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Jeff Lord · 03-24-2021, 10:52 PM

FWIW, I proposed the idea of "Attributes/2" back in July of 2018.

The thread: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread...=158370&page=7

I wrote:
"Like more than a few of you, my friends and I have been playing TFT since it first came out, lo these many moons ago. Over the years we butted up against most (if not all) of the concerns/issues that have been so thoughtfully discussed here on the forums and elsewhere. IQ bloat with talent acquisition was obviously one such conundrum.

Our "fix" for this perceived dilemma was to simply allow a character to have points of talents/spells/languages equal to half his character points round down. So a starting 32 point character would be able to take 16 points, a 36 point character would have 18 points and so on.

IQ minimums still applied (e.g. 10 for Fencing), but IQ itself was decoupled from being necessary to "remember" new talents, etc. So, for example, if a character raised his ST attribute 2 points, he could then take swimming without needing to boost IQ.

Of course YMMV, but we found this to be a simple "solution" that has served us well for decades. And with the proposed attribute cap, a character would still need to make meaningful choices when choosing initial and subsequent talents/spells/languages."

Steve Jackson was concerned to the effect that:
"I don't know. 32/2 = 16, and giving 16 spells to every starting wizard seems as though it breaks one of the big tradeoffs of Wizard."

To which I replied:
"If this is a major concern, then you could cap the total number of spells known at IQ, as I believe JLV suggested. But, truth be told, this issue never once came up in years of play. No starting wizard ever took 16 spells. They were too busy taking either "mandatory" (e.g. Literacy), supplemental/useful (e.g. Quarterstaff), or even quirky (e.g. Mimic) talents to flesh out their character.

ST+DX+IQ/2 was simply the most elegant solution I managed to come up with for the IQ bloat problem in the RAW. It just "felt" like TFT to me and my play group. Again, I realize that everyone's preference and/or play style is going to be somewhat different."

It should also be noted that players would be allowed to leave points unassigned in order to take advantage of higher level abilities down the road.

03-24-2021, 10:52 PM	#47
Jeff Lord Join Date: Jul 2018	Re: IQ gain and free talents? FWIW, I proposed the idea of "Attributes/2" back in July of 2018. The thread: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread...=158370&page=7 I wrote: "Like more than a few of you, my friends and I have been playing TFT since it first came out, lo these many moons ago. Over the years we butted up against most (if not all) of the concerns/issues that have been so thoughtfully discussed here on the forums and elsewhere. IQ bloat with talent acquisition was obviously one such conundrum. Our "fix" for this perceived dilemma was to simply allow a character to have points of talents/spells/languages equal to half his character points round down. So a starting 32 point character would be able to take 16 points, a 36 point character would have 18 points and so on. IQ minimums still applied (e.g. 10 for Fencing), but IQ itself was decoupled from being necessary to "remember" new talents, etc. So, for example, if a character raised his ST attribute 2 points, he could then take swimming without needing to boost IQ. Of course YMMV, but we found this to be a simple "solution" that has served us well for decades. And with the proposed attribute cap, a character would still need to make meaningful choices when choosing initial and subsequent talents/spells/languages." Steve Jackson was concerned to the effect that: "I don't know. 32/2 = 16, and giving 16 spells to every starting wizard seems as though it breaks one of the big tradeoffs of Wizard." To which I replied: "If this is a major concern, then you could cap the total number of spells known at IQ, as I believe JLV suggested. But, truth be told, this issue never once came up in years of play. No starting wizard ever took 16 spells. They were too busy taking either "mandatory" (e.g. Literacy), supplemental/useful (e.g. Quarterstaff), or even quirky (e.g. Mimic) talents to flesh out their character. ST+DX+IQ/2 was simply the most elegant solution I managed to come up with for the IQ bloat problem in the RAW. It just "felt" like TFT to me and my play group. Again, I realize that everyone's preference and/or play style is going to be somewhat different." It should also be noted that players would be allowed to leave points unassigned in order to take advantage of higher level abilities down the road.