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Well, Lina is also capable of throwing spells without actually casting. Her fireball certainly has a varying degree of area effect (from blowing up a town to just blasting craters in the ground). It would appear that she needs to chant spells to make them more effective, but she can basically throw around lower level spells at will. She's a sorc by D&D terms, which means little to no spell casting, and just the innate ability to say "You die now," and do just that. But yes, the only spells she can really hit Ranma with are the huge area effect spells.

However, you've got to take into account several things. First, Lina loves the Raywing/Levitation spell, she uses it a lot, and she's definately not above floating high up out of reach and raining death down on her opponents. Ranma can jump very high, but Lina can fly higher, and much faster (Raywing gets them from city to city in a matter of minutes) Secondly, Ranma's a cocky b*****d, he's not going to rush in for a quick finish, he's going to show off, and that's always been one of his greatest weaknesses. Additionally, Lina's a girl, he can't just run up and hit her, he doesn't do that, he'd try to find some way to disable her without hitting her, and that'll be a huge problem because the moment Lina realizes the danger that Ranma possess (which would be fairly quickly since she can usually tell a good fighter on sight... Gourry being an exception because he's got jellyfish brains).

Really, it's a battle of attrition. Lina can dodge any of Ranma's projectiles while airbourne, and Ranma can dodge almost all of Lina's projectiles, save the Dragon Slave, the Giga Slave, and potentially the Ra Tilt (which, apparently, always hits...). You can argue that she has enough control over something like the Garv Flare or the Digger Volt to make them wide range attacks, but you don't see enough of it to say.

The win goes to whoever stays patient the longest, though I'm favouring Lina because she's not above just nuking the entire place from the sky, and she has used the Dragon Slave for far less important things. The Giga Slave won't be used, since Lina fears losing control and she saves it for Dark Lord level threats (Shabranigdo and Phil come to mind). The Laguna Blade is pointless because Ranma can dodge, though it has more potential hitting power then the Giga Slave, if done correctly (I'm unsure if she can adjust the length of the blade, not that it'll make a difference).

Basically, if Ranma gets impatient, he'll do something stupid, which means Lina nukes him. If Lina gets impatient, she'll move in for an easier shot, which will put her within striking distance of Ranma, which means he gets grapple and he wins.

You win. gonk

4laugh VICTOLY!!

Yooooy. heart

redface

RAWR!

I hope you feel better in the morning. heart

I'd say that depends how serious Ranma is. If he goes all out from the beginning, Lina loses. If he starts off joking and Lina goes all out first, Lina stands more of a chance. Dragon Slave seems like it'd be more powerful than the chi blasts in Ranma (other than HSH) , and I estimate that'd probably do some damage. Ragna blade, if it hits, would also do some serious damage I'd put Gaav and Phibrizo at either Saffon's level or a little higher, so since they hurt the two of them, they'd be able to hurt Ranma. As for Giga Slave (Not that Lina'd use it), that would knock everything out. But if Ranma's serious, he can close in before the incantation finishes and beat Lina.

Backlog. Blarg!

EDIT: One other thing to point out after looking at your posts in that thread; Good Ol' Shabbydingo is about the closest thing (Other than the Lord of Nightmares) to a god on that plane. I think that his minions (Gaav, Phibrozzo, Deep Sea Dolphin, Beast Master Zelas, and that one I can never remember) would be the equivalents of Demi-gods like Saffron is.

A situation where Lina's overconfidence hurts her. True, Gourry can leap pretty damn high, but he can't come close to comparing to Ranma. All I have to say here is that when you're hovering maybe fifty or so feet off the ground, the element of surprise can be a real b***h, and Lina has regularly been surprised by lesser tactics. Remember, her tactics are far more deductive than intuitive, its Gourry that reads the opponents.

Slayers cities are close together, you can walk from one to another in less than one day, which can easily place Raywing speed at less than a hundred miles an hour, and its full speed doesn't maintain full maneuverability. Also, its primary benefit in evasion seems to be mainly that you're given an extra dimension to dodge in, not any incredible boost to over dodging abilty from a standstill (the default movement level for Lina when she's casting spells airborne unless she's on one of her strafing runs).

He's also not one to let his opponent get too far away during a fight, losing his ability to defeat them and give him the chance to gloat. And you have to admit, the initial bid for distance of the Levitate or Raywing would look just like that.

True, he wouldn't begin the fight with a quick beatdown, but neither would Lina begin with an immediate retreat to nuking distance. As a matter of fact, her initial strike is usually a fireball, something easily dodged.

Would obvious use of ranged magic make our boy reassess the danger this girl presents? Furthermore, would it stop him from using his other tricks to attempt to disable her until she made it clear to him that a beatdown was required? He has beaten down girls for things as trivial as food before... hence the Shampoo mess.

Ra Tilt, like all the astral attack spells, cannot harm humans according to Slayers Canon. Astral attack spells only harm the Monster race and those infused with their power. No monster or no contract = no damage. It functions on the fact that monsters don't truely exist on the same plane as humans, they are always in the astral plane, dealing with the physical plane through the use of bodies created by their powers and containing a bit of their essence.

She can alter her spells, but not on the fly. She generally takes time between combat to make the changes unless she has a powerful item like the Sword of Light she can infuse the spell into.

True, but without money on the line or monsters to defeat, the DS isn't usually a first resort. The few times she hauls it out as a first strike are almost all upon finding out that she's been tricked or scammed. Hell, even Naga doesn't get the DS dropped on her without good reason, and Lina's done far worse to her than anyone outside the monster race.

And given that Ranma will have no problem heaping the verbal abuse on her, its less an issue of him outwaiting her and more an issue of what she'll do when she's finally raving mad. Will it lead to a DSing or a strafing run. If its a strafing run, its over.

And I'd like to thank you for the only good debate I'll likely have on this topic... already people are pulling out Astral Break and Ra Tilt in the main thread... in addition to counting a forced transformation to boy Ranma a retreat/forfeit.

I don't think that Ranma would dominate this fight, but I do think that defeating the people in the main thread will be simple.

Personally, I think best way Lina would win would be if she knew he was a guy and used her innocent act to maneuver for a crippling blow when he was off guard, but when they said girl type....