So, I ran my first session of a campaign using the Genesys rules. I am adapting a story from Paizo - The Ruins of Azlant.

One player is going for a Druid type character. Now, whether or not we were properly figuring up the dice pool is separate from this point. That player has 2 ranks in the Primal skill along with a 4 in Cunning. 2 yellow, 2 green. They were casting a spell vs 1 purple. That just felt way too easy.

How has magic played out in y'alls games?

I’v been playing a Primalist as a monk. I’ve been enjoying reskinning attack magic as my monks martial ability.

You are correctly calculating the dice pool and that the base attack spell is an easy check, however with no effects and a crit 5 it’s the d20 equivalent of a cantrip attack. Want a fireball? Add burn and blast and now it’s 3 purple. Want that fireball to do double base damage? Add empowered for 5 purple and that technically requires a story point to even attempt.

Remember as @ESP77 said that is just the base difficulty. Meaning it only has a short range (and cannot target anything engaged with the caster), and no qualities associated with it. Which might not seem like much, but it's also the exact same difficulty for a ranged weapon attack at short range. In addition with out additional effects (from the table on page 215 CRB) it has no crit rating either, meaning it can only crit on a triumph. Also as a gm, make sure to look over the "Spending threat and despair on magical skill checks" table on page 210 CRB it has some additional options (because the combat threat and despair table is still in play on combat checks) that are suited for magical skills. Lastly, remember that the 2 strain for casting a spell is done after the dice are resolved. It's very important for the balancing of spells because that means advantage from the roll cannot be used to heal the strain (though advantage from future rolls can be).

As a side note, i really like the idea of a reskinning magical attacks as monk like abilities, that is a cool concept.

To further show how I was mishandling the dice pool - I was apparently under the impression last night that Primal did not get access to the attack actions. Whoops. So, in lieu of that the player was trying to create something similar to Black Tentacles from Pathfinder. Without doing any damage obviously. They were in short range. Our group ended up going with the Conjuration action. Setting aside the Triumph that was rolled she had like 3 total successes. I figured that was enough to hold the minion group in place.

How would you all have setup the difficulty? Again she rolled 2 yellow and 2 green vs one purple.

18 minutes ago, Mogloth said:

To further show how I was mishandling the dice pool - I was apparently under the impression last night that Primal did not get access to the attack actions. Whoops. So, in lieu of that the player was trying to create something similar to Black Tentacles from Pathfinder. Without doing any damage obviously. They were in short range. Our group ended up going with the Conjuration action. Setting aside the Triumph that was rolled she had like 3 total successes. I figured that was enough to hold the minion group in place.

How would you all have setup the difficulty? Again she rolled 2 yellow and 2 green vs one purple.

Short range is default. Immobilized is Ice. So difficulty is 2 purple. With a cunning of 4 and 3 success that’s 7 damage plus the implement. Let’s assume staff so 4 more. So 11 damage and immobilized. Pretty darn good.

Don’t get locked into the names of upgrades. Ice doesn’t have to literally be ice. It can be vines erupting from the ground or black tentacles.

I was typing a response but @ESP77 said exactly what i was going to. Though i would add to remember that attack spells are attacks, so ranged/melee defense applies as normal, and soak applies to damage. I only mention that because it is a often missed by those new to the system ?

I must commend you @Mogloth , you had a player ask to do something and rather than dig through a book for 15 minuets you simply made a judgment and kept the game going. I would also say that if a character said they wanted to make vines grow up and grab their enemies without causing damage then Conjure is an excellent spell and the one I would have chosen.

Edit: for the difficulty I would adjust it based on the power of the target. A minion group would only require the base spell, plus range effects as required. A Rival and some Nemesis I would require the Medium Summon Upgrade as well. For a significantly large or powerful foe I would ask for the Grand Summon additional effect

For just a control spell conjure would 100% be the route to take. I was going off the assumption he wanted it to do damage at the same time, which to me says attack spell.