[DF, Thaumatology, Powers: Divine Favor] Threshold Magic in Dungeon Fantasy?

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Dammann

One question, though; could a bunch of Bards potentially do some low power enchanting with this sort of thing? I don't completely object to that, just wondering.


I worry that it will make Wizards hard to play. They are "defined by their spell list" and all, and if they don't actually get reckless enough to use spells sometimes... I just hope my Wizards don't get nerfed by player anxiety.

I think so to the enchanting as Q&D but its not without its problems and doing it to make a profit is likely to cause some blow back from the attendees.
Casting spells to entertain or even help the village would be simple and popular. However as a Bard typically has to sing it would be hard for him to pull off sneaky spells.
Threshold Magic still makes Wizards viable, the thing is you have a lot more resource management and cant just toss off a spell casually.
UNless they know it well enough to be free to cast.
So expect some spells to have a lot of points put into them.
Another thing is to allow them to buy up the Recovery or Threshold using the enhancements in Thaumatology.
It gives the Wizards growing room and not all in the exact same way either.

[RobKamm]

Originally Posted by Refplace

However as a Bard typically has to sing it would be hard for him to pull off sneaky spells.

Given that, in DF1 at least, they'll have access to sub- and ultra sonic speech this isn't quite true. There is nothing quite so odd as having the high appearance female bard start "throat singing" below the range of human hearing. One of these days I'm going to have to spring a nasty on her that is sensitive to those frequencies...

[Dammann]

re: Bards
I guess I was thinking that a Bard wouldn't be quiet-sneaky, but they might be surreptitious-sneaky. They are singing a song, everyone is having a good time, then wham, Fireball! Or, you know, something less spectacular. If there are a bunch of monsters rushing him, a Bard isn't going to use this sort of thing (is singing a free action?), but if he is playing for an audience, and wants to cast during an ongoing performance, it seems to me that the prerequisites are met. A listener with Magery or Thaumatology skill could probably realize what is going on, but no one else will (unless they play the record backwards, but this being DF, no one has thought of record players, vinyl albums, or hidden messages).

re: Druids and their unique magic
Having read up on symbol and tree magic, I am not sure that they are as easy to substitute into the DF Druid template as I would like. They are cool, but its more change to the template than I think I want. I need to check out Shamanism, still, and I should probably try to figure out what this Path/ Book magic is that I see people post about. I should also probably find time to read all about Thaumatology Ch 2, Minor Spell Variants.

I thought about just letting them do conventional Power Investiture (Druid) spells, drawn on an Energy Reserve that can only recharge among living things. That would seem to call for a fair sized modifier to Energy Reserve costs. It might be a burden to get "among the living" in some adventures. On the positive side, Druids would still be somewhat distinct from Wizards in that they'd be able to use Plant Spells without prerequisites, which is handy in a college where there are a ton of prerequisites.