Adventure team of Four

[RobW]

LOOK AWAY NEWBIES FROM THIS SECRET KNOWLEDGE (those who have been playing since 1977 will be safe)

Nowhere near as creative as your brother, but I think these 4 will do the job

F1: 11/15/9
long bow, no armor
talents: bow, missile weapons, running
Sniper/suppressive fire, attacks with long bow 2x

F2: 11/16 (13) /8
spear, chainmail
talents: pole, running

F3: 13/14 (12)/8
halberd, leather
talents: pole, running

The charge-attack brothers engage after opponents softened by long-range action. Their raison d'etre is to deal 8 damage and knock opponents down before they ever get a chance to attack.

F4: 11/13/11
wizard: illusion, lock/knock, aid,staff
talents: literacy, physicker
Stays safe, creates troublesome illusions of bears & gargoyles, heal wounds

[Rick_Smith]

Originally Posted by RobW

LOOK AWAY NEWBIES FROM THIS SECRET KNOWLEDGE (those who have been playing since 1977 will be safe) ...

Hi everyone, RobW.
As Rob says, look away Newbies, spoiler information.

When I was a kid, we went on a camping trip. I brought along my box of TFT stuff, and decided to run a group of 32 attribute figures thru Death Test (DT). Now I had run (and GM'ed) several groups thru DT before, so I knew what sorts of things were coming.

I decided that my party would ignore everything, but getting thru the adventure. (We wouldn't stop to open chests, etc. Just get in and out. We would not drink any potions unless were were at 3 ST or less.) I used the basic Melee and Wizard rules. I would randomly pick if I was going thru the north, middle or south routes at each major choice.

My team looked like this:

Wizard 1:
ST 9, DX 15, IQ 8, Staff spell, and a bunch of spells.

Wizard 2: (Same as Wizard 1.)

Spear Guy:
ST 11, DX 13, IQ 8. Spear, Short Sword, Dagger.

Bow Guy:
ST 10, DX 14, IQ 8. Horse Bow, Cultlass, Sm. Shield, Dagger.

If you study the Wizards, they look like rapier guys, who can cast spells.

The tactics were that the wizards were up front and would defend. Spear guy would charge for double damage for the tough opponents. Bowman would shoot up anyone who needed it. If my Rapier guys, (I mean wizards), wanted to they could cast a spell or two.

***

My tactics worked. My defending front line wizards would delay the bad guys enough for the spear guy and bowman to finish them off. The room I had the most trouble with was the one with the hob goblins who threw small axes at the guys they were not engaged with. That messed up my tactics pretty bad.

Anyway, this was the only time I saw that a group of four, 32 attribute figures could get thru DT. They got enough experience for an attribute each. So the wizards took +1 IQ (now they had more interesting spells), the spear guy took +1 DX and cloth armor, and the bowman took +1 ST (so he could use a long bow.. a big step up in damage).

Feeling cocky, I promptly put the group thru DT again. Should be easy, I'm tougher right?

I got unlucky and one of my Wizards was badly hurt in the first fight. Things went down hill from there and we were all dead by the time we were 2/3 of the way thru the adventure. This group could hand out damage, but not take it very well.

But I know that a group of 32 attribute figures CAN make it thru DT.

Warm regards, Rick.

[Kirk]

As a lot of the NPC fighters are lower IQ types, though not all, of course, four 32 point wizards, if played well, can actually do some very interesting things, whether with illusions, drop weapon, blur, confusion, speed movement, etc.

Strength management is always an issue, as it getting hit, but we've had success doing it, and wooden boomerangs are sometimes a wizard's best friend! :0