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Old 10-15-2019, 09:57 AM   #42
Skarg
 
Join Date: May 2015
Default Re: High XP characters

Quote:
Originally Posted by larsdangly View Post
These extreme sorts of starting PC's sound good as 'white room' exercises in XP economics, but I have never seen one in play and don't believe they would survive the Darwinian world of TFT adventures. A ST 8, DX 8, IQ 16 character sounds like a very interesting book worm or enchanter, but such a character would almost certainly be murdered long before they could evolve into someone who would be competitive on the battle mat.
8 8 16 is just the extreme end of the new tilt that 500 XP per learning point gives to the balance of the original system. It combines with the new suggestions for arbitrary even and regular XP allocations divorced from combat, to suggest that such a wizard could increase beyond 32 points without being in much danger.

But even in an adventure situation, wizard survival is often tricky on actually dangerous TFT adventures, but isn't so much about the stats of the wizard as it is about the cautiousness of the moves and the availability of allies to deny enemies access to the wizard.

But 8 8 16 is just the most extreme end of the imbalance added to the system by the new XP system. Every IQ point gives 500 XP in "savings" for a character who would otherwise be planning to learn more talents during play. And that effect is further tilted by the new combat-relevant talents Legacy has added, making it not even a trade-off for some fighter designs. If you accept that basic Melee/Wizard were very well-balanced for 32-point figures, all of these things tilt the balance in measurable ways at least for certain designs, some of which are quite mainstream and make them more effective as fighters than 32-point fighters without talents.

Which ends up seeming a bit unbalanced in terms of character progression in a party that starts off on an even footing.

Granting a no-XP-needed learning point with each IQ point increase would restore the imbalance caused by the 500 XP cost.
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