[Rq-rules] Strike Rank Questions

[Simon Phipp]

Andre Powell:

> The first issue is as follows. On page 49 of the RQIII permabound edition, under the Melee Activities 
> section, is the example of Tostig who after being wounded on SR 4 decides he's going to drop out of 
> combat to cast a Heal 4 on himself thus, ".changing his Statement of Intent (costing 3 strike ranks) and 
> will begin casting a Healing 4 spell. The spell will require 7 strike ranks to cast (Tostig's DEX strike rank 
> modifier plus 1 per magic point in the spell). The spell will take effect on strike rank 1 of the next melee 
> round" (Perrin 49-50).

That may well be a misprint. The examples in RQ3 are generally pretty good, but some funnies do slip in now and again.

> Now.is the SR math here correct? Would someone in the know break it down for me. I see he's on SR 
> 4 when he decides to change his Statement of Intent, which costs him 3 strike ranks, so now he's on 
> SR7. The text now says the spell will require 7 strike ranks to cast, I'm assuming this is his SRM of 3 
> and 4 strike ranks for the four magic points in a Healing 4. That 7 plus the 3 from the changing 
> Statement of Intent and the SR4 when he was wounded equals 14 SRs, does it not? The begs the 
> question, how then could the spell take effect on strike rank 1 on the next melee round? Help me out.

Yes, 14 SRs, so he should be healed on SR4. It looks as though they didn't take into account the Change of Intent. 

> The second issue has to do with a "+3" strike rank modifier the origins of which I can't seem to 
> understand. On pages 48-49, under Modifiers and Magic Use it says, "If the adventurer begins a 
> second spell during the same melee round in which the first is cast, he must spend 3 strike ranks before 
> beginning the second spell." My questions are, how is this +3 addition derived? Where does it come 
> from? What is it for?

It'e the same rpinciple as weapon attacks happening in 3SR intervals. You have 3 SR to gather yourself up for the next action, whether it's casting a spell or attacking. 

> Related to this, but from the world of combat, is the concern of my third issue. On page 66's Missile 
> Weapons Table in the footnote concerning the definition of "1/SR" designations is says, "Use the 
> weapon on the adventurer's DEX strike rank, then on his DEX SR +3 +DEX SR again." The example 
> below it refers to the +3 addition to be the time it takes ".to get another arrow and notch it." My 
> question here is, if the +3 represents the movement of getting another arrow and notching it.what 
> happened the first time he fired the bow? Shouldn't it have been, from SR 1 of the round, +3 for 
> drawing and notching, fire on DEX SR, then another +3 for drawing and notching, followed by DEX SR 
> again?

If you are prepared then you have an arrow ready. The classic scenario is "Have an arrow prepared, fire, draw an arrow, fire, draw an arrow to prepare for next round".

If you have DEX SR 1, you could in theory fire on SR1, 5, 9 but then you'd have to wait until SR 3 next round to fire your next arrow, but I don't know of any GM that enforces that. As far as I am concerned, they can draw an arrow at the end of the round to be prepared for next round.

Although I use Strike Ranks, I am not overly restrictive on their use. I rarely carry actions over to the next round, except for large spells. I also use the RQ2 12 SR Rounds with RQ3's 3SR gaps, so my not-so quick archers can get an extra shot off if they are lucky (2, 7, 12 with DEX SR 2) because I'm such a nice GM.

See Ya

Simon
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