Action ideas for an electricity-based mage

[kardar233]

I'm currently playing in a free-form game in the Iron Kingdoms campaign setting with a couple of friends. I'm playing a Cygnaran lightning mage who is also a closet Thamarite, and it's been a ton of fun. Having the ability to generate electricity of really whatever voltage and amperage I want (to a wattage cap of course) has posed interesting problems and solutions; I find myself paying a lot more attention to the environment to see what I can do with it tactically. At one point we were in a corridor made of worked ferrous stone, where I could electrify the entire floor, incapacitating the enemy forces.

Now, I was recently reminded by my teammate (in a roundabout fashion) about the ability to create magnetic fields which I then used to fire a punching dagger as a railgun shot off my spread fingers. This brought to my attention that I had actually been missing out on a lot of possibilities that come with the lightning mage territory, but I'm struggling to think of them?

What kind of shenanigans can y'all think of when you can spontaneously generate electricity in a steam/magic/electro-punk setting?

[NikitaDarkstar]

Well if you're allowed to also be a human electro-magnet you can disarm enemies using the same tactics.... you might want to be careful with that one though, flying weapons can hurt.

Shocking anyone who tries to grab you when you don't want to be grabbed is a given. (Static electricity shield!)

Cooking food.

Welding metals together or cutting them open.

Starting fires.

Cleaning. (Don't laugh, static electricity is the best for getting rid of dust and animal hair! XD)

Levitate and/or create an irritating gas known as ozone. (side effect of levitating with electricity irl.) Making it hard to breathe for your enemies is always useful, right?

Make things explode.


Granted all of this depends on just how much electricity you can produce, but if you're at the point where you can create enough shock people through ferrous rock (hint, it might be ferrous, but rock is still a bad conductor.) you should be fine.

[kardar233]

Human electromagneting doesn't seem too viable, actually. Despite the fact that I can essentially superconduct I can't collapse the magnetic field like the iron nail does in a home-built coil-wound electromagnet which means that any magnetic fields I produce will be fairly scattered and omnidirectional, rendering levitation and standard electro-mag tricks fairly out of the question. Railgunning works fine because it's a studied interaction that focuses only on the magnetic field of a single conducting circuit.

Cooking is decent, but seeing as my companion is a Khadoran ex-Wolf of Orboros I won't be needing to cook my own food any time soon.

I'd clean forgotten about arc welding. That's exactly what I should have thought of. Not too clear on the mechanics of that, though; gotta hunt down a mechanical engineer friend.

Fires, for sure. I'm actually carrying around small samples of Menoth's Fury, which being essentially early napalm is handy.

Cleaning's a good one; I'm a Cygnaran noble, I've got to look sharp.

Not sure how to make things explode that wouldn't already. I've been detonating grenades and guns so far.

We haven't really established an upper limit on my electricity generation, but I'm fairly minimalist in its use. Apart from events like the floor shocking (and other, more successful versions where I've just spilled water all over the floor then done it) I'm generally just charging myself or my ally, detonating anything gunpowder-based nearby, or at one point, hijacking a warjack by manually zapping operating its cortex.

[Cespenar]

Soak two whips in water is all I'm going to say.

[kardar233]

I've already got a Lacerator, which is basically an evil bladed black iron chain whip of doom. I've also got a flaming three-headed scourge flail. I think between the pair of them I'm covered as far as conductive lash-type weapons go.

[NikitaDarkstar]

Only possible issue with arc welding I can see (if you want to be that realistic) is the need for an electric ground, but if you can sort that out you should be able to both cut in a similar way as a plasma cutter and weld in a way that's somewhat similar to a TIG welder. (Welding thin sheets of metal together either by just melting together the edges or adding moderate amounts of filler metal)

And if you can't turn yourself into an electro magnet you probably could turn a piece of metal into one, or build one and use yourself as the power source, which could come in handy at times.

As for the exploding thing, as I said it depends on the power you can generate, but ever taken a look on lightning hitting a tree or something that isn't overly conductive in itself? It explodes and the remains catch fire, that's an effect that can be recreated with smaller, less conductive things too. A powerful enough, sudden shock blows stuff up.

[Incom]

The human nervous system. Sufficiently precise electric shocks could be used to control enemy muscles. (Think of it like mind control, the And I Must Scream version where they're still conscious, but weaker)

[QuidEst]

Ooh, fun!
• Despite how most game mechanics work, somebody in metal armor would be better protected. Faraday cage! Still, their head is probably exposed, so you can still fry 'em.
• Water doesn't conduct electricity well unless it's salty.
• That said, getting somebody wet reduces the resistivity of their skin (a big part of their overall resistivity) by a factor of 10 to 100 or so.
• Electrifying the floor won't do much. Electricity wants to ground itself. Now, if you create a big voltage difference, then people standing with one foot closer to the bolt than the other will get an induced current in their body. Wider the stance, bigger the current. This is why nearby lightning strikes can be dangerous.
• How good are you at sensing electricity, and how much finesse? The human brain runs on it, and being able to identify pleasure and pain centers could be handy. Trouble with this is that it begs the question, "Why don't you just fry their brain?"
• For less finesse, people's muscles work on electricity as well. Dance, puppet, dance! It'd be really creepy and jerky, and work on bodies as well.
• St. Elmo's Fire makes for a very cool visual effect.
• Copper wire is your friend. It's your best way to get magnetic fields without heating up too much. (Even then, you're limited by how much you can do without melting it.) Sew magnets into your cloak and have a copper wire coil belt- windless billowing. Have a glove with a coil of it as well for grabbing stuff.
• Inductive heating works in people's weapons and armor.
• Free electricity! If there's a thunderstorm, apply high voltage and low current to get a plasma channel started. The thunderstorm will finish the job, and you can make called shots with lightning bolts.
• Separate hydrogen and oxygen, then ignite.

Hope that helps!

[Radar]

(...) What kind of shenanigans can y'all think of when you can spontaneously generate electricity in a steam/magic/electro-punk setting?

Being Magneto: just look up, what he was using his powers for.

[kardar233]

The human nervous system. Sufficiently precise electric shocks could be used to control enemy muscles. (Think of it like mind control, the And I Must Scream version where they're still conscious, but weaker)

I've actually used more blunt versions on a couple of occasions; just giving someone a high-voltage jolt of DC causes all their muscles to contract, letting me kill them easily.

Ooh, fun!
• Despite how most game mechanics work, somebody in metal armor would be better protected. Faraday cage! Still, their head is probably exposed, so you can still fry 'em. Depends on contact between armor and person; not all armor is fully padded. I'll take a look.
• Water doesn't conduct electricity well unless it's salty. Fair enough. I'll salt my combat water skins.
• That said, getting somebody wet reduces the resistivity of their skin (a big part of their overall resistivity) by a factor of 10 to 100 or so. I'm already dealing with enough amperage to cook opponents' brains, but for ranged bolts that might help.
• Electrifying the floor won't do much. Electricity wants to ground itself. Now, if you create a big voltage difference, then people standing with one foot closer to the bolt than the other will get an induced current in their body. Wider the stance, bigger the current. This is why nearby lightning strikes can be dangerous. That's a good explanation for the effect I was looking for. Thanks.
• How good are you at sensing electricity, and how much finesse? The human brain runs on it, and being able to identify pleasure and pain centers could be handy. Trouble with this is that it begs the question, "Why don't you just fry their brain?" Character's a bit of a sadist, so going through the pain centres misses half the fun. Direct stimulation of pleasure centres might be a good reward system though.
• For less finesse, people's muscles work on electricity as well. Dance, puppet, dance! It'd be really creepy and jerky, and work on bodies as well. Forgot that I can use it on recent corpses. Pseudo-necromancy, here I come!
• St. Elmo's Fire makes for a very cool visual effect. Had to look that up. Might be nice.
• Copper wire is your friend. It's your best way to get magnetic fields without heating up too much. (Even then, you're limited by how much you can do without melting it.) Sew magnets into your cloak and have a copper wire coil belt- windless billowing. Have a glove with a coil of it as well for grabbing stuff. I might just start carrying around iron rods for solenoid cores. Coil glove would be a good plan.
• Inductive heating works in people's weapons and armor. Not very efficient, last I looked. Would take a lot of work just to heat the metal to useful temperatures.
• Free electricity! If there's a thunderstorm, apply high voltage and low current to get a plasma channel started. The thunderstorm will finish the job, and you can make called shots with lightning bolts. I approve of this plan. Very much.
• Separate hydrogen and oxygen, then ignite. Takes a lot of energy to do electrolysis, and I don't really have a good way of doing airtight storage. Could look into that, would be a lot more efficient that gunpowder.

Hope that helps!

Responses in bold.

[ZeroGear]

While not fantasy base, check out the series Toaru Kagaku no Railgun. The main character Mikoto Misaka is an Electromaster, and one of the seven Level 5 Psychics in Academy City, earning her the nickname "Lightning Princess" and "Railgun" after her most powerful attack.
It may help for inspiration.

[NikitaDarkstar]

About water and salt, that's not quite correct either. It's impurities and TDS's (total dissolved solids) that makes water conductive, and salt is one of them, but not the only one. (Pretty much the only water that's pure enough to insulate will be found in a laboratory environment.)

[ZeroGear]

About water and salt, that's not quite correct either. It's impurities and TDS's (total dissolved solids) that makes water conductive, and salt is one of them, but not the only one. (Pretty much the only water that's pure enough to insulate will be found in a laboratory environment.)

Out of curiosity, did you get that from the Accel World series, or because you study chemistry?

Either way you are correct.

Oh, another fun trick with electricity is using it to create a spark after filling a room full of flour. Gotta love dust explosions.

[QuidEst]

Being Magneto: just look up, what he was using his powers for.

Way too much power to do that in general, and it wouldn't work like Magneto- he manipulates the fields, so he can get unnatural arrangements. Controlling electricity means you can only induce natural ones and have to have current flowing every which way for anything strong and/or complex.

•Depends on contact between armor and person; not all armor is fully padded. I'll take a look. The contact isn't important- if you're in a Faraday cage, you can poke and prod the inside all you want with no risk.
•Fair enough. I'll salt my combat water skins.H'enjoy!
•I'm already dealing with enough amperage to cook opponents' brains, but for ranged bolts that might help. Cooking people's brains is actually pretty inefficient- stopping their hearts takes almost trivial current.
•That's a good explanation for the effect I was looking for. Thanks. Glad to help!
•Character's a bit of a sadist, so going through the pain centres misses half the fun. Direct stimulation of pleasure centres might be a good reward system though. Be a little creative- hitting the pleasure center repeatedly to form a psychological addiction to something is much creepier. I think it's also quite a bit easier to pull off, although I'm not sure.
•Forgot that I can use it on recent corpses. Pseudo-necromancy, here I come! Of the creepy puppeteer variety!
•Had to look that up. Might be nice. Protip- electric fields are strongest around sharp points. It'll form there first. Otherwise, spikes are usually bad- you reach breakdown voltage sooner with much less charge.
•I might just start carrying around iron rods for solenoid cores. Coil glove would be a good plan. Nice! Iron core coil gloves might be a little cumbersome, but the iron could be a plate on the back? Not as good, but workable.
•Not very efficient, last I looked. Would take a lot of work just to heat the metal to useful temperatures. Quite right. I'd save this as a sort of "limit breaker"- if you've got an excuse for having lots of power (eg. the DM lets you absorb a lightning bolt), you can pull it off.
•I approve of this plan. Very much. Waste not, want not. The DM describes a storm, you know you'll be using it for something.
•Takes a lot of energy to do electrolysis, and I don't really have a good way of doing airtight storage. Could look into that, would be a lot more efficient that gunpowder. Yeah, I'm not really sure what to use it for exactly. You're not going to get an explosion so much as a puff of flame or a little fireball. More for the dramatic SET WATER ON FIRE than anything.

About water and salt, that's not quite correct either. It's impurities and TDS's (total dissolved solids) that makes water conductive, and salt is one of them, but not the only one. (Pretty much the only water that's pure enough to insulate will be found in a laboratory environment.)

Quite right- but tap water is a good enough insulator that you can't use it as part of a circuit. When people think of water being conductive, that's usually what they're looking for. Dissolve a good deal of salt- the most convenient electrolyte I can think of- and you can stick wires on either end of a glass and still get your little lightbulb glowing.

Oh, another fun trick with electricity is using it to create a spark after filling a room full of flour. Gotta love dust explosions.

Aww man, you beat me to it! I was going to suggest just throwing flour (or fine sawdust) and igniting it for a flashy effect, though. Blowing up their grain storage is a lot better.


For a nice set of visual references and tricks, you can always check out PowerLabs. They do stuff like railguns, disk shooters, etc.