Energy Sphere(s)?

[Khanibal]

I don't see anything in the description of Energy sphere that prohibits a mage from having two or more active at the same time. Since a mage can draw P.P.E. from a cooperative person within 20', that's conservatively 300 people in a circle around him. Average P.P.E. of the average person is 2D6 (7). That's a pool of 2100 P.P.E. from which the mage can draw 70% or 1470 points. At sixth level, the wizard can cast Energy Sphere twice (120 points each time for 240) and then channel 600 points into each sphere (1200). This will expend 1440 points, leaving 30 left over for a nice firework illusion, or other display of gratitude.
It shouldn't be too hard to convince some townsfolk to share some energy with you after saving their village. It should be even easier to get them to donate to help you defend their village.

[Khanibal]

Well, you've got to do something while the GM is plotting to throw you out of his game.
Truthfully, a LOT of people, unfamiliar with magic, would be creeped out if you asked for a P.P.E. donation.
"You'll only defend us against those bandits if we each give you a piece of our souls? The Coalition was right about you sorcerers!"

[Talavar]

I don't see anything in the description of Energy sphere that prohibits a mage from having two or more active at the same time. Since a mage can draw P.P.E. from a cooperative person within 20', that's conservatively 300 people in a circle around him. Average P.P.E. of the average person is 2D6 (7). That's a pool of 2100 P.P.E. from which the mage can draw 70% or 1470 points. At sixth level, the wizard can cast Energy Sphere twice (120 points each time for 240) and then channel 600 points into each sphere (1200). This will expend 1440 points, leaving 30 left over for a nice firework illusion, or other display of gratitude.
It shouldn't be too hard to convince some townsfolk to share some energy with you after saving their village. It should be even easier to get them to donate to help you defend their village.

Why even bother with the townsfolk? Go to a ley line or a nexus and do the same thing for free.

[Khanibal]

Most mages can only draw 10 P.P.E. from a ley line or 20 from a nexus (double that for a LLW) and you only have 10 minutes from when you complete the spell to pack energy into it. Best to cast at dusk for the double available energy for at least one minute and then off to bed. You can easily, as a matter of routine, cast Energy Sphere every day for the duration of the spell minus one day and maintain them (i.e. a 6th level caster can cast the spell every day for 11 days, on the 12th day he needs to recast the spell for the sphere from day one). Anymore than this and your going to be a little light on P.P.E. for day to day operations. Even a LLW takes 8 hours to meditate back the 120 points he expended casting the spell.
Of course, for refreshing the spell, you'd pull the 600 points in and recast it from that, then pump the remaining 480 into the sphere. Then you'd channel 20 (40 at a nexus) a round for at least 4 rounds at dusk and back down to 10 (20) a round to top it off (all point values doubled if you're a LLW).
So now you're walking around with 6600 points contained in your very own constellation of glowy balls.
STAY AWAY from those deadboys. They won't even bother to ask Rex to sniff you before they open up with everything they got.

[drewkitty ~..~]

I have a mage that has 5 or 6 of a ES variant, the char is always toping off the spheres so when it needs the PPE the char has it.
the char has like 6k worth of PPE at it's fingertips for use.


Why even bother telling them you are siphoning off PPE. they can't know you are doing it unless there is another mage there to tell them.

You know at some point it just becomes "why bother even tracking your PPE?"

yep.... that is about what I don't do for the above char.

The rate for drawing PPE from LL and LLN is not counted "per melee" now, not "per hour".
So unless the LL or LLN is out in the boonies somewhere, its easier to draw off of the LL &LLN then off people. Unless your mage is lazy enough to see taking a hike is more troublesome then taking them from ppl about them.

You only need a few sec to store the PPE in a ES.

If you use a variant of the ES spell that doesn't make "Basket Ball" Sized sphere, then you could get away with acting as earrings, hair ornaments, etc....

[Khanibal]

I have a mage that has 5 or 6 of a ES variant, the char is always toping off the spheres so when it needs the PPE the char has it.
the char has like 6k worth of PPE at it's fingertips for use.


Why even bother telling them you are siphoning off PPE. they can't know you are doing it unless there is another mage there to tell them.

You know at some point it just becomes "why bother even tracking your PPE?"

yep.... that is about what I don't do for the above char.

The rate for drawing PPE from LL and LLN is not counted "per melee" now, not "per hour".
So unless the LL or LLN is out in the boonies somewhere, its easier to draw off of the LL &LLN then off people. Unless your mage is lazy enough to see taking a hike is more troublesome then taking them from ppl about them.

You only need a few sec to store the PPE in a ES.

If you use a variant of the ES spell that doesn't make "Basket Ball" Sized sphere, then you could get away with acting as earrings, hair ornaments, etc....

The only person who needs to be told is the GM.

Yeah, I just read the F.A.Q. in the BoM. Mage can absorb 3x his personal P.P.E. max (at the listed rate of 10/round for ley line x2 for nexus and x2 again for LLW&LLR), and hang on to it for 1 min per P.E. point.
So a 6th level LLW with a reasonable P.P.E capacity of 200 points can absorb an additional 600 points on a ley line within 7.5 minutes. Cast E.S.
from that. Pump the remaining 480 points into it. Take 90 seconds to top it off to 600, and go on his merry way.
Wow. Until a month ago, I hadn't looked at the P.B. magic system in over 15 years, because I thought it was underpowered.

[Khanibal]

No! No to multiple "mini-spheres", no to multiple ES spheres.

And people think I'm munchy.

Cool. Can I get a book reference and pg. # on that?
Because I've read the BoM and the FoM versions of the spell, and I don't see the restriction there.

[Khanibal]

So rift yourself (or have a shifter rift you) to the BtS 1st edition world, where you got 5 per level per melee round IIRC. More at nexuses and high magic times.

Seriously, there is nothing in the spell that prevents you from having more then one, nor from giving it to someone else (or getting one from someone else). The only 2 limitations are duration, but you can recast the spell and put all the PPE from the about to expire globe into the new one, and that you are one VERY visible target. When a sniper is looking for who to kill first; TAG! YOU! ARE! IT! This assumes you’re stupid enough to go into combat with it up of course.

As I noted a couple of posts up, while rereading the rules I discovered that the mage can store this energy for a short time. Long enough, however, to cast and fill the sphere.
Depending on the type of combat, you may NEED the extra energy. I doubt I'd walk around with it up most of the time. Every mage, god, demon and dragon will notice you striding through your territory packing a lot of extra heat. Towns and cities which restrict heavy weapons will definately deny you entry, and like you said, it makes you a very attractive target.

[Library Ogre]

A globe of blue energy, similar to that found on a Ley Line.

That means you have a glowing blue bulls eye hanging next to you that everyone except the Altara can see.
On the plus side, you don't need a night light.

Hmmm... interesting tangent: Would an Altara be able to see a Energy Sphere? Would the energy cause enough of a disruption that it would be visible on their "radar"?

[Library Ogre]

It does say Energy in the description. I suppose if you allowed them to "see" laser bolts or other types of energy, then yes they would, but if the could "see" energy, wouldn't they be able to "see" light as well?
That would mean they either had normal vision, except 360 degrees, or when ever they where out during the day, they get a lot of interference or "snow" on their radar.
I’m thinking they could no more “see” the globe then they could a magic light IMHO.

The thing is, light and lasers don't usually hang out in one place. They keep moving. This is more akin to a stable magnetic field.

[drewkitty ~..~]

No! No to multiple "mini-spheres", no to multiple ES spheres.

And people think I'm munchy.

Cool. Can I get a book reference and pg. # on that?
Because I've read the BoM and the FoM versions of the spell, and I don't see the restriction there.

He is ranting and raving.
No, he can't.
Because according to the megaversal spell modification rules in Through the Glass Darkly you can modify spells to be pretty much what you want. Yes, any mods does raise the level of the spell, and PPE cost, you could end up with but to have spheres w/o a size limitation, or that renew themselves from the PPE stored in them, or with a higher PPE storage, the spell will end up better then the cheapy that is from the book. even if it cost more initially to cast.

yes, GMs have to examine what player submitted chars actually can do before giving them the okay.

[drewkitty ~..~]

It does say Energy in the description. I suppose if you allowed them to "see" laser bolts or other types of energy, then yes they would, but if the could "see" energy, wouldn't they be able to "see" light as well?
That would mean they either had normal vision, except 360 degrees, or when ever they where out during the day, they get a lot of interference or "snow" on their radar.
I’m thinking they could no more “see” the globe then they could a magic light IMHO.

The thing is, light and lasers don't usually hang out in one place. They keep moving. This is more akin to a stable magnetic field.

The only way to 'see' lasers is indirectly, through the effects they cause.
The only way you would 'see' a laser as a bar or line of light between two points is if the laser was powerful enough to ionize the air to glowing along the path it traveled.

Light is a form of electromagnetic energy that switches between the two field formed as it moves. Even though light is describes as photons, this gives the energy packet a name and a minimum energy level definition.

[Khanibal]

Because all towns and cities know what a little(relatively [basketball sized]) glowing ball is?

No, but they know it's something, and they might know you're a mage.

Silly as it sounds, according to the rules most magic users dress in a manner that their profession is obvious. Frankly the wizards I play in D&D don't dress peculiar enough to draw attention to themselves, so I don't see why I should have to in any other game. I also have no sense of style in RL either, so it's probably just me.

When I mentioned that some towns wouldn't let you in, I meant places big enough to forbid power armor or even heavy weapons, might not let you in. Most villages are flyspecks anyway, but any of them that can enforce a "You just leave that Titan 'bot parked outside of town pal." are probably big enough to have someone who'll recognize magic when he sees it.

[Khanibal]

Hmmm... interesting tangent: Would an Altara be able to see a Energy Sphere? Would the energy cause enough of a disruption that it would be visible on their "radar"?

If she has Sense Magic up, then absolutely. Also just about every magic using O.C.C. can "sense ley line energy", I'd rule that a couple hundred floating P.P.E. would definately get their attention.

[drewkitty ~..~]

If she has Sense Magic up, then absolutely. Also just about every magic using O.C.C. can "sense ley line energy", I'd rule that a couple hundred floating P.P.E. would definately trigger get their attention.

since LLWs can "see" ppe quantiies of more the 20 PPE, the LLW would know that the sphere was magic.

Hmmm... interesting tangent: Would an Altara be able to see a Energy Sphere? Would the energy cause enough of a disruption that it would be visible on their "radar"?

Maybe.
because of the vaigeness in the spell description it could be they would be able to see that "something" was there, they would see it as if a mist, or they wouldn't know it was there at all.(sticking to answering the question that was asked.)

[Talavar]

I would say yes to an Altara being able to perceive an energy sphere because it apparently has some physicality to it as well - it has an MDC value, and though impervious to most attacks (what types of attacks damage that MDC the spell description does not say), it can be destroyed.

[Khanibal]

Canon, canon, canon. This is starting to sound like a Star Wars convention. The ENTIRE game is subject to GM interpretation. I've played under a GM who hated M.D.C. and refused to use it, and I've played under a GM who encouraged people to play the most powerful characters they could build. Most GM's fall in the middle.
What I think you intended to say R-S, is that if you ran a game, you wouldn't allow multiple Energy Sphere spells by the same mage. That's acceptable. Some other GM's would. That's acceptable.
If you look closer at the posts above, you'd see that I was stating what was possible, not what was wise. There are some very good reasons to not be packing the neon basketball at all, noted above.

[drewkitty ~..~]

"Because the munchkins have found a hole big enough to drive a truck through, and it requires a non-canon GM veto to correct."

Brevity is important, dude. Bring us home a little earlier next time, eh?

Brevity can cause misunderstandings because they put two things together as equals when they are not equal.

I would say yes to an Altara being able to perceive an energy sphere because it apparently has some physicality to it as well - it has an MDC value, and though impervious to most attacks (what types of attacks damage that MDC the spell description does not say), it can be destroyed.

Talavar, that impervious to most attacks is the vaigness I mentioned in my post. As in it doesn't state what type of attacks it is impervious to. So we do not know if the radar sense would bounce / echo off of it.

[Khanibal]

If it's solid, then it should show up on radar. If it's not, then it might show up if the Altaran radar is magic/psionic in nature, and not a physical manifestion (like a bat's sonar). If It's ephemeral, and shows up on the radar, then she should also pick up that "Snow" Kilgore was talking about.
Also if it's solid, then you should be able to lick it.

[drewkitty ~..~]

gggeee and here I though the radar sense was oh my radar, like in the radar super power.*driping in sarcasim*
In fact the other extra ordinary senses appear to be super powers also.

book and page where you got the magic/psi in nature bit please.(don't say the DB's of NA, cause that is the book I pulled out)

[Khanibal]

No reference here drewkitty. I was just "if...then"ing. If you say it operates like regular old radar, then I believe you. This is cool for power armor and bot equiped groups though, because with an effective range of 1200', the radio waves can be detected out to 2400'.

[Library Ogre]

Let's assume, for a moment, that Altarian Radar Sense is actual Radar.

The question then becomes whether or not magic energy is detectable by well-tuned radar.

Now, radar obviously detects solid objects; Altarian senses are tuned enough that they can distinguish people-sized objects, and perhaps even smaller (thrown knives and the like). So it's tuned fine enough that it can detect a basketball-sized physical object.

However, if the Energy sphere isn't physical, what else would cause it to be visible on radar? The simplest answer is that it emits a radar signal itself; even a weak one would show up on Altarian senses. It would also show up if it acted to scatter or distort radar emissions. If one assumes that magic energy distorts radio waves (as is a common house rule, and post-facto reasoning on radio ranges), it is not unreasonable to say that a concentration of such energy would cause a distortion, much like an extremely clear prism would cause a distortion in visible light, but is not, otherwise, visible to the naked eye.

So, if one has it that radio is distorted by ley lines, it is not unreasonable that an Energy Sphere can be seen by BWW. Likewise, however, there's no reason to assume that it can, absent such a world fact.

[Khanibal]

Nor does it say it can be detected by radar detectors, however, while it says they can detect the general shape of animals, the 3 very specific things that they can get the location of does not include animals.

If it's radar, it works by sending out pulses of radio waves which bounce off objects and are interpreted when they return. This is an active radar system with a range of 1200'. Any active or passive system will recieve these same pulsed at a range of 2400'. This is simply the nature of radar. If her pulses are invisible, then the BWW is using some kind of magic radar.
Any active radar system can be detected for approximately twice it's effective range. So a bot or jet with 100 miles range can be detected at 200 miles.

[Khanibal]

While all of this is accurate, it's important to note that the power was based on a super power from HU, which most defiantly does not follow logic or physics.

Well, like many have said,"It's all good."
I haven't seen anything definitive on whether it's supposed to be detectable or not, so however you rule it is fine.

If one assumes that magic energy distorts radio waves (as is a common house rule, and post-facto reasoning on radio ranges),
....Snip....
So, if one has it that radio is distorted by ley lines, it is not unreasonable that an Energy Sphere can be seen by BWW. Likewise, however, there's no reason to assume that it can, absent such a world fact.

That's a new one on me.
What this then breaks down to is which house rule you use, as neither side is supported by cannon.[/quote]

Yes. I don't know if Mark rules that ley lines interfere with radio or not, but either ruling has just as much validity.

[Library Ogre]

I tend to like the explanation that ley lines interfere with radio. It further balkanizes the world by making communication difficult, and it fits in with my view of how PPE interacts with the world.

[Library Ogre]

I tend to like the explanation that ley lines interfere with radio. It further balkanizes the world by making communication difficult, and it fits in with my view of how PPE interacts with the world.

And it would give techies invading magic based societies some serious headaches when they where unable to communicate with the guy 100 ft away without waving their arms and shouting.

Just out of curiosity, how much magic in the world before this became a factor, and how much of a factor?

I think it's a factor at just about any level... in real-world paranormal investigations, they report all sorts of oddities with radios, TVs, etc., which can be attributed to ley lines or other magical effects. I figure that in Rifts, very close communications are compensatable, due to experience.

[dark brandon]

No! No to multiple "mini-spheres", no to multiple ES spheres.

And people think I'm munchy.

I'm with RS, only one per mage. Reasoning as follows 1) Can be given one by another mage so there isn't really a need to have more than one. 2) Armor of Ithan doesn't specifically say you can only have one application of the armor on at any given time, but it's widely assumed you can only have AoI cast on you once, so this falls under that reasoning as well.

[Khanibal]

That's reasonable as far as I'm concerned. Frankly, I'm inclined to think the ES is more of a hassle than a help. It's only real purpose, as far as I can tell, is in preparation for a long fight or a major casting. A Mage isn't going to be casting too many high power spells in combat anyway. At 2 actions for 6-10 and 3 for 11+, that's a long time for someone to disrupt the casting. If you're our hypothetical 6th level LLW, and you run out of P.P.E. casting 1-5 level spells, you've officially had a bad day, and can take the rest of the afternoon off.

P.S. Apologies to John Ringo

[Mouser13]

Well, I have done this before their is nothing that disallows it, but I did self place the nerf on myself that you can not refill them. NOthing in the text says you can pump P.P.E into it other then at creation time.

[Library Ogre]

It does say Energy in the description. I suppose if you allowed them to "see" laser bolts or other types of energy, then yes they would, but if the could "see" energy, wouldn't they be able to "see" light as well?
That would mean they either had normal vision, except 360 degrees, or when ever they where out during the day, they get a lot of interference or "snow" on their radar.
I’m thinking they could no more “see” the globe then they could a magic light IMHO.

The thing is, light and lasers don't usually hang out in one place. They keep moving. This is more akin to a stable magnetic field.

So we are saying that magic equates to a magnetic field? Or maybe we should just go with it's magic, if you can see then you could see the spheres if normal light would not allow you. If you can't, then....

Magic, specifically PPE, is similar to a magnetic field, yes; there are definite statements, in the books, that it has some interactions with matter similar to a magnetic field (such as its tendency to be warped from "true" by the presence of metals). There are also hints (nothing definite, but a common houserule, as I mentioned; also, IIRC, some things in Ley Line storms and the six triangles) that large concentrations of PPE (ley lines) interfere with radios, leading to generally shorter ranges.

If you have a "bottle" that could contain a significant magnetic field, it would be detectable due to the scatter of a radar image. That's all I've been saying wrt a BWW seeing an Energy sphere.

[Grandil]

So Sorry guys, Here I go again, Munchie to the extreme.... I allow 1/lvl=ES, but also I think in
the Description it says something like it absorbs ambient P.P.E from the environment... Also,
what about a Vajra in the mix...... This adds a whole new dimension to it. Here's another
question-Can an ES hold Chi? Doubtful........Mark, here another querie-can a Psi-stalker siphon?
what would it taste like-LL Energy? Or sweet?

[drewkitty ~..~]

So Sorry guys, Here I go again, Munchie to the extreme.... I allow 1/lvl=ES, but also I think in
the Description it says something like it absorbs ambient P.P.E from the environment... Also,
what about a Vajra in the mix...... This adds a whole new dimension to it. Here's another
question-Can an ES hold Chi? Doubtful........Mark, here another querie-can a Psi-stalker siphon?
what would it taste like-LL Energy? Or sweet?

Nope

I've made those for rifts.

Only in the form of PPE.

The spell description does not forbid anyone from accessing the ES.

Like the being that put it in there, but getting stale, like LL PPE, over time.

[Grandil]

So Sorry guys, Here I go again, Munchie to the extreme.... I allow 1/lvl=ES, but also I think in
the Description it says something like it absorbs ambient P.P.E from the environment... Also,
what about a Vajra in the mix...... This adds a whole new dimension to it. Here's another
question-Can an ES hold Chi? Doubtful........Mark, here another querie-can a Psi-stalker siphon?
what would it taste like-LL Energy? Or sweet?

Nope

I've made those for rifts.

Only in the form of PPE.

The spell description does not forbid anyone from accessing the ES.

Like the being that put it in there, but getting stale, like LL PPE, over time.

I agree........wholeheartedly!

[cornholioprime]

I don't see anything in the description of Energy sphere that prohibits a mage from having two or more active at the same time. Since a mage can draw P.P.E. from a cooperative person within 20', that's conservatively 300 people in a circle around him. Average P.P.E. of the average person is 2D6 (7). That's a pool of 2100 P.P.E. from which the mage can draw 70% or 1470 points. At sixth level, the wizard can cast Energy Sphere twice (120 points each time for 240) and then channel 600 points into each sphere (1200). This will expend 1440 points, leaving 30 left over for a nice firework illusion, or other display of gratitude.
It shouldn't be too hard to convince some townsfolk to share some energy with you after saving their village. It should be even easier to get them to donate to help you defend their village.

Why even bother with the townsfolk? Go to a ley line or a nexus and do the same thing for free.

Because a whole lot of things ley-line related -especially at a Nexus -often have Nasty things waiting around or Powerful things, or both.

Besides, you can get all that extra PPE from all those folks (if willing to of course), all at once!!!

[cornholioprime]

No! No to multiple "mini-spheres", no to multiple ES spheres.

And people think I'm munchy.

Your House Rule, and that's fine.

Not any such canon limitation to the Spell.

[cornholioprime]

A globe of blue energy, similar to that found on a Ley Line.

That means you have a glowing blue bulls eye hanging next to you that everyone except the Altara can see.
On the plus side, you don't need a night light.

Hmmm... interesting tangent: Would an Altara be able to see a Energy Sphere? Would the energy cause enough of a disruption that it would be visible on their "radar"?

The sphere itself seems to manifest itself as a Physical Object (anyone can apparently can not only see it but touch and manipulate it as well), so I'd say yes.

[Grandil]

No! No to multiple "mini-spheres", no to multiple ES spheres.

And people think I'm munchy.

Your House Rule, and that's fine.

Not any such canon limitation to the Spell.

Thanks Corholioprime, I definitely agree.
G

[dark brandon]

Actually, have to disagree.
1) If you are doing something sufficiently large or doing multiple things, you would need more than one. (Building the war golem things used in Tolkeen, anyone?)

I would never allow one of my players to do such a thing. Ever. Tolkeen war golems were built by teams of mages. This would be classified as munchie unless we were playing a god-powered game.

2) My problem with using this as justification is that you are confusing two types of spells. AoI, Life Ward, Fly as the Eagle, Swim as the Fish, Superhuman Strength, etc. are person enchantment. They are not designed to be 'handed to another', they are enhancing something or someone. The ES, on the other hand, is a floating, glowing, magical storage tank. This is more akin to the GoD, Zombie, Mummy and Golem. It is a construct that is there following the caster, just like these. Since there is nothing keeping a person from casting multiple GoD (very useful in extending the range when you are low level), there should be nothing overtly imposed on the use of these ES.

Who says I allow a mage to cast more than one GoD? Zombies, mummies...ect are all physical constructs...just like talismens. ES is not neither is GoD. Both would fall under the same mechanics as AoI

[Lenwen]

I don't see anything in the description of Energy sphere that prohibits a mage from having two or more active at the same time. Since a mage can draw P.P.E. from a cooperative person within 20', that's conservatively 300 people in a circle around him.

There are 300 people in my Battalion, and we all can not fit inside a 20ft circle. The absolute most we could fit in a 20ft circle was in fact only 75 people all with out any battle gear and only BDU's on. We tried this very thing to show what 20ft Blast area would do if we were in close prox to each other in a war time scenario.

[Lenwen]

Our Diabolist/Shifter has come up with a neat idea. As I understand a TW (npc) has made a similiar device after seeing this so he was a tad miffed

He designed a Shape Wood spell and uses it along with his sculpting and carpentry skills to make spheres of 1/2" wood just a bit bigger than a energy sphere with a hole in the shape of what he calls his magic symbol. Inside is a strip of 1/8" wood which he designs to slide inside, covering up the hole.

He then insets both a Invisibility and Permanancy ward on the inside. He makes it looks all nice and pretty with stains and such (he says he has to look at them even though no one else usually does). And follows it with a Steelwood spell.

Next he casts a Fly spell and Animate Object on it. Then he actives the wards, making it an invisible flying sphere of wood that opens and closes as he wishes.

With it open he casts a Energy Sphere spell having it appear INSIDE the wood sphere, he then closes it and casts a Time Capsule spell on it to keep it from needing a recast.

The idea is good, and imagine when needing more PPE, he reaches his hand out and out of thin air appears a blue glowing "magic symbol" from which he pulls energy from, then vanishes.

I love it when the guys come up with stuff like this! I only wish psionics was as flashy

The principal is a great one. Several things tho..
Multiple spells that do not in fact exsist. And the fact that no matter what the Energy sphere is always above the shoulder, and can not be contained and stored for later.

Unless I am missing something ?

[drewkitty ~..~]

Our Diabolist/Shifter has come up with a neat idea. As I understand a TW (npc) has made a similiar device after seeing this so he was a tad miffed

He designed a Shape Wood spell and uses it along with his sculpting and carpentry skills to make spheres of 1/2" wood just a bit bigger than a energy sphere with a hole in the shape of what he calls his magic symbol. Inside is a strip of 1/8" wood which he designs to slide inside, covering up the hole.

He then insets both a Invisibility and Permanancy ward on the inside. He makes it looks all nice and pretty with stains and such (he says he has to look at them even though no one else usually does). And follows it with a Steelwood spell.

Next he casts a Fly spell and Animate Object on it. Then he actives the wards, making it an invisible flying sphere of wood that opens and closes as he wishes.

With it open he casts a Energy Sphere spell having it appear INSIDE the wood sphere, he then closes it and casts a Time Capsule spell on it to keep it from needing a recast.

The idea is good, and imagine when needing more PPE, he reaches his hand out and out of thin air appears a blue glowing "magic symbol" from which he pulls energy from, then vanishes.

I love it when the guys come up with stuff like this! I only wish psionics was as flashy

The principal is a great one. Several things tho..
Multiple spells that do not in fact exsist. And the fact that no matter what the Energy sphere is always above the shoulder, and can not be contained and stored for later.

Unless I am missing something ?

All the spells and wards mentioned by Arion exist in the PB canon.
However, for the perm ward to function it needs to be carved in the bone of a SN being.

[drewkitty ~..~]

its still blah blah blah .......

just get some PPE clips from stomespire you only need the Talisman spell to recharge them.

Or invent a spell that lasts longer then the <bleep>in ES spell. Like my Golden Sphere spell over in the invented spells topic

[thefirstromeo]

LOL I love this post!

[Khanibal]

If a PC has infinite PPE available does that give him more spells per round? Do these spells do more damage? Do the spells take less time to cast?
Since not, I guess your objection is limited to not wanting mages to be able to cast spell after spell all day long (after some preparation). Consequently, I assume that you've banned your players from purchasing self-regenerating power packs and e-clip rechargers. In the name of game balance.

[Grandil]

If a PC has infinite PPE available does that give him more spells per round? Do these spells do more damage? Do the spells take less time to cast?
Since not, I guess your objection is limited to not wanting mages to be able to cast spell after spell all day long (after some preparation). Consequently, I assume that you've banned your players from purchasing self-regenerating power packs and e-clip rechargers. In the name of game balance.

Actually, it's the energy thats unlimited, not the time to cast spells. Usually, you can cast 4 spells per round, 1st-9th, 3/10th-12th, 2/13-15, & 1 spell o' legend per melee.

[Balabanto]

No! No to multiple "mini-spheres", no to multiple ES spheres.

And people think I'm munchy.

Cool. Can I get a book reference and pg. # on that?
Because I've read the BoM and the FoM versions of the spell, and I don't see the restriction there.

He is ranting and raving.
No, he can't.
Because according to the megaversal spell modification rules in Through the Glass Darkly you can modify spells to be pretty much what you want. Yes, any mods does raise the level of the spell, and PPE cost, you could end up with but to have spheres w/o a size limitation, or that renew themselves from the PPE stored in them, or with a higher PPE storage, the spell will end up better then the cheapy that is from the book. even if it cost more initially to cast.

yes, GMs have to examine what player submitted chars actually can do before giving them the okay.

What about changing the energy type on an effect? (like Acid Globe instead of Fire Globe, or Ice Globe instead of Fire Globe)

[Khanibal]

Ah, now your getting into metamagic (magic that modifies other magic), and Rifts is very thin on metamagic. Two spells Illusion booster & Energize Spell are it (off the top of my head). I believe there is some non-canon, fan generated stuff, but that's it.

[Grinning Demon]

If a PC has infinite PPE available does that give him more spells per round? Do these spells do more damage? Do the spells take less time to cast?
Since not, I guess your objection is limited to not wanting mages to be able to cast spell after spell all day long (after some preparation). Consequently, I assume that you've banned your players from purchasing self-regenerating power packs and e-clip rechargers. In the name of game balance.

Having finite P.P.E. is what balances mages in the game. I'm GMing a magic centric campaign right now where 4 out of my 5 players are magic users. When they are on a ley line or have their full P.P.E. they're pretty much unstoppable, the only way to get them its to whittle them down with several encounters of varying difficulty before hitting with the end fight. This forces to the player to be creative and think about each fight instead of just mindlessly throwing his most powerful spells at each encounter. Also having infinite PPE = infinite MDC. Armor of Ithan or several other protection spells, just keep recasting it, you can also extend pretty much every spell through Energize Spell if P.P.E. isn't an issue. I guess for me the bottom line is there are so many munchkined things already built into Rifts (unlike D&D), so why even waste your time coming up with theoretical situations to get infinite P.P.E.?? I'd just make a dragon hatchling, Cosmo-Knight, or Achilles Neo-Human since any GM allowing infinite P.P.E. would certainly let you make one of those classes.

[Grandil]

If a PC has infinite PPE available does that give him more spells per round? Do these spells do more damage? Do the spells take less time to cast?
Since not, I guess your objection is limited to not wanting mages to be able to cast spell after spell all day long (after some preparation). Consequently, I assume that you've banned your players from purchasing self-regenerating power packs and e-clip rechargers. In the name of game balance.

Actually, it's the energy that's unlimited, not the time to cast spells. Usually, you can cast 4 spells per round, 1st-9th, 3/10th-12th, 2/13-15, & 1 spell o' legend per melee.

There's the other thing-Doublemind; I limit my characters to the amount of HTH attacks per
melee without modification-I.E., Other spells, Psionics, Super-abs Are not Included.
Although this makes the spell caster more Casty than normal, it also gives him more Physical/
Psionic attacks: I just realized this after 5 mos.. not spell attacks. E-spheres are limiting anyway.
I limit them to 1/lvl, & if you go to a LL nexus, you can DOUBLE the amount/lvl=200 P.P.E. Maybe
a topic for another page......... Calling Nimmy!

[Lenwen]

Energy Sphere .

This is how I've ruled on it.

One sphere per shoulder. If you have more then 2 shoulders .. yes you get more then two spheres.

And the limits still apply to it. Only 100 PPE per lvl .. (Max) extra can be inplanted into it.

Example.

A 5th lvl Human LLW .. can have TWO .. E Sphere's (one per shoulder) of up to +500 PPE per sphere.

+100 per lvl of the caster (5th lvl)
Two sphere's .. (one per shoulder) As that is in the description as to where it situates itself on the caster.

However .. if you have an octoman LLW .. (8 shoulders) yes .. that means 8 Energy Sphere's . And if that Octoman LLW is 5th lvl .. that is a total of +100 per lvl ( 4,000 PPE total)

This is how I have read the spell's description. I do not read into the description limitations and or do I read into the spell any variation that which is not already stated. ( I read it as it is an take it as it is neither adding or subtracting how I want the spell to be)

I see MANY .. people do that on this site. I do not. (Least I attempt not to for the most part)