In the DF games that I've been involved in, the one rules change that made wildcard skills vastly more appealing was the introduction of Destiny Points from MH: Champions. Now, instead of having a character that had a shorter skill list and slightly lower level of skill overall, you had a character with a shorter skill list, slightly lower skills, and the ability to turn 2-5 failed rolls per session into successes. It was basically getting free Luck as you bought up more levels of skill.
The best wildcards for use with Destiny Points were the ones with combat skills: Knight!, Martial Artist!, and Swashbuckler!, basically. Destiny Points felt more useful in combat, since they could save you from an lucky critical hit by an enemy or let you go big with a Deceptive Attack and still hit.
However, not all template wildcard skills have combat skills. And some templates don't have very good wildcard skills. So templates (Knight!) have good wildcard skills, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to make them a little better. So here are my suggestions for adding more combat skills to the DF template wildcard skills.
Barbarian!: Add Brawling, Forced Entry, Pole-arm, Sling, Spear, Throwing, Thrown Weapon, Two-Handed Axe/Mace, Two-Handed Flail, Two-Handed Sword, and Wrestling. This focuses the Barbarian as a two-handed weapon user, but it makes them distinct from knights and swashbucklers.
Bard!: Add Bow, Crossbow, Main-Gauche, Saber, Shortsword, and Smallsword.
Cleric!: Add Axe/Mace, Staff, and Shield (Shield).
Druid!: Add Axe/Mace, Staff, and Shield (Shield).
Knight!: Add Brawling, Bow, Boxing, Crossbow, Thrown Weapon, and Wrestling. Giving the knight some ranged weapon abilities doesn't really intrude into the Scout's niche, but does mean that the knight won't suck when having to fight at range. Similarly, reasonable skills in unarmed combat aren't as good as having good skill levels and Trained by a Master, but it does make the knight a reasonably well-rounded combatant.
Martial Artist!: Add Brawling, Boxing, Judo, Karate, Sumo Wrestling, and Wrestling. Martial Artists already have plenty of good armed options in the wildcard, and letting them be proficient in all forms of unarmed combat means they get to pay less for taking the suboptimal choice.
Scout!: Scout is fine, but I would use the common house-rule (at least in our games) that Scout destiny points can be used in combat for Acrobatics, Dodging, and archery.
Swashbuckler!: Add Crossbow and Thrown Weapon (Knife). Giving swashbucklers their crappy ranged options for free won't upset people who are actually good at ranged combat.
Thief!: Add Brawling, Bow, Crossbow, Fast-Draw (Knife), Garrote, Knife, Main-Gauche, Saber, Shortsword, Sling, Smallsword, Thrown Weapon (Knife), and Wrestling. Thief! is a good skill, for thieves, but giving thieves all their weapon skills for free can only make a less useful template a little bit better.
Wizard!: Add Shield (Buckler), Smallsword, and Staff. Wizard is one of the less useful wildcards already, and I doubt adding a few weapon choices would change that.
One other change that I've been toying with is adding Riding (anything) to every wildcard skill. The rules for mounted combat in GURPS strongly penalize highly skilled combatants who haven't spent a huge amount of time also practicing their riding skills. While this is 100% realistic, it isn't simple and I'd argue it isn't in the spirit of DF. If everyone rides as well as they fight, and fights as well as they do on horseback as they do on foot, then getting a bunch of cavalry steeds, winged horses, or hippogriffons as a quest reward is a good thing, instead of a booby prize like it normally is.
Showing posts with label Template Improvement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Template Improvement. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Summoners and College Ritual Book Magic
For the most part, the summoner templates introduced in DF9: Summoners work very well with my College Book Ritual Magic system. Instead of getting a trivial discount on Magery in exchange for getting a drastically limited spell selection, they become masters of a single college, augmented by a focused and inexpensive talent. The only difficulty is the shaman, who uses a Power Investiture system instead. I have some thoughts on improving the shaman, and I'll add some comments shamans for CBRM.
The Close to Hell talent no longer gives bonuses to Religious Ritual or Theology but gives bonuses to College of Demonology and College of Death instead. Reader of the Black Grimoires allows the substitution of Hidden Lore (Demons) for Thaumatology when using grimoires to cast College of Demonology spells (even if the grimoire was written for an entirely different magical tradition!)
Elemental Understanding allows the substitution of Hidden Lore (Elementals) for Thaumatology when using grimoires to cast spells from an Elemental college (even if the grimoire was written for an entirely different magical tradition!)
Secrets of the Dead allows the substitution of Hidden Lore (Undead) for Thaumatology when using grimoires to cast College of Death spells (even if the grimoire was written for an entirely different magical tradition!)
As normal for CBRM, Shaman spells are individually IQ/E skills, and are sorted into three colleges.
College of Life: Beast Summoning, Command, Compel Truth, Cure Disease, Daze, Deathtouch*, Dream Projection, Dream Sending, Fear, Madness, Major Healing, Mass Daze, Mental Stun, Message, Minor Healing, Panic, Paralyze Limb, Presence, Remove Contagion, Retrogression, Rider Within, Rooted Feet, Sense Life, Silver Tongue, Sleep, Soul Rider, Spasm, Stop Spasm, Strike Blind, Strike Deaf, Strike Dumb, Strike Numb, Terror, Total Paralysis
College of Spirits: Affect Spirits, Animation, Animate Shadow, Astral Block, Astral Vision, Awaken Craft Spirit, Banish, Beacon, Command Spirit, Control Elemental, Create Elemental, Entrap Spirit, Final Rest, Materialize, Pentagram, Planar Summons, Planar Visit, Planar Shift, Repel Spirits, Sense Spirit, Skull Spirit, Solidify, Soul Jar, Summon Demon, Summon Elemental, Summon Shade, Turn Spirit, Turn Zombie
College of Wisdom: Bless, Create Door, Curse, Detect Magic, Dispel Magic, Divination, Force Touch*, Hide Object, History, Know True Shape, Magic Resistance, Mystic Mist, Nightingale, Pathfinder, Predict Weather, Projection, Remove Curse, See Invisible, See Secrets, Sense Mana, Sense Observation, Sense Spirit, Summon Shade, Suspend Curse, Trace Teleport, Utter Dome, Watchdog.
A spell's effective prerequisite count (and its penalty to casting rolls) is equal to it's PI - 1, so a shaman can cast all PI 1 spells in a College at his skill in the college. Shamans do not use grimoires, but have spirit guides that serve a similar purpose.
Each level of Power Investiture (Shamanic) increases Threshold by 10 and Recovery Rate by 15, with both starting at 0. Power Investiture (Shamanic) does not provide a bonus to learn spells.
On the template, replace 10 points in Shamanic spells with one of the following spell packages
Each spirit guide gives a bonus to casting one or more spells from the college default. The bonus can only buy off the prerequisite penalty to cast the spell and the effective skill cannot exceed the shaman's Hidden Lore (Spirits) skill.
A spirit guide is a 1 point advantage and can give on of the following sets of bonuses:
A shaman can steal another shaman's spirit guides. Spirit guides may be stolen from another shaman's physical body (including his corpse) or from a shaman's house or other place of power. The ritual to steal a spirit guide takes an hour to perform and fails automatically if it is interrupted in any way.
Shamans are obviously a bit weird. I think converting PI levels back to prerequisite counts is a workable solution, but it is a bit unorthodox.
Spirit guides are basically Fine, Dwarven Grimoires purchased as signature gear. The rules for stealing them are intended to make stealing someone else's guides about as difficult as stealing a wizard's physical grimoires would be. I figure that a thief had an hour's uninterrupted access to a wizard's house could steal the wizard's grimoires.
CBRM Demonologist
Replace Demonic Attument 3 [24] and 10 points in demonologist spells with Magery 0 [5], Extra Magical Ability 2 [20], College of Demonology (VH) IQ [8]-15, and the Perk: Reader of the Black Grimoires [1]. Add additional levels of Extra Magical Ability to the general advantage list. If using Rational Spell Damage, add all forms of the Blight, Fire, and Ruin elemental attack spells to the College of Demonology.The Close to Hell talent no longer gives bonuses to Religious Ritual or Theology but gives bonuses to College of Demonology and College of Death instead. Reader of the Black Grimoires allows the substitution of Hidden Lore (Demons) for Thaumatology when using grimoires to cast College of Demonology spells (even if the grimoire was written for an entirely different magical tradition!)
CBRM General Elementalist
Replace Elemental Influence 3 (All Elements) [30] and 20 points in elementalist spells with Magery 0 [5], a suitable 5 point talent [5], Extra Magical Ability 2 [20], the Perk: Elemental Understanding [1], and 19 points distributed among College of Air, College of Earth, College of Fire, College of Metal, College of Water, College of Wood, and/or College of Void, as appropriate. Add additional levels of Extra Magical Ability to the general advantage list.Elemental Understanding allows the substitution of Hidden Lore (Elementals) for Thaumatology when using grimoires to cast spells from an Elemental college (even if the grimoire was written for an entirely different magical tradition!)
CBRM Specific Elementalist
Replace Elemental Influence 3 (One Element) [24] and 20 points in elementalist spells with Magery 0 [5], a suitable 5 point talent 2 [10], Extra Magical Ability 2 [20], the Perk: Elemental Understanding [1], and College of (One Element) (VH) IQ+2 [8]-17 (includes a +2 bonus from the talent).CBRM Necromancer
Replace Deathliness 3 [24] and 10 points in Deathly spells with Magery 0 [5], Extra Magical Ability 2 [20], College of Death (VH) IQ [8]-15, and the Perk: Secrets of the Dead [1]. Add additional levels of Extra Magical Ability to the general advantage list. If using Rational Spell Damage, add all forms of the Blight and Cessation elemental attack spells to the College of Demonology.Secrets of the Dead allows the substitution of Hidden Lore (Undead) for Thaumatology when using grimoires to cast College of Death spells (even if the grimoire was written for an entirely different magical tradition!)
CBRM Revised Shaman
As normal for CBRM, Shaman spells are individually IQ/E skills, and are sorted into three colleges.
College of Life: Beast Summoning, Command, Compel Truth, Cure Disease, Daze, Deathtouch*, Dream Projection, Dream Sending, Fear, Madness, Major Healing, Mass Daze, Mental Stun, Message, Minor Healing, Panic, Paralyze Limb, Presence, Remove Contagion, Retrogression, Rider Within, Rooted Feet, Sense Life, Silver Tongue, Sleep, Soul Rider, Spasm, Stop Spasm, Strike Blind, Strike Deaf, Strike Dumb, Strike Numb, Terror, Total Paralysis
College of Spirits: Affect Spirits, Animation, Animate Shadow, Astral Block, Astral Vision, Awaken Craft Spirit, Banish, Beacon, Command Spirit, Control Elemental, Create Elemental, Entrap Spirit, Final Rest, Materialize, Pentagram, Planar Summons, Planar Visit, Planar Shift, Repel Spirits, Sense Spirit, Skull Spirit, Solidify, Soul Jar, Summon Demon, Summon Elemental, Summon Shade, Turn Spirit, Turn Zombie
College of Wisdom: Bless, Create Door, Curse, Detect Magic, Dispel Magic, Divination, Force Touch*, Hide Object, History, Know True Shape, Magic Resistance, Mystic Mist, Nightingale, Pathfinder, Predict Weather, Projection, Remove Curse, See Invisible, See Secrets, Sense Mana, Sense Observation, Sense Spirit, Summon Shade, Suspend Curse, Trace Teleport, Utter Dome, Watchdog.
A spell's effective prerequisite count (and its penalty to casting rolls) is equal to it's PI - 1, so a shaman can cast all PI 1 spells in a College at his skill in the college. Shamans do not use grimoires, but have spirit guides that serve a similar purpose.
Each level of Power Investiture (Shamanic) increases Threshold by 10 and Recovery Rate by 15, with both starting at 0. Power Investiture (Shamanic) does not provide a bonus to learn spells.
On the template, replace 10 points in Shamanic spells with one of the following spell packages
- Focused caster: One Shamanic College at (VH) IQ [8]-14 and the other two colleges at (VH) IQ-3 [1]-11; or
- Generalist caster: Two shamanic colleges at (VH) IQ-1 [4]-13 and the other college at (VH) IQ-2 [2]-12; or
- Scattered caster: Choose 10 shamanic spells at (E) IQ [1]-14.
Spirit Guides
A spirit guide is a friendly or controlled spirit who advises a shaman in the practice of magic. A shaman may have zero or more spirit guides.Each spirit guide gives a bonus to casting one or more spells from the college default. The bonus can only buy off the prerequisite penalty to cast the spell and the effective skill cannot exceed the shaman's Hidden Lore (Spirits) skill.
A spirit guide is a 1 point advantage and can give on of the following sets of bonuses:
- +1 to three different spells
- +2 to one spell and +1 to two different spells
- +2 to one spell and +3 to another
- +4 to one spell
A shaman can steal another shaman's spirit guides. Spirit guides may be stolen from another shaman's physical body (including his corpse) or from a shaman's house or other place of power. The ritual to steal a spirit guide takes an hour to perform and fails automatically if it is interrupted in any way.
Design Notes
Most of this is pretty straightforward application of CBRM concepts to the summoner templates.Shamans are obviously a bit weird. I think converting PI levels back to prerequisite counts is a workable solution, but it is a bit unorthodox.
Spirit guides are basically Fine, Dwarven Grimoires purchased as signature gear. The rules for stealing them are intended to make stealing someone else's guides about as difficult as stealing a wizard's physical grimoires would be. I figure that a thief had an hour's uninterrupted access to a wizard's house could steal the wizard's grimoires.
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Improving Artificers in Dungeon Fantasy
I wasn't very satisfied with the Artificer. It isn't an awful template, but it has a lot of abilities that are costly in terms of points, money, and weight, and it's easy for it not get much benefit from those abilities. The sample Artificer from Mirror of the Fire Demons is an excellent example: despite being a full 250 point PC template with $1200 and 73 lbs in gear, he's not particularly more effective in combat than the 140 point (sans disadvantages) Archer template.
Still, all hope is not lost for the Artificer. There's a solid base there, and a couple of house rules and some additional sample gear could give him a big boost.
Furthermore, Artificers have a natural affinity for complicated devices, and their labor goes farther when making one. Artificers get an additional 25% discount when they use Crafting to make a complicated mechanical device. All the new items below qualify, as well as all forms of crossbows, portable traps (DF Adventurers p 26), the low-tech flamethrower (DF Clerics p 34), cobweb kites (DF Sages p 12), float coats (DF Sages p 12), dwarven accurizers (DF Sages p 12), universal tool kits (DF Sages p 12), any clocks (DF Treasure Tables p 14), dwarven crankbows (DF Treasure Tables p 32), and the spinning saw (DF Treasure Tables p 33).
All artificer devices that are weapons (including melee weapons) have a Malf value (B407) equal to the user's Engineer (Gadgets) skill, at -3 if the user doesn't have the Gadgeteer advantage. They malfunction as TL3 non-revolver firearm, and can explode as springs, cogs, and flywheels turn into deadly shrapnel. The malfunction number is furthered penalized by -2 for every 24 hours that elapses without a Gadgeteer performing an hour of maintenance on the device.
Non-weapon devices can also malfunction. Roll against the user's Engineer (Gadgets) skill, at -3 if the user doesn't have the Gadgeteer advantage, when the device is first used each day, every minute of continuous use thereafter, and when the device is used again after more than 5 minutes elapse. Again, treat the device as a TL3 non-revolver firearm, with a stoppage failure meaning the device works for 1d seconds and then seizes up.
Artificers who intend to make extensive use of artificer devices are advised to take the No Nuisance Rolls (Engineer) perk.
The following devices are examples. Many more items along these lines are certainly possible.
Alchemical Flamethrower: This improved version of the low-tech flamethrower uses stronger materials and a more ingenious mixing mechanism to overcome the limitations of the basic design. It holds 8 pints of a 7:1 mixture of lantern oil and alchemical fire and mixes them in the aerosol chamber. It is a one-handed weapon, as the pumps are self-powered by springs and gears. Treat each shot as standard alchemical fire. It fires in either of two modes: a short ranged jet of flame, or launching a flaming cloud at the ground (as per the second use of alchemical fire) out to 30 yards.
Powered Pistol Crossbow: A repeating pistol crossbow (DF Loadouts p 23) with the lever replaced by an ingenious combinations of cogs, gears, and springs. It reloads itself automatically from the rotating drum, allowing faster and more accurate fire. The increased rate of fire comes at the cost of the reload time, as rewinding the springs takes much more time.
Powered Crankbow: A cog and spring powered crankbow that reloads itself quicker and fires more powerful shots, this weapon is one of the ultimate weapons of artificers. Spring loaded magazines allow it to be reloaded quickly in combat, but loading the magazine with a bolt and winding the springs takes 10 seconds per shot.
Powered Saw: A spinning saw with the cranked handle supplemented by springs and flywheels. It can be used for up to 10 seconds at no FP cost as the flywheels and springs provide the motive power. It takes 2 seconds and 1 FP to recharge it for 1 second of use outside of combat, or it can be driven by the crank in combat as with any other spinning saw. $3600, 7 lbs, other stats as a spinning saw.
Mechanical Door Opener: A mechanical device for silently forcing open doors. It takes one minute and 1 FP to put into place and charge the mechanism, and then it can be activated to do 6dx2 cr to a door, lock, hinge, bar, wall, or other static item. $2000, 6 lbs.
Mechanical Exoskeleton: Unlike other artificer devices, this collection of spring powered arms and legs only needs to check for malfunctions every hour of use, not every minute. It provides the wearer with Lifting ST5 and Striking ST2 for 8 hours, and then needs to be recharged using the attached steam boiler for 8 hours. The exoskeleton fits over armor (or is sometimes built into armor) but provides no additional protection itself. $10,000, 15 lbs.
Advanced Mechanical Exoskeleton: As above, but slightly stronger, with Lifting ST8 and Striking ST4. It also has an overdrive mode that consumes 1 hour of normal use per minute and requires a malfunction roll every minute like any other artificer device. While overdrive is engaged, the exoskeleton provides Lifting ST20 and Striking ST8. Overdrive mode must be engaged for a least a full minute at a time. $50000, 20 lbs.
The artificer devices are intended to be primitive super science for artificers only. It's trivially obvious that giving +5 Lifting ST is better for the ST17 barbarian than the ST11 artificer, but "being the guy who makes cool toys that other people use" isn't as exciting as "crazed mad inventor." So while an artificer could make a mechanical exoskeleton for the barbarian, it will almost immediately malfunction and likely explode when the savage wears it.
The powered crankbow is my favorite artificer device, as I think it gives the artificer a unique place in ranged combat. The scout provides consistent, high damage, and accurate ranged fire with a variety of damage types; the mystic knight archer has a slower rate of fire but hits targets behind cover or uses shrapnel to clear out formations; and the artificer with the powered crankbow provides a few seconds of fairly damaging suppression fire, but without the weird effects of the mystic knight.
Still, all hope is not lost for the Artificer. There's a solid base there, and a couple of house rules and some additional sample gear could give him a big boost.
Getting Stuff Cheap
Most delvers can get a 20% discount on basic gear by making it themselves with a successful Armoury or Alchemy roll (DF Dungeons p3). Anyone who can make a Flight potion in the field with whatever scraps he found on the dungeon wall should be able to get a better discount when using a proper laboratory. Anyone with the Quick Gadgeteer advantage gets a 50% discount when using the rules for Brewing or Crafting, and can find items worth up to $100 when attempting Scrounging. A Quick Gadgeteer can also make items with special qualities, such as Fine or Dwarven (but not magic enchantments!) or any special order, when using the Crafting rules.Furthermore, Artificers have a natural affinity for complicated devices, and their labor goes farther when making one. Artificers get an additional 25% discount when they use Crafting to make a complicated mechanical device. All the new items below qualify, as well as all forms of crossbows, portable traps (DF Adventurers p 26), the low-tech flamethrower (DF Clerics p 34), cobweb kites (DF Sages p 12), float coats (DF Sages p 12), dwarven accurizers (DF Sages p 12), universal tool kits (DF Sages p 12), any clocks (DF Treasure Tables p 14), dwarven crankbows (DF Treasure Tables p 32), and the spinning saw (DF Treasure Tables p 33).
Artificers Devices
These fiddly yet useful devices are available to, and can be used by, anyone, but only Artificers can take advantage of them in a practical manner. The need to constantly tinker, modify, and adjust these devices means that they're very likely to malfunction in the hands of an unskilled user.All artificer devices that are weapons (including melee weapons) have a Malf value (B407) equal to the user's Engineer (Gadgets) skill, at -3 if the user doesn't have the Gadgeteer advantage. They malfunction as TL3 non-revolver firearm, and can explode as springs, cogs, and flywheels turn into deadly shrapnel. The malfunction number is furthered penalized by -2 for every 24 hours that elapses without a Gadgeteer performing an hour of maintenance on the device.
Non-weapon devices can also malfunction. Roll against the user's Engineer (Gadgets) skill, at -3 if the user doesn't have the Gadgeteer advantage, when the device is first used each day, every minute of continuous use thereafter, and when the device is used again after more than 5 minutes elapse. Again, treat the device as a TL3 non-revolver firearm, with a stoppage failure meaning the device works for 1d seconds and then seizes up.
Artificers who intend to make extensive use of artificer devices are advised to take the No Nuisance Rolls (Engineer) perk.
The following devices are examples. Many more items along these lines are certainly possible.
Alchemical Flamethrower: This improved version of the low-tech flamethrower uses stronger materials and a more ingenious mixing mechanism to overcome the limitations of the basic design. It holds 8 pints of a 7:1 mixture of lantern oil and alchemical fire and mixes them in the aerosol chamber. It is a one-handed weapon, as the pumps are self-powered by springs and gears. Treat each shot as standard alchemical fire. It fires in either of two modes: a short ranged jet of flame, or launching a flaming cloud at the ground (as per the second use of alchemical fire) out to 30 yards.
Powered Pistol Crossbow: A repeating pistol crossbow (DF Loadouts p 23) with the lever replaced by an ingenious combinations of cogs, gears, and springs. It reloads itself automatically from the rotating drum, allowing faster and more accurate fire. The increased rate of fire comes at the cost of the reload time, as rewinding the springs takes much more time.
Powered Crankbow: A cog and spring powered crankbow that reloads itself quicker and fires more powerful shots, this weapon is one of the ultimate weapons of artificers. Spring loaded magazines allow it to be reloaded quickly in combat, but loading the magazine with a bolt and winding the springs takes 10 seconds per shot.
| LIQUID PROJECTOR (DX-4) | ||||||||||
| Weapon | Damage | Acc | Range | Weight | RoF | Shots | Cost | ST | Bulk | Rcl |
| Alchemical Flamethrower: Jet Mode Flame Cloud Launcher | 1d bu (5) 1d-1 bu area 2 | - 2 | 10 30 | 15 | Jet 1 | 8(30i) | $2000 | 11 | -6 | - |
| CROSSBOW (DX-4) | ||||||||||
| Weapon | Damage | Acc | Range | Weight | RoF | Shots | Cost | ST | Bulk | Rcl |
| Powered Pistol Crossbow | thr+2 imp | 2 | x6/x12 | 7/1 | 3 | 6(10i) | $1600 | 8† | -4 | 2 |
| Powered Crankbow | thr+5 imp | 4 | x15/x20 | 17/3 | 7 | 21(3) | $7000 | 9† | -7 | 1 |
Powered Saw: A spinning saw with the cranked handle supplemented by springs and flywheels. It can be used for up to 10 seconds at no FP cost as the flywheels and springs provide the motive power. It takes 2 seconds and 1 FP to recharge it for 1 second of use outside of combat, or it can be driven by the crank in combat as with any other spinning saw. $3600, 7 lbs, other stats as a spinning saw.
Mechanical Door Opener: A mechanical device for silently forcing open doors. It takes one minute and 1 FP to put into place and charge the mechanism, and then it can be activated to do 6dx2 cr to a door, lock, hinge, bar, wall, or other static item. $2000, 6 lbs.
Mechanical Exoskeleton: Unlike other artificer devices, this collection of spring powered arms and legs only needs to check for malfunctions every hour of use, not every minute. It provides the wearer with Lifting ST5 and Striking ST2 for 8 hours, and then needs to be recharged using the attached steam boiler for 8 hours. The exoskeleton fits over armor (or is sometimes built into armor) but provides no additional protection itself. $10,000, 15 lbs.
Advanced Mechanical Exoskeleton: As above, but slightly stronger, with Lifting ST8 and Striking ST4. It also has an overdrive mode that consumes 1 hour of normal use per minute and requires a malfunction roll every minute like any other artificer device. While overdrive is engaged, the exoskeleton provides Lifting ST20 and Striking ST8. Overdrive mode must be engaged for a least a full minute at a time. $50000, 20 lbs.
Design Notes
The Getting Stuff cheap house rule is a straightforward enhancement of the existing rules. It strongly encourages artificers to kit up with fancy gear, but they're reasonably the most gear dependent template. Giving them additional bonuses for complicated gear further incentivizes the artificer as the mad scientist using clockwork weapons. There's a slight disadvantage in that Artificers might want to spend all their time making crossbows and not delving, but delvers should have other reasons for delving than modest levels of greed.The artificer devices are intended to be primitive super science for artificers only. It's trivially obvious that giving +5 Lifting ST is better for the ST17 barbarian than the ST11 artificer, but "being the guy who makes cool toys that other people use" isn't as exciting as "crazed mad inventor." So while an artificer could make a mechanical exoskeleton for the barbarian, it will almost immediately malfunction and likely explode when the savage wears it.
The powered crankbow is my favorite artificer device, as I think it gives the artificer a unique place in ranged combat. The scout provides consistent, high damage, and accurate ranged fire with a variety of damage types; the mystic knight archer has a slower rate of fire but hits targets behind cover or uses shrapnel to clear out formations; and the artificer with the powered crankbow provides a few seconds of fairly damaging suppression fire, but without the weird effects of the mystic knight.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
The Effectiveness of Druids in Dungeon Fantasy
The druid is another archetype with a varied history in role-playing games. At the apex of the concept's power, you have the D&D3e version of a shapeshifting warrior spellcaster, who can heal and harm with magic and goes into battle with a summoned bear ally, his personal bear companion, and himself shapeshifted into a bear (or at the higher levels, some kind of carnivorous dinosaur). At the lower end, AD&D2e's druid was a second rate cleric with worse access to spells, limited healing ability, no special abilities against undead or demons, annoying armor and weapon restrictions, and limited and inconsequential shapeshifting to make up for it.
The Dungeon Fantasy druid is closer to the latter than the former: something like a cleric, but generally weaker. The druid isn't all bad, and has a place in some delving bands, but it could be a more powerful template. The druid has a unique role as the only spellcaster with access to plant and animal spells, but generally those spells aren't very good. The druid can also have animal allies and shapeshift into animal forms (either through the Shapeshift spell or as an Advantage), but normal or even slightly enhanced animals aren't good combat challenges in Dungeon Fantasy, so it's debatable if those abilities are really worthwhile. Finally, the druid has excellent nature skills, and can be very helpful for delving bands that lack Scouts. However, most delving bands are going to want to have a Scout, since the Scout is a great archetype that helps solve a lot of challenges.
Skillwise, druids focus on nature skills. The Herb Lore skill allows a druid to very cheaply brew healing potions in town - trading the versatility of the wizard's Alchemy skill for a much deeper discount on some of the most important potions in the game. Naturalist and various Hidden Lore skills let a druid identify quite a few monster threats, including many that are likely to be encountered by beginning delvers. Naturalist also lets a druid eat for cheap in the wild, reducing the cost and weight of rations on long trips.
On the disadvantage size, druids are nature loving hippies, and their recommended disadvantages show that. Sense of Duty (Nature) is an obvious choice, but can be crippling with its requirement that the druid not defend the rest of the delving band from wild animal attacks until the druid herself is attacked. One traditional limitation of druids - a vow or geas against using metal armor and weapons - is strangely absent, but is easy enough to add back in.
Druidic Servitors are also available. The basic servitor chassis provides a decent but not amazing ally, modified by the choice of divine elements. The base Nature element is required for druidic servitors and isn't that impressive, but Doubled Nature provides Speak with Plants and Speak with Animals, so a druid can get a decent henchmen and a pair of useful advantages on thecheap less expensive. None of the first level nature elements are particularly interesting for most delvers, but the Life element provides Faith Healing, which coupled with cheap healing potions means the Druid can provide healing support for the delving band. Servitors can use weapons and armor, so while they may be more expensive to equip, any Servitor can also be an acceptable second-line combat in a way that an Anaconda animal companion really can't.
There is one nifty trick for healing out of the Plant college: a druid who knows Plant Form Other and Heal Plant can turn his allies into saplings and then heal them all at once with a single area casting of Heal Plant. This isn't useful for combat healing (minimal casting time: 90 seconds), but when the minotaur berserker is at -4xHP and the cleric needs 4 days to heal him, Heal Plant gets him back on his feet.
As a house rule, Chandley on the forums came up with a Treant racial template that is tailor-made for druids, if a bit unorthodox. For 0 points, the ability to get Druidic Investiture 12, some natural DR and Injury Tolerance, and a bonus to IQ is probably worth being a hidebound nature-loving tree, especially if you were already planning to be a nature-loving hippie.
Since the typical druid isn't strong enough to wield a full-sized axe, a cheap sword or hatchet is a better choice. The usual trade-offs exist: a good thrusting broadsword is $600, the same as a Fine Balanced hatchet, so do you want the utility of thrusting damage or a slightly better chance to hit? Or on the low end, a cheap shortsword is $160 but a decent hatchet is $40, and they both do about the same damage. Highly expensive items, like a Balanced Fine broadsword, make good power items and high powered druids need a lot of power to cast and maintain the better shapeshifting spells.
A druid with a Servitor or animal companion should also consider spending money to equip the ally: a Hound with barding will last longer in combat than a Hound without.
The biggest problem with being the animal specialist is that most animals just aren't a threat to most delving bands. Even the big, bad, ST65 King of the Apes is in bad shape when the band's Knight hits him 3-4 times. Creatures like dire wolves and giant rats need to outnumber the delvers 5 or more to be anything more than a nuisance. And it's hard to deny charges of "not pulling your own weight" if your biggest specialty is dealing with nuisances.
On a similar vein, upgrading the power of the animal forms really helps. Turning into a bear is a so-so spell, but turning into a allosauraus is reasonably impressive. I let the druid in one of my campaigns combine his animal forms with elemental forms: a Bear with Body of Stone is a DR8, Homogeneous terror on the battlefield for 7 FP casting cost for a 250 point druid.
Scaling and empowering the Shapeshifting spell like this powers up druids. Does it bring them to the dreaded level of the D&D Druidzilla? I don't think it does: a Stone Bear is a reasonably impressive combatant, but a basic Knight has nearly as much DR, a lot more skill, and better weapons. The druid still spends a lot of FP to turn into that Stone Bear, and between the IQ penalty, the muteness, and the clumsy hands, the druid isn't going to be casting any spells while in beast form.
The Dungeon Fantasy druid is closer to the latter than the former: something like a cleric, but generally weaker. The druid isn't all bad, and has a place in some delving bands, but it could be a more powerful template. The druid has a unique role as the only spellcaster with access to plant and animal spells, but generally those spells aren't very good. The druid can also have animal allies and shapeshift into animal forms (either through the Shapeshift spell or as an Advantage), but normal or even slightly enhanced animals aren't good combat challenges in Dungeon Fantasy, so it's debatable if those abilities are really worthwhile. Finally, the druid has excellent nature skills, and can be very helpful for delving bands that lack Scouts. However, most delving bands are going to want to have a Scout, since the Scout is a great archetype that helps solve a lot of challenges.
The Basic Chassis
Druids have similar attributes to clerics, but with more HT and less ST. They're at best secondary melee combatants, with indifferent combat skills and damage. They have a high IQ and matching Perception and Will, though they have less use for that Will than a Cleric. Nothing really stands out here: Druids are solid but not exceptional.Skillwise, druids focus on nature skills. The Herb Lore skill allows a druid to very cheaply brew healing potions in town - trading the versatility of the wizard's Alchemy skill for a much deeper discount on some of the most important potions in the game. Naturalist and various Hidden Lore skills let a druid identify quite a few monster threats, including many that are likely to be encountered by beginning delvers. Naturalist also lets a druid eat for cheap in the wild, reducing the cost and weight of rations on long trips.
Advantages and Disadvantages
All druids have Druidic Investiture 3, which allows for a decent range of animal and plant focused spellcasting, Green Thumb 1, and 40 more points in optional druidic advantages. Druidic abilities focus mostly on animal or nature spirit Allies or the potentially useful Speak with Animal (or Speak with Plant) ability to turn local critters into scouts and informants. Their mundane advantage choices include various talents to make the druid better at dealing with plants, animals, or healing, or better attributes or spellcasting. They can also shapeshift into animal forms, but with even a decent wardog or boar costing 127 points, combat shapeshifting is very much out of budget for beginning druids. Non-combat scouting forms such as hawks, owls, or rats are much more feasible at the start of the game.On the disadvantage size, druids are nature loving hippies, and their recommended disadvantages show that. Sense of Duty (Nature) is an obvious choice, but can be crippling with its requirement that the druid not defend the rest of the delving band from wild animal attacks until the druid herself is attacked. One traditional limitation of druids - a vow or geas against using metal armor and weapons - is strangely absent, but is easy enough to add back in.
Animal Companions and Nature Spirits
Druids have a wide range of animal companions and spirit allies available (from DF5: Allies). Most of the actual animals use unarmed attacks and that prevent them from being truly useful allies in combat: a bear may have a 3d+1 cu bite attack, and that's enough to impress even the barbarian or the knight, but a lowly goblin with a spear can parry that attack and do heavy damage. Combat animal allies either need to have strikers (Boar) or use weapons (Gorilla, Chimp) or be diffuse (Insect Swarm). Utility allies such as the Hound, the Stallion, or the various familiars aren't expected to go into combat, and so their poor combat performance isn't an issue.Druidic Servitors are also available. The basic servitor chassis provides a decent but not amazing ally, modified by the choice of divine elements. The base Nature element is required for druidic servitors and isn't that impressive, but Doubled Nature provides Speak with Plants and Speak with Animals, so a druid can get a decent henchmen and a pair of useful advantages on the
Druid Skills or Druid!
Druid! isn't a particularly amazing Wildcard skill, but converting 24 points of skills at the IQ-2 to the IQ range into a single Wildcard at IQ level is a no-brainer if the GM allows it. If nothing else, it improves the druid's effective skills in every nature related Hidden Lore and all types of Survival. It's a great to have a druid to know what berries/cacti/kelp to eat, whether you're in the 100 Acre Woods, the Deserts of Desolation, or fighting sauhagin at the bottom of the Marinas Trench.Spells
Druids have spells, but they're nothing to write home about. In a clear case of niche protection, only druids can learn spells from the Animal or Plant colleges - but who else would want to? Animal spells tend to be weak but expensive: controlling a bear or a horse can cost 10 FP, plus 5 FP per minute to maintain. Shapeshifting is versatile, but expensive, and requires a different VH spell for each animal form. Plant spells have limited utility outside overgrown forests and jungles, and almost no combat utility: no one fears Rain of Nuts.There is one nifty trick for healing out of the Plant college: a druid who knows Plant Form Other and Heal Plant can turn his allies into saplings and then heal them all at once with a single area casting of Heal Plant. This isn't useful for combat healing (minimal casting time: 90 seconds), but when the minotaur berserker is at -4xHP and the cleric needs 4 days to heal him, Heal Plant gets him back on his feet.
Druids and Race
None of the standard races bring anything useful to the table for druids. Elves get Magery 0, but druids don't need it; Fauns have Animal Empathy but a lot of other baggage for 20 points. One decent choice is Pixie: since a druid isn't much of a melee combatant anyway, the low ST is less of a problem, and if you intend to fight by throwing lightning bolts and sending a swarm of bees against your foes, then increased DX and Dodge are definite improvements.As a house rule, Chandley on the forums came up with a Treant racial template that is tailor-made for druids, if a bit unorthodox. For 0 points, the ability to get Druidic Investiture 12, some natural DR and Injury Tolerance, and a bonus to IQ is probably worth being a hidebound nature-loving tree, especially if you were already planning to be a nature-loving hippie.
Equipping Druids
Druids are much like clerics in that they have a fair bit of stuff to carry and not a lot of ST to carry it with. Any band with a druid in it should be well-stocked with healing potions, and it's in everyone interests to buy potions from the druid at 75% of list price (with the druid pocketing 25% of the base cost as profit).Since the typical druid isn't strong enough to wield a full-sized axe, a cheap sword or hatchet is a better choice. The usual trade-offs exist: a good thrusting broadsword is $600, the same as a Fine Balanced hatchet, so do you want the utility of thrusting damage or a slightly better chance to hit? Or on the low end, a cheap shortsword is $160 but a decent hatchet is $40, and they both do about the same damage. Highly expensive items, like a Balanced Fine broadsword, make good power items and high powered druids need a lot of power to cast and maintain the better shapeshifting spells.
A druid with a Servitor or animal companion should also consider spending money to equip the ally: a Hound with barding will last longer in combat than a Hound without.
Druids in Play
Druids are most useful on nature oriented adventures where their animal and plant related abilities can be used to the max, especially in delving bands that don't have Barbarians or Scouts. Similarly, they can be great healers for bands without Clerics.The biggest problem with being the animal specialist is that most animals just aren't a threat to most delving bands. Even the big, bad, ST65 King of the Apes is in bad shape when the band's Knight hits him 3-4 times. Creatures like dire wolves and giant rats need to outnumber the delvers 5 or more to be anything more than a nuisance. And it's hard to deny charges of "not pulling your own weight" if your biggest specialty is dealing with nuisances.
Improving Druids
Part of the reason that druids are so weak is that shapeshifting is so expensive for what it gets: 180 points to turn into a hound that is a weaker combatant than a 180 point henchmen is not exactly a bargain. Similarly, the Shapeshifting spell is enormously draining: spending 10 FP to turn into a bear is probably not as decisive as the wizard spending 9 FP on a big Grease or Glue spell. Fixing the cost of the Shapeshifting advantage is too much to get into here, but the costs of the Shapeshifting spell should probably be scaled with the character's CP total, much like allies are. If Shapeshifting cost 1 FP per 1/5th of your point total that the new form cost (which matches the 1 FP per 20 points suggested in the spell for the original 100 point characters in GURPS Fantasy 1e), then cheap animal forms like Boar or Anaconda would only cost 3 FP and the bigger animal forms would only cost 4 FP.On a similar vein, upgrading the power of the animal forms really helps. Turning into a bear is a so-so spell, but turning into a allosauraus is reasonably impressive. I let the druid in one of my campaigns combine his animal forms with elemental forms: a Bear with Body of Stone is a DR8, Homogeneous terror on the battlefield for 7 FP casting cost for a 250 point druid.
Scaling and empowering the Shapeshifting spell like this powers up druids. Does it bring them to the dreaded level of the D&D Druidzilla? I don't think it does: a Stone Bear is a reasonably impressive combatant, but a basic Knight has nearly as much DR, a lot more skill, and better weapons. The druid still spends a lot of FP to turn into that Stone Bear, and between the IQ penalty, the muteness, and the clumsy hands, the druid isn't going to be casting any spells while in beast form.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Improving the Effectiveness of Knights in Dungeon Fantasy
Improving the Effectiveness of Knights in Dungeon Fantasy
Knights are already a very effective template at what they do, but they do have some weaknesses. There are a few tweaks that can be made to the template or to the game rules to make them slightly more effective.
Getting Rid of Connoisseur
Knights have to take Connoisseur (Weapons), even though there's no canonical use for it in DF: Dungeons. Superior weapons are identified by an Armory (Melee Weapons) roll. Replacing Connoisseur (Weapons) with Armory (Melee Weapons) is a simple fix that gives knight a little more utility in identifying and repairing weapons and armor.
Improving Born War Leader
Knights' mandatory Born War Leader Talent covers only 5 skills, 2 of which aren't normally used in Dungeon Fantasy. It's actually not a very good Talent. A simple fix would be to add Intimidation to the list of covered skills, giving knights an Influence skill they can use at some level of skill. Since Intimidation is already useful for forcing foes away (DF2 p 12), this is reasonable and appropriate.
Other skills could reasonably be added to Born War Leader. Adding Armory dilutes the concept of the talent somewhat, but it adds to knights' out of combat utility. Heraldry is a more appropriate addition, and lets knights identify organized foes like bandits and orc tribes. An unconventional option would be to add Kiai to both the talent and the knights' background skill list, letting Born War Leader act as the appropriate background advantage. Using Kiai to represent a powerful battle cry is a canonical option for Medieval European knights, so this isn't as strange as it sounds, and knights tend to be good at Kiai due to their high HT.
Wildcard Knight!
Knight! is already an excellent wildcard skill, but there are some changes that can be made to it to better encompass the knight concept. The obvious options are to add some or all of Knights' primary skills to the wildcard skill.
Adding simple unarmed combat skills, like Wrestling, Brawling, and Boxing seems like it would overlap with the Martial Artist, but it doesn't really. Knights are still going to focus on heavy armed and armored combat, though they would have better options for dealing with threats when unarmed. Martial Artists would still be better, with a better base skillset (Judo and Karate) and Trained by a Master giving them improved Rapid Strikes and repeated parries.
Another option would be to let Knight! substitute for all heavy thrown weapon skills, Crossbow, Sling, and Bow. Again, at first glance this is niche invasion into Scout, but I don't think it would work that way in practice. Heroic Archer defines Scouts, and can't be replaced merely by a high level skill. However, adding missile and thrown attacks to Knight! does mean that more people in the delving band can contribute in ranged combat with a reasonable degree of accuracy.
Finally, adding Knife to Knight! saves Knights to save 1 point. Given the general uselessness of knives in almost all dungeon fantasy situations, this is not likely to overlap with Thieves much at all.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Improving Shamans in Dungeon Fantasy
So I had some words about the effectiveness of shamans in DF, along with a teaser about ways to improve them. Below is a revised shaman template that hopefully has a better place in the delving milieu.
When entering a new territory (GM determines, but generally a change of terrain is necessary) and each week thereafter, the shaman must make a Reaction Roll for, or use an Influence skill on, the local spirits. The ease or difficulty of using shaman abilities and spells depends on the result:
Whenever a shaman attempts to activate a shamanic gift (but not cast a spell), she needs to make a successful Diplomacy roll to persuade the local spirits to do what she wants.
No shaman can attempt to negotiate with the local spirits without having made a fundamental agreement with the spirit world. The shaman must have a combination of Code of Honor, Disciplines of Faith, Sense of Duty (Spirit Community), or Vow totaling at -10 points to form the basis of that pact. If the shaman violates any of his Pact disadvantages, he must immediately reroll the Reaction Roll, as though he had just entered the territory, but with a -5 penalty. This reaction penalty applies to every new territory the shaman enters until he atones appropriately. Repeated violations can increase the penalty and the difficulty of the penance.
A successful Merchant roll with a penalty equal to the size of the bribe bonus halves the effective cost of the bribe.
If a shaman runs out of generic bribes, a martial artist's chi incenses or a bookish wizard's reagents can be used, but at half value. In a pinch, a shaman can also use food, but each meal (whether a $2 traveler ration or $15 elven wafer) is worth $1 as a bribe.
Shaman Chanting is an additional modifier on top of Shamanic Gifts.
Absolute Direction (PM, -20%) [4]; Animal Empathy (PM, -20%) [4]; Blessed or Very Blessed (PM, -20%) [8 or 16]; Clairsentience (PM, -20%) [40]; Danger Sense (PM, -20%) [12]; Dark Vision (PM, -20%) [20]; Detect (Supernatural phenomena or Supernatural phenomena and beings; PM, -20%) [16 or 24]; Healing (Earthly Xenohealing +40%, PM -20%) [36]; Luck or Extraordinary Luck (PM, -20%) [12 or 24] or (Active, -40%) [6 or 12]; Magic Resistance 1-3 (Improved, +150%; PM, -20%) [5/level]; Mind Control (No Memory +10%, Puppet -40%, PM -20%) [25]; Mind Shield (PM, -20%) [3.2/level*]; Oracle (PM, -20%) [12]; Paralyzing Spirits [38]; Plant Empathy (PM, -20%) [4]; Resistant to Disease (+3) or (+8) (PM, -20%) [3 or 5]; Resistant to Spirit Powers (+3) or (+8) (PM, -20%) [3 or 5]; See Invisible (Spirits; PM, -20%) [12]; Serendipity (PM, -20%) [12]; Speak With Animals (PM, -20%) [20]; Speak With Plants (PM, -20%) [12]; Stunning Spirits [23]; Telekinesis 1-5 (PM, -20%) [4/level]; Terror (PM, -20%) [24], True Faith (PM, -20%) [12].
Paralyzing Spirits is Affliction (Speed/Range Malediction +150%, Paralzying +150%, PM -20%) [38].
Stunning Spirits is Affliction (Speed/Range Malediction +150%,PM -20%) [23].
Blessed or Very Blessed (PM, -50%) [5 or 10]; Clairsentience (PM, -50%) [25]; Dark Vision (PM, -50%) [13]; Detect (Supernatural phenomena or Supernatural phenomena and beings; PM, -50%) [10 or 15]; Healing (Earthly Xenohealing +40%, PM -50%) [27]; Luck or Extraordinary Luck (Active -40%, PM, -20%) [3 or 6]; Mind Control (No Memory +10%, Puppet -40%, PM -50%) [5]; Paralyzing Spirits [35]; Plant Empathy (PM, -20%) [4]; See Invisible (Spirits; PM, -50%) [8]; Stunning Spirits [20]; Telekinesis 1-5 (PM, -50%) [2.5/level]; Terror (PM, -50%) [15], True Faith (PM, -50%) [8].
PI 1: Astral Vision, Fear, Final Rest, History, Know True Shape, Message, Recover Energy, Sense Life, Sense Mana, Sense Spirit, Spasm, Stop Spasm.
PI 2: Affect Spirits, Awaken Craft Spirit, Command Spirit, Command, Daze, Detect Magic, Materialize, Mental Stun, Minor Healing, Panic, Paralyze Limb, Pathfinder, Rooted Feet, See Secrets, Silver Tongue, Solidify, Strike Barren, Strike Blind, Strike Deaf, Strike Dumb, Strike Numb, Summon Spirit, Turn Spirit.
PI 3: Banish, Control Elemental, Divination (Augury or Oneiromancy), Dream Sending, Entrap Spirit, Major Healing, Mass Daze, Pentagram, Planar Visit (Astral Plane), Predict Weather, Presence, Projection, Repel Spirits, See Invisible, Skull Spirit, Sleep, Suspend Curse, Terror, Total Paralysis, Turn Zombie, Watchdog.
PI 4: Animation, Animate Shadow, Bind Spirit, Bless, Compel Truth, Cure Disease, Curse, Deathtouch, Dispel Magic, Dream Projection, Force Touch, Madness, Nightingale, Nightmare, Planar Visit (Realms of the Dead), Remove Curse, Rider Within*, Soul Rider, Summon Elemental.
PI 5: Astral Block, Create Elemental, Explosive Force Ball, Magic Resistance, Mystic Mist, Planar Summons, Remove Contagion, Retrogression, Sense Observation, Soul Jar, Summon Shade, Trace Teleport, Utter Dome.
PI 6: Beacon, Beast Summoning, Create Door, Hide Object, Planar Visit (Any), Plane Shift, Summon Demon.
When using Rational Damage Spells, shamans have access to the Body and Force elements, and the Touch, Jet, and Weapon forms, all at PI 4, in addition to the specific spells listed above.
SHAMAN 250 points
You're an expert diplomat, negotiator, and bargainer. Sometimes you make deals and solve the problems of people in the material world, but more often you deal with spirits. You're equally comfortable with both worlds, and repaid favors from spirits often allow you to overcome challenges in the mortal realms. You can heal and harm with equal facility. Your fellow delvers appreciate you most when dealing with spirits, but you can also negotiate past unfriendly guards, interrogate prisoners, bargain with the Merchant's Guild, and defeat foes in combat. Your powers work best on material things with minds or with spirits, and you prefer bodyguards when exploring dark pits and corrupted tombs.
Attributes: ST 10 [0]; DX 12 [40]; IQ 14 [80]; HT 12 [20].
Secondary Characteristics: Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 10 [0]; Will 14 [0]; Per 14 [0]; FP 12 [0]; Basic Speed 6.00 [0]; Basic Move 6 [0].
Advantages: Charisma 2 [10]; Medium [10]; Power Investiture 2 (Shamanic) (see below) [20]; and Spirit Empathy [10]. • Another 60 points in Shamanic gifts (see below), additional spells, or ST +1 [10], DX +1 [20], IQ +1[20], HT +1 [10], Will +1 to +3 [5/level], Per +1 to +3 [15], FP +1 to +5 [3/level], Acute Senses [2/level], Animal Friend 1-3 [5/level], Channeling [10], Charisma 3-5 [5/level], Deep Sleeper [1], Empathy [15] or Sensitive [5], Energy Reserve (Shamanic) 1-20 [3/level], Fearlessness [2/level] or Unfazeable [15], Fit [5], Healer 1 [10], Higher Purpose ( Protect the spirit realm; etc.) [5], Intuition [15], Languages (Any) [2-6/language], Night Vision 1-3 [1/level], Outdoorsman 1 [10], Power Investiture 3-6 (Shamanic) [10/level], Spirit Badge (DF: Summoners p. 5) [1], Spirit Weapon (DF: Summoners p. 5) [1], Temperature Tolerance 1 [1], or Voice [10].
Disadvantages: -10 points chosen from among Code of Honor (Shaman’s) (DF: Summoners p. 18) [-5], Disciplines of Faith (Ritualism or Mysticism) [-5 or -10], Sense of Duty (Regular Spirit-Helpers orA large category of spirits) [-5 or -10], or Vow (Vegetarianism or Always help a spirits who ask for aid) [-5 or -10]. • Another -15 points chosen from among Addiction (Weird mushrooms; Cheap; Hallucinogenic; Legal) [-10], Appearance (Unattractive or Ugly) [-4 or -8], Curious [-5*], Delusion (“Anyone could talk to the spirits if they weren't being deliberately stupid”) [-5], Obsession (Becoming as familiar with the spirit realm as with material reality; Defending humanity against evil spirit workers; etc.) [-10*], Sense of Duty (Fellow adventurers; or Community/tribe) [-5, or -10], or Wealth (Struggling or Poor) [-10 or -15]. • A further -25 points chosen from among the previous traits or Epilepsy (Mitigator, Daily herbal medicine, -60%) [-12], Innumerate [-5], Language: Spoken (Native)/Written (Broken or None) [-2 or -3], Loner [-5*], Low TL 1 or 2 [-5 or -10], Odious Personal Habit (“Scruffy primitive”; Talks to people no one else can see; or Willfully enigmatic) [-5], Skinny [-5], Social Stigma (Excommunicated† or Minority Group) [-10], Stubbornness [-5], or Weirdness Magnet [-15].
Primary Skills: Diplomacy (H) IQ [4]-16††; Herbal Lore (VH) IQ [4]-13; Hidden Lore (Spirits) (A) IQ+1 [4]-15; Merchant (A) IQ [2]-15.
Secondary Skills: Exorcism (H) Will [2]-13; First Aid (E) IQ [1]-14; Interrogation (A) IQ [2]-14; Meditation (H) Will-2 [1]-12; Naturalist (H) IQ-1 [2]-13; Stealth (A) DX [2]-12. • One of Bow (A) DX [2]-12, Sling (H) DX-1 [2]-11, or Thrown Weapon (Spear) (E) DX+1 [2]-13. • One of these two melee skills packages:
- Either Axe/Mace or Spear, both (A) DX+1 [4]-13, and Shield (E) DX+2 [4]-14.
- Staff (A) DX+2 [8]-14.
Background Skills: Six of Brawling, Jumping, Knife, or Knot-Tying, all (E) DX [1]-12; Riding, Throwing, or Wrestling, all (A) DX-1 [1]-11; Blowpipe or Net, both (H) DX-2 [1]-10; Area Knowledge (Home Area) or Camouflage, both (E) IQ [1]-14; Animal Handling, Cartography, Falconry, Fortune-Telling (Augury or Dream Interpretation), Navigation (Land), Occultism, Teamster, or Traps, all (A) IQ-1 [1]-13; Diagnosis, Theology, or Veterinary, all (H) IQ-2 [1]-12; Carousing or Singing, both (E) HT [1]-12; Intimidation (A) Will-1 [1]-13; Fishing (E) Per [1]-14; Observation, Search, or Survival (any specialty), all (A) Per-1 [1]-13; or Detect Lies (H) Per-2 [1]-12.
Spells: Choose ten shamanic spells (see below), which will be either (H) IQ [1]-14 or (VH) IQ-1 [1]-13 with the +2 for Power Investiture.
Customization Notes
Although shamans have a lot of potential powers, any given shaman only has a subset of them. There are a couple of obvious ways to focus.
- The spirit master puts most of his points in Allies. He should choose spells like Minor Healing that helps him empower and protect those allies. Background skills like Observation, Net, and Theology allow the shaman to warn his allies of potential ambushes, aid them in combat, or direct them toward identifiable supernatural threats.
- The bargainer puts more of his points in Charisma, Empathy, and Influence skills. A powerful combat focused Ally, such as an Elemental or Enslaved Demon, can make up his lack of direct combat power, but he mostly focuses on avoiding combat through negotiation. Take Animal Handling and Animal Empathy to help get past hostile critters.
- The empowered shaman puts most of his points into shamanic gifts such as Terror, Mind Control, or Paralyzing Spirits. A Chanting Shaman with the Mind Control advantage gets a fair bit of utility for very few points. Secondary skills should include Brawling and Wrestling.
- The spellcasting shaman increases his Power Investiture to 4 or more and buys up a lot of spells, making him more like a wizard or a cleric. Again, a combat focused Ally makes for a good bodyguard.
Power Modifier: Shamanic Gift -20%
A shaman has a Power Investiture, granted by the various spirits that she has befriended, enslaved, or bargained with. A shaman's power waxes and wanes depending on her relationships with the local spirits, and a successful shaman is a master of negotiation and bribery.When entering a new territory (GM determines, but generally a change of terrain is necessary) and each week thereafter, the shaman must make a Reaction Roll for, or use an Influence skill on, the local spirits. The ease or difficulty of using shaman abilities and spells depends on the result:
- Disastrous: No spell casting or shaman abilities can be used at all! A further -2 on Reaction Rolls and Influence skills when dealing with spirits in this territory in the future.
- Very Bad: -10 on all on spell casting rolls and on negotiation rolls to use shamanic abilities. A further -1 on Reaction Rolls and Influence skills when dealing with spirits in this territory in the future.
- Bad: -5 on all on spell casting rolls and on negotiation rolls to use shamanic abilities.
- Poor: -2 on all on spell casting rolls and on negotiation rolls to use shamanic abilities.
- Neutral: -1 on all on spell casting rolls and on negotiation rolls to use shamanic abilities.
- Good: No bonuses or penalties to casts spells or on negotiation rolls to use shamanic abilities.
- Very Good: +1 on all on spell casting rolls and on negotiation rolls to use shamanic abilities.
- Excellent: +2 on all on spell casting rolls and on negotiation rolls to use shamanic abilities. A further +1 on Reaction Rolls and Influence skills when dealing with spirits in this territory in the future.
Whenever a shaman attempts to activate a shamanic gift (but not cast a spell), she needs to make a successful Diplomacy roll to persuade the local spirits to do what she wants.
No shaman can attempt to negotiate with the local spirits without having made a fundamental agreement with the spirit world. The shaman must have a combination of Code of Honor, Disciplines of Faith, Sense of Duty (Spirit Community), or Vow totaling at -10 points to form the basis of that pact. If the shaman violates any of his Pact disadvantages, he must immediately reroll the Reaction Roll, as though he had just entered the territory, but with a -5 penalty. This reaction penalty applies to every new territory the shaman enters until he atones appropriately. Repeated violations can increase the penalty and the difficulty of the penance.
Bribes
A shaman can use a bribe to further entice the local spirits to do her bidding. Bribes are small gifts of unusual rocks, herbs and spices, strange incense, and food. Generic bribes weigh 1 lb per $100 value. A shaman can offer bribes before attempting to activate a shamanic gift to get a +1 on the Diplomacy roll per $1 spent, or +1 per $3 spent after the roll is made. A shaman can also get a bonus on the Reaction Roll or Influence skill made when entering a territory, at $10 per +1 bonus made before the roll or $30 per +1 bonus made after the roll.A successful Merchant roll with a penalty equal to the size of the bribe bonus halves the effective cost of the bribe.
If a shaman runs out of generic bribes, a martial artist's chi incenses or a bookish wizard's reagents can be used, but at half value. In a pinch, a shaman can also use food, but each meal (whether a $2 traveler ration or $15 elven wafer) is worth $1 as a bribe.
Power Modifier: Shaman Chanting -30%
A shaman can apply this modifier to any of his powers except Allies. With this modifier, the shaman must summon the spirits to him before using any power by loud, rhythmic chanting. The spirits will only stay and support the shaman as long as he continues chanting. The shaman must have Singing at 14+ and must take a Concentrate maneuver before using a power. He cannot talk while chanting, and the power ends immediately if he stops chanting for any reason.Shaman Chanting is an additional modifier on top of Shamanic Gifts.
Shamanic Gift Abilities
Absolute Direction (PM, -20%) [4]; Animal Empathy (PM, -20%) [4]; Blessed or Very Blessed (PM, -20%) [8 or 16]; Clairsentience (PM, -20%) [40]; Danger Sense (PM, -20%) [12]; Dark Vision (PM, -20%) [20]; Detect (Supernatural phenomena or Supernatural phenomena and beings; PM, -20%) [16 or 24]; Healing (Earthly Xenohealing +40%, PM -20%) [36]; Luck or Extraordinary Luck (PM, -20%) [12 or 24] or (Active, -40%) [6 or 12]; Magic Resistance 1-3 (Improved, +150%; PM, -20%) [5/level]; Mind Control (No Memory +10%, Puppet -40%, PM -20%) [25]; Mind Shield (PM, -20%) [3.2/level*]; Oracle (PM, -20%) [12]; Paralyzing Spirits [38]; Plant Empathy (PM, -20%) [4]; Resistant to Disease (+3) or (+8) (PM, -20%) [3 or 5]; Resistant to Spirit Powers (+3) or (+8) (PM, -20%) [3 or 5]; See Invisible (Spirits; PM, -20%) [12]; Serendipity (PM, -20%) [12]; Speak With Animals (PM, -20%) [20]; Speak With Plants (PM, -20%) [12]; Stunning Spirits [23]; Telekinesis 1-5 (PM, -20%) [4/level]; Terror (PM, -20%) [24], True Faith (PM, -20%) [12].
Paralyzing Spirits is Affliction (Speed/Range Malediction +150%, Paralzying +150%, PM -20%) [38].
Stunning Spirits is Affliction (Speed/Range Malediction +150%,PM -20%) [23].
Shamanic Chanting Gift Abilities
Blessed or Very Blessed (PM, -50%) [5 or 10]; Clairsentience (PM, -50%) [25]; Dark Vision (PM, -50%) [13]; Detect (Supernatural phenomena or Supernatural phenomena and beings; PM, -50%) [10 or 15]; Healing (Earthly Xenohealing +40%, PM -50%) [27]; Luck or Extraordinary Luck (Active -40%, PM, -20%) [3 or 6]; Mind Control (No Memory +10%, Puppet -40%, PM -50%) [5]; Paralyzing Spirits [35]; Plant Empathy (PM, -20%) [4]; See Invisible (Spirits; PM, -50%) [8]; Stunning Spirits [20]; Telekinesis 1-5 (PM, -50%) [2.5/level]; Terror (PM, -50%) [15], True Faith (PM, -50%) [8].
SHAMANIC SPELLS
Shamanic spells are unaffected by mana levels and sanctity, but they are affected by the shaman's relationship with the local spirits as described under the Shamanic Gifts power modifier.PI 1: Astral Vision, Fear, Final Rest, History, Know True Shape, Message, Recover Energy, Sense Life, Sense Mana, Sense Spirit, Spasm, Stop Spasm.
PI 2: Affect Spirits, Awaken Craft Spirit, Command Spirit, Command, Daze, Detect Magic, Materialize, Mental Stun, Minor Healing, Panic, Paralyze Limb, Pathfinder, Rooted Feet, See Secrets, Silver Tongue, Solidify, Strike Barren, Strike Blind, Strike Deaf, Strike Dumb, Strike Numb, Summon Spirit, Turn Spirit.
PI 3: Banish, Control Elemental, Divination (Augury or Oneiromancy), Dream Sending, Entrap Spirit, Major Healing, Mass Daze, Pentagram, Planar Visit (Astral Plane), Predict Weather, Presence, Projection, Repel Spirits, See Invisible, Skull Spirit, Sleep, Suspend Curse, Terror, Total Paralysis, Turn Zombie, Watchdog.
PI 4: Animation, Animate Shadow, Bind Spirit, Bless, Compel Truth, Cure Disease, Curse, Deathtouch, Dispel Magic, Dream Projection, Force Touch, Madness, Nightingale, Nightmare, Planar Visit (Realms of the Dead), Remove Curse, Rider Within*, Soul Rider, Summon Elemental.
PI 5: Astral Block, Create Elemental, Explosive Force Ball, Magic Resistance, Mystic Mist, Planar Summons, Remove Contagion, Retrogression, Sense Observation, Soul Jar, Summon Shade, Trace Teleport, Utter Dome.
PI 6: Beacon, Beast Summoning, Create Door, Hide Object, Planar Visit (Any), Plane Shift, Summon Demon.
When using Rational Damage Spells, shamans have access to the Body and Force elements, and the Touch, Jet, and Weapon forms, all at PI 4, in addition to the specific spells listed above.
Designer's Notes
The goal was to create a shaman who was generally useful. Making Diplomacy and Merchant into primary skills both centered the character and makes the shaman into an alternate social monster for delving groups that don't want a bard.
The spell list was expanded, adding a number of Body Control, Knowledge, and Mind Control spells to give the shaman something to do when spirits aren't on the center stage. They're still not generalist problem-solvers, but they can engage against a wider range of foes. Major and Minor Healing also allow the shaman to act as a semi-cleric, though a delving band expecting to fight undead would still want a full Cleric or Holy Warrior. Similarly, the list of shamanic abilities was expanded to include some generally useful abilities.
The higher levels of the PI are still lacking somewhat in spells. It's hard to add spells that don't overlap with the druid, necromancer, or demonologist. The spell list has been revised since this article was first published, but could still use more work.
I significantly altered the power modifier, to codify the idea of negotiating and bargaining with spirits. It might be a bit more cumbersome in play than the original rules, but I think it gives the shaman a lot more flavor.
Edited on July 17, 2014 to add additional spells.
Edited on July 17, 2014 to add additional spells.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Saints and Ritual Path Mages in Dungeon Fantasy
I wrote this article a few years ago, while trying to make Ritual Path Magic work in Dungeon Fantasy. I've since abandoned the effort (hence the focus on my new College Book Ritual system), or at least postponed until the generic Ritual Path Magic book comes out. I thought I'd add it for archaeological interest.
Use Dungeon Saints from the article in Pyramid.
Wizard
Remove Magery 3 and the optional Magery 4, 5, or 6 from the Advantages list. Remove Hidden Lore and Alchemy from the Primary Skills list. Remove all 30 points in Spells. Add Ritual Path Magery 2 as a mandatory advantage to the Advantages list. Add Alchemy to the Background skill list. Spend 50 points on Ritual Magic Path skills, Thaumatology, or in TBD "fire and forget" spells. "Fire and Forget spells" can also be bought as Advantages, as well as Ritual Path Magery 3, 4, 5, or 6.
One simple solution would be to give bards access to only path of mind, but that would make the magery advantages fairly expensive and open the door for niche invasion. A better solution is to exchange all the magic for Songs from DF: Powerups, along with beefing up the power and cinema of the enthrallment skills.
Druids
I like my druids as shape-changers with minor magical abilities, but neither Divine Favor nor Ritual Path Magic is the right approach here.
Demonologists
Give them Path of Spirit, Path of Crossroads, Path of Magic and call it a day?
Elementalists
Give them Path of Energy, Path of Matter, Path of Spirit, Path of Magic? Just get rid of them?
Necromancers
Path of Undead, Path of Magic
Shaman
Track down Phil Masters and thump him one. Alternately, grab a bunch of Crusader powers or something?
Wizards are in an even worse spot. With low skill levels, Wizards have to specialize in what kind of magic they'll perform. They have a fair amount of flexibility at that level, but powerful effects need to be prepared in advance via charms. Toting grimoires around is pretty useful for wizards, letting them recreate spent charms while the delving band has downtime. But still, I'm worried that wizards would be useless under these rules - they'll certainly feel much more like 1st or 2nd level AD&D wizards than proper GURPS wizards.
Obviously, I don't know what to do with Summoners. Making them highly specialized casters is the easiest, and works well for Demonologists and Necromancers. Shamans and Elementalists already have problems under the normal templates, and these rules don't help them. I don't know what to do with Druids, either. They're the weakest of the DF: Adventurers spellcasters normally (worse even than Bards, boo-hiss!). Shapechanging might help, but the kind of Earth Elemental one can change into on 70 or so points is not that impressive. So I just dunno.
Revised Templates
ClericUse Dungeon Saints from the article in Pyramid.
Wizard
Remove Magery 3 and the optional Magery 4, 5, or 6 from the Advantages list. Remove Hidden Lore and Alchemy from the Primary Skills list. Remove all 30 points in Spells. Add Ritual Path Magery 2 as a mandatory advantage to the Advantages list. Add Alchemy to the Background skill list. Spend 50 points on Ritual Magic Path skills, Thaumatology, or in TBD "fire and forget" spells. "Fire and Forget spells" can also be bought as Advantages, as well as Ritual Path Magery 3, 4, 5, or 6.
Magery and "Fire and Forget Spells"
A wizard may know one or more spells as "Fire and Forget". These can be bought as Alternate Abilities to his Ritual Path Magery, in which case he can only cast on spell at a time, and its effects end as soon as he casts a new ritual. More powerful or experienced wizards may know multiple "Fire and Forget" spells that can be used at the same time and that don't end when he casts a ritual.
All "Fire and Forget Spells" have the Magic Spell modifier (-25%) (Magic Power [-10%]; Accessibility: Must have arms, hands, and mouth free to cast [15%]). Each spell may be bought as an alternate ability of the wizard's Ritual Path Magic, or an independent ability, or an alternate ability of an independent ability.
Templates Needing Further Revision
BardsOne simple solution would be to give bards access to only path of mind, but that would make the magery advantages fairly expensive and open the door for niche invasion. A better solution is to exchange all the magic for Songs from DF: Powerups, along with beefing up the power and cinema of the enthrallment skills.
Druids
I like my druids as shape-changers with minor magical abilities, but neither Divine Favor nor Ritual Path Magic is the right approach here.
Summoners
Summoners, as focused casters, are problematic in normal df. in exchange for saving a few points on magery, they get crippled spell lists. Translating them into distinct and effective RPM casters is tricky since they aren't that effective normally.
Give them Path of Spirit, Path of Crossroads, Path of Magic and call it a day?
Elementalists
Give them Path of Energy, Path of Matter, Path of Spirit, Path of Magic? Just get rid of them?
Necromancers
Path of Undead, Path of Magic
Shaman
Track down Phil Masters and thump him one. Alternately, grab a bunch of Crusader powers or something?
Comments
The basic concept here is to get rid of GURPS Magic as much as possible. Divine Favor versus Ritual Path Magic gives a sharp difference between Clerics and Wizards. Issues I think the big change is reliability versus scope. Standard DF spellcasters are very reliable: they can do 20-30 different things, most of which are small and specific, but they do them very reliably and consistently. Divine Favor reverses that for Saints: their abilities are random and unreliable, but they can do just about anything if they get lucky enough. Though Learned Prayers increase the reliability quite a bit, but only in a few areas.Wizards are in an even worse spot. With low skill levels, Wizards have to specialize in what kind of magic they'll perform. They have a fair amount of flexibility at that level, but powerful effects need to be prepared in advance via charms. Toting grimoires around is pretty useful for wizards, letting them recreate spent charms while the delving band has downtime. But still, I'm worried that wizards would be useless under these rules - they'll certainly feel much more like 1st or 2nd level AD&D wizards than proper GURPS wizards.
Obviously, I don't know what to do with Summoners. Making them highly specialized casters is the easiest, and works well for Demonologists and Necromancers. Shamans and Elementalists already have problems under the normal templates, and these rules don't help them. I don't know what to do with Druids, either. They're the weakest of the DF: Adventurers spellcasters normally (worse even than Bards, boo-hiss!). Shapechanging might help, but the kind of Earth Elemental one can change into on 70 or so points is not that impressive. So I just dunno.
Talents for Ritual Path Magic
I wrote this a while back for my Monster Hunters game - a bunch of flavorful talents for Ritual Path Mages. I figured I'd increase my post count by adding it here. Some of the talents cover slightly different skills depending on whether they're being used in a Monster Hunters game or in an extremely variant Dungeon Fantasy game.
Talents
Casumancer (5 points)DF Skills covered: Fast-Talk; Gambling; Hidden Lore (Faerie); Path of Chance; Sleight of Hand
MH Skills covered: Fast-Talk; Gambling; Hidden Lore (Free Spirits); Path of Chance; Sleight of Hand
Reaction Bonus: Faeries, gamblers, and con-men
Demonologist (5 points)
Hidden Lore (Demons); Law; Path of Crossroads; Path of Spirit; Thaumatology (Demonic); Theology
Reaction Bonus: Demons, lawyers, and exorcists
Elementalist (10 points)
Chemistry; Innate Attack; Intimidation; Naturalist; Path of Energy; Path of Magic; Path of Matter; Physics; Scrounging; Swimming; Thaumatology (Elemental); Weather Sense; Weird Science
Reaction Bonus: Scientists, outdoorsmen
Mentalist (5 points)
Acting; Detect Lies; Diplomacy; Path of Mind; Psychology
Reaction Bonus: Actors, psychologists
Necrologist (5 points)
DF Skills covered: Exorcism; Hidden Lore (Undead); Occultism; Path of Undead; Poisons; Surgery; Thaumatology (Necromantic)
MH Skills covered: Exorcism; Hidden Lore (Mummies); Hidden Lore (Restless Dead); Hidden Lore (Vampires); Occultism; Path of Undead; Surgery; Thaumatology (Necromantic)
Reaction Bonus: The undead
Smooth Talker (15 points)
Add Path of Mind to Smooth Talker
Thaumaturge (5 points)
Archaeology; Hidden Lore (Sacred Places); Occultism; Path of Magic; Research; Thaumatology
Reaction Bonus: New Agers, mystics, and other casters.
White Mage (5 points)
Animal Handling; Diagnosis; Esoteric Medicine; Path of Body; Physician; Veterinary
Reaction Bonus: Doctors and patients
Witch Doctor (10 points)
Esoteric Medicine; Exorcism; Hidden Lore; Path of Body; Path of Spirit; Path of Undead; Physician; Public Speaking; Religious Ritual; Theology; Thaumatology (Shamanism)
Reaction Bonus: Spirits
World-Walker (5 points)
DF Skills covered: Acrobatics; Running; Hiking; Navigation; Path of Crossroads; Riding
MH Skills covered: Acrobatics; Driving; Hiking; Navigation; Path of Crossroads; Pilot
Reaction Bonus: Travelers, nomads, and wanderers
Thaumatology Specialities
The Demonologist, Elementalist, Necrologist, and Witch Doctor talents have specialized Thaumatology skills. These specialized skills count as normal Thaumatology for Path skill limits for the following Paths, and at skill-2 for all other Path skills. Each specialized Thaumatology skill is a M/H skill.DF Templates should add the relevant Thaumatology skill and its covered Path skills to their primary skills.
Demonic
Path of Crossroads, Path of Energy, Path of Spirit
Elemental
Path of Energy, Path of Magic, Path of Matter
Necromantic
Path of Body, Path of Crossroads, Path of Undead
Shamanism
Path of Body, Path of Spirit, Path of Undead
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
College Ritual Book Magic and Threshold Mana
So I proposed a new system of magic called College Ritual Book Magic, and made a sample artillery wizard. In the process of creating the example character, I demonstrated to myself that while replacing the a 10 point Magic Talent that applies to all spells (potentially hundreds of skills!) with a 5 point Magic talent that only applies to 2-3 colleges of spells seems like it would reduce a wizard's power, it only does so in the long-term. In the short-term, a sufficiently focused wizard just saved 15 points.
+Jason Packard suggested charging a 5 point UB per college the wizard knows, up to a maximum of 30 points. It's a decent suggestion, but not the one I'm going with, because there's another problem I want to solve.
A large part of the problem is that wizards can convert the otherwise mostly unused Fatigue attribute into problem-solving. Sure, non-wizards can use Fatigue for extra-effort, helpful in combat or sometimes to break open a wedged door or something, but it doesn't compare to a wizard being able to spend Fatigue to fly or shape earth. Fatigue as a resource for casting spells needs to go.
Fortunately, there's already a system for that: Threshold-Limited Magery.
This system means that dabblers in magic - the hypothetical bright thief with IQ13 and a few Easy spells - can only cast a few small spells per day safely, and needs a few days to recover after any significant use of magic. Which can only be expected, as dabblers aren't mighty wizards. A professional wizard would have Extra Magical Ability 2 or 3, giving a Threshold of 25-35 and a Recovery Rate of 35-50. Professional wizards can cast many more spells than dabblers, but they still face a pretty hard limit. If they cast more than about 75 energy in a day they're guaranteed nasty effects on the Calamity table, and recovering that Threshold requires 1-2 days without casting any magic at all.
Of course, rewriting the Calamity table to make it easier to go over threshold without having horrible things happen permanently is useful, too.
ST 10 [0]; DX 12 [40]; IQ 15 [100]; HT 11 [10].
Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lb; HP 10 [0]; Will 15 [0]; Per 12 [-15]; FP 14 [9].
Basic Speed 6.00 [5]; Basic Move 6 [0]; Dodge 9.
Extra Magical Ability 2 [20]; Fuel-Air Mage Talent 2 (covers Aerobatics, College of Air, College of Fire, Innate Attack, and Weather Sense) [10]; Gizmo 1 [5]; Luck [15]; Magery 0 [5]; Wealth (Comfortable) [10].
Quirks: _Unused Quirk 1; _Unused Quirk 2; _Unused Quirk 3; _Unused Quirk 4; _Unused Quirk 5. [-5]
+Jason Packard suggested charging a 5 point UB per college the wizard knows, up to a maximum of 30 points. It's a decent suggestion, but not the one I'm going with, because there's another problem I want to solve.
Wizards Can Cast Too Many Spells Each Day
A well-designed GURPS Wizard has Recover Energy-20, and a decently designed one has Recover Energy-15. Even assuming the wizard gets no other energy reduction on spell cost and performs no other tricks, he can cast 12-30 FP worth of magical spells every hour. That's not a huge problem if most of those spells have a very short duration, but if some or all of them have durations of a few days or more, the effects can be over-the-top. It's trivially easy for a decently prepared wizard to equip everyone in the gaming group with magically glowing rocks while fortifying their campsite with deep trenches, long wood berms, and freaky magical mists. This can be a bit upsetting in play and highly upsetting in world design.A large part of the problem is that wizards can convert the otherwise mostly unused Fatigue attribute into problem-solving. Sure, non-wizards can use Fatigue for extra-effort, helpful in combat or sometimes to break open a wedged door or something, but it doesn't compare to a wizard being able to spend Fatigue to fly or shape earth. Fatigue as a resource for casting spells needs to go.
Fortunately, there's already a system for that: Threshold-Limited Magery.
Threshold-Limited Mages Can't Cast Enough Spells Per Day
The suggested limits for Threshold Mana are a Threshold of 30 and a Recovery Rate of 8, "a power level roughly equivalent to that under the standard rules". But that drastically underestimates how much magic a standard wizard can cast per day (trivially, a 10 FP spell every hour, not an 8 FP spell every day). The Recovery Rate needs to increase to around 30-50.Dabblers, Extra Threshold, and CRBM Mages
My proposal is that wizards (and other "arcane" spell-casters such as Elementalists, Necromancers, and Demonologists) should get a Threshold of 5 and a Recovery Rate of 5 when they buy the 5 point Magery advantage. They can by additional levels of Extra Magical Ability at 10 points/level, with each level increasing Threshold by 10 and Recovery Rate by 15.This system means that dabblers in magic - the hypothetical bright thief with IQ13 and a few Easy spells - can only cast a few small spells per day safely, and needs a few days to recover after any significant use of magic. Which can only be expected, as dabblers aren't mighty wizards. A professional wizard would have Extra Magical Ability 2 or 3, giving a Threshold of 25-35 and a Recovery Rate of 35-50. Professional wizards can cast many more spells than dabblers, but they still face a pretty hard limit. If they cast more than about 75 energy in a day they're guaranteed nasty effects on the Calamity table, and recovering that Threshold requires 1-2 days without casting any magic at all.
Of course, rewriting the Calamity table to make it easier to go over threshold without having horrible things happen permanently is useful, too.
Sample Artillery Mage
Here's the same artillery mage above, slightly modified to use Threshold Limited Magery with these rules. With a Threshold of 25 and a Recovery Rate of 35, he's more powerful in a tactical situation than the original, but not as powerful when there's lots of time available since he can't just keep casting small spells. His skill levels are also slightly lower, since he had to drop a level of Talent to pay for the Extra Magical Ability.250 points
Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lb; HP 10 [0]; Will 15 [0]; Per 12 [-15]; FP 14 [9].
Basic Speed 6.00 [5]; Basic Move 6 [0]; Dodge 9.
Disadvantages
Clueless [-10]; Oblivious [-5]; Obsession (To become the world's most powerful fire wizard; 12 or less) [-10]; Pyromania (12 or less) [-5]; Sense of Duty (Adventuring companions) [-5].Quirks: _Unused Quirk 1; _Unused Quirk 2; _Unused Quirk 3; _Unused Quirk 4; _Unused Quirk 5. [-5]
Skills
Alchemy/TL3 (VH) IQ [8]-15; Climbing (A) DX-1 [1]-11; Fast-Draw (Potion) (E) DX+1 [2]-13; First Aid/TL3 (Human) (E) IQ [1]-15; Hazardous Materials/TL3 (Magical) (A) IQ+1 [1]-16*; Hidden Lore (Demon Lore) (A) IQ-1 [1]-14; Hidden Lore (Magical Items Lore) (A) IQ [2]-15; Hidden Lore (Spirit Lore) (A) IQ-1 [1]-14; Hiking (A) HT-1 [1]-10; Innate Attack (Projectile) (E) DX+4 [4]-16*; Meditation (H) Will-1 [2]-14; Merchant (A) IQ+1 [4]-16; Occultism (A) IQ [2]-15; Research/TL3 (A) IQ-1 [1]-14; Savoir-Faire (High Society) (E) IQ-5 [1]-10†; Scrounging (E) Per [1]-12; Speed-Reading (A) IQ-1 [1]-14; Staff (A) DX+2 [8]-14; Stealth (A) DX-1 [1]-11; Teaching (A) IQ-1 [1]-14; Thaumatology (VH) IQ-1 [4]-14; Weather Sense (A) IQ+2 [1]-16*; Writing (A) IQ-1 [1]-14.Spells
College of Air (VH) IQ+2 [8]-17*; College of Fire (VH) IQ+4 [16]-19*; College of Sound (VH) IQ-2 [2]-13.Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Bookish wizards in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy
The traditional viewpoint of wizards in role-playing games are that they're rather academic folks, reading strange tomes of magic all the time and using weird ingredients that they pull out from pouches or whatever. The various (pre-4e, anyway) D&D games had admirable rules for making wizards work like this: spell components by spell, wizard spellbooks, the whole nine yards. GURPS, sadly, has never had a really good equivalent in the standard magic system. There's been various attempts, but nothing that really stuck.
So now I'm going to present my simple but elegant solution to the problem. To wit, a new disadvantage (two new disadvantages).
Tome magicians often use their spellbooks as power items. These spellbooks are often ornate or written in faerie ink for the usual CF modifiers (per DF4: Sages).
I'm not sure if Tome magicians should be able to make their spellbooks Fine or Very Fine and apply the bonus while they have the book in their hand. It'd be hideously expensive and inconveniencing for a delving wizard, but I do like the idea of a big bad wizard with a huge, bejeweled, absurdly large book of magic that the delver's thief can try to steal away from him. Hmmm.
Hat Tip: Bruno suggested Tome Magic, with the requirement for a costlier book that could be used as a power item.
So now I'm going to present my simple but elegant solution to the problem. To wit, a new disadvantage (two new disadvantages).
Disciplines of Faith (Arcane Rituals) (-10 points)
Your magic requires constant research into the tides of magic, the position of the stars, and stranger things. You must own a spellbook that contains your notes, observations, and calculations on how and when you can cast spells. This spellbook weighs 1 lb per 10 points in spells that you know, and costs $10 per lb. You must study from this spellbook for 1d hours every night - this is time taken away from sleep, being on watch, travelling, etc. You do not need the spellbook on you to cast a spell if you studied it the night before. On any day that you cast a spell, you consume $5 of reagents and spell ingredients - these are fetishes, fine spices, and powered gems that weigh almost nothing. If you ever find yourself without reagents or your spellbook, you are at -1 on all spell-casting rolls per day that you go without either, and -2 per day that you go without both. The penalty is reduced to 0 as soon as you study in your spellbook and have access to reagents again.Disciplines of Faith (Tome Magic) (-15 points)
As above, but your spellbook is a physical representation of your magical ability. It weighs 1 lb per 5 points in spells that you know, and costs $25 per lb. You cannot cast spells at all unless your spellbook is on your person (in your backpack counts, but not in extra-dimensional space such as a Hide-away pouch). You get a +2 on all rolls to cast spells while your book is physically in your hand.Tome magicians often use their spellbooks as power items. These spellbooks are often ornate or written in faerie ink for the usual CF modifiers (per DF4: Sages).
Commentary
This is basically Disciplines of Faith (Chi Rituals), recast for use by wizards. It gives the proper feel of wizard, constantly pouring over his spellbook and pulling newt tails or whatever from his pockets. It also gives the GM another option for treasure: other people's reagents let the wizard stock up on long trips, and since reagents have almost no weight, they make for a very portable treasure.I'm not sure if Tome magicians should be able to make their spellbooks Fine or Very Fine and apply the bonus while they have the book in their hand. It'd be hideously expensive and inconveniencing for a delving wizard, but I do like the idea of a big bad wizard with a huge, bejeweled, absurdly large book of magic that the delver's thief can try to steal away from him. Hmmm.
Hat Tip: Bruno suggested Tome Magic, with the requirement for a costlier book that could be used as a power item.
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