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[Madman198237]

Actually, depending on how its built, a ballista is nothing more than a very large, immobile crossbow firing a 3-foot (Even though it's exaggerated in this game) bolt with enough force to smash plate armor. If you got the right shape of stone and fitted some sort of cup or holding device to the string, then, yes, a ballista could fire a stone (Albeit very inaccurately). But that's not its purpose.

What I'm saying, however, is to focus entirely on researching longer-reaching means of using magic. Generalize your knowledge, try and get an overall bonus out of the deal here. THEN, once you have that basis, revise specific spells and items for use at long range. This should provide overall bonuses. The further back you stand, the less you die. After you gain this FUNDAMENTAL advantage, you get into the Dirty Tricks Department (See below)

And when I say backfire, I mean change fundamentally. Fly in a different direction, explode BEFORE leaving caster's hand, or, if our roll fails, turns bright (Insultingly bright) pink and kills EVEN MORE of our guys! IT'S GENIOUS!


And it might be time to start looking into magical subterfuge. Can Arstotswhatsis read minds? If not....time to infiltrate. Because once you have friendly magic-users who have learned the fireball spells/wizardry and are in their lines, you start disrupting other mages spells. Then, in the confusion, the allied spy zaps a few hundred Arstotzkans, and says "THEY ZAPPED ME WITH A CONFUSION SPELL" before either A. succeeding brilliantly or B. Dying a noble, hopefully flammable, death involving many dead/exploded Arztopskins.

Won't be long, if you start infiltration, before they can't trust each other, can't trust magic-users.......See any possibilities? *Evil grin*

[Devastator]

I draw your attention to the following sentence:

Perhaps the Staff could be modified to allow our own magic, letting us to cast in the field without fear of exploding arrows?

Their exploding arrows are dispelled by Tubikh Rrahim.

That's a good point.  I still think changing the AoE is a better choice, though, a cone need not hit our troops, and you can point the cone through the pavise shield, preventing them from exploding.  If it works well and prevents their arrows from exploding, we might not even need cheaper pavises.  It should also increase the range even without increasing the power, as the height of a cone of equivalent volume to a sphere is much longer than the radius of said sphere.  Hell, you might be able to build the staff into the pavise shield, and use the front as the projecting shield.

In any case, I think that if we do that, that revision should be done first.  And if it happens, we don't need fire resistance, as our staffs will prevent fire walls and fireballs from striking our troops.  Use the design for something else instead.  Maybe roll to revise the staffs, and if that works, roll the design on making Improved Ballistae, to try and fix the bugs and reduce the cost.  Lucky Strike cheaper reliable ballistae will rock houses

Our martyr, Maealij Albarq, died for these Jungles.  We have been pushed out of these jungles.  Can we use his sacrifice to a bonus to our rolls for this turn?

[Mardent23]

We should send in our hero.

[evictedSaint]

Our martyr, Maealij Albarq, died for these Jungles.  We have been pushed out of these jungles.  Can we use his sacrifice to a bonus to our rolls for this turn?

You can expend your martyr this turn to premptively add +1,+1,+1 to a design roll.

We should send in our hero.

Crap, I forgot to write up the duel.  al-Mutriqa was wounded and requires a year to recover.

[NUKE9.13]

Actually, depending on how its built, a ballista is nothing more than a very large, immobile crossbow firing a 3-foot (Even though it's exaggerated in this game) bolt with enough force to smash plate armor. If you got the right shape of stone and fitted some sort of cup or holding device to the string, then, yes, a ballista could fire a stone (Albeit very inaccurately). But that's not its purpose.

This isn't really the place to debate the nature of ballistae, but dude, no. They were not giant crossbows, the power is stored in torsion springs, not the bowy bit. And they absolutely were designed to fire both bolts and spherical projectiles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballista

And when I say backfire, I mean change fundamentally. Fly in a different direction, explode BEFORE leaving caster's hand, or, if our roll fails, turns bright (Insultingly bright) pink and kills EVEN MORE of our guys! IT'S GENIOUS!

I know what you meant. Thing is, that's a new kind of magic. How do we develop that? We don't know how fireballs work unmodified, much less how to change them.
But we can mimic the effect through partial dispelling. It won't be as potent, but we can easily develop it.

And it might be time to start looking into magical subterfuge. Can Arstotswhatsis read minds? If not....time to infiltrate. Because once you have friendly magic-users who have learned the fireball spells/wizardry and are in their lines, you start disrupting other mages spells. Then, in the confusion, the allied spy zaps a few hundred Arstotzkans, and says "THEY ZAPPED ME WITH A CONFUSION SPELL" before either A. succeeding brilliantly or B. Dying a noble, hopefully flammable, death involving many dead/exploded Arztopskins.

Won't be long, if you start infiltration, before they can't trust each other, can't trust magic-users.......See any possibilities? *Evil grin*

We could use an order to have mages attempt to infiltrate their ranks, but I refer you to our martyr: that was their failed attempt to kidnap one of our mages and learn their secrets. Orders are rolled at a disadvantage- I'd like you to imagine the result of sending mages into their camp on purpose and that going wrong. Here's a hint: they capture our mages, and learn their secrets.
Basically, the use of subterfuge is discouraged, as it would drastically change the nature of the game.

@Nuke:  using a design allows you to do a little more than a revision.  If the expense is rolled lower and it makes sense to do so, it will be lowered.  Minor bugs may be introduced if the bug roll is botched.

Hmm. But if the expense is rolled higher, the cost goes up. And we really don't want to raise the cost of Tubikh Rrahim above expensive if we can help it.

Let's just use a revision to get a different AoE. Which should be doable, considering how much bloody time we have put into this spell.

PPE:

Our martyr, Maealij Albarq, died for these Jungles.  We have been pushed out of these jungles.  Can we use his sacrifice to a bonus to our rolls for this turn?

You can expend your martyr this turn to premptively add +1,+1,+1 to a design roll.

Hey, alright! Let's do that. Design proposal:

Tubikh Rrahim Albarq: Named in honour of our fallen martyr, this version of the spell has two main additions: the area of effect is changed from a sphere around the caster to a cone emanating from the tip of the staff, and when mages attempt to cast within the field, their magic will be sabotaged rather than outright dispelled- leading to fireballs exploding in the caster's hands.
As the divine energy is focused in one direction, rather than all around, the range should be increased as well- though only as a byproduct of the other modifications.

Designs:
Wand of Fire Resistance: (1) Devastator
Winds of the Wastes: (1) Mardent23
Tubikh Rrahim Albarq, spending the memory of our martyr for bonuses: (1) NUKE9.13

[Mardent23]

Designs:

Tubikh Rrahim Albarq, spending the memory of our martyr for bonuses: (2) NUKE9.13, Mardent23

[/quote]

[evictedSaint]

  But if the expense is rolled higher, the cost goes up

So long as the new design isnt overly more complex or ambitious (or if you roll well on expense), cost wont go up.  Example:  crystal dispelling increased the expense of Tubikh due to the complexity.  Lamellar armor increased in expense during a revision.

[Madman198237]

I like the idea of modifying it enough to combine the schools of magic we know so much about---communicating with minds, driving people insane/damaging reasoning ability, and suppressing magic into one staff of you-can't-cast-straight-so-ha-ha-ha-to-you. We have knowledgeable bases in all the areas a weapon like that would require, so it should not be terribly difficult (You listening, ES? We want like a +10 to this roll ) to just modify how it will work.

I think this would be a valid starting point, though I still want to see a research point used, perhaps next turn, to increase magical ranges overall, if feasible (Read: If the GM agrees). If not, well, more ingenuity.

So I will agree with the idea of spending the memory of the martyr to increase our roll, and focusing the abilities of our staff in the way described by NUKE above.

And no, I don't know most of the history in this game, I haven't yet had time to read through the whole thread. I'll work on that when I find the time.

[Detoxicated]

Designs:
Wand of Fire Resistance: (1) Devastator
Winds of the Wastes: (1) Mardent23
Tubikh Rrahim Albarq, spending the memory of our martyr for bonuses: (1) NUKE9.13
Bodkin Ballista: (1) Detoxicated

[Kashyyk]

Designs:
Wand of Fire Resistance +martyr bonus: (2) Devastator, Kashyyk
Winds of the Wastes: ()
Tubikh Rrahim Albarq +martyr bonus: (3) NUKE9.13, Mardent23, Madman
Bodkin Ballista: (1) Detoxicated

[/quote]

I really like the idea of fire resistance. I don't expect to shut down their fire spells in a single design,  but considering every single spell of theirs is fire based I think it's worth it.

[Madman198237]

You know what, Kashyyk, I think that a better option would be as follows:
Let the magic-suppressor/device of misfiring happen this turn. It'll give us an advantage should they roll out any surprises. But perhaps, for later, we could create a revamped version of the present wind/gale shielding spell. We already use it to manipulate air, so manipulate air away from any fires/fireballs. Suffocate the flames. Just, be careful, and try not to choke out anybody who lights on fire, please. However, it can be a last-ditch next-turn failsafe in case this research screws up.

That's obviously just my recommendation. We should just disable all their magic if at all possible. But the idea of a fire-shield, if necessary, has promise. Especially if we base it off of already-known magics.

[Happerry]

Designs:
Wand of Fire Resistance +martyr bonus: (2) Devastator, Kashyyk
Winds of the Wastes: ()
Tubikh Rrahim Albarq +martyr bonus: (4) NUKE9.13, Mardent23, Madman, Happerry
Bodkin Ballista: (1) Detoxicated

Our biggest anti-magic issue has always been that it's mostly short ranged, so I'll vote for the longer ranged cone of effect.

[Detoxicated]

We should branch out with our spells and weaponry eventually though. He had a point there. Especially if we got support weapons that would be great.
I am thinking: - Entering boats, machete, bodkin ballista, a force field spell, healing spells, Sniper Crossbows, gunpowder, explosive warheads for our ballista...

Your plan seems to be a good one nuke, but we still need to spread out technology wise to make a difference.

[ATHATH]

Designs:
Wand of Fire Resistance +martyr bonus: (2) Devastator, Kashyyk
Winds of the Wastes: ()
Tubikh Rrahim Albarq +martyr bonus: (5) NUKE9.13, Mardent23, Madman, Happerry, ATHATH
Bodkin Ballista: (1) Detoxicated

Maybe we should try to make the anti-magic spell selective instead of a cone? The Arstotskans could just flank us and fireball our mages before they can cast the anti-magic spell again (in a new direction).

[Taricus]

@Evicted are their bows cheap at the moment?

Anyway, I'll support the expense credit being used on the elite lamellar: That'll give us that extra edge in melee.

And to hopefully give us an even- Wait a minute how come we haven't been using the storms to stymie their archery at all?