i mean, you're a circle 5 nethermancer now. you can get a second enhanced matrix and keep astral spear locked and loaded, allowing you to use karma on the spellcasting test if you want. it won't be *quite* as much of a punch as you'd get from a melee weapon (assuming you've forged that weapon a few times), but it'll be pretty close, and i'd be surprised if your spellcasting was not generally speaking far superior to your melee weapon skill. or you could load spirit dart and hit 2 targets for lower damage, but overall probably deal more, now that you can get an enhanced matrix. or you could blind two targets. or cast pain on one for some pretty substantial penalties.Lamoron wrote: ↑Sat Dec 28, 2019 1:42 amI don't mind them coming close, I'm built for short but deadly melee fights if spells don't work. Problem is, that unless initiative is in the right order, having the Bone Spirit limits my movement a lot, or I've wasted an action summoning it. If it's on one side, 5 yards away, and an enemy shows up on the other side 10 yards away, and I win initiative, then I suddenly have to delay instead of just getting stuck into melee, or the BS goes Poof.Sharkforce wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2019 11:45 pmwell, apart from a relatively small amount of legend points, you get a pretty reliably useful buff out of the other spell that fits into the same matrix. so it doesn't really need to be constantly useful. but i do think lots of times 10 yards will be sufficient. an aura of "don't come within 10 yards of me" isn't exactly bad on a nethermancer in combat either =P
Sure I can sling spells instead, but melee is so much more deadly, and I have to declare stances (aggressive/defensive) before rolling initiative, which makes it even more fiddly. It's not useless by any means, but all things considered I'm beginning to think I could use that Matrix for something better.
as a circle 5 nethermancer, i'm not so sure that melee is really going to be *that* much better than spellcasting any more. even on the damage front. you're looking at perception + spellcasting talent (and optional karma) instead of dex + melee weapon skill (with no option for karma) for the attack roll, and willpower + 4 on the damage test instead of strength +5 (assuming best one-handed weapon damage) + forging (i'm gonna guess you've managed maybe rank 4?). oh, and the melee weapon is against physical, while astral spear is against magical armour... which will sometimes be better, sometimes not i guess.
so... melee damage will have a step of like... 4 higher maybe? assuming your willpower step is at least 1 point better than your strength (if the difference is larger between those two, obviously it gets even closer). plus you can spend karma on your attack roll. plus your perception is probably better than your dexterity. plus your spellcasting talent is probably higher than your melee weapons skill. and since you can use astral spear, your damage scales with successes just like melee too.
are you really sure that *your* melee weapon damage is actually superior by a significant margin at this point? i mean, there are probably people in your group that do have melee damage that makes your current spell damage look bad, i'm just feeling a bit doubtful that *your* melee damage is that much better.
i'm also not at all certain that your melee damage is better than the non-damaging effects you could offer as a spellcaster (some of your 1-thread spells, including 0 thread spells with a bonus thread, can be pretty crippling and represent both a substantial damage to the damage from the rest of the group as well as extra protection for the rest of the group; blind enemies have -2 to their defence ratings, -4 to most of their action tests including attacking and dodging, and become subject to surprise strike, and you can do that to two targets every round. depending on GM interpretation, you might even be able to increase those penalties to -4 and -6 by spending karma, although it's at best debatable whether the 5th circle nethermancer ability is supposed to make magically blinded enemies more than 100% blind )