I'm not being smug about it, the only people arguing about this in the hobby shops i play in around here, including a GW battle bunker, were the dark elf players. They wanted an *incredibly* overpowered 25 point item, which is not what GW intended when they created it. Coincidentally these players are also the only people around here that argue over the older stupid things like the flame cannon not being a flaming attack (What? Read the description of the war machine
) or the gyrocopter not flying (I'll wait, go grab a dwarf book and read the gyrocopter entry. No seriously, Do It.).
There is RaW, Rule as Written, and RaI, Rule as Intended. RaI is not some mystical precognitive ability to get inside GWs collective heads. Its just common sense.
Page 105 of your BrB under spells at the beginning of the magic section.states,
" In the players Magic Phase, his Wizards can cast spells. These can be terrible destructive, or powerfully protective, or might confer special abilities on the caster or other models. A comprehensive list of spells is given later.
Some races have their own unique types of spells that they use instead of those in this book. These are not described here as there are a great many, and they are only of specific interest to a player who owns that particular army. They are therefore included in the Warhammer Army book for each race."
There are six steps to cast magic,
1. Generate Power and Dispell Dice
2. Cast (well get to this in a second.)
3. Dispell
4. Spell Fails or Succeeds
5. Repeat 2-4
6. Dispell Spells in Play.
The other 5 are fairly straightforward so well just focus on #2 Casting a spell. (But as we will see later even the BrB has spells that don't fall into this one single sentence that the fuss was over.)
The sentence poeple are fighting over is on page 107.
"To cast a spell, a Wizard nominates one of his spells to cast and
declares the target of the spell."
A perfect example of a spell that does not have a target, and hence you cannot nominate one, is second sign of amul from the lore of the heavens. This has no target. But can affect several units accross the table over the course of that turn. If we go with one side of the arguement, this spell HAS to have a target right? So well go with the player as the target. Now lets put the caster on the far right hand side of the table, and the player on the left. A dark elf character on this players table edge is also on this left side of the table 9 inces away from our players leg. Next we'll say that second sign of amul is cast irresistibly. According to the logic they are using this spell has miscast because it is targeting something within 12 inches of the ring, and miscasts take precedence over irresistible force.
Or Second Sign of Amul could just go off and give the player his D3 re-rolls.....
Just reading the question that was asked should answer itself,
"Q. Do area of effect spells such as Wind of
Undeath miscast on a double if they affect any
model within 12" of the Ring of Hotek? And
how about spells that do not specify a target
location until
after they have been
successfully cast?
A. Neither of these are affected by the Ring of
Hotek, as such spells are not ‘targeted’ at any
specific point before being cast."
Lets go back to the basics.
1. Generate Power and Dispell Dice - Ok we have our dice pools.
2. Cast - Ok again well say i throw 2 dice and get double sixes.
3. Dispell - It's Irresistible you can't.
4. Spell Fails or Succeeds - Using their question, we are successful, meaning we have not miscast, not been dispelled and have beaten the casting value of the spell.the spell does its damage,healing,super mega shield,throw my guy across the table, makes me a samich and we move on to step 5.
5. Repeat 2-4 - That was my last Spell.
6. Dispell Spells in Play. We don't have any on the table. the magic phase is over.
Sorry for being so long winded. I just hate power creeping. It ruins the atmosphere when you are playing games to have someone who argues EVERY rule while you are playing them, without stopping to think if there was a solution right in front of them. players like this tend to look at one aspect of a problem if it helps them, and ignore it if it hinders.
Now I'm not saying that GW has the best coterie of writers on the planet. There are gray (grey* for you people not from the U.S. that talk like that. I'm looking at you Britain.) areas in their books. The first 2 i mentioned above are good examples. Didn't really need an FAQ for most of the player base, as we are looking for a fun game and can use common sense. Yet rather than get some other question answered we needed an FAQ to tell people to shut up about the flame cannon NOT being flaming, or gee, that skaven flamethrower uses FIRE.
Ok now I'm really sorry for being so long winded. I've gotten off the topic and started ranting.
Rant over.
