The Fantasy Trip

[Rick_Smith]

Hi all,
I was actually fairly happy with Advanced Wizard. So most of my suggested changes are tweaks rather than big changes. Things I think could be improved on...

-- Missile spells are too powerful. Reduce their max damage somehow.

-- Separate normal creations from Invoking demons. There are so many special rules for demons, put them in their own section. Add a couple more lower IQ Invocation spells, (e.g. Invoke Imp, Invoke Larval Spawn), for lower IQ demonologists.

-- Likewise separate Enchantments from Creations.

-- Current Illusions are too flexible. I'll discuss this in a separate post.

-- The economics of wishes make no sense. I fixed them here...

https://tft.brainiac.com/RicksTFT/GM...illsInTFT.html

... but a simple fix is to give demons a variable IQ, so it is easier for low IQ wizards to risk getting a wish, and very high IQ wizards are not perfectly safe.

-- No price was given for what you need to pay to forget a spell via Telepathy from the wizard's guild. (I use IQ of spell or talent x $100.)

-- Spell list: I've made lots of little tweaks to IQ, cost and the spell details. I won't pester you with this minutiae. I do think that fatigue spent to power spells be abbreviated as fST to distinguish this from ST damage. (In spells it is clear, but in other places it is not. The "2 ST" lost to berserking... is it fatigue or damage?) Note that some very powerful spells e.g. the Death Spell (and spells like the Death Spell) actually cost you ST rather than fST when cast.

I would be very happy if a couple dozen new spells were added.
---- A few utility spells. Spells that make you harder to spy on. Transportation spells weaker than teleport. Some variety of ward / protection spells. Spells for hiding and spying. I would say for each major adventurer 'job' (ranger, thief, cleric, spy, detective, etc.), have a spell or two that would help that character out.
---- A few divination spells. Trance is too powerful so eliminate it and make some weaker versions.
---- A few healing spells. See my previous post on this.
---- A few more area spells like Dazzle. I like spells with an area of around 5 MH. It's cool that the enemy AND your friends are effected.

-- If you invent a new spell, how many experience do you get? I use 20 exp x IQ of new spell.

-- Magic items. I never had a trouble using these so I don't agree with those people who are asking for a much simpler system. That said, the tables have LOTS of errors. With a modern spread sheet this should be easy to fix.
I should likely write a separate post on a number of small fixes for magic items.

-- Add lower powered magic items. Blur rings are very tough. A cheaper haze ring that only lowers enemies' DX by -2? Speed MA rings are awesome. How about something that just gives you a +4 (or +2) MA? Something to slow arrows rather than reverse them?

-- The cost of items with Immunity is too high.

-- Recovery from Exhaustion seems to have been missed by a lot of people (who think that wizards power spells with ST damage and not fST). I would move this up to an earlier place in the book.

Comments are welcome!
Warm regards, Rick.