Ask the Stat Monkey!

Alright, got a rules question about Counter spell. I think I know the answer, but I do want to get a clarification for a player.

So under the talent, it states that it is an arcanum talent, so can divine casters take it? From the description and talking to others, the answer seems to be no. Additionally, under the types descriptor on pg. 170, it says that you can only take arcanum talents after you’ve taken the arcane spell casting talent. And under arcane spell casting you are restricted from taken divine spell casting and vice versa for divine spell casting. Again this all points to no, but I was asked to get an official ruling.

It was Errata’d to be both an Arcane and Devout talent…

So both Arcane and Divine casters can take it

Completely non-official answer, but I just re-read Adaptable and it looks like it would work normally. Adaptable weapons for Huge characters would still be considered whatever they are normally listed as in the weapon tables. I would say that Huge characters would have to actually use two hands for the damage die bump/speed cost increase.

While I see no reason as to why the gauntlets couldn’t be used as standard gauntlets, I can’t say as I know what type of weapon they’d be. As it doesn’t specify, I would assume they function as “Good” quality items, at least in terms of weapon damage and speed.

Personally in absence of an official ruling I would treat them as at least Fine quality. As a base speed 3 weapon, there’s no difference between Fine and Exceptional in terms of combat. As a specially crafted item I would not expect that it’s possible to add runes to them.I had more or less assumed they would be Fine as well. Your comments re: runes is interesting. You may well be correct, but this would be a good point to have addressed officially. It would be a little odd to be able to put runes on a magic wand, staff, weapon or armour, but not on enchanted worn items that fall into those same categories.

This naturally leads into asking whether a player could put runes on any of the named weapons or armour (i.e. Cuirass of the Crusader) in the FiM, if one was obtained. Do these items have fewer rune slots as a result of their enchantments? Are the enchantments on these items entirely different than runes?

Can the Gauntlet of Immaculate Defense (FiM, p. 20) be used as a weapon (A:RPG p. 242), and if yes, what equipment quality would it have? The same question would apply to the Gauntlets of Force (FiM p. 20) and Crotalus Gauntlet (FiM II, p. 27).

I took a look through both FiM books to see if there was anything on item creation which spells out the quality of item required to make a magic item, but didn’t find anything (not surprising as it isn’t an option for PCs). I see that the bulk of the magical arms and armour listed in the book are Exceptional or better, but it doesn’t seem to be specified for Enchanted Garb.

Unless otherwise noted… magical items are of Fine quality…

yes you can use any gauntlet as a weapon

Hello,

Unless an item specifically states that runes may be added to it, an item that already has a magical effect, like the Gauntlets of Force, may NOT have runes placed upon it.

I was going to add that putting a rune on an enchanted item destroys the original enchantment, but I thought that might just muddy the waters further.

For Spell runes (Forged in Magic, Vol. II, p.12), the description says that the spell is cast as if the bearer possessed a specified quality-based Passive value for Arcanum skill. Also, the spell uses “the bearer’s Charisma as their primary casting attribute.” Does the caster add his passive Charisma to the listed Arcanum passive value to get the net passive Arcanum value?
Maybe I should just wait and let the stat monkey speak, but I don’t think so. The base (fine) version gives you a passive value of 18…equal to a base Tier 1 spell. The next bump is 21 which will cast most (all?) Tier 2 spells (or a tier 1 spell with an adaptation). Finally Legendary runes give a value of 23/24. Good for for a stocked Tier 3 spell. Adding passive charisma would advance everything by a tier (or more) and easily take the spell rune out of line with the comparable powers of other runes.