Re: Summoning undead
 

Having to be selective with which spells to learn is not a bad thing; it encourages focused characters. Even just a few spells, used shrewdly, can be enormously useful.

Re: Summoning undead
 

That's the theory -- unfortunately the unintended side effect is more encouragement for attribute bloat.

Re: Summoning undead
 

Dealing with the fundamental problem of outrageous attributes would be preferable to creating another problem, such as spells becoming too flexible.

Re: Summoning undead
 

"...too flexible"?!?! ;-)

Re: Summoning undead
 

I don't think anyone would want to be able to summon all the possible creatures, but it would be nice to have more to choose from. They can be balanced regarding cost and effectiveness. It also lets my dwarf summon wild boars instead of wolves, and where would the wicked witch of the west be without her flying monkeys?

Re: Summoning undead
 

Say instead, too easily abused, like lizardmen with naginatas.

Re: Summoning undead
 

Those would be great spells! I just think they should be separate from Summon Wolf, Summon Bear, etc.

Re: Summoning undead
 

I like the possibility of different Wizards having different signature summoning spells.

Re: Summoning undead
 

I'm also to keep separate each summon spell.

More spells are fine and add variety, but I do not see the reason to make them generic and/or flexible to reduce the IQ needed to learn them all.

The way I see wizards in TFT, even the most powerful, is compatible with t a low number of spells available in their grimories. The great wizards (at least the way I see them) have IQ 20-22, DX 15-16 a few magic items and/or a small team of assistants with aid spell for ST.

the idea super heroes/wizards in TFT must have everything available in the rules (hence the need for IQ 40+) is something I have never found in the rules and never experienced at my table .

My players never gained too many points and, if memory serves, the best hero reached 44 or 45 points in total during my CGs. Also I do not know how long they should have played and survived to gain that level of experience (1000 ex pts per attribute point) !
But I understand other groups may have different approaches and styles.

Re: Summoning undead
 

That's not really what I said. If I went the way some other folks have, I'd say it was a wilful misinterpretation of what I said, but I assume that's not the case here and you just didn't get what I was about.

Again, you seem to be attributing an opinion to me which I never expressed or even thought.

Indeed they may. I, for example, followed the guidelines on XP awards in ITL very religiously -- which meant my players got XP for a lot of different things, precisely as outlined in ITL on page 10. There are five different categories for which players may be rewarded with XP, all of which I used. The result is that my players didn't solely gain experience for killing things (which also creates a murder hobo game by definition), but instead got them for lots of things, including clever play, luck, time spent in play, combat, and casting spells, all just as described in the rules.