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About magical successes

Posted: Mon 20 Feb 2023, 20:49
by Doktor
Couple of questions i'm pondering:
Can an elf who is not miserable create a magical effect and use hope (inspired or not) at the same time?
At what point can a magical success be more or less potent then a gandalf rune with 2+extra successes? I'm trying to keep magic subtle with my players with the general limit of they aren't Tom Bombadil or Valar /Istari. At this point i've accepted a courtesy effect to get animals to find a specific mushroom, a bow shot to win an archery contest and a "these are not the droids you're looking for" moment to obfuscate a guard.
Is a magical success on combat roll a piercing attack?
I have a teen ranger who wants to put to use his healing skills a little like a shaman in combat: stimulants/combat boosters, elixirs, sleeping powders and whatnot. Would you consider such a use of healing/crafting for combat situations and if so wouldn't this be at the level of a magical success ? *i'm thinking of getting him a predestined wonderful artifact of healing...*

Re: About magical successes

Posted: Tue 21 Feb 2023, 00:10
by Harlath
You can use a magical success and hope at the same time (whether normal or inspired), perhaps if you're fishing for more 6s.

- At the time of writing, there's no way to get a magical success on an attack roll (for your point about an archery contest or whether they cause a piercing blow). They're just available on skill checks.

- My rule of thumb is to treat a magical success as at least an extra 6 where I need to count successes for a skill council/skill endeavour.

- A magical success for me is always beyond even two 6s - no amount of 6s on your awareness check will replicate Legolas's ability to describe Eomer's patrol of horsemen in great detail at a prohibitive distance. Similarly, a magical success lets Legolas walk across snow with Athletics in the novels: he'll beat anyone racing through snow against him, even if they chuck a bunch of 6s.
I have a teen ranger who wants to put to use his healing skills a little like a shaman in combat: stimulants/combat boosters, elixirs, sleeping powders and whatnot. Would you consider such a use of healing/crafting for combat situations and if so wouldn't this be at the level of a magical success ? *i'm thinking of getting him a predestined wonderful artifact of healing...*
I'd do that kind of thing case by case, as under "Other combat actions". If it was a regular part of a character I'd homebrew a virtue for balance and mechanical consistency.

Re: About magical successes

Posted: Tue 21 Feb 2023, 00:25
by Doktor
Thanks for your thoughts, I somehow missed the part where combat roles can't be magical ; that settles a whole bunch of stuff for me.

Re: About magical successes

Posted: Tue 21 Feb 2023, 00:58
by Harlath
P36 - note that the elven magical success is for skills. Same for the various virtues that do the same such as broken spells. Similar on p21 magical successes are available on skill checks via a magical talent or artefact.

Glad this helped settle things out!