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Old 04-22-2023, 09:16 AM   #1
Shostak
 
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Default Calling Forth the Full Bestiary

Hexagram 11's "Calling Forth the Full Bestiary" gives us a long-overdue expansion to summoning magic. However, it raises the important question of whether or not one learns the greater version of a known spell by raising IQ to the greater version's requirement. The same could be asked for spells like Avert, Freeze, Sleep, Fire, etc. If not, progressing up the various levels will be extraordinarily expensive, or will feature leapfrogging over intermediate levels to go from more modest summoning capabilities to relatively advanced ones all in a single jump.

The standard spells allow a wizard to summon a specific creature with specific stats, while the new ones allow a wizard to summon anything of a given power value, so long as they are familiar with it, which makes summoning spells as flexible as Illusions and Images. I look forward to testing this flexibility, but wonder if it might be desirable to require both a limit to the Summoning spell and then a modest expenditure of XP to add types of creatures able to be summoned. For example, a wizard might know Summon Creature III (Cat) and then later learn to add Bird and Reptile at less than the full cost of a spell (perhaps 100 or 200XP).

The article's requirement that summoners need to use a material focus (a figurine) goes against the grain of TFT magic--or my impression of it, at least. From the earliest days of the Wizard microgame, TFT magic refreshingly felt more like psionics than something like D&D magic with its material components; one could cast spells until overcome by exhaustion, not until they ran out of toys. I'll ignore the material component requirement, but will definitely keep the idea that the wizard must be familiar with the type of being he is summoning.
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Old 04-22-2023, 11:52 AM   #2
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Default Re: Calling Forth the Full Bestiary

I thought the article was great! This is the kind of thing I really appreciate in Hexagram.

I've always used the summon creature spells to let you summon creatures roughly equivalent to the one listed. There's not much opportunity for abuse, given that there's always a ST cost to maintain the summoning, and it gives the game more flavor than using the same creature time and time again.

It also makes illusions of different creatures more useful, since there's a chance they're summoned.

I also let one summon spell include all of the smaller spells, treating them all as basically the same spell at different degrees of proficiency. As a wizard's IQ goes up, she gets better at casting it, and the selection of possible creatures increases accordingly.
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Old 04-22-2023, 01:21 PM   #3
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Default Re: Calling Forth the Full Bestiary

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Originally Posted by tomc View Post
As a wizard's IQ goes up, she gets better at casting it, and the selection of possible creatures increases accordingly.
Do I take that to mean that you espouse the idea that if you have Summon Creature I, when your IQ rises to that necessary for Summon Creature II, you get for free?
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Old 04-22-2023, 02:00 PM   #4
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Default Re: Calling Forth the Full Bestiary

Thanks, the thinking around higher levels of the spell including lower levels was basically taking from Fire, Wall, and similar spells. If you have the IQ to learn a multi-hex version, then you can scale it back as necessary. Whether you get the higher level free or not as your IQ progresses, I'd probably say no, but your GM may differ.

The figurine idea was, in part, a way to provide a means for limiting what a wizard might summon. As a plot point, it might also confuse an opponent who things they're dealing with someone who just used a gem of summoning, or it could be an starting point for an adventure (the party is hired by a wizard to capture some rare animal so they can study it or to accompany them on an expedition to observe a creature in the wild).
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Old 04-22-2023, 09:09 PM   #5
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Default Re: Calling Forth the Full Bestiary

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shostak View Post
Do I take that to mean that you espouse the idea that if you have Summon Creature I, when your IQ rises to that necessary for Summon Creature II, you get for free?
No offense, but yes.

Edited to add: For me at least, it's more fun. I don't want to argue rules interpretations.
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Last edited by tomc; 04-22-2023 at 09:18 PM.
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Old 04-23-2023, 07:11 PM   #6
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Default Re: Calling Forth the Full Bestiary

Quote:
Originally Posted by tcr25 View Post
The figurine idea was, in part, a way to provide a means for limiting what a wizard might summon. As a plot point, it might also confuse an opponent who things they're dealing with someone who just used a gem of summoning, or it could be an starting point for an adventure (the party is hired by a wizard to capture some rare animal so they can study it or to accompany them on an expedition to observe a creature in the wild).
I would hazard a guess that this is a stiffer form of spell components.

You don't cast the spell if you don't have your components. And woe be the wizard who just used up his gargoyle and doesn't have the hour to do arts & crafts while he is on the run.

Instead of making the figurine mandatory, have it give a bonus of some time instead. You can still cast per RAW, but if you use the figurine, then perhaps it takes 1 less fatigue or maybe allows you to reroll a failure (but not a crit failure.). That way, you can still use the spell even if you don't have your toys.
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Last edited by JohnPaulB; 04-26-2023 at 08:13 PM. Reason: Edit: add comment about figurine gives bonus instead
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