get rece MAGIC LLERY SPELLS B il Written by SEAN PUNCH Illustrated by GLENN KRISTOFFERSEN, NEIL MELVILLE, and DAN SMITH Chief Executive Officer PHILIP REED Chief Creative Officer # SAM MITSCHKE Assistant GURPS Line Editor JASON "PK" LEVINE Chief Operating Officer # SUSAN BUENO GURPS Project Manager U STEVEN MARSH ‘Marketing Director # RHEA FRIESEN Executive Editor # MIRANDA HORNER Director of Sales # ROSS JEPSON Production Artist and Indexer H NIKOLA VRTIS Page Design & PHIL REED and JUSTIN DE WITT GURPS FAQ Maintainer H VICKY *MOLOKH” KOLENKO ‘Art Ditection and Prepress Checker # NIKKI VRTIS STEVE JACKSON GAMES Stock #37-0154 Version 1.0- May 2018CoNTENTS INTRODUCTION, 6.066 e eee eee reed About GURPS 3 Recommended Books 3 About the Author 3 1. Tue Art or ARTILLERY . . 4 Classifying Your Cannonade 4 Area Spells, 4 Regular Spels 4 Missile Spell 5 The Receiving End 3 Everything Else 6 Congregation of Colleges 6 By the Numbers 6 Damage 7 Duration 7 Energy Cost 7 Maintenance? 5 Time to Cast 8 Prerequisites 8 Tweaks 8 God fights on the side with the heaviest artillery — Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress 2, DEVASTATION! «60.66 e eee eee oD Magery and 9 Ac Spells. 9 ‘Cloud of Doom (VH). 9 Falling Sky (VH) 9 Twisting Tervor (VE) 10 Upping the Ante 10 Animal Spells 0 ‘Creeping Plague (Vid) 10 Body Control Spells n Death Field (VH). i Plague Touch (VI) " ‘Communication and Empathy Spells 2 Psychic Seream (VE) 2 Earth Spells 2 Boulder Barrage (VH). 2 ‘Sand Blast (VH) 12 ‘Seismic Shock (VH) 13 Enchantment Spells 8 ‘Doom Wish (VE) B ‘Vengeful Staff (VII) 14 ire Spells. 1% ire Swarm (Vi) 4 Improved Explosive Fireball (VH) 15 Towering Inferno (VH). 5 Gate Spel 15 Hell Zone (Vit) 16 Nall Sphere (VE) 16 Splat (VID) 6 Healing Spells. 16 Disinfect (VIN) "7 Ilusion and Creation Spells "7 Create Trap (VED. a Mirror, Mirror (VE 17 Light and Darkness Spells 18 ‘Sunburst (VED, 18 Sun's Arc (VE), 18 ‘Making and Breaking Spells 8 Explosive Mine (VE), 9 Minefield (VID, 19 Meta-Spells. 19 ‘Mana Storm (VE) 19 Punishment Circle (VE) 19 ‘Mind Control Spells 20 ‘Mass Mutilation (Vi) 20 Stabbing Party (VH) 20 Movement Spells 21 Collision (VE) a Crushing Fist (VID) 2 Slasher (VH) 2 Necromantic Spells 2 Spirit Incursion (VED) 2 Plant Spells. B Deuil’s Dust (Vi). B Tronweed (VID) 2B TU Take You All With Me!” 2B Self Destruct. 2B Protection and Warning Spells 4 Diminishing Dome (VE). 24 Force Ball (VE) 24 Sound Spells 35 Improved Concussion (VE) 3 Perilous Pulsations (VH) 25 Withering Wail (VE) 5 Technological Spells 5 Death Ray (VHD 6 Flammability (Vid 26 Water Spells 27 Artic Blast (VHD. 27 Cone of Corrosion (VED) 7 Scald (VE) n Wilting (VE) 28 Nature's Fury and Divine Wrath 28 Weather Spells 28 Chain Lightning (VI) 2» Ice Storm (VE) 29 Improved Explosive Lightning (VI) 29 INDEX. oes eee eee eee eee eee 30INTRODUCTION In a lot of high-powered fantasy gaming (especially com puter gaming), a key role of magic-wielders is slaughter- ing hordes of lesser opponents. Slang for magic capable of this—and its users ~is “artillery.” I's easy to see why: Such spells devastate areas and enemies indiscriminately, and though rarely effective against hard targets, particularly bosses,” they make short work of “cannon fodder. Few spells in GURPS Magic do this well, however. Many can harm multiple foes, but the damage is too low to penetrate Damage Resistance or to injure quickly enough to turn the tide of battle (eg. Fire Cloud, Hail, Rain of Acid, Rain of lee Daggers, Spark Cloud, and Stench), or diminishes too sharply with distance to delivereffective ‘crowd control (the principal Asout GURPS Steve Jackson Games is committed to full sup- port of GURPS players, We can be reached by email info@sjgames.com. Our address is SJ Games, P.0. Box 18957, Austin, TX 78760, Resources include New supplements and adventures. GURPS continues to {grow ~ see what's new at gurps.sjgames.com. Warehouse 23. Our online store offers GURPS print items, plus PDFs of our books, supplements, adventures, play aids, and support . . . including exclusive mate- rial available only on Warehouse 231 Just head over to warehouse23.com. Pyramid (pyramid.sjgames.com). Our monthly PDF ‘magazine includes new rules and articles for GURPS. It features systemless locations, adventures, and much more. ‘Look for each themed issue from Warehouse 23! Internet. To discuss GURPS with our staff and your fellow gamers, visit our forums at forums.sjgames.com, You can also join us at facebook.com/sjgames or twittercom/sjgames. Share your brief campaign teasers with #GURPShook on Twitter. Or explore that hashtag for ideas toadd to your own game! The GURPS Magic: Artillery Spells web page is gurps.sigames.convartilleryspells. Gamer and Store Finder (gamerfindersjgames.com): Connect with other people and places playing our games. Add yourself to our database so they can find you as well! Bibliographies, Bibliographies are a great resource for finding more of what you love! We've added them to many GURPS book web pages with links to help you find the next perfect element for your game. Enata, Everyone makes mistakes, including us- but ‘we do our best to fix our erzors. Errata pages for GURPS releases are available at sjgames.comlerratalgurps. Rules and statistics in this book are specifically for the GURPS Basic Set, Fourth Edition. Page references that begin with B refer to that book, not this one. drawback of Ball of Lightning, Concussion, Explosive Fiteball, and Explosive Lightning) ‘This is by design: Ifone spellcaster can do the job of a squad ‘of warriors, who'd play awarrior? On the other hand, in a high- points campaign where fighters regularly boast Extra Attacks, Heroic Archer, Weapon Master, sufficient skill for routine Rapid Suikes, and exotic moves like those in GURPS Martial Arts and GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 11: Power-Ups - as well, fs great gear, such as armor heavy enough to make wading into a mob with Whirlwind Attack (relatively) safe - it can be disappointing to play a wizard who must spend a turn or more ‘concentrating on each opponent Fortunately, magic-wielders in such campaigns pos- sess impressive resources of their own notably high levels of Magery, along with a lt of energy stored in abil- ities (either FP beyond normal limits or Energy Reserve) and equipment (Powerstones or, in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, power items). GURPS Magic: Artillery Spells arms casters with new ways to exploit these assets to deliver fantasy fre support. To avoid the classic RPG problem of every wiz- ard learning the same [ew spells-and to provide options for battling all kinds of enemies this cat- alog offers numerous ways to blast the battlefield. Savvy casters will learn more than one! And artillery magic isnt just for the heroes of high-powered fantasy, Many possibilities here suit the arch-villains of lower powered fantasy (giving adventurers something to fea), malicious cultists in tales of supernatural horror (pro- vviding ceremonial castings for protagonists to disrupt), and other NPC adversaries Get ready to blow stuff up! RECOMMENDED Books This supplement requires the GURPS Basic Set and GURPS Magic. To limit access to artillery magic, the GM might define such spells as the exclusive secrets of particular schools of magic, 35 defined in GURPS Thaumatology: Magical Styles and exemplified in GURPS Magical Styles: Dungeon Magic. AxovurT THE AUTHOR ‘Scan Punch set out to become a particle physicist in 1985 and ended up as GURPS Line Editor in 1995, In that capacity, he has waitten, edited, or contributed to some 150 GURPS releases, revised the game into is fourth ed- tion (2008), and been a regular contributor to Pyramid magazine. From 2008, he has served as the lead creator Of the GURPS Dungeon Fantasy series, which led to his design of the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game, released in 2017, Sean has been a gamer since 1979, but devotes most of his spare time to Argentine tango (and tceasionally tending bar). He lives in Montréal INTRODUCTION 3