Thursday, January 12, 2012

Wizards and Weapons: Two More Thoughts

I had a couple more thoughts on the flexibility of the "2 dice limit" on weapons that wizards have in T&T.

First, there are certainly more weapons in the world than those listed in the 5th and 7th edition rulebooks. A game master or even a player could find other historical weapons and give them T&T attributes. There are many examples of this posted by other players on the Trollbridge and published by Flying Buffalo within the pages of Sorcerer's Apprentice, various solo adventures, and GM adventures. What is great about this for the topic of wizard's weapons is that if the new weapons only have 2 dice, then a wizard could use them regardless of the type of weapon. So, there is always the potential for more weapons in the wizards arsenal.

Second, there is the possibility of crafting "special" weapons for wizards that they may not otherwise be able to use. Weapons can be enchanted to have special abilities, would it not be possible to have an enchanted broadsword that only gets 2 dice? "A 2 dice broadsword," you ask, "what use is that?" Remember that the restriction only applied to dice and not to weapon adds. That enchanted broadsword might therefore have 15 adds. So now you have a wizard wielding a broadsword that gets 2D+15. Not too bad.

Ok, on to new topics.

6 comments:

  1. I think the rationale behind the wizard's limitation to 2D6 weapons is that he's spent all his training years on learning spell casting, and not fighting techniques, which is what makes weapon use efficient (and hence damage in excess of 2D6).
    A 2D6+15 broadsword smells of "rule stretching" to me. The only way I'd allow it is as a uniquely designed weapon that would cost 1000's of monetary units AND THAT COULD ONLY EFFICIENTLY USED by the person for whom it was crafted, ie, if someone else used the wizard's 2D6+15 broadsword it would simply deliver 2D6 of damage.

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  2. I agree with you on both counts. That 2D broadsword would be VERY special indeed; if not something a character would need to have created at an immense cost then a weapon that was found after a harrowing adventure; perhaps locked away in an ancient wizard's tower that fell into ruin after the former master was destroyed a demon that he summoned which now resides there.

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  3. If I may be blasphemous for a moment or two. I've been playing around with some ideas on 'customizing' TnT to my own tastes. Mostly chargen. But one of the things I'm considering is removing the weapons restrictions and (this is the blasphemy!!) having different classes roll different size dice. e.g. Wizards D4s, Rogue D6s & Warriors D8s.
    I have enough dice for it to be practical and it seems more--ahem...'realistic'. Or rather, LESS artificial. So anyone can pick up an axe and swing away, but the Wizard is not going to be as effective as the Warrior.

    Just thought I'd mention it. And I'm pretty sure monsters are getting D10s regardless.

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  4. That is a nice idea. I prefer the simplicity of only using D6s myself, but if you have the dice and like using them I can certainly see this method working. The only issue would come with spite damage if you chose to use it; what would be the requirements for each type to get 1 point of spite damage? Maybe wizards score 1 point if they roll 2 fours?

    The idea that a person not trained in using weapons cannot pick up a weapon and use it, even poorly, has always bothered me. That is why I like the new rule in 7th edition that Soren pointed out in a previous post in which wizards can use weapons with more than 2 dice, but they lose their personal adds in doing so. So if a wizard is suddenly weaponless, he/she can pick up a spear from a fallen warrior and try to fend off that charging bear, even though it is going to be a clumsy defense at best. Who wouldn't?

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  5. Actually, I hadn't thought about Spite damage from the PCs. Although, oddly, I had considered it when I made the initial decision to do Monsters with D10s. I figured 1s or 10s was close enough. 20% vs. 16.67%.
    I haven't playtested it yet. I don't do the group vs. monsters method anyway, preferring to set up 'X' vs. 1 fights. So damage can go both ways. I suppose 6+ on any dice could be the determinant. So Wizards never do Spite (although 2 fours is a good idea), Warriors do it 3/8 of the time (which seems high-but realistically, 1 or 2 points per round).

    Hmm. Have to ponder it more. Thanks for the feedback.

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  6. Instead of limiting wizards to 2 dice weapons, I allow them to use any weapon but the maximum dice they deal is 2D6. So a warrior with a broadsword rolls 3D +1 whilst the wizard with the same weapon rolls 2D. The wiz can swing the sword but he's crap at it.

    I know this amounts to the exact same thing but it allows players to visualise their character as they wish.

    It's probably less of an issue for me as I like to avoid magic weapons that increase the combat roll (I like small numbers) - my stuff tends to have spell-like or one-off abilities.

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