Legacy's linear wizards, logarithmic warriors

[hcobb]

Yes, this is a pun on https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...adraticWizards

In Legacy edition a properly designed wizard (ST dumping little green girl) can continue to add "features" at a linear rate under the new XP system. She's off doing mighty deeds while gaining the standard 60+ XP per adventure session and hence can gain a point of mana every three sessions or so or a new spell every eight sessions or so.

The warrior monk she travels with needs to increase all of his attributes before he can buy the next level of Unarmed Combat, and so needs to double his adventure sessions for each attribute point advanced. I.e. his progression is logarithmic while hers is linear.

While a well designed warrior ought to start with some sort of combat edge, their progression over time is gonna fall off a cliff. (After the initial near-linear progression of flipping xp into +4 dx then adding the talents they're already attribute qualified for.)

[phiwum]

Seems to me that all you've said is roughly this:
(1) New spells are a constant cost.
(2) Increasing mana is a constant cost
(3) New talents are a constant cost so long as you have the prerequisites.
(4) New attributes are exponential in the long run.

Add to that the following:

(5) Some talents require prerequisites.

And then we may conclude that wizards who don't give a damn about attributes sure do improve faster than warriors who focus on really difficult talents like UC. Which is a little less sweeping than "Wizards progress linearly while warriors progress logarithmically."

It's a really odd bit of analysis. Especially given that, at least in my experience, most characters end up somewhere around 36 to 38 attribute points anyway.

[hcobb]

It also applies to groups of wizards. Every apprentice you add to a group of wizards increases the scale and frequency of your greatest spells while groups of heroes depend on the talents of their most able member.

[phiwum]

Originally Posted by hcobb

It also applies to groups of wizards. Every apprentice you add to a group of wizards increases the scale and frequency of your greatest spells while groups of heroes depend on the talents of their most able member.

Again, an odd analysis. When it comes to a fight, one more hero willing to engage matters a lot, as does another missile attack. An additional hero brings more talents, just like an additional wizard. And a hero's talents do not bring him a few fatigue points closer to death.

[Bill_in_IN]

Yep. Character development always involves trade offs.