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Which Demolitions Specialisation would fit a firebug character?

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firebug

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« Reply #15 on: <08-16-16/1829:51> »
I came into this late.

Don't forget molotov cocktails and the Throwing skill.  Sadly they, nor white phosphorous grenades have stats in 5th yet, but both are in the 4e book Arsenal and I'm sure you or your GM could transfer them without much difficulty.

Keep in mind though, that honestly demolitions are only useful for what the name says.  Demolishing buildings and the like.  They're hilariously inadequate for using against people--  Or so it seems based on what I can understand from the table...  Getting a direct hit to the chest with 8 sticks of dynamite is only like...  five or six DV.

Here I was hoping for Fallout: New Vegas and using it like a grenade.
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MijRai

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« Reply #16 on: <08-16-16/2230:27> »
Molotovs are your friend.  C-4 and its relatives are friends too.  You don't just use those on their own for a pyro; you plant them on gas-lines or use them as the ignition/primary form of deployment for the device.  It exploding and spraying a 55 gallon drum of styrofoam soaked in bio-diesel all over is going to ruin someone's day.  Probably multiple someones, to be frank. 

By definition, space begins at about 100km, therefore we aren't talking about mana voids.

And I think you are severely overestimating the ability of a drone to carry a 1000kg weight into an area with about 0.16% of sea level air pressure.

Finally: 50km x 1000kg x 9.81g = 490.5 MJ ~ 110 kg of TNT
That's a lot, but not so much that you'd create an international incident - depending on your target and it's location you wouldn't even make the news, since you didn't actually use explosives but a meteor. Getting caught after the fact should be very, very hard to do if the drone was wireless off during the hit.

It'll still be a severe Ebb.  That Ebb will suck Force from the spell until you can't support it any more.  Force 5 can lift a 1,000 kilo hunk of metal.  Let's say 50km is a Mana Ebb of -7, as it's half-way between the ground and the Void that is space.  You'll have to cast the spell at Force 12 to get it up there, if you're lucky. 

This also doesn't factor in the fact that Levitate only lifts the item by (Force) meters per Combat Turn.  So, assuming a 3-5 second Combat Turn and the minimum Force because we won't factor in the Ebb, you've got an ascent of 60m to 100m a minute.  6kmph on the quick side is going to take you over eight hours of constantly lifting the thing; longer if we go with the longer Combat Turn.  And everybody and their pet spirit will probably notice the floating spell going up and up and up into the sky, hefting a makeshift meteor. 

I'm still not sure how you're going to target this drone if the Wireless is off; you have to communicate with it too.  This doesn't even factor in possible signal issues. 

How many people in the world have been struck by meteors?  I think the current count in recorded history is 1.  And they didn't die.  Someone getting hit by a meteor is going to get noticed out of novelty, if nothing else.  And when they examine the projectile and find it was actually a steel rod stolen from a construction site/manufacturing plant (which they could figure out by the composition)...  Yeah, fat chance a stunt like this isn't investigated.  You'd be better off sabotaging an actual launch and directing the falling craft at the target, with the hopes that you either covered your tracks really well or set up someone else for the fall. 

Finally, drone is a very loose term.  You could call an unmanned rocket a drone, which you could launch that height without a payload and drop on the head of your target just as easily.  Probably a better option than using magic. 
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Jack_Spade

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« Reply #17 on: <08-17-16/0234:37> »
@MijRai
I think we should take this discussion to a new thread. This has gone a bit away from fire based demolition attempts.  ;)
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kyoto kid

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« Reply #18 on: <08-17-16/0325:14> »
I came into this late.

Don't forget molotov cocktails and the Throwing skill.  Sadly they, nor white phosphorous grenades have stats in 5th yet, but both are in the 4e book Arsenal and I'm sure you or your GM could transfer them without much difficulty.

Keep in mind though, that honestly demolitions are only useful for what the name says.  Demolishing buildings and the like.  They're hilariously inadequate for using against people--  Or so it seems based on what I can understand from the table...  Getting a direct hit to the chest with 8 sticks of dynamite is only like...  five or six DV.

Here I was hoping for Fallout: New Vegas and using it like a grenade.
...as the character has an "arsonist streak", she would be looking to use it primarily on buildings.

However as I mentioned, in R&G it also mentions about using Demolitions for setting up booby traps and car bombs which are basically anti personnel devices.
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Herr Brackhaus

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« Reply #19 on: <08-17-16/0708:10> »
Yeah, I think Industrial Engineering fits this character perfectly, as an arsonist would likely need to know (or learn with experience) where to set a fire to burn down a building, and if I remember correctly there's at least a few times in Season 5/6 where Engineering skills might come in handy.