Re: (TFT) Welcome Ray

["Neil Gilmore" <raito@raito.com>]

> I'd add to this list "Not enough hit points." But this is a controversial
> point here on the list. I think it's a huge bug that TFT characters die
like
> flies when the game is played by the book, while many others on the list
consider
> it a feature. (OTOH I'll allow that I might be an extremist: I think that
*D&
> D* is too lethal - and that it implicitly admits to being over-lethal with
its
> various "return from the dead" spells and the assumption that of course a
> character will die and return several times over the course of his
adventurering
> career.)

I'm on the feature side.

> - Not enough fatigue St.
> Yes. My solution has been to house rule in various discounts and
reductions
> in St costs, starting with a general 5x increase in the duration of most
> spells. (E.g. spells that formerly cost 1 St per turn to renew now cost 1
St after
> every 5 turns).

Feature.

> What I don't use is the standard trick of apprentices providing master
> wizards with boatloads of fatigue St via the Aid spell. My analysis is
that that
> would require too many apprentices making too many Dx rolls vs an
apprentice's
> low Dx score to be practical. By the standard "guild rules" an apprentice
is
> limited to providing 25 St per day - I've added a coda "and no more than 5
St in
> any one-hour period." A typical St 10 or St 11 apprentice simply isn't
going
> to be able to provide 25 St in a single lump.

No they won't, but assuming a modern 8 hour day, an apprentice making all
their rolls, (and ST 10), COULD:

AID once at the beginning of the workday for 8
once again in 2 hours for 8
and again in 2 hours for 8
and again in 2 hours for 8
and at the end of the workday for 8,

potentially 40 ST (though he probably blows a roll or 2). As well, the rules
state that for magic item creation, iut's used in drips and drabs, rathern
than as bursts.

> - Not enough memory for spells and talents.
> True for larger-than-life PC types, but not so much for mundane NPCs. Joe
> Peasant and Joe Townsman get enough memory, IMO; it's the adventurerous,
> larger-than-life PC types who feel the pinch. As I see it, part of what
makes heroes
> heroes is that they're overachievers, and my solution is to just give
"hero"
> class PCs double the standard memory. (Wizards I allow to buy talents at
the
> normal cost rather than double cost if they have very high IQ scores.)

Feature.

> - HTH could use polishing.
> Or a complete rewrite. As I see it, a large part of the problem is that
HTH
> is simply a complicated and powerful tactic no matter how you slice it.

OK, bug.

> - Many people are bothered by the lack of healing magic.
> I have mixed feelings about this one. I don't like the idea of magic being
> the standard mode of healing, but OTOH a lack of healing magic adds to the
"not
> enough hit points" problem and fails to make sense in other ways as well.
And
> on the gripping hand an old player of mine has complained about the way
> healing potions heal damage by the point when damage is generally
inflicted by the
> die - and he was right. So I've increased healing potions to healing 1d+1
> damage each, instead of 1 pt.

Feature.

> - "Industrial Disease" on magic system. (Magic & magic items are too
> predictable. Too technology like.)
> I agree that "Industrial Disease" is a problem, but I disagree with Rick
as
> to what gives magic its "Industrial"/technology-like flavor. More on this
later
> since I give to go to work now.

Neither. It's how the campaign runs that determines this.

Neil Gilmore
raito@raito.com
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