Rule of 16? Also, Re: [gurps] Harry Dresden?

[Zan Lynx]

On Wed, 2008-03-19 at 09:01 -0800, Anthony Jackson wrote:
> Lucas Bodnyk wrote:
> 
> > Am I correct in my reading of this, that a mage at skill (anything
> > sufficiently high) can never get better than a 50% success rate
> > against subjects with a 16 or higher relevant resistance?
> 
> Roughly, yes (critical hits and ties going to the defender make the
> actual odds slightly different).
> > 
> > Is this a little bit unfair?
> 
> Resisted spells are already unfair -- to the non-mages. The rule of 16 
> is one of the few things that makes resisted spells only moderately 
> unbalanced.

Well...if your mage can get the right spell through, it is usually a
guaranteed kill in combat.

But from a mage point of view, it sure seems difficult enough, what with
range penalties or a required touch/staff attack.

Resisted regular spells still come out as more effective than the ranged
attack spells though.
-- 
Zan Lynx <zlynx at acm.org>