Re: (TFT) Magic, Magicians, numbers and power

["gem6868" <gem6868@verizon.net>]

I'm uncertain how long "absurdly short" is in real time, but they are the 
standard 1 turn/ST usually.  However, it's not so much the duration as the 
time when you use it that matters.

Personally, if I was nobility and these guys started to crop up, I'd just 
have them all killed as too destabilizing for society.  This is another 
thing that people don't factor in when they want their world to be 
"realistic".  If it's really possible for people to wander around 
manipulating everyone easily, then the peasants will kill everyone they 
think is Dr. Frankenstein / steen in a frenzy of panicked bloodshed.  Also, 
if daily life near Frankenstein / steen's castle becomes that terrifying, 
all the peasants would flee to other locales.  The only way for such persons 
to survive is to hide their abilities and use them subtly, effectively 
becoming their own self-inhibitor.

-----Original Message----- 
From: Sgt Hulka
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2011 10:41 PM
To: tft@brainiac.com
Subject: Re: (TFT) Magic, Magicians, numbers and power

Perhaps I'm misremembering, but don't those seemingly powerful spells have 
absurdly short durations?

And was it Advanced Wizard where they codified gestures and chants? Again, I 
may be misremembering, but on the upside I think you could canonically get 
some of the things you're talking about by casting at a higher IQ level. 
Like if you have IQ 12 and you cast confusion you don't need to use gestures 
or verbal components, so you could indeed mess with contracts.

--- On Wed, 10/5/11, gem6868 <gem6868@verizon.net> wrote:

> From: gem6868 <gem6868@verizon.net>
> Subject: (TFT) Magic, Magicians, numbers and power
> To: "The Fantasy Trip Brainiac List" <tft@brainiac.com>
> Date: Wednesday, October 5, 2011, 8:51 AM
> Soooo, Ibm reading bWizardb as part
> of my basic journey in bThe
> Nostalgia Tripb.  Ibve been working on Melee for
> several weeks, and now am
> prepared to start reading Wizard and prepare for arena
> duels to re-acquaint
> myself with the system.  A nice side benefit is that
> Wizard adds a few basic
> rules (Crawling) and clarifies others.  Anyway...
>
> One of the things that struck me is how powerful even an
> ordinary Wizard is.
> Transpose that person into pre-gunpowder Western culture
> (as an example) and
> you have someone who is primed and ready to become the next
> Sauron / Saruman,
> especially if theybve a subtle mind (actually, like the two
> examples given).
> It doesnbt take long in the IQ range to acquire the power
> to affect some
> pretty powerful political events.  IQ8 = just spells
> that duplicate skilled
> fighter abilties.  IQ9 you get bConfusionb which if
> used say while signing
> a contract...might end up with a nobleman in a tight spot
> (legally).  IQ10 is
> more practical adventure spells, but IQ11 adds sleep.
> In the hand of clever
> characters, used in the corridors of power at the right
> time...dangerous.
> Most nasty?  IQ13 bControl Personb.  Wouldnbt
> take long for someone to
> ingratiate themselves into the courts of the powerful and
> then use this to
> insert their own bWormtongueb into the staff and exploit
> their advantage.
>
> To offset this, one can argue that powerful people ALL have
> Wizards of their
> own.  However, this soon makes magic a mundane clash
> between those who want to
> bkill the VIPb v. the bbodyguardsb, and about as
> interesting as any
> security detail (for those whobve been on them).
>
> It seems to me that the most useful brake on wildly
> powerful Wizards is a
> bself-brakeb, something that they are afraid of that can
> hurt them.  In
> some writerbs worlds, itbs the unleashing of demons that
> makes magic a
> dangerous field of endeavor.  In Vancebs world, altho
> the stories are
> suffused with magic, there is reference to them being on
> the run from powerful
> ethical gods / religions.
>
> Anyway, just some things I was considering as someone was
> cranking the numbers
> and coming up with 60 wizards in a major city.
> =====
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