Talent/Spell of the Week: Aid

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by Shostak

As said in the opening post, Aiding ST is not straightforward. Perhaps one could try to make sense of the application of the Rule of Five to Aid by saying that their physical ST can't be raised more than 5 with Aid, but their mana continues to increase? Otherwise, that Dissolve Enchantment is going to be able to be deployed by a very elite group of sorcerers.

I wouldn't allow aiding Mana, but I could see wizards at high levels of bonus fatigue for ten seconds. If you're Aiding up their DX for casting success can you also add unlimited fatigue to power the spell?

[Skarg]

You can use 5 Aid ST to put 1 point into recharging staff mana, or a powerstone.

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by hcobb

I wouldn't allow aiding Mana, but I could see wizards at high levels of bonus fatigue for ten seconds. If you're Aiding up their DX for casting success can you also add unlimited fatigue to power the spell?

Since fatigue is directly tied to ST, but mana less so, it seems reasonable to me to try to make the rules work by having ST stop at +5, but mana able to go beyond. This is especially so when you consider how ST spent against Aided ST
to power spells is treated differently from wounds. But, either way, you have 10 seconds to use it before it is lost.

[Skarg]

There is a fairly long list of spells that can be extremely useful, powerful, and/or battle-winning, that a surprisingly large number of veteran TFT players haven't seen the use for. Aid is certainly one of them.

I almost never spell these out, because I think the game is more fun when people discover uses for them on their own. And especially when they aren't just spamming something in play that they read on the Internet.

Aid has as many uses as high ST, DX, and IQ have. It "only" last two turns, but in those two turns, it can be the decisive difference between life and death.

In our campaign settings, we've had it very common not only that the apprentices (and therefore, almost all wizards) learn Aid, but that there are fairly common groups who train people (even non-wizards, even in original TFT, where that meant a -4 DX penalty to cast spells) to cast Aid, mainly to Aid ST for other wizards. Especially if you have cheap labor, military, minions, or slavery, it's a very useful multiplier of wizard effectiveness.

Also, in your campaigns, most adventuring parties going into dangerous situations, would try to have several NPC comrades, allies, servants, and/or hired help. One useful type, is an apprentice or someone who knows Aid, mainly to aid wizards. So just because that might not seem like a popular PC choice, doesn't mean they don't appear in play.

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by Skarg

You can use 5 Aid ST to put 1 point into recharging staff mana, or a powerstone.

Does mana recharge take an action or is it done during maintain spells or is it anytime?

So oops, I can't cast that spell this turn, so I'll dump 50 bonus fatigue into 10 mana at the end of the turn.

[pzmcgwire]

With Aid being a Thrown spell, are apprentices generally huddled around the target wizard, in the same hex to avoid even a -1 DX penalty for being adjacent?

I remember the old Space Gamer story Three Words, where apprentices were told to aid a wizard, but were scattered about a room. Odds are that probably only a few of the apprentices would have been successful with their aid spells.

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Does mana recharge take an action or is it done during maintain spells or is it anytime?

So oops, I can't cast that spell this turn, so I'll dump 50 bonus fatigue into 10 mana at the end of the turn.

It's not specified, but if it were intended to require doing nothing else and taking a "recharge staff/powerstone action", then such an action would be mentioned in the rules.

Wizards can usually expend ST either during the Renew Spells stage, or when they act for the turn, so I'd tend to say those are the appropriate times for someone to adjust the ST level of powerstones or staff mana.

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by pzmcgwire

With Aid being a Thrown spell, are apprentices generally huddled around the target wizard, in the same hex to avoid even a -1 DX penalty for being adjacent?

I remember the old Space Gamer story Three Words, where apprentices were told to aid a wizard, but were scattered about a room. Odds are that probably only a few of the apprentices would have been successful with their aid spells.

Beware the wizard pig pile! They have no penalty to Aid each other!

Or, cast Fire on it, and damage them all.

No, we usually just had them cast from 1 or 2 hexes away.

(Though in the similar GURPS Magic system, staffs count as reach, and you could avoid range penalties by touching the subject with a staff. Some people have used that as a house rule in TFT, too.)

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by pzmcgwire

With Aid being a Thrown spell, are apprentices generally huddled around the target wizard, in the same hex to avoid even a -1 DX penalty for being adjacent?

The way I've played this is that touching the subject of a thrown spell with your body or staff negates the range penalty. With a "proper" big wooden staff this could even reach two hexes.

However if your target is restisting this takes an additional to-hit roll to touch them, and then the casting roll. So it's only useful for targets who want you to touch them.