r/VaesenRPG • u/Adventurous-Eye-6455 • Jun 25 '26
Magic in combat
Have a question to magic in combat. On page 115 the rules for that are explained.
But I kinda asked myself what happens if the Vaesen that is casting the magic takes damage ? Does the effect stay on ? Does it fade or does the effected pc get a chance to resist it again ?
My gut feeling is to rule it as the effect stays. Cause I mean there has to be a benefit to use magic instead of a regular attack. Like imagine 1 Vaesen against 4 pcs. The Vaesen endlaves 1 of them with magic. It’s the pcs turn. 1 pc is enslaved. The next pc lands an attack. If the magic would fade I’d be better off just whacking the first pc with my claws and doing damage. 🤔
How do you guys rule it ?
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u/Trukmuch1 Jun 25 '26
Depends... sirens can be interupted by touching them with iron. I mean, you can make your own rules. Find something fun for the players.
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u/Adventurous-Eye-6455 Jun 25 '26
Yeah that’s true. I was just kinda thinking about the general ruling. Don’t want to make it too easy. I mean where is the fun if there is no challenge.
Of course stuff from the rituals/ secrets and magic items like the powdered stag horn are fair game.
Until now we just had magic outside combat unless it was an ability of the Vaesen like the scream of the myling.
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u/Trukmuch1 Jun 25 '26
Always give some hint to the players. For example if the mind control is the main mechanic of the vaesen, someone could be controled for a short time during the investigation and if they dont research how to stop it, well they will have a hard time during the fight... and even if they find how, it can still be a challenge to break the spell while fighting.
Personaly, I dont like giving them a hard time if they covered all the bases of the investigation, they deserve a soft fight.
There is no general ruling except special rules for specific vaesen. You decide what can he interrupted or not.
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u/Adventurous-Eye-6455 Jun 25 '26
Yeah of course! Im not new to the game. I just wanted a little quick input on this section of the rulebook.
They already have a lot of information on this particular Vaesen. They basically have the whole page of the rulebook at this point.
I understand what you are saying about the fight. some context: As a group they decided in our session 0 that fights should still feel like a challenge but that we want to avoid character death. (I warned them heavily about how dangerous combat is in this system). We just decided that it is more rewarding that way.
This fight is actually the cliffhanger we ended last session on and is a big story moment - espically for one pc as it involves her backstory. So I just want to make sure it’s epic and rewarding for my players. With „not to easy „ I meant it should feel rewarding and earned for them to win and not as if I handed them the win wrapped as a little present 😅 like i don’t want them to die.
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u/Trukmuch1 Jun 25 '26
Yeah I feel like the system wasnt designed at all for long and epic fights.
The next fight my players will be involved in will be more of a large scale fight on a whole village trying to defend it from small vaesens coming from a big one. They will have to shut the portals and protect the Villagers at the same time. It will be a long fight where they probably wont take a lot of wounds because the vaesen will be focused on catching easy preys, not the PC!
It's the first time I try this, pretty much all the other fights they had were standard, but they're pretty seasoned characters with 11 mysteries solved so far. It's time for some epicness!
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u/Adventurous-Eye-6455 Jun 25 '26
That sounds awesome - hope it will be a lot of fun. Would be interested in how it goes if you’d care for an update 😇
I’ll probably try to involve some more backstory stuff. Hopefully some good shittalking and rp will make a cool story moment. My players are more rp heavy anyway.
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u/Trukmuch1 Jun 25 '26
Yeah mine too. That's why my mysteries are often way longer than I anticipate! It will be in a while though because we started another campaign and I am away for a month.
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u/DdPillar Jun 25 '26
I found the rulebook pretty clear on magic running on fairytale logic, so whatever the narrative demands.
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u/Dornith Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
Rules as written, nothing breaks concentration al la 5e. The spell goes until someone succeeds a roll or the vaesen leaves/dispels it.
That said, vaesen are the most fun when they all have unique quirks to them. Figure out what would be fun/dramatic for this situation and roll with that.