(TFT) TFT: Quickness and IQ

["Dave Seagraves" <dseagraves@austin.rr.com>]

Michael Taylor wrote . . .

>QUICKNESS (IQ 12, Costs 3, needs DX 16+): This talent tones your DX to su=
>ch
>a degree that you are able to make that small movement of the body
>necessary to make an incoming blow hit with less damage. This will stop 1=
>hit of damage. Prerequisite: you need a DX of DX 16 or better.


   "Tone my DX?"  Mmmm . . .  if I have a DX of 16 I'd say it's bloody well
toned already!  I'll have to favor using Defensive Quickness over this
one -- it already exists (/Interplay #8/) and it simulates avoiding damage
by "quickness" better than anything else I've seen.

>TOUGHNESS (IQ 8, Costs 1, needs ST 12+): This talent will exercise  your
>body so that the muscles are strengthened and worked up so that it will
>stop 1 hit of damage. This talent can be used with the Warrior or Veteran=
>talents if you wish.


   In a way, this talent is a logical prequel to Warrior and Veteran, but I
have a tough time believing it's possible for any human to stop 3 hits naked
. . .  as tough as a gargoyle, dragon, or chainmail armor!  It's also cheap
as hell . . .  too cheap.  I don't like it . . .  let's just stick with
Warrior and Veteran.  (play buzzer sound here.)

>DENSENESS (IQ 6, Costs 1): Someone with this handicap has
>difficulty noticing things, understanding jokes, etc., and thus one extra=
>die (+1d6) is rolled to see if someone with Denseness notices
>something.


   Does this handicap lower your IQ to 6?  That means you could never learn
/any/ talent or spell.  Adding a die to every IQ roll made is meaningless,
and justs adds insult to injury.  All that for /ONE/ more attribute point???
No thanks.  Something like this is already covered by Moronic (IQ 7, 4 point
handicap).  A character with 6 IQ wouldn't make a good adventurer anyway --
how often does the average player play a Prootwaddle?

   Speaking of IQ, here is an excerpt from my own campaign's ground rules.
I've found that this one rule change does more to increase the enjoyment of
the game than anything else . . .

Adjusted IQ
   Attribute points can now be spent to increase the IQ points a character
can spend to learn talents and spells.  It costs one attribute point (which
isn?t otherwise spent on ST, DX, or IQ) to increase a character?s ?adjIQ? by
two.  (Normally a character can learn no more than his IQ in IQ point?s
worth of talents and spells.)  So a character with an IQ of 10 who spends
one attribute point for a +2 adjIQ will then have an adjIQ of 12, giving him
12 IQ points to spend on talents and spells (but his base IQ remains 10).
   Attribute points spent on increasing adjIQ do count towards a character?s
attribute point total.  So Humar the Human Archer (ST 11, DX 16, IQ 10 (16))
is a 40-point character (11+16+10+3), not 37.
   When increasing IQ through experience, you can either increase your
normal IQ by one point (which increases adjIQ by 1 as well) or (if your
adjIQ is higher than your IQ) you can increase normal IQ by two if adjIQ
remains the same.  The same character above, with an IQ of 10/12 and a new
attribute point to spend, could either increase his IQ by 1 (making him IQ
11/13), increase his IQ by 2 (making his IQ 12/12), or increase his adjIQ by
2 (making his IQ 10/14).  But in any case a character?s normal IQ can never
exceed his adjIQ.
   This rule change gives characters a way to become cinematic
highly-skilled heroes and wizards (just like many characters of fantasy
fiction) without forcing them to buy unrealistically high IQ?s, while still
requiring them to pay for it in some way.

Dave Seagraves
Seagraves Design Bureau   dseagraves@austin.rr.com   1 (512) 255-2760
"I've been calling for reinforcements all day, and all they send me is a
light tank!  Have you ever tried to stop an Ogre with a /light tank/!?"


=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"