Raindoll/PillarOfFire
Pillar of Fire
This spell is based on the one described in the Memories of the First Age section of Caste Book: Twilight. Its mechanics are modeled after the Tornado Cannon that was cut from the Lookshy chapter of Outcaste.
Pillar of Fire (Celestial)
Cost: 30 motes
The sorcerer beckons to the heavens, summoning down a pillar of fire to smite his foes. Armies of mortals are as chaff before this spell: yet it was not enough to forestall the innumerable legions of the Dragon-Blooded.
The sorcerer summons a pillar of fire with a diameter of (Essence x 4) feet to a location of his choosing within (Essence x 50) yards. Every turn, the sorcerer may direct the pillar to move up to 500 yards. The first turn, the sorcerer may start the pillar moving in any direction. Thereafter, the sorcerer must make a reflexive (Wits+Occult) roll at difficulty 2 in order to change the pillar's direction. If the roll fails, the sorcerer may not attempt to change the pillar's direction again that turn. Directing the pillar requires the sorcerer's full concentration: if he takes a non-reflexive action (including walking) or activates a charm, the effects of this spell end and the pillar of fire immidiately vanishes. (This does not interfere persistent defenses that the sorcerer activates before casting the spell, so long as they do not require the use of his hands. Thus, Flow Like Blood and Golden Monkey Halo Realignment would still work, while the sorcerer could not benefit from Fivefold Bulward Stance [barring a stunt] or Steel Devil Style and still direct the pillar.)
Any creature whom the pillar of fire passes over takes an attack with Accuracy (12 + caster's Perception + caster's Occult) that does (caster's Essence + 10) base lethal damage. Shields subtract successes from the attack as normal (each target may decide whether to treat the attack as ranged or hand-to-hand). Parrying this attack requires a stunt.
At the end of every turn, the caster must make a Stamina+Endurance roll, or the pillar of fire immediately vanishes. The difficulty of the roll is 1 on the first turn, and increases by one every turn thereafter. In no event can the caster maintain the spell for more turns than his Stamina. The caster can reflexively cause the pillar of fire to vanish (ending the spell) at any time, and the death of the caster will cause the pillar to immediately vanish.
Alternate Damage Mechanic
Any creature whom the pillar of fire passes over takes (caster's Essence + 2) in lethal levels of environmental damage. As per the rules for environmental damage, this damage bypasses armor and is not rolled. The difficulty of the Stamina+Resistance roll to resist this damage is equal to half of the caster's Essence (rounded down), and reduces the damage to half of the caster's Essence, rounded down. Recall that creatures that cannot soak lethal damage with their Stamina receive no roll to resist environmental damage. The fire will ignite inflammible materials; damage against structures is left to the Storyteller's discretion. No creature or structure may be damaged more than once per turn by the pillar of fire.
Unlike normal environmental damage, it is possible to dodge this effect: treat the "attack" as having a dice pool of 14 for the purposes of dodging. (Treat the pillar as having an Essence equal to the caster's for the purposes of Power Combat.) Extra successes on the attack are not added to damage. Shields do subtract dice from the attack. A creature must decide whether to dodge before he makes his resistance roll (if applicable).
Comments
I think using environmental damage makes more sense (I loosely based the alternate environmental damage mechanic on the stats for a bonfire), but makes this spell behave oddly: any extra the pillar passed over would be automatically killed, and any heroic mortal would automatically be mortally wounded. Somehow, that doesn't feel right to me.
Also, I was originally going to make this spell Solar Circle, but as I was writing it up decided that its effects were far more suitable to the Celestial scale. I sortof fudged the cost of this spell, and have no solid rationale for why it should cost exactly 30 motes. For the main version of the spell, I decided to leave out the environmental damage to bystanders portion of the Tornado Cannon's rules because I thought it was unnecessarily complex. - Raindoll
