Surprise Spells
Protection ●●●●● normally assumes the theurgist can easily see the hostile spell incoming. If the theurgist is hit by a spell from some one casting out of his line of sight (or cast very subtly) he needs to make a reflexive Wits + Alertness to react appropriately otherwise the spell cannot be blocked..
If the theurgist receives a beneficial spell he wasn't expecting, he needs to roll Wits + Alertness to not accidentally negate it.
Allocating Defense Against Attacks
A theurgist with Protection ●●●●● can decide how to use his "soak"s and how not to use it. That way, if the he is fighting a very dangerous magic user and a less dangerous magic user, he can prioritize the greater threat.
If the the theurgist is targeted by a spell he wishes to apply his soak against, he has to apply all his soak dice or the maximum successes rolled against him.
For instance if the theurgist banks five "soak"s from casting this spell then he gets targeted with a hex spell that scores three successes, he can negate zero or three successes from the attack. He cannot allocate one or two "soak"s against it.
If he does use three "soaks", he would have two left over. If he then gets targeted by another hex with three successes. He can negate zero or two successes from this attack, but not one.
This spell can be targeted on allies other than caster, but allies cannot decide whether to use this shield or not. When cast on another person, this spell absorbs the first obvious hostile spell received.
Energy absorption
If the caster or target of Protection ●●●●● already has Energy Shield up (from Protection ●● or
an arcane Abjurer, than Protection ●●●●● can not be used against
Invocation or
Wrath spells.
Proteciton ●●●●● cannot be used against breath weapons and non-spell based energy attacks at all.
Area of Effect Spells
Protection ●●●●● operates best against group attacks. If a multi-target spell attacks several people at once, and one of these targets is the theurgist with Protection ●●●●●, then "soaks" applied against that spell defend the entire group, not just the individual.
If an enemy spell-caster is very clever and either has the Spellcraft ability, he can deliberately cast an area of effect spell so that it
doesn't hit the enemy with Protection ●●●●●, in this case Protection ●●●●● won't protect the theurgist's allies at all though depending on who the theurgist and his allies are positioned, he might force the enemy caster to also cast around some of his allies (for instance anyone standing directly behind him).
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