Talents for Player Character Mages

[hcobb]

If you're just starting out with your first TFT wizard character you might glance at the note that most talents are double cost and skip over that entire section, or even worse you might bog down with expensive talents leaving only enough memory points for one or two spells.

My suggestion is that you try a sprinkling of talents to assist in character conception (a wizard who does X), give your character something to do that doesn't run down their fatigue, and count as an asset rather than a total liability to the other players at the table.

First I suggest that you skip the combat talents entirely. Consider a wizard with a maul staff, brand in her other hand (to be dropped when readying the staff, or casting full IQ spells), and with an untalented silver dagger and two molotails on her belt. She needs spend none of her starting resources on ST or combat talents, and so far has spent less than $300 on gear ($100 silver dagger, $20 staff, $60 brand, $50 robe, $5 belt pouch, $40 two molotails, $3 waterskin, $10 two days rations). She can defend and bash with her staff about as well as she could with a basic weapon talent, and she can count on the +4 DX for HTH strikes to counter the extra to-hit die of being untalented with her dagger. Add a backpack to absorb one hit to the rear and carry off as much loot as she can and she's good to go.
Putting a wizard up front is generally a mistake as the hits of damage they take directly subtract from their spellcasting reserve. Instead stay back and support the heroes who are absorbing these hits while they stand in front of the wizard. If you must take a weapon talent choose something ranged like Crossbow or Whip. A halfling should also consider the Knife talent in order to leverage the Thrown Weapons racial ability.

As for talents to take, first consider Literacy, as this unlocks several wizard abilities and is required for Mapping the Adventure (ITL 69). This is a great talent to use from the back ranks as unlike Alertness the heroes in front ought to be smart enough to notice if scratches on the walls look like glyphs rather than claw marks. (If the party Woodsman says they're both then what is your character doing there?)
Clumsy GMs will just tell you which scrolls you pick up, evil GMs will put on false labels, and clever GMs will use obscure labels. If you do find a wizard's chest "just lying around behind that guy who had some sort of sword allergy", then call dibs on that as book casting opens a lot of capabilities for a wizard. Until that fateful day, pick up whatever spellbooks you can find as these are at least useful for learning the spells. (Which your character will not do until after she flips enough xp for four points of added dx of course, right?)
See if you can snag Literacy as a mundane talent from the GM. Just repeat after me: "The only friends my character had as a child were the books of magic she read. Her parents accepted this and so excused her from working the fields, helping to prepare meals, or cleaning her room." And even if you can't it's usually worth that one memory point.

You can probably skip the animal and mobility talents. The Flight spell is half the memory points of Climbing (for a wizard) and generally more useful (if tiring). The only reasonable animals a starting character might afford would be a dog or mule, which require no talents for basic operation, and you're generally okay with the 5d6/(IQ +6 for the beast's IQ) control rolls for lacking Animal Handler (ITL 94). Given a wizard with IQ 13 that's almost a 70% chance of success. "Oh please bite the orc, you stupid mutt!" "Ruff?"

Given that IQ 11 is the sweet spot for Legacy heroes, you can also skip most of the adventuring talents. It doesn't require a talent to spot a trap after it's split the hero in front of you in half. Any IQ 11 or less talent that doesn't require an IQ roll, and most of those that do, are better off in the heads of heroes. Just using raw IQ can handle most Recognize Value or Woodsman rolls, and the Lock/Knock spell is easier to learn than Locksmith.
The IQ 12 to 14 talents are in general either too expensive for a starting wizard or of limited application.

This leaves the social talents and taking just one can help define a character. Taking one of Courtly Graces, Priest, or Streetwise would cost only two spells, but taking all three sounds more like an NPC. While Bard, Charisma, Detect Lies, and Disguise cost twice as many memory points they can reward really high IQ values.

Languages are an efficient use of memory points for a literate wizard, but their application depends on the details of your campaign.

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by hcobb

My suggestion is that you try a sprinkling of talents to assist in character conception (a wizard who does X), give your character something to do that doesn't run down their fatigue, and count as an asset rather than a total liability to the other players at the table.

This is sound advice from Henry, in that it yields characters who are defined by more than just magic. It is one of the reasons that I think the cost difference for buying talents/spells for wizards/heroes is a mistake.

[Steve Plambeck]

Originally Posted by Shostak

It is one of the reasons that I think the cost difference for buying talents/spells for wizards/heroes is a mistake.

Those who never played TFT before the spell/talent cost differential was introduced have no idea what they're missing.

I still remember sitting at my big kitchen table that day in 1980, so eager and anxious my hands were sweating as I cracked open ITL for the first time. The first edition my group and I had been eagerly awaiting had finally come in at Gamer's Paradise, along with Advanced Wizard and Advanced Melee. We were ecstatic. We were desperate for more material. We'd been playing TFT non-stop almost a full 3 years, at the very first with just Melee, but soon with Wizard and Death Test. We had stables of characters (and had buried many too) as well as growing maps and intricate overlapping plots, and plenty of house rules to tide us over until there were official rules for all the stuff the Microgames hadn't covered. We were a happy lot.

Then I open ITL, begin to read, and oh the horror! All our wizards, PC and NPC wizards were now invalid! To play by what was now the rules, we'd have to tear up our wizards and start over! We'd have to rewrite history, because many a finished adventure couldn't have played out the way it had! Dungeons we'd conquered, towns we'd saved, battles we lost or won, quests we'd fulfilled, party members we'd saved and the foes we'd vanquished must have all just been a dream! Wizards who already owned and rode horses, drove carts, gone swimming, drawn maps, read books and deciphered inscriptions, engaged in all manner of combats with various weapons.... they were all supposed to forget how to do these things, forget most of the spells they had already used in play, or forget lots of both? The wizard who waited and survived two years to up her IQ and takes that 13th spell she wanted couldn't have 13 spells anymore?

So of course we all agreed to just cross out THOSE rules. Never charged wizards double for talents, never subtracted talents from the number of spells one had, never looked back, and never regretted it.

[JohnPaulB]

Originally Posted by hcobb

If you're just starting out with your first TFT wizard character you might glance at the note that most talents are double cost and skip over that entire section, or even worse you might bog down with expensive talents leaving only enough memory points for one or two spells.

My suggestion is that you try a sprinkling of talents to assist in character conception (a wizard who does X), give your character something to do that doesn't run down their fatigue, and count as an asset rather than a total liability to the other players at the table.

As for talents to take, first consider Literacy, as this unlocks several wizard abilities and is required for Mapping the Adventure (ITL 69). This is a great talent to use from the back ranks as unlike Alertness the heroes in front ought to be smart enough to notice if scratches on the walls look like glyphs rather than claw marks. (If the party Woodsman says they're both then what is your character doing there?).

If you want a wizard who helps the party, have him take Physicker Talent (IQ 11 cost 4).
The fighters do damage, the wizard heals the party. There is no Attribute roll for healing, so a low DX won't hamper this. And as HCOBB says, you're going to dump your early points into DX anyways, right?

Right as well is Literacy. You get a grimoire, you can cast bookspells.

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by JohnPaulB

If you want a wizard who helps the party, have him take Physicker Talent (IQ 11 cost 4).
The fighters do damage, the wizard heals the party.

My biggest problem with the Wizard-Physicker is right there. The Physicker heals while the wizard rests. Six hits and one fatigue regained in those 15 minutes.
If IQ 11+ PC heroes were rare I'd accept this tradeoff as a necessity, but they're common in Legacy. And Physicker has few (if any) IQ rolls against it.
Just send your Physicker up front to get behind the enemy and trip them up so the wizard can burn these foes.

Tenderbush, Elf, age 20
ST 6, DX 12, IQ 14, MA 12
Talents include: Expert Naturalist, Literacy, Master Physicker, Unarmed Combat III
Languages: Common, Elvish
Attacks and Damage: Punch (1d-1), kick (2d-4)
Equipment: Physicker's kit, dark green clothing, Labyrinth kit, backpack, 2* brand, waterskin, 2 days rations, 4 healing potions, $97 silvers.
15 pounds carried, can add another 9 pounds before slowing down.

[Steve Plambeck]

Originally Posted by JohnPaulB

If you want a wizard who helps the party, have him take Physicker Talent (IQ 11 cost 4).

Much more cost-effective for the party overall to have a non-wizard take Physicker (cost only 2 instead of 4) and then have the wizard come with 4(!) more spells.

In any event wizards were almost always the first PCs to die in any party. Do you really want your Physicker to be the first casualty?

Even in my group where we would never have charged the wizard 4 for the talent, nor reduced the wizard's spells at all for taking the talent, that last reason (wizards' high mortality) still wouldn't have made it the best idea. If anything the party's Physicker should be the highest ST figure, the best armored figure, or better yet both. The healer for everyone else should be the last character you want dying.

Under RAW, wizards, especially starting wizards were (in our experience) the most fragile characters of all. Cast spells more than a couple turns and they were always one nick away from dead or unconscious. After years of play everyone had some veteran fighters, but there were only two veteran wizard PCs in the whole group. One was attached to and in charge of a squad of military regulars (affording him extra protection) and the other was lucky enough to have acquired a magic sword early in her career which minimized her need to cast spells.

[hcobb]

There is a case to be made for having a strong dumb wizard to back up your team of smart frail coffee drinking heroes.

Wisnue, Reptile Person wizard, age 20
ST 12, DX 11, IQ 9, MA 10
Talents: Crossbow, Literacy
Spells: Aid, Dark Vision, Detect Magic, Fire, Image
Languages: Common, Reptile Person
Weapon: steel light crossbow (2d), bronze crowbar (1d-1)
Attacks and Damage: Claws (1d; doubled in HTH), Tail (1d)
Equipment: 20 silver Quarrels, Robe, Belt pouch, 2 days rations, 2 waterskins, backpack, 4 healing potions, $29 in coins

[Axly Suregrip]

We have had wizards with either bola or whip skills. Both keep the wizard behind fighters and allowing the wizard to do combat actions that do not cost ST fatigue.

Whip will only cost a wizard 2 IQ slots, but Bola will cost the wizard 6 IQ (4 for Thrown Weapons and 2 for Bola). But that big bola downside comes with a couple extra pluses: the wiz can now throw his silver dagger more accurately and does not need to have the bola/dagger in hand since it can be drawn & thrown in the same turn. Thus not interfering with casting.

Both whip and bola weapons in ITL have a strong impact in combat, so the loss of spell slots are not missed.

[hcobb]

If you're gonna make a Flinger wizard then you might as well get Thrown Weapons "for free".

Thulia, Halfling wizard, age 20
ST 6, DX 12, IQ 12, MA 10
Talents: Knife, Literacy, Thrown Weapons (racial)
Spells include: 3-Hex Fire, 3-Hex Shadow, Aid, Illusion, Mage Sight, Magic Rainstorm, Meal, Staff II
Language: Common
Weapon: Staff II silver dagger (1d-1), 2 brands (1d-2), 2 silver daggers (1d-1)
Attacks and Damage: Punch (1d-4)
Equipment: small robes ($35), belt pouch, backpack, 2 waterskins, 2 Molotails, 3 healing potions, $4 in coins

[JohnPaulB]

Originally Posted by JohnPaulB

If you want a wizard who helps the party, have him take Physicker Talent (IQ 11 cost 4).

Originally Posted by hcobb

My biggest problem with the Wizard-Physicker is right there. The Physicker heals while the wizard rests. Six hits and one fatigue regained in those 15 minutes.

Hcobb, that was a lucid evaluation.
So instead of a healer, make him a businessman. Have him take Business Sense (IQ 10 costs 4) and he can wheel and deal for the party.