Hybrid options by talent - house rules

[Skarg]

Intrestiing about the staff idea. It reminds me of staffs in GURPS Magic. i.e. GURPS Magic has another staff-based mechanic for extending the range of spells which either are -1 per hex, or require touch. That is, a staff counts as an extension of the wizard's touch, and could be a couple of hexes long, so if you can touch a target with a staff as part of a casting (which does require a separate to-hit roll), it has no range penalty.

[Steve Plambeck]

Huh, I had no idea the GURPS staff had rules so similar to my old group's house rules. Wizard's staff rules were the very first thing we ever modified, and had done so by early 1979. It made them more like Swiss army knives for sorcerers :)

I admit I kinda shudder at the idea the new rules call for FIVE Staff spells. It seems very unnecessary to me. And you still can't light a cigarette with one, can you?

[Skarg]

My main issues with the new staff spells are:

* It kind of makes it dumb to be a wizard without a staff (which would embarass many existing wizards in my existing Cidri campaign).

* The staff zap powers have unique new powerful abilities that I'm not sure I really like enough to want to add them.

* The combat abilities are included for free with the staff mana abilities that most/all wizards should/will want to get, so there's no reason and no way to be a wizard with staff mana who does not have the staff zap powers.

I'm thinking I want to make the staff zap powers their own spells that are not needed to get the staff mana abilities (and that might be somewhat rare spells to be known and/or available to learn).

[Steve Plambeck]

I'm in agreement with Skarg on all of the above. The Staff psychic zap feels like a whole new branch of magic, something from another game that just doesn't fit here. It's just muddling things and to no great advantage, as demonstrated by some confused questions about it spotted in other threads.

I see no reason to not just add the Mana stat to the basic, starting staff, and let the amounts that can be stored vary by the abilities or attributes of the wizards who own them.

The basic staff should be an interesting toy, and if it's interesting enough we hardly need more Staff spells at all.

[FireHorse]

Originally Posted by Steve Plambeck

I see no reason to not just add the Mana stat to the basic, starting staff, and let the amounts that can be stored vary by the abilities or attributes of the wizards who own them.

I don't have decades of experience with TFT on which to base the opinion, but that approach strikes me as the most sensible. I'm not a big fan of the whole Staff schtick in the first place.

[hcobb]

How is a wizard to take a defend option without a stick in hand and how is he to cast spells without both hands free?

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by hcobb

How is a wizard to take a defend option without a stick in hand and how is he to cast spells without both hands free?

He's not.

What they do is like THIS.
Or like THIS.

If your wizard's plan for survival includes much Defending, he might want to re-think his tactics.

[Steve Plambeck]

Originally Posted by hcobb

...and how is [a wizard] to cast spells without both hands free?

Huh?!? A Staff in hand never prevented a wizard from casting a spell, not in any version of the rules.

I seem to recall casting a spell from a book requires both hands free, but that is a special case. You don't use a book in combat.

I would even house rule a wizard could still hold the staff while using a book or scroll. Maybe it's just tucked under one arm, or it's between the palm of the hand and the spine of the book. Individual spell books are a tiny number of pages and could probably be one-handed anyway. I don't think SJ just added the mana stat to the Staff without intending the wizard to be able to hold the thing when needing to draw on its power.

[hcobb]

It seems that a lot of wizards get by with a dagger on their belt as their mana battery. (Including the first pic above.)

[Steve Plambeck]

Originally Posted by hcobb

It seems that a lot of wizards get by with a dagger on their belt as their mana battery. (Including the first pic above.)

Yeah sure, but if the mana battery is your Staff, or even if the Staff is just a regular Staff, there is no requirement to put it down to cast a spell.