Diabolist body writing

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Nightmartree
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Diabolist body writing

Unread post by Nightmartree »

Hello and sorry if this is a bit unclear, im away from my books and using half remembered knowledge to ask

In the diabolist they had rules for applying runes to people i believe, however the problem is if you rely on a contact trigger than every bumb sets off a possibly major spell. However based on my understanding of the rune sentence structure you could add a condition to the trigger, possibly allowing you to set the conditions of activation to "damage" or "harm" being dealt to the object.
If you do this to rune set on a person theyd then trigger one at a time in response to injury to the target allowing a diabolist to set up several "vengance" effects when struck.

My question is, is this legal and plausible or am i misremembering? I do recall that entire section as a rough ride to read...
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Re: Diabolist body writing

Unread post by Library Ogre »

The main way these are used are:

1) Protection from wards. I paint "Protection from Fire" on you, and you're protected from Fire.
2) Infliction as torture. If I paint "Inflict Fire" on you, you're going to burn. This probably happens while you're restrained, obviously.
3) Infliction as a bonus. A diabolist likely gets a ton of use out of "Inflict Knowledge"... though, their immunity to their own magic means they can't necessarily use it on themselves.

In all of these cases, it doesn't really matter if the ward is bumped... it's intended to go off when activated.
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Nightmartree
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Re: Diabolist body writing

Unread post by Nightmartree »

Mark Hall wrote:The main way these are used are:

1) Protection from wards. I paint "Protection from Fire" on you, and you're protected from Fire.
2) Infliction as torture. If I paint "Inflict Fire" on you, you're going to burn. This probably happens while you're restrained, obviously.
3) Infliction as a bonus. A diabolist likely gets a ton of use out of "Inflict Knowledge"... though, their immunity to their own magic means they can't necessarily use it on themselves.

In all of these cases, it doesn't really matter if the ward is bumped... it's intended to go off when activated.


But what im asking is can you write a "inflict" ward to be trigger when the object/person its attached to recieves damage

Reasoning being i remember there being trigger runes, and a rune for harm or damage, so set your trigger to be when the warded object is harmed aka damaged
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Re: Diabolist body writing

Unread post by Riftmaker »

How many wards can yo have on you? Is this an overlooked form of augmentation?
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Re: Diabolist body writing

Unread post by Nightmartree »

Riftmaker wrote:How many wards can yo have on you? Is this an overlooked form of augmentation?


As far as i know you can have as many as you can write at i think half inch to an inch per rune (and i think it was about 7 runes or so to write the phrase im thinking of...i really need to have someone bring my book next time they visit) you only trigger 1 at a time but thats plenty

Also they do have a permenant augmentation of some kind for sdc beings, but i remember its not that amazing, then again if you combine it with the proper "support" like a ward vs energy and then wards that inflict fear and damage when your hurt in alternating blows...that can get nasty, im just not sure if its legal or just a personal take on the system
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Re: Diabolist body writing

Unread post by eliakon »

Nightmartree wrote:
Mark Hall wrote:The main way these are used are:

1) Protection from wards. I paint "Protection from Fire" on you, and you're protected from Fire.
2) Infliction as torture. If I paint "Inflict Fire" on you, you're going to burn. This probably happens while you're restrained, obviously.
3) Infliction as a bonus. A diabolist likely gets a ton of use out of "Inflict Knowledge"... though, their immunity to their own magic means they can't necessarily use it on themselves.

In all of these cases, it doesn't really matter if the ward is bumped... it's intended to go off when activated.


But what im asking is can you write a "inflict" ward to be trigger when the object/person its attached to recieves damage

Reasoning being i remember there being trigger runes, and a rune for harm or damage, so set your trigger to be when the warded object is harmed aka damaged

Canon... no there is no rune for "harm". THAT said, I could see such a rune/ward being discovered and used.
As a GM I might be willing to allow something like this. If the person can come up with a good justification...
...as I am more lenient on what sort of "programing" that can be put on wards than the canon is.
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Edmund Burke wrote:The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
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Re: Diabolist body writing

Unread post by Nightmartree »

eliakon wrote:Canon... no there is no rune for "harm". THAT said, I could see such a rune/ward being discovered and used.
As a GM I might be willing to allow something like this. If the person can come up with a good justification...
...as I am more lenient on what sort of "programing" that can be put on wards than the canon is.


Got my book now, and I see your right.. maybe I was using pain? that or I got too into reading and assumed that there was a damage ruin because of a line under the inflict wards. And it feels like trying to write a sentence with one arm and one and a half fingers using the canon, while an orc beats you over the head with a frying pan...

I guess now the question is how many people would let or want this in a campaign?
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Re: Diabolist body writing

Unread post by eliakon »

Nightmartree wrote:
eliakon wrote:Canon... no there is no rune for "harm". THAT said, I could see such a rune/ward being discovered and used.
As a GM I might be willing to allow something like this. If the person can come up with a good justification...
...as I am more lenient on what sort of "programing" that can be put on wards than the canon is.


Got my book now, and I see your right.. maybe I was using pain? that or I got too into reading and assumed that there was a damage ruin because of a line under the inflict wards. And it feels like trying to write a sentence with one arm and one and a half fingers using the canon, while an orc beats you over the head with a frying pan...

I guess now the question is how many people would let or want this in a campaign?

It depends greatly on the campaign and the players I would have in it.
There are groups that I would not trust with a single smidgen of ability beyond the fairly narrow limits of the books.
And there are groups that I have been involved with where we added dozens of runes, symbols, and wards; and then combined this with line magic, and some circle magic; and then tossed in high level programing up to, and including, various magical 'programing languages'.

The ability to make reactive wards is on the high end of the spectrum of power though, because it allows for the Diabolist to basically make people nigh-invincible if you have sufficient time for set up.
I would not rule it out totally... but I would be leery of it, and make clear that if it gets abused it will be removed.
The rules are not a bludgeon with which to hammer a character into a game. They are a guide to how a group of friends can get together to weave a collective story that entertains everyone involved. We forget that at our peril.

Edmund Burke wrote:The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
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Re: Diabolist body writing

Unread post by Library Ogre »

Nightmartree wrote:
Mark Hall wrote:The main way these are used are:

1) Protection from wards. I paint "Protection from Fire" on you, and you're protected from Fire.
2) Infliction as torture. If I paint "Inflict Fire" on you, you're going to burn. This probably happens while you're restrained, obviously.
3) Infliction as a bonus. A diabolist likely gets a ton of use out of "Inflict Knowledge"... though, their immunity to their own magic means they can't necessarily use it on themselves.

In all of these cases, it doesn't really matter if the ward is bumped... it's intended to go off when activated.


But what im asking is can you write a "inflict" ward to be trigger when the object/person its attached to recieves damage

Reasoning being i remember there being trigger runes, and a rune for harm or damage, so set your trigger to be when the warded object is harmed aka damaged


The "Trigger" alarm is a neat one. What the "Trigger" ward does is set off another ward, somewhere nearby. So, if I want to destroy a book if someone other than me disturbs it, I might want a trigger ward for an area affect ward... The Trigger is placed on the book, and the inflict fire area affect ward will go off and set the room on fire. I can't put Protection By Infliction Area Affect on the book itself, since I rule that it won't directly harm the thing protected. Trigger wards can also be used for sequences, for a series of escalating consequences.

You can, btb, exclude certain people from wards (if you have their true name), but I don't know of any means of limiting "disturbance" in a ward sense to "takes damage".
-overproduced by Martin Hannett

When I see someone "fisking" these days my first inclination is to think "That person doesn't have much to say, and says it in volume." -John Scalzi
Happiness is a long block list.
If you don't want to be vilified, don't act like a villain.
The Megaverse runs on vibes.
All Palladium Articles
Mutant Dawn for Savage Worlds!
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