Re: New magic item

Greetings,

In our last episode, Abe Brown said:
>
>All the recent discussion on the list about long range spells and
>devices has given me an idea for a new magic item.
>
>Spellcannon / Magecannon / Magegun

	How about Mana Amplifier?

>Appearance.
>This device is a six foot long rod of crystal mounted so that it can
>be moved to face any direction. It glows softly with an innerlight  in
>the presence of a active spell jamming helm.

	A lense shape would be cool too.  Maybe even a pedestal of some
sort, allowing the mage to "tap" the ship's power.

>Mechanics.
>The device is able to increase the rang of any spell cast through it
>to 4 Hexes but it costs the ship SR dependant on the level of the
>spell cast through it.

	This is a very good way of handling it.  Maybe you could even have
several versions of these things, each with different ranges.

>I have two ideas for how to calculate the SR cost.
>
>Idea 1
>The ship loses 1 point of SR for a number of rounds equal to the spell
>level.
>
>Idea 2
>The ship loses 1 point of SR per spell level, with the loss
>diminishing by 1 point per round.

	I like method 1.  Method 2 makes them almost "one-shots".

>Naturally the losses from either method of calculation would be
>cumulative.
>
>The device has a THAC0 of 15?
>
>XP value 4,500?
>GP value 45,000?
>
>(the XP and GP values are more likely to be adjusted down than up as I
>feel that this item is less powerful than an accelerator)

	I'd say they're *more* powerful than an accelerator.  An accelerator
can only do d2 per round to the ship.  A Magecannon can Cloudkill most
of the crew, or put 'em to sleep.

	Hope that helps... :)

-Static

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