Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2 • Spells for killing orcs

Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2 • Spells for killing orcs

http://ift.tt/2aYQQ3W

Here's the main damage causing spells with an estimate on how many orcs (everyone's favourite expendables!) a Wizard with a casting target of 9 and 18 MP will typically be able to kill. The number "Cast" is after failures, which happens a little over 16% of the time.

Spell_________Cast___Killed
Firebolt________14_____4
Force Bolt______7______4
Lightning Blast__3______3

Not all that impressive is it! Once you take into account armour (gave it half a point) and dodging (42% chance) it takes an average of 3.5 Firebolts to kill an orc. Force Bolts are about twice as effective but they can only cast half as many so same result. The Lightning Blasts kill an orc each but of course are a bit overkill.

So none of those are a great way to kill decent numbers of weak monsters. However some of the Wizard spells that don't cause damage can be a lot more useful for that. They're also more open to interpretation so I'm very interested to see how other people think they should be played.

First up is the Flash! spell. Seeing as it's a cheap 1 point spell the Wizard can cast it successfully 14 times and each blinds any Orcs looking that way 58% of the time. I'm taking blinded to mean -6 to SKILL (based on the combat modifier for complete darkness) and if the Wizard has any friends death's going to soon follow. So if say each time it's cast there's a group of six orcs that means it takes down 48 of them!

Now that's pretty decent compared to the damage causing spells. Of course it is best case, so what I'm wondering is how exactly should it be handled. The characters need to close their eyes at the right moment to not be affected too and you need to get as many of the other guys to look your way at the right time as possible. Maybe the characters plan they're going to yell at the orcs to get them to look and that's the signal to close their eyes. But the wizard could easily get the timing wrong and it happens a bit earlier or later than they expect

A spell that's in some ways similar is Starry Orb. As a 2 point spell so they only cast it 7 times, but creatures of average intelligence or less (like orcs) are affected 66% of the time. So despite being cast less it still gets a theoretical 28 of them, again with groups of six orcs each time. What's more it's a much safer spell to use because it has a 10m range and a 3m area of effect. The question with this one is exactly what's the effect of being hypnotised. Do they snap out of it if they're hit? Can unhypnotised opponents slap them to get them out of it? I'd suggest yes because otherwise it seems a bit over powerful. Also how is an attack against a hypnotised opponent resolved, automatic death like Sleep, or maybe same as for attacking with surprise?

Okay here's one you may not even have noticed, the combination of the Fog and Poison spells, which I'm going to call ... wait for it... Poison Fog! It's a 6 point spell so the wizard can cast it only twice, but it causes an automatic 6 points of damage. So a dead orc, but how many orcs are affected? The fog spell says it covers a huge 15m radius area, so if the entire cloud is poisonous you could kill a whole tribe of orcs! But Poison does say if used on liquid or food it only affects a small amount, so maybe only a part of the cloud is poisoned, but then which bit? Can the fog cloud even be summoned indoors or underground? Fog normally only happens outside. This one definitely needs restrictions of some sort on it.

Statistics: Posted by SkinnyOrc — Fri Aug 12, 2016 1:03 pm

---

Gamebook blogs

http://ift.tt/2aYQQ3W
via Arion Games Forums http://ift.tt/24Z8rMv

August 12, 2016 at 09:25AM