Gary V. Foss wrote:
>
> Speaking of time. I noticed something a while back during a conversation with a
> guy playing the High Mage Aelies in a PBeM. We were discussing his plans for
> his character and I mentioned that if someone with the Long Life blood ability
> at Great strength could reach 18th level of magic use, he would become as near
> to demi-god powerful as is imaginable for a PC. Normally, a character ages 5
> years when casting a wish spell (it's unclear effect casting spells that cause
> aging would have on a BR elf , but I'm inclined to think no aging effects would
> occur) so he could potentially cast 20 Wishes and only age a year. Such a
> character could cast Wish spells then and raise his abilities to godlike
> proportions. He could cast spells on his person and Wish them permanent. He
> could wish himself all kinds of things and pay a price much less stringent than
> the rules intended.
>
> This is an interesting loophole in the game. How does casting Wish spells age
> immortal elves? Does the blood ability Long Life reduce the aging effects of
> such spells? I don't have my copy of the Gorgon's cardsheet handy at the
> moment, so I don't recall if he is of high enough level as a mage (if that
> version of him is used) to cast Wishes, but if so he is pretty near unstoppable,
> except by a being with similar abilities.
>
> Of course, such a person would still have to rest the 2d4 days required per
> casting of the spell, but one of the aspects of the BR setting is that time is
> often dealt with in a different manner. A player could spend a month casting
> Wish spells and not terribly disadvantage himself. Besides, we are talking
> about immortal characters here, so what is a year or two to them? 2d4 is an
> average of 5 days bed rest per casting, so that's six Wishes a month.
>
> As long as I'm on the subject of time and magic, I've also suggested in a PBeM I
> was playing in that a few magic wielding regents get together and begin casting
> Polymorph Other spells on horses, changing them into pegasi. A couple of mages
> acting together could create enough magical mounts to outfit a unit of flying
> cavalry in only a few weeks. Again, this is not a lot of time in BR terms, and
> could lead to some pretty nasty situations.
>
> Because of the way time is used in the domain rules portion of the game the low
> magic emphasis of BR could be effectively neutralized. Should mages actually
> begin casting the kinds of spells I'm talking about it could alter the face of
> Cerilia.
>
> Well, what do you folks think? Am I nuts or could this kind of thing easily
> happen?
>
Remember certain comments about 30th+ level elven mages, and how the
elves should
have won the original war with the humans? Yes, I agree with you. The
existence
of mages just implies a high-magic world by default. High level mages
don't die
off easily, and train apprentices. If they are immortals, they train
lots of
apprentices.
I think that the domain rules in Birthright actually underestimate the
effects of
non-realm spells on domains. A single magic mirror spell can easily
duplicate the
results of an espionage action. And conjured/polymorphed creatures
could be
extremely devestating in combat. Regular castings of Animate dead can
generate
undead armies (with no maintenance costs) in a very short period (given
enough
corpses). Bound earth elementals could be very useful in build actions.


Pieter A de Jong
Graduate Mechanical Engineering Student
University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada