While we're talking about rules questions from Arcaniscon, I had a question come up about Mental Scream. As most of us know it's primarily a damaging spell that ignores AR and has a range of 0' (5' radius). It also has a number of adaptations. Two are of note for me here:


This is pretty straight forward. It's somewhat "expensive", but good for nuking someone "over there" instead of next to you. I have always assumed you need to use this adaptation to get range out of the spell. But another adaptation says...


This is the standard wording that gets applied to some ranged spells that allow a caster to increase their range.

So in a mod I was running, I had one player insist is that you can use the second adaptation directly on the base spell. This gives you 30' range at +2 CTN to inflict a 5' radius effect. I let it fly at the time because it wasn't that big a deal at the table. But I also feel sure that this is wrong, and that the second adaptation only works if you first turn MS into a ranged spell with the first adaptation. Am I crazy? I would love second opinions from other GMs.

Just a quick glance at the rulebook makes me think it's a psionic version of castigate. Maybe similar adaptations should apply? Just my two cents on the topic (and I'm no rules expert) That said it would look to me that the intention would be to apply the first adaptation to get the range out to 30 feet then the second to get it to range 60 feet and so on. Personnaly I would want an adaptation that increased the radius more, but I imagine that's covered by the talent Adaptation: Extended Range, which I would definitely take for this particular spell (although I wouldn't want to be around this person in combat

Eric,

I'm pretty certain that the player at your table's interpretation of the rules is correct. It is in fact why there's a range 0' (5' radius) is noted. Compare this to other spells where the range is Self (10' Radius). A Self targeted spell cannot be moved without finding someway to make it ranged. Blessings of the Pack Leader and Blood Storm are examples of that. Other spells such as Fog Cloud and Ghostly Legions have just a flat Radius X range. All of these spells can't be moved.

If you gain the Talent: Adaptation: Extended Range you can increase the range by 20' for CTN +1, Strain +1. This becomes an alternative to spells that specifically grant an increased range adaptation. It may in fact be better than the base spell. However, the character also had to take a Talent to get there.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

So reading this I think both are right. This is how I interpret them.



This is to hit a single target out at 30', it effectively limits the radius of the spell in order to increase range and hit one target.



This one allows you to increase range to 30', 60' and so on, but keep the radius effect of the spell.

The other thing to keep in mind: Area Spells can't crit. Single target spells *can*.

Being able to wound a target can make that adaptation worthwhile.

I'm not convinced. This is effectively saying they meant the spell to be cast 90' as an explosion as easily as 30' vs a single target. My secret suspicion is that Mental Scream was meant to have a range of self and for some reason it got typed up as a range of zero.

Still the spell says what it says, not what I think it should say. A mental "bomb" at distance isn't all that overpowering. Thanks for the feedback.