FP Problems

[RGTraynor]

70 point campaign, 22 spells? Yikes. You can't afford to have 22 spells.

If I were going to build a mage on 70 pts -- which is pretty damn painful, 4th edition -- you can neither afford 22 spells nor some of the other options people are suggesting, like putting points into melee skills. I wouldn't go for a mage who could inflict damage at all. If there are four fighters in the group, one of them would be tasked to be my meat shield, and I'd go completely for utility spells:

* Lend Energy, Recover Energy, Lend Vitality, Minor Healing, Major Healing; that's one track. Absolutely run Minor Healing to -15.
* Ignite Fire, Create Fire, Shield, Armor, Apportation; that completes the suite.
* I might go with Sense Foes, Sense Emotion, Truthsayer, Mind-Reading, but now we're getting into burning unavailable points.

I wouldn't bother with most spells for which there were mundane solutions. No need to get the Light spell when a torch will suffice, for instance.

There's also no way I'd go as low as -26 points of Disadvantages. You just can't afford that. I'd reduce STR to 9, make sure I have as many Quirks as the GM allows, and do my level best to force IQ higher than 11.

In the end, I'd really try to talk the GM into a more reasonable point total for the campaign. 70 would have been damn onerous in 3rd edition, and it's damn near impossible for 4th. I've been starting parties at 135 in recent years.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by RGTraynor

70 point campaign, 22 spells? Yikes. You can't afford to have 22 spells.

If I were going to build a mage on 70 pts -- which is pretty damn painful, 4th edition -- you can neither afford 22 spells nor some of the other options people are suggesting, like putting points into melee skills.

(SNIP)

In 4th Edition, 70 points doesn't make anybody an "adventurer." They're basically working schmucks who go to regular jobs, every day. A journeyman (*not* a master) blacksmith who spends most of his time making horseshoes, nails, fasteners and buckles; a yeoman farmer with rights to enough land that he can feed a family and owes his lord one day of labor per week; a young peasant woman with a couple of kids who tends a garden, spins fibers into yarn and once a month or so brews up a barrel of ale and has a "tavern" night where she trades drinks for eggs and such.

A 70-point campaign is "small town local heroes" at best where the whole town turns out to fight a half-dozen orcs, and the arrival of a boat-load of vikings is cause for blind, screaming terror.

For my Facets campaign that ended a couple of years back, I wanted characters equivalent to those in the pilot episode of an action-adventure TV show -- the ones who didn't get killed off to demonstrate the danger of the situation in which they unexpectedly found themselves.

At about 125 points, modern-day characters can be pretty good at their current jobs, and have either military experience, university educations or oddball hobbies (but probably only one of those three options) that give them a survival edge.

So, I went with that point total, and then I dropped Magery 0 on each character by GM fiat after the first couple of game sessions, since that was the point of the whole campaign.

In a more traditional fantasy setting, 125 points means a man-at-arms with some decent martial skills (enough to not get turned into chutney on the battle-field, and likely to prevail in a bar-fight), and maybe a decent chain hauberk over his leather armor; an archer/ranger who can actually make a living as a huntsman for a noble; a decent spy/second-story man; or a mage who makes a decent living brewing potions and casting minor enchantments, while also able to roast somebody if he or she absolutely must.

Four or five such characters might be able to take out a half-dozen combat-optimized orcs with lots of ST and HT, high-pain thresholds, decent armor and good weapon skills; and seven or so might be able to defend a village of peasants against a couple dozen 70-90 point bandits -- if they come up with a good plan and have enough time to make preparations.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by RGTraynor

In the end, I'd really try to talk the GM into a more reasonable point total for the campaign. 70 would have been damn onerous in 3rd edition, and it's damn near impossible for 4th. I've been starting parties at 135 in recent years.

I haven't found that to be the case. My lowest point campaign had a base of 75 points. That was a test run of my setting Worminghall (available as a supplement) in which all the player characters were magic students at a medieval university; I allowed them up to 37 points in disadvantages. Of course, they weren't going out and fighting monsters or having adventures, at least not frequently! Some of them started out with no spells, and learned some in the course of play; some of them had from 1 to 4 points in spells at start. My players seemed to enjoy the campaign!

(By the time the campaign ended they had an average of 29 points from experience and 10 points from training.)

But I do agree with the narrower point that adventurer-grade characters should be built on about twice as many points as the OP mentions.

[RGTraynor]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I haven't found that to be the case. My lowest point campaign had a base of 75 points. That was a test run of my setting Worminghall (available as a supplement) in which all the player characters were magic students at a medieval university; I allowed them up to 37 points in disadvantages. Of course, they weren't going out and fighting monsters or having adventures, at least not frequently! Some of them started out with no spells, and learned some in the course of play; some of them had from 1 to 4 points in spells at start. My players seemed to enjoy the campaign!

Well, sure ... people can have fun campaigns at pretty much any point level. A lot of my wife's private sessions involve her being a happy housefrau in a gypsy camp (her husband slumming as a blacksmith there), or managing her modest country estate. Alright, the character's north of 750 pts, after 21 years of play, but she could do that at a tenth the point level.

I just figure the OP's group wouldn't care for a style where the resolution to the session's action is to find a good job for a young buddy of the PC's son, so that he can offer marriage to his sweetie, so she doesn't get married off to some rich fellow ...