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Old 01-08-2018, 01:43 PM   #1
pyratejohn
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Columbia, Maryland
Default Melee/Wizard/TFT Character Analysis

I gathered all of my old Melee/Wizard/TFT characters in a binder and I've been going through them these last few days.

Strange stuff.

At one point I was experimenting with high strength/low dex figures. And I mean LOW dex. For instance, I found a company of adventurers that went through Death Test. In said company there are two dwarves with ST 17, DX 6, IQ 9, wearing plate and carrying tower shields! That's adjDX 0!

So far the highest point value character that I have found who seems legit (as in back in '70s when we started playing we were prone to being overly creative) has ST 16, DX 12, IQ 13 dwarf.

I'm actually going through these pages looking for the figure who survived the most battles from the time when we would just play Melee for hours on end, sending poor gladiators into the area over and over and over.
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Old 01-08-2018, 01:56 PM   #2
tbeard1999
 
Join Date: May 2013
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Default Re: Melee/Wizard/TFT Character Analysis

Quote:
Originally Posted by pyratejohn View Post
I gathered all of my old Melee/Wizard/TFT characters in a binder and I've been going through them these last few days.

Strange stuff.

At one point I was experimenting with high strength/low dex figures. And I mean LOW dex. For instance, I found a company of adventurers that went through Death Test. In said company there are two dwarves with ST 17, DX 6, IQ 9, wearing plate and carrying tower shields! That's adjDX 0.
We had a fondly remembered character named Dr. Jack. Dr. Jack was a walking bag of non-combat talents - master physicker, alchemy, recognize/assess value, chemistry, etc. He had 1 combat talent - knife. He generally wore plate armor and carried a tower shield, which gave him an adjDx of 1 or somesuch. He was obviously useless in a fight but he was a valuable member of the party because of all the non-combat stuff he could do. But stopping 8 hits per attack and taking the defend option made him surprisingly difficult to kill.

That caused us to muse about a fighter whose sole purpose was to tie up the enemy. All ST, minimum DX and IQ. Armored to the maximum extent possible. AdjDx of 1 or so. No one ever ran a character like that however. Is it possible your dwarves had the same mission?
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Old 01-08-2018, 02:22 PM   #3
pyratejohn
 
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Default Re: Melee/Wizard/TFT Character Analysis

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Originally Posted by tbeard1999 View Post
We had a fondly remembered character named Dr. Jack. Dr. Jack was a walking bag of non-combat talents - master physicker, alchemy, recognize/assess value, chemistry, etc. He had 1 combat talent - knife. He generally wore plate armor and carried a tower shield, which gave him an adjDx of 1 or somesuch. He was obviously useless in a fight but he was a valuable member of the party because of all the non-combat stuff he could do. But stopping 8 hits per attack and taking the defend option made him surprisingly difficult to kill.

That caused us to muse about a fighter whose sole purpose was to tie up the enemy. All ST, minimum DX and IQ. Armored to the maximum extent possible. AdjDx of 1 or so. No one ever ran a character like that however. Is it possible your dwarves had the same mission?
I'd say yes, except that the two characters on the flipside of the sheet are just as Tank-ish.

Looking through the list of combatants from my "Melee Assembly Line" list of characters I see there is one in there who survived five fights. I guess I thought "if one is good, four must be better." And I must have learned a lesson there, because all four of the characters on that sheet have Xs through them, so they all died.

As for the character who survived the most arena combats? That would be Hammert the Halfling, ST 4 (increased to 5 with exp), DX 16 adj (10 plate) (9 large shld) (12 sling), armed with a sling (backup was a dagger) and carrying a large shield while wearing plate. The little guy won seven fights.

Next best was Pantra, a human female ST 11, DX 13 (later 14) with a longbow. She won six.
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Old 01-08-2018, 03:56 PM   #4
tbeard1999
 
Join Date: May 2013
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Default Re: Melee/Wizard/TFT Character Analysis

My favorite TFT story...

We had an arrogant, overconfident and over the top player (James) who ran an arrogant, overconfident and over the top swashbuckler. Think George Hamilton in Zorro the Gay Blade. At the time of the tale, he probably had ST 10, DX 18, IQ 11, Fencing, Two Weapons, etc.

Anyhow, the party was clearing out a wizard's tower. The party was split up, and James (alone) cornered the wizard alone. The wizard was wounded and down to ST 4 or so. As he closed in on the wizard, James engaged in much banter. James boasted of his abilities, invincibility, etc.

The wizard smiled thinly and cast an illusion of James.

James smugly noted that he wasn't afraid of a 32 point fighter, no matter how unbearably good looking he might be.

Sympathetically, I said "but James, an illusion of someone you know has all the abilities that you think that person has. So he's as good as you think you are..."

James actually gulped and said "oh sh*t."

The illusion leapt into the air, did 3 backflips and went to work on James. James desperate tried to defend himself and screamed for help. The illusion just tore James up. James couldn't score a hit because, well, he thought he was invincible. I recall James had a run of awful dice, too. Sometimes the Cosmos cooperates.

As the sneering illusion prepared to administer the coup de grace, John, a huge barbarian entered the room, heavy crossbow readied.

Unfortunately, the DX modifier was enough to make a hit unlikely. John argued that if the illusion was as good as *John* thought James was, then the crossbow should automatically hit for triple damage.

"That's right!" James exclaimed. "He thinks I suck!".

I told John to take the shot. The shot miraculously hit and killed the illusory James.

But you know, I'd have given him that kill no matter what he rolled.

Oh, and James ultimately put the killing blow on the wizard. He relished it as much as I’ve ever seen a player relish a kill. He was downright vindictive about it.

Last edited by tbeard1999; 01-10-2018 at 01:58 PM.
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Old 01-08-2018, 08:35 PM   #5
OgreMagi
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
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Default Re: Melee/Wizard/TFT Character Analysis

The guy who survived the longest in one campaign was an elf with no armor wielding a naginata. He had a speed of 14. (This thread should be in TFT Pole Weapons and Charging, editor.)

Last edited by OgreMagi; 01-08-2018 at 08:59 PM. Reason: needs to be in TFT Pole Weapons and Charging
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Old 01-16-2018, 01:20 PM   #6
Chris Rice
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: London Uk, but originally from Scotland
Default Re: Melee/Wizard/TFT Character Analysis

Quote:
Originally Posted by tbeard1999 View Post
We had a fondly remembered character named Dr. Jack. Dr. Jack was a walking bag of non-combat talents - master physicker, alchemy, recognize/assess value, chemistry, etc. He had 1 combat talent - knife. He generally wore plate armor and carried a tower shield, which gave him an adjDx of 1 or somesuch. He was obviously useless in a fight but he was a valuable member of the party because of all the non-combat stuff he could do. But stopping 8 hits per attack and taking the defend option made him surprisingly difficult to kill.

That caused us to muse about a fighter whose sole purpose was to tie up the enemy. All ST, minimum DX and IQ. Armored to the maximum extent possible. AdjDx of 1 or so. No one ever ran a character like that however. Is it possible your dwarves had the same mission?
It strikes me that your adventures must have been rather strange; how did he jump the crevice to escape pursuit from pursuing goblin hordes or climb the wall/tree etc. He would have lasted 5 minutes in any adventure I ran. Bizarre.
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Old 02-07-2018, 09:15 PM   #7
BrotherBill
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Default Re: Melee/Wizard/TFT Character Analysis

I recall having trouble with a character with ST 8 DX 13 IQ 11, in plate armor carrying two spiked shields as she had the 2 weapons talent. She functioned mostly as a barricade, but had some useful skills. Adding enough ST to pick up veteran/warrior would make an interesting idea...

Last edited by BrotherBill; 02-09-2018 at 06:04 PM.
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