11-01-2011, 05:26 PM | #11 |
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Land of the Beer, Home of the Dirndls
|
Re: Wizard Vows
Before we get too much into D&D bashing, I'd like to say that apart from some balancing and archetypal stuff, it's also about "weapons allowed to the common man", at least from a very superficial hobbyist perspective.
And to get a bit back on topic: Germany's most popular RPG enforced this issue in the beginning, too, but were pretty blunt about it: "No weapon that does more than 1d+2 dmg", i.e. no effort to conceal the reasons for this rule. In later editions, they actually came up with a pretty decent idea: It's not a rule, it's the law. As mages belong to guilds, some internal edicts and regulations make sense. You want to seem like proper acedemics, without unseemly martial allures – and you don't want to frighten the populace any more than you already do. Certainly could easily be applied to the pretty regulated red, white & black system of Dragonlance (if that's still in place, I bowed out after Legends). In GURPS terms that sounds more like a Code of Honor, for the usual order regulations. Maybe a small Secret if you regularly step over the line, or maybe a Perk if you got a special dispensation to carry a sword. |
11-01-2011, 05:30 PM | #12 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Silver Spring, MD
|
Re: Wizard Vows
Quote:
If you actually want it to be a Vow, what happens if they break it? Do they get shunned by other mages or lose their ability to cast magic, or what? |
|
11-01-2011, 05:41 PM | #13 |
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Vermont
|
Re: Wizard Vows
Most D&D mages also have Pact on their Magery so that it doesn't work if they break their vows regarding armor.
__________________
My ongoing thread of GURPS versions of DC Comics characters. |
11-01-2011, 05:43 PM | #14 |
Untagged
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
|
Re: Wizard Vows
Level cap was the only reason to ever play a human in original D&D.
|
11-01-2011, 05:50 PM | #15 |
World Traveler in Training
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Chicago, IL
|
Re: Wizard Vows
I must admit that reading this post reminds me of why I embraced GURPS over D&D all those years back. . .silly rules that limited creative character generation.
Makes me wonder why you'd bother to re-inflict those rules on your players. . .although campaign flavor is as good an excuse as anything. It makes me smile about having heated discussions on these topics in "the good ol' days," however.
__________________
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." -- Kierkegaard http://aerodrome.hamish.tripod.com |
11-01-2011, 05:55 PM | #16 | |
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Land of the Beer, Home of the Dirndls
|
Re: Wizard Vows
Quote:
For Dragonlance, I can certainly see the point. It had a pretty brutal system for Wizardry. Once you reach a certain, erm, level of your abilities, you had to take that horrendous test that might kill you. If your campaign starts in a CP range where this can't be taken for granted, "Vow: Have to take test that might ruin or kill me" is certainly in order… (And If I'm not mistaken, they did hunt you down if they noticed you've become too powerful and didn't subject yourself to their silly classifications) |
|
11-01-2011, 06:03 PM | #17 | |
Join Date: Jul 2006
|
Re: Wizard Vows
Quote:
It is hard to imagine where the whole "blunt weapons" myth arose. Certainly no medieval cleric practiced it. Real maces, flails, and warhammers are not blunt. I think scimitar was meant to be a proxy for a scythe/sickle type weapon. Not that that makes any more sense. |
|
11-01-2011, 06:20 PM | #18 |
Untagged
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
|
Re: Wizard Vows
|
11-01-2011, 06:27 PM | #19 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
|
Re: Wizard Vows
As a historical note, on the subject of what Gygax said, I'm looking at my set of the little tan books. Volume 1, Men and Magic, on p. 7, says Clerics gain some of the advantages from both of the other two classes . . . in that they have the use of magic armor and all non-edged magic weapons (no arrows!). . . . Rereading this, I can see that it does not actually say "can't use edged (or pointed) weapons"—the restriction is only against magic weapons with edges (or points)—but even back in the 1970s, when I was introduced to D&D, every player I met took it as "no edged weapons for clerics."
Bill Stoddard |
11-01-2011, 06:35 PM | #20 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
|
Re: Wizard Vows
Quote:
|
|
Tags |
dragonlance, vow, wizard |
|
|