Re: [Slope: Ch 10] Thrown Spell talent - change?

[Rick <rick_ww@lightspeed.ca>]

Hi Peter, Everyone.
  Very good points below.

  One change I’ve made to TFT is most of the thrown spells give the 
victim a saving throw.  For example, the sleep spell gives you a 4 vs
(the victim’s LOWEST ST, DX or IQ).

  These saving throw are typically pretty tough, but anyone might get
lucky.  

  I like my suggestion about lowering range negatives by 5 since it 
makes casting thrown spells at range easier, which I think is a neat 
change to TFT.

  Warm regards, Rick.


> On May 3, 2018, at 9:19 AM, PvK <pvk@oz.net> wrote:
> 
> A few considerations come to mind:
> 
> * This is potentially a very nice way to avoid Wizard DX bloat, and make Wizards more distinct from each other.
> 
> * It's a powerful effect if it's much cheaper in EP than raising DX, especially if (as in TFT RAW) there are various Thrown spells which take an opponent out of action without much/any chance of the enemy resisting the spell. The main way to avoid getting taken out by Sleep / Freeze / Stop etc is to have the spellcaster fail, and nearly the only thing to do to assist that is to stay far enough away that the steep -1/hex range penalty makes it unlikely. Adding saving rolls to such spells would mitigate that but nerf the power of those spells.
> 
> * Halving range would have the most effect for the most capable wizards. A wizard with that and strong thrown spells would be a hazard at twice the distance, so ouch.
> 
> * A +DX adjustment as you have it seems the next most powerful effect and is great for lower-DX wizards since it makes the spells much more likely at close range (it makes Thrown spells significantly _easier_ (especially for lowish-DX characters) than other spells at short range, instead of harder).
> 
> * A reduction to range is the weakest effect because it doesn't have the short-range bonus. However in some situations it can be just as strong as the others. There's also practically no difference with the +DX version when a character has high DX. 
> 
> * Matt's point about notation seems moot to me, as I'd just use some symbol I'd memorize, like putting the range reduction number inside a conspicuous diamond on the sheet, or after a big capital letter T and/or R, or if it's always the same symbol, some single symbol for it without a number.
> 
> * I (crunch/detail-lover) would be tempted to have various talents at various levels that each do different of the above and/or other things, but balancing them would be wanted to avoid players figuring out the "best" one and ignoring the others.
> 
> PvK
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