A!C Magic system Questions

Achtung! Cthulhu
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Hi all,

I’ve just run my 2nd session of Achtung! Cthulu and we just kicked off Shadows of Atlantis. I have a few questions about the magic system, I think I’m getting the hang of it but I do have some points I’d love to clarify:

  1. Magical Power - Looking at the Player’s Guide book in the Magic chapter (pg 142 Player’s Guide) it indicates that your base power is incremented by your bonus dice in your casting stat (i.e. one of my players is playing a Traditional Caster with an Insight of 11, this means that their total Power is 4 - 2 Base + 2 Bonus from Insight). Also in the chapter Heroes are Forged (pg 80 Player’s Guide) it describes bonus damage as being applied using Will for Spells and Mental attacks. Therefore, if my player has the stats Power = 2, Insight = 11 and Will = 9 then casting Spear of Lug would grant them a damage rating of 8 (2 from base power, + 2 from Insight bonus power, + 2 from Will bonus damage, + 2 from the spell). Is that correct? It doesn’t seem too terrible to me given the cost and difficulty of casting spells

  2. Speaking of cost, the stress generated from the Cost of a spell is reduced by Courage per the rules (pg 144 Player’s Guide) but if a player used the talent “A Price to Pay” to generate bonus momentum, this changes the cost to Physical rather than Mental stress - I would rule that this would mean that you could only absorb this stress using Armour and not Armour granted by standard equipment (only that granted by Brawn or some kind of magical defence), does that sound right to folks?

  3. Again on costs, if a Cost (or any stress roll really) has the Drain effect but the Stress is reduced to 0 by Courage/Armour/Cover etc. I ruled that fatigue is still inflicted for each Effect. Is that correct?

  4. Spell Ranges (specifically for Horn of Neit). When I first read the rules for many spells I understood the wording of “within Medium range” to mean “any range up to and including Medium” but this spell (detailed on pg 146 of the Player’s Guide) specifically mentions targeting additional enemies in Close Range as a Momentum spend. This clearly implies that the spell, if cast without enhancement, only targets enemies at medium range (targeting all enemies out to medium range would be over the top). If a spell caster wanted to target foes at Close Range by default, I ruled that the caster could adjust the range of the spell by increasing the difficulty (similar to using a weapon outside of the optimal range for the weapon) as this felt solid, is there a reason that this isn’t recommended and we should fall back on requiring 1 Momentum per target in Close range?

  5. Connected to the above, would the same apply to other spells that read “within Medium range” such as Spear of Lug, Gaze of Balor and The Ogham Sign?

Thanks all.

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  1. Not quite. That specific line of pg. 80 on the Player’s Guide was altered via an errata, and instead reads “How bonus Challenge Dice interact with magic and mental attacks can be found on p.142”.
    Basically, you have your base power based on your type of spellcasting (in your example, base 2), and then you add bonus Challenge Die to the spells you cast based on your relevant Attribute. Summing up these two will give you your effectve Power Rating (4 in your case).
    Spear of Slug would then inflict 6 Challenge Dice of Stress (2 from base, +2 from Insight bonus Challenge Dice, and +2 from the spell).

  2. The book doesn’t specify that, but both your Courage and Morale can reduce the Stress generated due to spellcasting as per the rules, one an internal defense and the other an external one, both meant for mental Stress. A Price to Pay changes only the type of damage to physical, which per the general rules can be mitigate through Armor and Cover, same internal/external dichotomy, so they should both apply when reducing said Stress cost. Now, I must say that this is a General vs. Specific interpretation (very commonly used in such rulebooks), where lack of specifity means we default to the general rules. If you want it to work like you said on your game, you can totally do that and it sounds like a valid ruling.

  3. Effects will always apply even if you reduce the total Stress taken to 0.

  4. It was clarified by a dev that the Momentum spend in Horn of Néit shouldn’t include Close as a valid option. Spell ranges are maximum, so if a spell says “within Medium range” it can target things/creatures that are at Close range AND those that are at Medium range, there’s no need to adjust the difficulty like you would for weapons. Also, you can’t target anything outside of that range unless there’s a Momentum spend that allows you to do that.

  5. See above.

Hope that helps! =D

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This is super helpful thanks. Do I have your permission to repost this on the 2D20 subreddit where I have asked the same question? I think it would be a helpful resource for others. I’m going to download and print that Errata now.

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Sure thing! If you want to tag me there, I’m u/Daegonyz :smiley:

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Hello. Just started playing this system and have been unsuccessful in finding an answer to these questions:

  1. When learning a new spell/psychic power if the difficulty varies (telekinesis for example), how do you determine hours in study, restriction rating to obtain resources, the DN of the insight + survival test to learn?

  2. “You suffer two fatigue for each day spent in study. This fatigue will clear automatically after a full day’s rest”. Does this mean spending any portion of a day (i.e., 2 hours), incurs two fatigue, or something else - like an eight hour day? Appreciate any help, thank you!

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For cost and resistance interacting with ‘A Price to Pay’, I’d apply Courage and Morale to reduce the amount of stress and then turn any remaining stress into Physical. I’d consider allowing the player to substitute their Brawn for their Will when computing their Courage for this use only.