[Steve Plambeck]

I agree with you JimmyPlenty, and for that reason just don't want or intend to use the XP for mana and new Staff rules -- that is, if I ever get a group together. Thought I had some folk lined up last January, and then, well, pandemic!

What I'm eager to try out is (1) reverting to the single, original Staff spell only, (2) giving wizards a Mana attribute (my original group in the 80's used that) and then (3) let every Staff store Mana, with the amount capped (for all practical purposes) by a formula taking into account the Mana and IQ attributes of the wizard. So as in original TFT all XP gets spent on increasing attributes, and if a wizard carries a Staff it will just gradually hold an increasing amount of Mana as the wizard improves him or her self. (The Staff Mana limit runs the course of 0, 2, 4, 6... up to fully equal to the wizard's Mana stat at high level, and double that amount at the super-high level. The latter two steps just happily coincide with where it would be anyway under RAW with Staff IV and Staff V, even though I wouldn't use/need those spells.)

Because I feel XP should improve the person, not the thing. Raising attributes would still have it's original benefits, with a Staff gaining more capacity as just a side effect.

But to bring it back to topic (haha) my original group's World had among its many countries a large empire, a theocracy, that forbade secular magic and burned all wizards. PCs never set foot in that empire proper, but if they had, any wizards would have to be suicidal to openly carry Staves. Our wizard PCs had plenty of run-ins with extremist NPCs that came from that empire though, and "fun" always ensued.