I agree. I never saw in the rules where a Wizard needed to do anything special (other than roll to hit), or have any weapon proficiency to use his/her staff as a simple weapon.
I DO agree that the entire concept of "staff" seems a bit weak based solely on damage though. So I also allow Wizards to use it as a ST battery by putting ST into it (it costs them 2 ST to save a single point of ST into the Staff, and they can only save as many ST points as their IQ -- so they need to prep the Staff before they go off into the wild, and once it runs out, it stays out until they take the time to put the ST back into it. Gives 'em something to do during their downtime, though...). This also provides more incentive for Wizards to take the STAFF Spell as an option.
A Staff of Power works the same way, except that they can store 2x their IQ in ST points in one of those.
From: Thomas Fulmer <tfulmer1@gmail.com>
To: tft@brainiac.com
Sent: Sunday, October 9, 2016 9:27 AM
Subject: Re: Staff spell?
I never required wizards to have a weapon talent for their staff. I assumed its damage as entirely magical and none of it had to do with skill or force. So simply touching the enemy with a glancing blow once in 5 seconds of combat would be all that was required, as contrast to a hit with a weapon where in that 5 seconds they had to actually get an opening and land a real blow.
So in my mind the requirement difference for the damage crossed out the lack of talent.
--Thomas
This has always troubled me.
If a wizard has the Staff spell, can they use it to smack someone for 1d6 without having a weapon proficiency, or do they still take the -4 DX penalty?
It seems like they should be able to attack with it, otherwise what's the point?