OK, so talking about crazy spells, I was looking at what has been proposed here and thought, "hey, what is the longest spell type attack combo that I could make, that might actually be kinda useful?" I thought I was wondering if I could make something that would take me out of the action for 16 ticks or so, with like another 12 ticks of recovery/strain. Not sure if I succeeded, but I came up with something ugly, and it raised some questions, so I thought I would post it and see how things shake out, and if I'm doing this whole thing right.
So I started with a generic speed 5, one handed weapon doing d8 damage plus an unassuming d8 might. Let's assume a short spear. I assumed I needed the other hand free to cast, to make this bad boy work. Let's further assume all stats are +3 passive and d8 die for simplicity.
Then did an advanced maneuver, combining guarded charge (+3/+1) and mighty swing (+1/+3) to make a speed/recovery of (+3/+4)
Then I added in an advanced spell that goes as part of the movement/attack - combining far strike (CTN 20, speed 2, strain 5) and Storm of Knives (CTN 18 speed 5, strain 3). I used the adaptations available in the Storm of knives spell to increase it to a 15' cone to match far strike before combining (+3 CTN, + 2 strain), and then used the adaptation to make it a sustained spell (+3 CTN,+2 speed, +4 strain) after combining it, for a total advanced spell of CTN 32, speed 7, strain 11. A sorcerer has access to both of these through creation and battle, so they can be combined.
Now let's just add in some extra fluff to give the attack some umph. Like a smite infidel and forward stance. These don't effect speed but it makes the attack more dangerous, and raises questions about what happens when you then sustain the spell.
So the final monster looks like
Speed = 5 (base weapon) + 3 (advanced maneuver) + 7 (advanced spell) = 15 ticks, but not interruptible, right?
Recovery = 4 strain 11, CTN 32
Damage = d8 [for weapon] + d8 [for might] + 7 [from maneuver] +d4(primary)[from spell] + d6 [tier II forward stance] +d4(Chr)[ for smite infidel talent] +1 for a rune as well. = d8+d8+7+d4+d8+d6+d4+d8+1 = on average 34.5, though you have 3 stat dice that could blow up, so odds are decent for a slightly higher number.
Does everything in the 15' cone take this damage if hit? (at only a +1 to hit, since the smite bonus to hit is largely cancelled out by the forward stance penalty, and using melee (primary) for attack). Does the sustained repeat of the spell go off 4 ticks later? or 15 ticks later? When it does, what does it include in the damage? I assume the smite shouldn't propagate up through the sustained version of the spell, but I could see the argument that it could. What about the forward stance? As long as I stay in it, it applies?
What a mess!
I've stayed up way past my bedtime figuring this out enough to put into text, it took so long to build. It was great fun.