We played with the Terrinoth magic rules for the first time today. The RAW specifically address how to spend threat generated when casting a spell. But our players had different interpretations of how to spend ADVANTAGE generated on a magic roll. One guy said that the rules only discuss soending threat so you cannot spend advantage during magic checks. The other guy says he believes that you should be able to spend advantage when casting spells because the Terrinoth rules don't specifically say you can't.

Then we also debated about using advantage to recover/cancel the two strain generated when casting a spell. For example, can you can't a spell, generate two strain, roll 2+ advantage and then recover the two strain of casting the spell?

We are house ruling that you CAN spend advantage but we are saying that you can only spend one advantage to recover strain incurred by casting a spell.

What do you all think?

You can always spend advantages. In fact, there are certain things you have to have advantages to do when casting. For instance, when attacking, any qualities that normally take to activate - Burn, Blast, Auto-Fire, etc - still require to activate. You can also spend  to regain strain, 1 point per   spent.

What you cannot do, however, is spend to restore strain caused by the spell you just cast. The rules in the Core Rulebook specifically state that you suffer two strain after the dice are resolved , which means after all the dice symbols are used to do what you're doing with them. You can use to restore strain you already had when you started casting, but not the two strain you receive from the spellcasting action itself.

I’m only posting to throw more support behind @Simon Retold than a simple like can convey. Advantage can definitely be spent to do cool things with magic, particularly the attack spell can definitely use the “spending advantage and Triumph in Combat” (p104 GCR) table, but all spells cast in combat should have the opportunity to use those options.

For example perhaps you cast the Basic Augment Spell on yourself with Primal Fury added and generate a success with two advantage. You decide to narrate yourself shape shifting into a large black bear, so you spend the Advantage to take a second free manoeuvre for the round and activate your Grapple talent, the foe won’t be easily escaping your Bear Hug this turn.

Simon, I didn't realize that about spending  to restore strain. But, if I generate  on that second spell I cast, I'm pretty sure that strain from the first spell will be recovered. ?

I would allow someone to use the combat chart and things similar to spend  on. Like, shooting a force missile attack spell at someone and spending my    to disarm the guy. hehehe

You can use Advantages for anything you can use Advantages for, including healing Strain. The interpretation of billing the Strain after resolving the pool is contradicted if you're that nit picky on p. 215 when the last paragraph of the Action section just before Attack says you suffer the Strain when you perform the Action. Which is it then? I think the intent of the entry bolded on page 211 is that you suffer Strain whether the roll is successful or not.

The basic dice pool rules talk about a number of things that need to be 'resolved' when dice are rolled and failure/success is the first one. I think that's the point of the entry on p. 211 and not that all results of the dice pool are resolved, then the Strain is billed. I don't like that interpretation since by that logic a PC could be at their Strain threshold with no Strain left to use and be able to cast a spell, I wouldn't allow that.

@2P51 The text you cited on page 215 doesn't contradict page 211 since it doesn't specify when the strain is suffered. If anything it's just a friendly reminder that there is a cost to casting a spell that requires a dice roll.

I'm not debating my opinion, good day.

2 minutes ago, 2P51 said:

I'm not debating my opinion, good day.

/tips hat. Good day to you, too

If you bill them afterwards for the strain and they're currently too low to pay it, the narrative upside is they're casting themselves unconscious. Seems downright heroic.

Even at full strain, they're always going to have some strain on them after casting, no matter how lucky their rolls are. That's at least some downside to using a rest between fights to attempt to completely heal the party instead of recovering strain. Not only would you not recover, but you'd potentially be even lower going into the next scene.

I was under the impression that you couldn't voluntarily exceed your strain threshold, but I can't seem to find anything about that in the CRB or in the EotE:CRB either, so my guess is that this is intentional. However, if RAW and the intent behind it is really important, I'd suggest using the official form for rules questions and ask for a clarification. But in the end, it's your table, you ARE the rules

Yeah, that does seem awefully heroic. Say I do cast a spell taking me above my strain threshold by 1. And, I generate some advantage. Do I use that advantage to heal up that strain or do I use it to activate the ability / special effect of the spell I just cast? Nice! I like that and it puts another narrative tale in the PCs hands! w00t!