Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > The Fantasy Trip

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 10-15-2019, 09:19 AM   #41
hcobb
 
hcobb's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pacheco, California
Default Re: High XP characters

Quote:
Originally Posted by larsdangly View Post
How does that character avoid getting taken out with an arrow? He or she has a low DX and so acts relatively late in the turn; I would have thought many encounters would begin with him or her in the line of fire of a higher DX foe who could deliver a fatal shot with almost any missile weapon.
She gets to combine dodge with a adjDX 12 attack against a non-adjacent foe, but go ahead and play it out.
__________________
-HJC
hcobb is online now   Reply With Quote
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.
Skarg is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-15-2019, 11:23 AM   #43
larsdangly
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Default Re: High XP characters

Quote:
Originally Posted by hcobb View Post
She gets to combine dodge with a adjDX 12 attack against a non-adjacent foe, but go ahead and play it out.
Someone with a bow and missile weapons talent will hit a dodging foe at ranges of a few MH's most of the time, and will go before adjDX 12. At 32 point total this should probably be done with a horse bow shooting twice, which gives your sorcerer some chance of surviving the first shot, but by 35-38 points total it should be a walk-over for the archer. Two near-certain longbow hits on the first round will almost always put an unprotected ST 6 target on the ground. I don't think that's a survivable fight for the wee goblin unless the situation is engineered to start fighting at close quarters.
larsdangly is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-16-2019, 03:36 PM   #44
Skarg
 
Join Date: May 2015
Default Re: High XP characters

There's also attacking that figure with melee and ranged attacks at the same time - can't both Defend and Dodge on the same turn. Or since it likes to move up to 1-2 hex range from foes, Thrown spells and Creation spells. If you're ST 6 and planning to use 1-ST staff zap attacks from 2-hex range, the IQ 8 ST 1 Fire spell for 2 damage seems like a significant risk to me.

Hobgoblin pyromancer. ST 8 DX 12 IQ 8, not a wizard but knows the Fire spell.
Skarg is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 03:17 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.