Goodman Games

I started playing a couple of weeks ago and we haven't had a break long enough for me to cast Find Familiar, but I have a question for when it comes up. It says a minimum spellburn of 10 is required, but does that mean those points are "consumed" by the spell and don't provide a bonus, or does it just mean I have to use at least 10 points of spellburn, giving me at least a 10+ bonus? If I burned 15 points at the end of the ritual, would I get a +5 or a +15?

Or is it just completely up to my GM? What would you say if you were the GM in this case?

I wonder the same, so I checked the book. It says:

DCC Core Rulebook pg. 107 wrote:Some spells and magical items require spellburn to function, as noted in their description.

...and nothing more. Page 316 where the familiars are detailed makes no reference to your question, nor does any spell entry that requires spellburn to work (i.e. Chill Touch, Invoke Patron, Demon Summoning, etc.). What those spells do say, however is they require at least 1 point of spellburn, and Find Familiar requires a minimum of 10 points. This leads me to believe those required points do in fact add to your check. Also note that if those 10 points counted, you could only fail the spellcheck on a natural 1 (or with other spellcheck penalties due to armor, etc.).

Personally I count all spellburned points toward the spellcheck because it seems cool to do so.

I hope this (or someone else's correction of this) helps!

It's up to the Judge, and I always give the bonus, and here's why: Chill Touch.

Chill Touch requires at least 1 point of spellburn. If you roll a natural 1 on a spell-check while spellburning you permanently lose 1 ability point. As a Judge, I figure if you're going to risk a 5% chance of permanent ability loss everytime you cast Chill Touch, you deserve the +1.

Thanks, that's what I would have thought, but it sounds like I just need to ask my judge when it comes up.

I would second the "you get the bonus" approach.

But I would also be aware that spellburn means lingering trouble, since you're weakened. Never assume you can just rest and heal it all back before anything important occurs.