Conan the wizard

[trag]

Originally Posted by Rick_Smith

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Groo was a comic book character who was VERY stupid, but he has all sorts of fighting skills -

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The "Groo the genius" I've suggested fixing, by making talents cheaper, so you don't have to be a brain trust to get a decent number of (not complex) talents.

Too late for my input to be useful to the update...

But I think this is a problem that is easily fixed by role playing.

I had a character who was your basic strong, dumb, fighter. Ultimately, he reached the point where his strength was high enough to wield a Great Sword one handed. He ended up with a middlin' high IQ (around 17, IIRC) in order to have the talents he needed for all the weapons skills and such he had picked up during play.

But I didn't play him as a genius. I argued that in his case, a high IQ was more indicative of a sort of high animal cunning, rather than intellectual achievement.

Most of these stat issues in ITL can be "fixed" with role playing. The character isn't his stats. The character is what you role play.

[platimus]

Originally Posted by trag

Too late for my input to be useful to the update...

But I think this is a problem that is easily fixed by role playing.

I had a character who was your basic strong, dumb, fighter. Ultimately, he reached the point where his strength was high enough to wield a Great Sword one handed. He ended up with a middlin' high IQ (around 17, IIRC) in order to have the talents he needed for all the weapons skills and such he had picked up during play.

But I didn't play him as a genius. I argued that in his case, a high IQ was more indicative of a sort of high animal cunning, rather than intellectual achievement.

Most of these stat issues in ITL can be "fixed" with role playing. The character isn't his stats. The character is what you role play.

I actually agree with that viewpoint. In reality, a character is only as smart as his player. But I am curious...When "The Rock" had to roll against IQ to notice traps, detect lies, disbelieve, etc. did he roll against 17? Whether did or didn't, I can see good arguments for either case.

You mentioned "animal cunning" which sounds very good. From the few Conan stories I've read, Conan had this "high animal cunning" even though he wasn't a "learned man". My dog is somehow very good at detecting my attempts to trick or trap her. Then again, any human that knows me will tell you I'm a terrible liar. Animals are smarter than most people think. The problem is, they have severe physical handicaps in a world designed for humans. Plus, they pretty much suffer from severe ADHD. I've seen arguments that opposable thumbs and language are what sets humans apart from animals. I think it's really more basic than that. Animals can't formulate long-term goals/plans and stick to them. They pretty much live in the moment.

[JohnPaulB]

Originally Posted by trag

Too late for my input to be useful to the update...

But I think this is a problem that is easily fixed by role playing.

I had a character who was your basic strong, dumb, fighter. Ultimately, he reached the point where his strength was high enough to wield a Great Sword one handed. He ended up with a middlin' high IQ (around 17, IIRC) in order to have the talents he needed for all the weapons skills and such he had picked up during play.

But I didn't play him as a genius. I argued that in his case, a high IQ was more indicative of a sort of high animal cunning, rather than intellectual achievement.

Most of these stat issues in ITL can be "fixed" with role playing. The character isn't his stats. The character is what you role play.

That is how I did it. I imagined what kind of character I wanted. When my character got up to the IQ level I thought he should act at, I capped my Reaction rolls to that. I continued investing in IQ, but didn't roll that higher level for attempts. IQ 12/16 12 being the rolling level for activities, 16 being the investment level. 16 counted towards the 42 point character total.

That handled the character bloat for me. I could do that for ST the same way for wizards. Wizbang is ST 12/16. 12 for purposes of taking damage & 16 for fatigue/damage. Yes, I penalized myself out of 4 damage, but it felt right for the character.

I don't recall if I did the same for Dex. I guess I only went real high if I was compensating for armor or if I wanted a fast bowman.

[hcobb]

Now you've got the Mana hole to dump XPs into.

The seasoned barbarian needs at least IQ 11, say....

ST 13, DX 14(12), IQ 11
Bastard Sword 1-h(2d+1), Dagger(1d-1), Small Shield(1+1), Leather Armor(2), Toughness(1): Stops 5 hits total
KN 16: Tactics(1), Expert Horsemanship (2), Shield Expertise(2), Acrobatics (2), Toughness I(2), Climbing(1), Alertness(2), Sword(2), Shield(1),Horsemanship(1)

[larsdangly]

These sorts of character design discussions are fun, but I think we'll find even 42 points is higher than people are actually going to reach in normal play - we should be thinking more about characters with 36-38 stat points, as above that it starts to get obscenely difficult to rise further.