be followed.
When this power is used, the player will call “Spell Strike <spell name>” and will de- liver a safe hit. In all ways, this skill works like the ritual Channel.
The ability can still be used even when
Silenced. This call is out-of-game but in-game, the effect is recognizable to all who hear it.
Since Spell Strike is a weapon delivered spell attack and not a weapon damage attack, it can be countered with a Spell Shield, Spell
Parry, Dodge, or Phase but not a Magic Ar-
mor.
You cannot Evade a Spell Strike attack.
Parrying or Riposting a Spell Strike attack will always cause the attack to affect you.
A Spell Strike can never be touch-cast. Some creatures can generate unusual dam- age by using body weaponry or claws which will affect a victim if the attack does body dam- age. The effect is called with the weapon strike instead of the usual “normal” verbal. The crea- ture will call out the carrier attack with every swing, even if the power may not affect you on that particular swing.
These attacks do not work unless the dam- age they do is applied to your Body Points. In other words, the monster must get through all of your Armor Points and all of your defensive spells and damage your Body Points with their claws to be effective.
If the monster only has claws, the carrier attack must be channeled through the claws. For
example: A ghoul with claws and the carrier attack Nausea may only swing Nausea. It may
not swing “Normal.”
If the monster can use weapons, the mon- ster may call either the carrier attack or the weapon’s properties. For example: A death
knight with the carrier attack Magic and a sil- ver longsword may call “10 magic” or “10 sil- ver.” It may not call “10 normal.”
If the monster has claws and can use weap- ons, the monster must channel its carrier attack through the claws, but may call either the car- rier attack or the weapon’s properties when us- ing a weapon. For example: A vampire with
claws has the carrier attack Drain. It also has a normal longsword. With its claws, it must call “5 drain.” If it uses its sword, it may call “5 drain” or “5 normal.”
If a character has multiple carriers that could be applied, such as Normal (for the weapon), Magic (for a Damage Aura), and Stone (for an Elemental Aura), the character may choose which carrier to apply to their swing.
Effects and Deliveries
Effects and DeliveriesEffects and Deliveries
Effects and DeliveriesEffects and Deliveries
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“Body,” “Earth,” and “Chaos” carrier at-tacks bypass all Armor Points (including Shield spells) and do damage only to the Body Points of the victim. (Other carrier attacks do not.) When struck by these specific carrier attacks, the damage indicated is subtracted directly from your Body Points with no damage to your ar- mor or Shield spells.
If you are incapacitated or unconscious, then they merely have to touch you for the at- tack to affect you.
Characters can never benefit from carri- ers, including High Magic Augmentation ef- fects. For example, a creature healed by flame cannot be healed by a creature swinging “12 Flame.”
Ingested: All ingested attacks are deliv- ered by placing a potion or elixir phys rep next to the mouth of the target or by having the tar- get consume a prepared item. Ingested deliver- ies always ignore protectives, even if taken while unconscious. They cannot be Dodged or
Evaded but can be Resisted, Cloaked, or Baned. Radius: Radius deliveries include traps, contact poisons, and monster abilities such as eye contact or sound of voice. Usually a Hold is called when a radius attack takes place and everyone partially within the radius is affected. Radius attacks can never be Dodged or Evaded.
Qualifiers
Qualifiers specify the type of effect given by any of the above Deliveries.
Magic/Spell: Effects delivered this way are blocked by Spell Shield, Resist Magic, or
Cloak and can be reflected by Reflect Magic or Bane. All spells come under this category, as well as abilities with “Magic <effect>,” “Spell Strike <effect>” or “Activate <effect>” in the verbal.
Note that the “Spell” qualifier works ex- actly as the “Magic” qualifier except that it does not cover Magic Carrier attacks.
For example: Darlissa is wandering
through the woods when a strange monster jumps out at her and hits her shield with a weapon, saying “Spell Strike Confine!” She knows that her Spell Shield will protect against that, so she says “Spell Shield” and starts fight- ing back.
Poison: Effects delivered this way are blocked by Poison Shield or Resist Poison and can be Cloaked or Baned (depending on the