Wizard Staff

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

For my taste, I like the idea of a wizard's staff as an arcane foci. I don't need occult zaps or an alternate ST battery. What a wizard can really use is a way to boost their spellcasting... DX bonuses, increasing the range, duration or damage, etc.

So this would be things like say wielded wand does X?

1. Allows waiting for an opening bonus when casting thrown spells?
2. Doubles the maximum range of casting and maintaining thrown spells to twice base ST?
3. Use a 3/DX roll at -1 per point of fatigue skipped to attempt to maintain spells without paying fatigue? (Failed rolls fizzle the spells and a roll of 17 or 18 has the same effect as in spellcasting.)
4. Hand off maint of a spell between two wizards with a concentrate action by both of them?

[phiwum]

Originally Posted by hcobb

ITL 18: "Making a physical attack with the staff as a weapon does not cost ST." And can be blocked with a Defend option.
ITL 117: "Defending is effective only against non-missile physical attacks"
I.e. not occult blasts.
Also on ITL 117: "Dodging is effective only against missile spells (and thrown and missile weapons). It is no good against other spells or attacks."
So there ain't nothing no warrior can do to dodge or defend against a staff zap.
Wizards rule, berserkers drool on their shields. Q.E.D.

Fair enough. I agree that the quotes from ITL 117 imply that one cannot dodge or defend against an occult zap. I regard it as an attack, but it's not a physical attack.

Thanks.

[TippetsTX]

Originally Posted by hcobb

So this would be things like say wielded wand does X?

1. Allows waiting for an opening bonus when casting thrown spells?
2. Doubles the maximum range of casting and maintaining thrown spells to twice base ST?
3. Use a 3/DX roll at -1 per point of fatigue skipped to attempt to maintain spells without paying fatigue? (Failed rolls fizzle the spells and a roll of 17 or 18 has the same effect as in spellcasting.)
4. Hand off maint of a spell between two wizards with a concentrate action by both of them?

Your's are a bit more complex than mine, but sure. The point is to make instruments like this interesting and unique.

[DeadParrot]

Originally Posted by hcobb

ITL 18: ...
So there ain't nothing no warrior can do to dodge or defend against a staff zap.
Wizards rule, berserkers drool on their shields. Q.E.D.

True, but the Wizard will run out of ST points eventually. The Hero won't run out of sword swings. And the average 3.5 pts of damage a zap inflicts isn't really overpowering.

If you want to make a player squirm while running a Wizard type character in most game systems, don't let the party rest until after the 6th or 7th encounter.

[pzmcgwire]

A staff really needs to be usable as a club or other weapon for a physical attack because the 1 ST cost for a staff zap is going to be too cost prohibitive when the wizard beset by swarms of pests like rats, bats, and goblins.

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by pzmcgwire

A staff really needs to be usable as a club or other weapon for a physical attack because the 1 ST cost for a staff zap is going to be too cost prohibitive when the wizard beset by swarms of pests like rats, bats, and goblins.

When you say, "really needs to be" do you mean that wizards would be smart to take this option if it exists? Or do you mean that the game should provide this option to wizards so that they don't suffer? Because I'm 110% OK with making wizards suffer.

[pzmcgwire]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

When you say, "really needs to be" do you mean that wizards would be smart to take this option if it exists?

The former. Wizards need to be able to do damage to enemies without using up ST. In the TFT Helper app, three rats can make short work of a wizard who can't bash them without using 1 SP per staff zap. That may be a limitation of the TFT helper app in that a wizard doesn't have the option to just use the staff as a club.

[Steve Plambeck]

Originally Posted by pzmcgwire

That may be a limitation of the TFT helper app in that a wizard doesn't have the option to just use the staff as a club.

Not familiar with the helper app you mention, but that is indeed a deviation from RAW. Probably just an omission -- not likely to be deliberate.

A Staff used as a club for 1d6 damage has been a feature since Day One. Well, Day Two... Melee alone was Day One, so Wizard would be Day Two.

Picture how many times going back to that beginning where, in one-on-one duels in the Wizard arena, both contestants ran out of spell-casting ST before they killed each other. Why if they couldn't have started whacking at each other with their Staves, some of those fights would still be going.

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by Steve Plambeck

Not familiar with the helper app you mention, but that is indeed a deviation from RAW. Probably just an omission -- not likely to be deliberate.

Ref https://thefantasytrip.game/products...es/tft-helper/

[pzmcgwire]

The original Wizard and subsequent classic TFT said this about a staff.

Regardless of what the staff looks like (rod, wand, quarterstaff, etc.), it is a physical weapon which does one die of damage when the wizard hits with it. Hitting with the staff is treated just as though the wizard were a fighter using a one-die weapon. It costs the wizard no ST to strike with his staff; it is not drawing its power from him.

There was an advantage in the classic rules that a low ST wizard can use a staff one-handed to do 1 die damage, higher than what their ST would with a club or other weapon their strength would allow.

The Legacy rules say staff zaps don't need to touch the victim, but cost 1 ST,
and a physical staff attack costs no strength.

If the staff is a wand or something that is not "a heavy chunk of wood," what damage would a staff's physical attack do? A club is defined in Legacy as

A club or bludgeon is nothing more than a heavy chunk of
wood, possibly embellished with a spike.

So how heavy does a chunk of wood have to be to count as a club? I'd assume that large chunks of metal, rock, diamond, etc. also qualify as clubs if suitably shaped. :)