casting spells with gems

[JonBrave]

Originally Posted by brxbrx

Gem use is confusing. I always thought that the amount of gems listed was the amount consumed, no more, no less, no variables there.
But I see these threads about gem consumption and everything I knew about spellcasting in combat is turned upside down and inside out while doing the hokey pokey all about.

And you're complaining about this? Seems to me part if the charm of this game is the confusion

Your question is all "explained" on p.89. Having said that, I find the example there confusing. They say an Astral 2 guy can use 2 gems, 1 to boost to Astral 3 to cast the spell and another 1 to reduce fatigue. That's 4. I don't get how that jells with "a mage can only use as many gems as his current skill level in that path", because it seems to me he's using one more than that, whichever way you look at it....

Finally, I think from reading around you'll see that you cannot force a mage (either yours or AI's) to use at least the fatigue-reducing gem, the algorithm decides to or not in various circumstances.