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Old 07-06-2012, 05:45 PM   #1
Oni5115
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Default [Banestorm] Wizard Builds?

I'm possibly playing a wizard character in an upcoming campaign for Banestorm. I'm not certain on the point limit yet; probably in the 150-200 pt range though.

1. Would an enchanter or golemancer be effective? (as opposed to a more traditional battle wizard).

2. Is there an awesome compiled list of Templates/Lenses for various types of wizards? (Defensive Specialist, Battle Field Disabler, Burninator of Peasants, MEDIC! etc.) [If not,, I am really considering making some.]

3. Is there a good Loadouts: Wizards? Or similar thread for collections of good wizard starting gear? [Things to buy with signature gear, or some such.]

I've read some interesting threads that do have some nice combos:
[Magic] Battle Mages and their favorite spells
How would you build a fighter mage

Both are pretty old, but I'm not sure if much has changed on the magic front. I am planning to whip up a couple character concepts since we are probably playing tomorrow; and I'd rather not take hours to make a character -- I tend to do that in GURPS. So many choices... *HEAD EXPLODES* :D
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Old 07-06-2012, 05:52 PM   #2
Gold & Appel Inc
 
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Default Re: [Banestorm] Wizard Builds?

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Originally Posted by Oni5115 View Post
1. Would an enchanter or golemancer be effective? (as opposed to a more traditional battle wizard).
Possibly, depending on what exactly you mean by effective, but you probably don't see them showing up to a lot of fights in this setting instead of quietly earning a good living unless they trained at Azer and work for the Legion (and even then they'd be off the front lines) or are barking mad, unless you're running a DF-ized version of Banestorm that assumes everyone is a "professional adventurer."
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Old 07-06-2012, 06:03 PM   #3
Dalillama
 
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Default Re: [Banestorm] Wizard Builds?

If you're looking for justification for an adventuring enchanter/golemist, on the run is always a classic. Accused (falsely or not) of some crime, backed the wrong political faction, had family members who backed the wrong political faction, belong to the wrong religion; for whatever reason, you had to leave home, and settling down could be problematic. For practical advice, you might want to invest some points in a golem Ally that you start out with, it takes a long time to build that sort of thing.
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Old 07-06-2012, 06:19 PM   #4
Oni5115
 
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Default Re: [Banestorm] Wizard Builds?

Mostly I meant useful in combat. Mind you, I'm not necessarily planning on being in the melee if I can help it. I definitely want to use a spear/staff and try to get some good parry bonuses in case I get into melee. I do however plan to be more of a wizard than fighter.

Depending on what the group really needs, I might be a healer/disabler; or a more disabler/damager. Likely battlefield control in either case.
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Old 07-06-2012, 06:24 PM   #5
Oni5115
 
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Default Re: [Banestorm] Wizard Builds?

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Originally Posted by DAlillama View Post
If you're looking for justification for an adventuring enchanter/golemist, on the run is always a classic. Accused (falsely or not) of some crime, backed the wrong political faction, had family members who backed the wrong political faction, belong to the wrong religion; for whatever reason, you had to leave home, and settling down could be problematic. For practical advice, you might want to invest some points in a golem Ally that you start out with, it takes a long time to build that sort of thing.
That is actually more or less the basis for the start of the campaign -- I think. GM hasn't really gone over it with us much, but it's where we started once before and where I think he wants to start again. We're helping a noble keep/retake his crown after some political assassination hijinks.

My main concern in the long run is I completely love the idea of making dopplegangers... Which I am pretty sure would get you into some very serious trouble in Banestorm. :D

EDIT: On a side note; I had somehow completely missed the "Freelance Wizard" section. /facepalm -- Should be quite helpful, along with maybe the Priest-Wizard.

Last edited by Oni5115; 07-06-2012 at 06:54 PM.
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Old 07-06-2012, 07:26 PM   #6
Peter Knutsen
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Default Re: [Banestorm] Wizard Builds?

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Originally Posted by Oni5115 View Post
I'm possibly playing a wizard character in an upcoming campaign for Banestorm. I'm not certain on the point limit yet; probably in the 150-200 pt range though.

1. Would an enchanter or golemancer be effective? (as opposed to a more traditional battle wizard).
The Banestorm setting uses the GURPS Magic magic system, wherein Enchantment takes hundreds or often thousands of mage-days. So if the campaign is going to be anything like traditional adventuring, the answer to the question of whether an Enchanter will be fun to play is "no, obviously not".
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Old 07-06-2012, 08:11 PM   #7
vierasmarius
 
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Default Re: [Banestorm] Wizard Builds?

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Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen View Post
The Banestorm setting uses the GURPS Magic magic system, wherein Enchantment takes hundreds or often thousands of mage-days. So if the campaign is going to be anything like traditional adventuring, the answer to the question of whether an Enchanter will be fun to play is "no, obviously not".
To have enchantments that are useful in the scale of an adventure, the character will need substantial ER (possibly with "enchantment only") plus powerstones and hopefully assistants, and make heavy use of Quick and Dirty enchantment. Temporary Enchantments (M56) may be performed this way, though see Rev PK's Fixed Temporary Enchantments (or just treat each "charge" as a separate casting of the spell). I'd also add the ability to Temporarily Enchant passive enchantments, with each charge requiring a Ready to activate and providing a few minutes of operation. Talisman, Spell Stone and Spell Arrow may also be feasible on this scale, and the Piece-by-Piece Armor option should make defensive enchantments much easier to acquire. Enchanting skills could justify starting with multiple magic items, and probably a higher Wealth level (helpful for hiring assistant enchanters too).

Another option which comes to mind would be to allow an Enchanting variant of Gadgeteer, which would have the primary effect of letting the wizard put more energy into an enchantment per unit of time. Say, up to FP + ER energy per day, instead of 1 per day, effectively boosting enchanting speed by x10 or more. Or maybe Quick and Dirty enchantment could be done in multiple sittings, instead of a single one, so that the enchanter could recover his FP between them. There would need to be some in-game reason that this couldn't be used to pump out salable magic items, or the Wealth to represent such income. A limitation on Gadgeteer could work, such as Pact (only for X usage, not for personal gain, etc), Nuisance Effect (items created with 1 or more Quirks), Costs 1 CP per use, etc.

All of this requires a GM willing to work with the player on this concept, and could potentially lead to unintended consequences if applied world-wide (especially Piece-by-Piece Armor or Gadgeteer).

Last edited by vierasmarius; 07-06-2012 at 08:30 PM.
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Old 07-06-2012, 08:13 PM   #8
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: [Banestorm] Wizard Builds?

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Originally Posted by Oni5115 View Post
Mostly I meant useful in combat. Mind you, I'm not necessarily planning on being in the melee if I can help it. I definitely want to use a spear/staff and try to get some good parry bonuses in case I get into melee. I do however plan to be more of a wizard than fighter.

.
For Parry you want the Staff. That's +2 to Parry. If you have Martial Arts compicatd things where you Parry in Staff Skill and then Thrust in Spear for the Impaling Damage are possible but these takes up cp you probably don't want to spend.

I also think a Spear might not be usable with the Staff Enchantment. That Enchantment is highly useful. It'll give you 2 hexes of Reach for your spells. Falme Jet would add another and Flame Jet ignores armor. Your character problaly won't have the ST to do huge damage with conventional weapons. This is another point agaisnt Spear. Impaling does 2x for all pentrating dmage but doesn't ignore armor.

Another issue is that I don't think an Enchanter or golem-maker can be built efectively on 200pts.

A final piece of advice is to abandon D&D concepts about effective wizardry such as "battlefield control" You'll find you don't have enough FP to do big Area spells and especially not multiple ones. Gurps Magic is for clever SOBs who exploit their flexibility and get a lot out of a little energy.
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Old 07-06-2012, 08:19 PM   #9
Darieltis
 
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Default Re: [Banestorm] Wizard Builds?

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Originally Posted by vierasmarius View Post
Another option which comes to mind would be to allow an Enchanting variant of Gadgeteer...
I came up with something for an enchanting version of gadgeteer based on advantages as magic a while back.
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Old 07-06-2012, 08:25 PM   #10
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Default Re: [Banestorm] Wizard Builds?

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I came up with something for an enchanting version of gadgeteer based on advantages as magic a while back.
Yeah, scrapping the whole Q&D / S&S Enchanting model in favor of Inventions would be ideal, but was a more drastic change than I wanted to propose. I do like your take on it though.
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