05-29-2018, 02:48 PM | #31 |
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Tyler, Texas
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Ty's Healing Spells Designer's Notes
DESIGNER'S NOTES For Ty's Healing Spells For me, the main purpose of healing spells is to enable classic dungeon crawls and to make characters more able to survive multiple combats. However, to preserve the flow and fast pace of the TFT combat system, they really shouldn't have that much effect on individual combats. And Steve’s spell pretty much fails to do that. It isn’t a bad spell, necessarily. But it’s not particularly useful for dungeon crawls either - you have to burn out a high IQ Wizard for a modest benefit. Much better to spend (say) 6 ST on a missile spell against the enemy than to recover 2 ST points about 99% of the time, I suspect. So these rules allow healing to take place between combats, and, in a pinch, during combat (if the wizard can successfully cast the spell). And they aren't overly cost-prohibitive for wizards. My healing spells only heal physical damage. The reason for not healing ST lost solely from fatigue is to keep wizards from creating a perpetual motion ST generator. (I.e., it costs 1 ST to heal 2 points of ST, so a Wizard could create free ST if you allowed the spell to restore ST lost due to fatigue). I'd modify the Aid spell so that it can permanently restore ST lost from fatigue, if you want that ability. The ST cost versus the amount of healing can be tweaked. But be careful; the Critical Healing spell (or the Master Physicker spell) acts as a cap on the maximum amount of damage that can be healed between combats. I also considered raising the cost of the Master Physicker spell to 2 ST. Healing scroll costs were adjusted to make them cost-effective compared to healing potions. Healing items cost about 40% of their list price, which is similar to other magic items in AW. If you reduce the cost of healing potions in your campaigns, you'll want to adjust the cost of scrolls and magic items accordingly. Reduce the cost of scrolls by the same percentage as you reduced the healing spells. For magic items, total the cost of healing potions before and after the price reduction. Reduce the cost of the item by 2.5 times the total price reduction. For instance, assume you reduce the cost of healing potions to $75 each. Healing scrolls will be reduced by 50% in cost. A Minor Healing item will be reduced by $375 (i.e., 2.5 times the $150 reduction in cost for the two healing potions required for the item); a Major Healing item will be reduced by $750 and a Critical Healing item will be reduced in price by $1125. For those who think that the cinematic spells are too powerful, I offer the non-cinematic spells, which have the virtue of following existing rules for physickers and master physickers. Jim Kane are you not entertained? :D Last edited by tbeard1999; 05-30-2018 at 02:09 AM. |
05-29-2018, 04:31 PM | #32 |
Join Date: Jan 2018
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Re: HEAL spell?
I have played a heal spell which converts 1 point of wounding to 1 point of exhaustion for each 2 ST spent in the spell's casting, rather than fully restoring a point. The spell does not cure exhaustion. In that world wounds plus exhaustion equal to your ST caused total incapacitation, rather than death, which required wounding equal to a figure's ST. It kept wizards from dying of paper cuts, but still vulnerable to finishing blows.
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05-29-2018, 04:55 PM | #33 | |
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2018
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Re: HEAL spell?
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That would be great if you would. Thanks. JK Last edited by Jim Kane; 05-29-2018 at 05:45 PM. Reason: Typo |
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05-29-2018, 05:36 PM | #34 | |
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2018
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Re: HEAL spell?
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JK |
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05-29-2018, 05:37 PM | #35 | |
Join Date: Dec 2017
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Re: HEAL spell?
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05-29-2018, 08:12 PM | #36 | |
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Coquitlam B.C.
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Re: HEAL spell? --> spells that cost damage not fST.
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In current TFT, all spells costs fatigue ST (fST) except the Death Spell which costs the wizard damage. I like the idea of a few more very powerful spells also costing the wizard damage. Doing so gives more variety to the spell the list, and allows the designer to make some very powerful spells at lower IQ, and retain balance. Warm regards, Rick. |
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05-29-2018, 10:32 PM | #37 |
Join Date: Dec 2017
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Re: HEAL spell?
FWIW, I just checked my notes from my 'maximal' house ruled version of TFT (with all new talents, spells, jobs, etc. folded into the batter) and it included one proper 'heal' spell. It is IQ 14 and requires 5 pts of ST per point of damage healed. My notes didn't specify it having a limit.
I also have a couple of miraculous healing prayers priests can attempt, but they have different mechanics and trade offs from magic spells so it isn't easy to explain how they work without a long and pointless aside. The short version is that it isn't substantially better than just having a wizard who can cast the spell. The funny thing is, I don't recall anyone in my group ever using healing much in play. Perhaps because is a big enough investment that you are giving up something significant when you cast a large heal spell. I'm sure there are players out there who had wizards with hundreds of points of ST batteries, but that never came up in a campaign I ran, so magicians tended to harbor their ST expenditures pretty strictly. |
05-29-2018, 11:45 PM | #38 | |
Join Date: May 2015
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Re: HEAL spell? --> spells that cost damage not fST.
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I could post some suggested healing spell versions, but my main suggestion is no healing spells, and my secondary suggestions are (IIRC from looking at them before when Rick shared them on the TFT email list a year or more ago) probably rather like Rick's healing spells - i.e. they let you heal while still being active, and/or increase the healing rate which is still in terms of days rather than turns, but don't just make your wounds instantly vanish. Some other random ideas: Healing spells could function like Aid spells that last until the wound actually heals... or until dispelled... (e.g. Remove Thrown Spell, Dispel Magic). I.e. they don't make wounds magically vanish - they just keep you alive until they do heal... unless something breaks the spell. Healing spells could be risky, e.g.: Healing spell failure results: 15 - automatic failure 16 - failure and wound is increased by 1d - 1 17 - failure and wound is increased by 2d - 2 18 - failure and wound is increased by 3d - 3 A possible detail, designed to also possibly soak up Wishes: The resulting damage takes about ten seconds (2 turns) to manifest. There is enough time for someone in possession of a magic Wish to realize what is happening and use the Wish to roll minimum (i.e. zero) damage. Someone could also roll for damage and if they dislike the result, to use the Wish to re-roll the result. |
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05-30-2018, 12:01 AM | #39 | ||
Join Date: May 2015
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Re: HEAL spell?
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Even without any apprentices, the healing wizard himself rests up that much himself, so at SJ's original 1/4 rate, that's potentially 16 or more points of healing per day per wizard or Aid caster. Clever heroes might want to consider learning the Aid spell themselves, and using it to Aid the healer while they're injured. IQ 9 and 3 points of memory is a fantastic deal to increase your healing rate from 1 per 2 days to more like 32 per 2 days (not to mention the instant results, and no real need to actually ever spend any time in bed). It's so powerful that people would seem to be fools not to do that. Oh, and even Drain ST on one person yields something like 7 times the usual healing rate. And since all Drain ST needs is a willing subject, if you've got a bunch of willing civilians or something, you could use them to get a bunch of healing done. It could be a regular military strategy: Occupy a village and make them submit to Drain ST so you can heal your entire company's wounds in an hour or so using even just one caster with a healing spell and (the same, or another with Aid and) Drain ST. Last edited by Skarg; 05-30-2018 at 12:08 AM. |
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05-30-2018, 12:57 AM | #40 | |
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2018
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Re: HEAL spell? --> spells that cost damage not fST.
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Thanks. JK |
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