Talents for Player Character Mages

[hcobb]

If you're just starting out with your first TFT wizard character you might glance at the note that most talents are double cost and skip over that entire section, or even worse you might bog down with expensive talents leaving only enough memory points for one or two spells.

My suggestion is that you try a sprinkling of talents to assist in character conception (a wizard who does X), give your character something to do that doesn't run down their fatigue, and count as an asset rather than a total liability to the other players at the table.

First I suggest that you skip the combat talents entirely. Consider a wizard with a maul staff, brand in her other hand (to be dropped when readying the staff, or casting full IQ spells), and with an untalented silver dagger and two molotails on her belt. She needs spend none of her starting resources on ST or combat talents, and so far has spent less than $300 on gear ($100 silver dagger, $20 staff, $60 brand, $50 robe, $5 belt pouch, $40 two molotails, $3 waterskin, $10 two days rations). She can defend and bash with her staff about as well as she could with a basic weapon talent, and she can count on the +4 DX for HTH strikes to counter the extra to-hit die of being untalented with her dagger. Add a backpack to absorb one hit to the rear and carry off as much loot as she can and she's good to go.
Putting a wizard up front is generally a mistake as the hits of damage they take directly subtract from their spellcasting reserve. Instead stay back and support the heroes who are absorbing these hits while they stand in front of the wizard. If you must take a weapon talent choose something ranged like Crossbow or Whip. A halfling should also consider the Knife talent in order to leverage the Thrown Weapons racial ability.

As for talents to take, first consider Literacy, as this unlocks several wizard abilities and is required for Mapping the Adventure (ITL 69). This is a great talent to use from the back ranks as unlike Alertness the heroes in front ought to be smart enough to notice if scratches on the walls look like glyphs rather than claw marks. (If the party Woodsman says they're both then what is your character doing there?)
Clumsy GMs will just tell you which scrolls you pick up, evil GMs will put on false labels, and clever GMs will use obscure labels. If you do find a wizard's chest "just lying around behind that guy who had some sort of sword allergy", then call dibs on that as book casting opens a lot of capabilities for a wizard. Until that fateful day, pick up whatever spellbooks you can find as these are at least useful for learning the spells. (Which your character will not do until after she flips enough xp for four points of added dx of course, right?)
See if you can snag Literacy as a mundane talent from the GM. Just repeat after me: "The only friends my character had as a child were the books of magic she read. Her parents accepted this and so excused her from working the fields, helping to prepare meals, or cleaning her room." And even if you can't it's usually worth that one memory point.

You can probably skip the animal and mobility talents. The Flight spell is half the memory points of Climbing (for a wizard) and generally more useful (if tiring). The only reasonable animals a starting character might afford would be a dog or mule, which require no talents for basic operation, and you're generally okay with the 5d6/(IQ +6 for the beast's IQ) control rolls for lacking Animal Handler (ITL 94). Given a wizard with IQ 13 that's almost a 70% chance of success. "Oh please bite the orc, you stupid mutt!" "Ruff?"

Given that IQ 11 is the sweet spot for Legacy heroes, you can also skip most of the adventuring talents. It doesn't require a talent to spot a trap after it's split the hero in front of you in half. Any IQ 11 or less talent that doesn't require an IQ roll, and most of those that do, are better off in the heads of heroes. Just using raw IQ can handle most Recognize Value or Woodsman rolls, and the Lock/Knock spell is easier to learn than Locksmith.
The IQ 12 to 14 talents are in general either too expensive for a starting wizard or of limited application.

This leaves the social talents and taking just one can help define a character. Taking one of Courtly Graces, Priest, or Streetwise would cost only two spells, but taking all three sounds more like an NPC. While Bard, Charisma, Detect Lies, and Disguise cost twice as many memory points they can reward really high IQ values.

Languages are an efficient use of memory points for a literate wizard, but their application depends on the details of your campaign.