Re: (TFT) Re: Mental abilities of controlled characters

[Psychohist@aol.com]

Rick Smith:

   Now we know that when a wizard takes
  control of a summoned creature he can see thru its
  eyes and there is a 2 way telepathic link (see 
  paragraph 10 on page 4 of AW).  The rules also
  say that the wizard 'takes over' the mind of the
  subject....

   What are other's peoples views on 
  this?

Actually, I'm not sure it's clear that there's really a two way telepathic
link.  The specific phrase is, "A controlled figure will obey the telepathic
orders of its controller as long as the spell is on, and the controller can
see through its eyes".  I would interpret that as a complete description, not
as illustrations of some larger concept.

I'd expect the commands to be of the form "attack x", and for the controlled
person to execute that command to the best of its abilities.  More detailed
commands, like "attack x by throwing a fireball at it" could be used, but a
controlled fighter wouldn't suddenly be able to use fireballs, even if the
controlling person had the spell.

The only open question is how to handle situations when the controlled person
has a skill that the controller doesn't know about.  It strikes me that the
best way to handle this would be to let controller's player give the orders to
the gamesmaster, who would decide, based on full knowledge of the controllee's
skills, exactly what action was taken.

Having the gamesmaster, rather than the controllee's player, decide on the
action would help ensure that the controllee would carry out the command to
the best of his abilities.  It seems to me that 'to the best of his abilities'
would include using skills that the controller didn't know about, if those
skills were the best way of carrying out the command.

Warren
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