ISoB: alright, alright! it is neither flach nor armor, but somewhere in between. That's final for this spell.
Note that no non-sorcery charms have this kind of weakness, and none of the artifacts listed can explode in your face so easily. If I was going for pure combat advantage, I would not want to give my character such a huge and obvious weakness.
A 'weakness' is not a single charm. The majority of opponents, even significant opponents, are not going to have emerald countermagic. Also, using countermagic is itself a dangerous thing to do, as it violently realizes the essence and (unless the counterer is a DB or the spell is combo-ed) uses up their charm for the turn.
Wood Dragon's Claw is own as one of the most potent attack charms because of it's flexibility. Someone going for pure combat effectiveness would learn sorcery specifically
because of the two charms we are talking about.
compare Wood Dragon's Claws with a 2 dot orichalcum Seven Parts Staff with the Snake Style charm that makes this staff do lethal damage.
uh-huh. This is a completely fair comparison. "Lets compare the effectiveness of a single charm to the effectiveness of a 2-dot artifact AND a charm specifically designed to make the artifact better and then say the first is weak."
Wood Dragon's Claw is one of the nastiest spells in the game, not because it allows you to use a powerful weapon, but because it lets you use almost ANY powerful weapon you can come up with. Invulnerable Skin of Bronze is powerful not because it gives a great soak and hardness, but because it
stacks with normal armor.
Compare Glorious Solar Saber to Wood Dragon's Claw. Compare Racing Hare Method to Stormwind Rider. Compare Invulnerable Skin of Bronze to Glorious Solar Plate. Compare Infallible Messenger to the Awareness charms. Can you honestly say that spells are completely balanced versus other charms?
Yes, spells are more difficult to activate, but that's not a factor unless you are either using an instant-duration spell or get ambushed. Yes, they take longer to learn, but spellcasters get to imitate charms from a half-dozen different abilities without needing any of their prereqs. Yes, they cost more motes to activate, but they also do more and last longer. When you get right down to it, spells are just plain
better than other charms.
If I wasn't requiring half the essence to be committed, you'd be walking around with ISoB and WDC on all the time. You'd cast them hours ahead of time and have all the essence regenerated. You'd effectively get a 3-dot weapon and a 4-dot armor by learning two charms instead of finding two artifacts. The worse part of this is that you could then pick up a 3 dot weapon and a three-dot artifact and
stack them with your two charms.
Of course, you're still going to do this. I'm not telling you that you can't do this. I am, in fact, giving you permission to do this. I'm just making it a little more difficult.
I'm not trying to screw you over, I'm trying to be fair.
