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Shostak · 12-09-2019, 11:33 AM

Has this ever come up in your games?

ITL 135 tells us that rolls of 3and 4 yield triple and double the effects of a spell, respectively, with specific mention of multiplying damage and number of creations. For Staff I, tripling damage follows those guidelines. But, regarding a Staff spell, the rules imply that the player would be free to choose some other appropriate effect to be multiplied. Would Staff II triple the amount of mana the staff can store? What if then you roll a 3 when going up to Staff of Striking? Does this add triple the range, yield a staff capable of three occult attacks per turn, or triple the DX bonus? Yikes!

Do these bonuses disappear when bumping up to the next staff level, or do they add to each other? Let's say you roll a 3 to create your basic Staff, then a 3 when you turn it into a Manastaff. Does it now have both triple damage and triple mana, or just the latter? I shudder to think what a wizard could do with a Staff of Mastery that yielded a mere triple damage on every attack, let alone one benefited from earlier critical successes.

From my perspective, the option least likely to overbalance the game is to award three mana to the staff for rolls of 3, and two for rolls of 4--even when casting the basic Staff I spell. I'd be inclined to let the benefits of the critically successful rolls remain through staff upgrades, but only if it is the same staff. Once the staff is lost, all idiosyncratic traits are lost with it. This means that in the unlikely case of someone rolling only 3s when casting Staff I-V on the same staff, it would have a total of 15 mana at no XP cost.

12-09-2019, 11:33 AM	#1
Shostak Join Date: Oct 2015 Location: New England	Rolling 3 or 4 on Staff Spell Has this ever come up in your games? ITL 135 tells us that rolls of 3and 4 yield triple and double the effects of a spell, respectively, with specific mention of multiplying damage and number of creations. For Staff I, tripling damage follows those guidelines. But, regarding a Staff spell, the rules imply that the player would be free to choose some other appropriate effect to be multiplied. Would Staff II triple the amount of mana the staff can store? What if then you roll a 3 when going up to Staff of Striking? Does this add triple the range, yield a staff capable of three occult attacks per turn, or triple the DX bonus? Yikes! Do these bonuses disappear when bumping up to the next staff level, or do they add to each other? Let's say you roll a 3 to create your basic Staff, then a 3 when you turn it into a Manastaff. Does it now have both triple damage and triple mana, or just the latter? I shudder to think what a wizard could do with a Staff of Mastery that yielded a mere triple damage on every attack, let alone one benefited from earlier critical successes. From my perspective, the option least likely to overbalance the game is to award three mana to the staff for rolls of 3, and two for rolls of 4--even when casting the basic Staff I spell. I'd be inclined to let the benefits of the critically successful rolls remain through staff upgrades, but only if it is the same staff. Once the staff is lost, all idiosyncratic traits are lost with it. This means that in the unlikely case of someone rolling only 3s when casting Staff I-V on the same staff, it would have a total of 15 mana at no XP cost.