casting spells with gems

[ghoul31]

You can give mage a gem, and this will allow him to cast a spell one level greater than he should be able to cast.

but it does't work for spells that require gems to cast. why is that? is there any way around it?

for instance, I can't get a level 3 earth mage to cast earthquake, no matter how many gems I give him.

[tratorix]

A mage can only use as many gems as he has path levels. So your level 3 mage can only use 3, which is the cost of the spell, and can't use an extra gem to bump himself up a level.

[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.

[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.

[Finalgenesis]

I think earthquake is 4E and cost 4 gems?

If your guy is E3, he can only use 3 gems max in a single casting, so... 1 to boost to E4, and only 2/4 to having enough to cast quake.

On the other hand if he cast Epower first he can do it.

So if you had a 2S mage, he can cast antimagic with 2 gems, 1 to boost to 3S and 1 to cast antimagic.

However if you have a 3S mage he cannot cast will of the fate as it requires 4 gems even if its 4S to cast.

[Bananadine]

Originally Posted by JonBrave

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....

The spell in the example is Astral Fires, which uses no gems by default. So an S3 mage (well, F1S3 or whatever) could cast it without gems. The mage in the example has one less astral skill level so he MUST spend at least one gem to cast it (barring external boost due to items etc.). He can spend one additional gem to reduce fatigue. Those are the "2 gems" you mention--you're counting them twice to get to four.

[JonBrave]

Originally Posted by Bananadine

The spell in the example is Astral Fires, which uses no gems by default.

So sorry, I guessed this after I posted. I mis-read the example as a base-2-gem spell, my bad. Yes, thank you, now it all makes sense.

[shatner]

Originally Posted by Finalgenesis

I think earthquake is 4E and cost 4 gems?

If your guy is E3, he can only use 3 gems max in a single casting, so... 1 to boost to E4, and only 2/4 to having enough to cast quake.

On the other hand if he cast Epower first he can do it.

So if you had a 2S mage, he can cast antimagic with 2 gems, 1 to boost to 3S and 1 to cast antimagic.

However if you have a 3S mage he cannot cast will of the fate as it requires 4 gems even if its 4S to cast.

The S3 mage cannot cast will of the fates by himself. However, you can still get him to cast the spell with some finagling.

Example 1: You have another S3 mage cast Light of the Northern Star, making the original S3 an S4 who hasn't used any gems yet.

Example 2: You have the S3 cast communion slave, have an S1 cast communion master and then cast Power of the Spheres (boosting both the master and the slave in all paths). Your S3 is now an S4 and casts the spell like normal.

Example 3: You have the S3 carry a crystal shield which casts power of the spheres on him without requiring him to use any astral gems first.

Example 4: You have the S3 cast communion master with at least 2 communion slaves, boosting him up to an S4.


Spells that boost your paths for the duration of a combat (such as Phoenix Power, Earthpower, communions, etc.) allow the caster to use additional gems as well. For example, you could give an E1 caster 2 earth gems, one of which he uses so he can cast Earthpower (which requires E2 to cast). He is now an E2 who has used one 1 earth gem and has one left over so he spends that last gem to cast Bladewind (which requires an E3 to cast).

[thejeff]

The gem limit is per spell, not per battle.

Your 3S mage can cast Will of the Fates (4S 4 gems) if he casts LotNS (3S 1gem) first.
A 2S mage could cast it by casting PotS then LotNS.
He just can't cast it by using a gem to boost himself to 4S.