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Questions about Forbidden Arcana spells

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psycho835

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« on: <07-04-18/1115:40> »
Here's a few questions that have been bugging me for a while now:
1. Can Comet and Branch/Vines/Thorn/Rosebush be used indoors? The former has the comet appear above the target, but just how high? High enough to be blocked by the ceiling? High enough to act as a "magical fight here" signal for the whole sprawl? As for the former, do the plants grow out of, say a metre of ferrocrete?
2. The secondary damage from Comet are described as originating from the spells impact on the enviroment rather than spell itself. But what if the target is in water or mid air? Would the Comet even act as an area spell in the latter case?
3. Branch/Vines/Thorn/Rosebush. These create plants, presumably living ones. Could that inhibit movement of astral beings?
4. Do the plants created by Branch/Vines/Thorn/Rosebush evaporate once the spell is no longer sustained?
5. Gravity Well from the same book is explicitly stated to affect the caster and their allies. There is nothing like that about Vines and Rosebush. Does that means that these DON'T affect caster and allies?
6. In the description of Multiply Food spell, examples given include 1 soyburger to 10 and 2 loafs of bread to 20. From what I understand, these would require respectively 1 and 2 successes on the spellcasting test, correct?
« Last Edit: <07-04-18/1234:13> by psycho835 »

Sphinx

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« Reply #1 on: <07-04-18/1332:29> »
1. Branch/Vines/Thorn/Rosebush spells (FA p.49) have a "Sustained" duration, so the plants are temporary magical constructs that disappear when the spellcaster stops concentrating on them. I'd rule that they anchor to any surface as if they grew out of it, but there'd be no disruption or damage to the surface from roots and such after the spell ends. Comet (FA p.50) doesn't summon a literal comet from space, it generates a magic ball of burning earth (i.e., acid and fire damage) above the target. In this case, "above" would be limited by the caster's line of sight. Indoors, it would seem to drop out of the ceiling.

2. Fluff text notwithstanding, I'd say the "comet" explodes when it reaches its target, according to the rules for indirect area spells (SR5 p.283). If it helps, meteors have been known to explode in midair when they superheat (look up "Tunguska event" on Wikipedia).

3. Living beings in the material world don't inhibit the passage of astral forms in astral space unless they're dual-natured, and magical effects in the material world don't cross over into astral space (see "Astral Projection," SR5 p.313). So no, the plants wouldn't inhibit astral movement.

4. Yes, the plants are magical constructs that vanish as soon as the spellcaster stops sustaining. The spell duration would have to be "Permanent" to create real plants that remain afterward.

5. An area-effect spell targets everyone in the area. You'd need to use Spell Shaping metamagic (SR5 p.326) to exclude individual targets from an area spell.

6. Yes. With four hits on your Spellcasting Test, Multiply Food (FA p.50) would turn one soyburger into forty.