Re: Staff spell? - Quarterstaff talent

[Rick Smith <rick_ww@lightspeed.ca>]

Hi all,
  I assumed that the staff was like a club (which does not require a talent to
use).  The 1d6 damage is magical damage.  (It does not matter if you hit 
him hard or just touch him barely.  The shock of the magic does the 1d6
damage.)

  But what about wizards who take the Quarterstaff talent?

  Originally I said that the magical staff damage adds on to the Quarterstaff
damage.  After all, the wizard is spending double memory for Q. Staff, he
should get a decent bonus.

  But ST 11 wizards doing 2d+2 damage became the standard.  When you
needed the heavy damage, you called in the wizards.  NOT exactly what I
wanted.

  In the TFT Codex, they said, adding the damage seemed too powerful,
and they had to think about it.  That seemed a bit of a copout to me.  
Think about it and then give us an answer.  We spent the $20 (or what 
ever) for the codex after all.

  What I do now, is say that the 1d6 and 1d+2 damage are SEPARATE, 
and armor protects against both, separately.   So if a ST 11 wizard attacks
a monster with 3 points of damage with a staff - quarterstaff (which he has
the talent for), he rolls the shock damage and quarterstaff damage as 
two separate damage rolls.  e.g., the staff does 3 points and the Q. Staff
does 7 points.  The magical shock damage is stopped completely, but
4 points of the quarterstaff bash gets thru.

  This works very well in play.  There is a decent bonus for talking the 
talent, but it feels balanced.  Against lightly armored foes, there is a huge
advantage, but for heavily armored foes you need the heavy fighters.

  Warm regards, Rick.


On 2016-10-09, at 8:29 AM, Nathan Easton wrote:

> 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?
> 
> -N.