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Old 05-25-2022, 01:56 PM   #21
hcobb
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pacheco, California
Default Re: Staff Zaps

Any wizard who holds a powerstone can draw power at 1:1 ratio to power spells or recover fatigue and expend 5 points of personal fatigue to recharge one point of power. The power will also recover at one point per day.

Staff mana can only be drawn or recharged by the staff owner, but otherwise does all the same stuff.

Drain ST has some sort of connection to recharging Mana (ITL 148), perhaps by the wizard investing 5 fatigue into recharging one point of Mana then using Drain ST to recover their own fatigue. If so this argues for wizards to waste a critical attribute point into getting ST 9 (the horror!) to avoid being weak from fatigue while casting Drain ST. (Or much more sensibly, have the usual ST 4 to 8 wizards work in teams with the Aid spell.)

Once you have even a one capacity powerstone you can increase this by repeating the enchantment. (See Note B at ITL 153 for the details.)
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Old 05-25-2022, 02:20 PM   #22
phiwum
 
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Default Re: Staff Zaps

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Originally Posted by hcobb View Post
Staff Mana "costs" twice as much (by XP to Gold ITL 46) as a large Powerstone.

The big advantage is the Staff Zap which inflicts damage onto anything subject to thrown spells, and often bypasses all armor while doing so.

And also being able to cast full IQ spells while retaining a ready weapon to defend with.
I have given some powerstones to NPCs, but they are rare and so far they haven't fallen into the hands of PCs. The price of a powerstone will be much higher in my game, I figger, and the XP to gold ratio isn't particularly relevant either.
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Old 05-25-2022, 02:30 PM   #23
phiwum
 
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Default Re: Staff Zaps

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Originally Posted by hcobb View Post
Any wizard who holds a powerstone can draw power at 1:1 ratio to power spells or recover fatigue and expend 5 points of personal fatigue to recharge one point of power. The power will also recover at one point per day.

Staff mana can only be drawn or recharged by the staff owner, but otherwise does all the same stuff.

Drain ST has some sort of connection to recharging Mana (ITL 148), perhaps by the wizard investing 5 fatigue into recharging one point of Mana then using Drain ST to recover their own fatigue. If so this argues for wizards to waste a critical attribute point into getting ST 9 (the horror!) to avoid being weak from fatigue while casting Drain ST. (Or much more sensibly, have the usual ST 4 to 8 wizards work in teams with the Aid spell.)

Once you have even a one capacity powerstone you can increase this by repeating the enchantment. (See Note B at ITL 153 for the details.)
Aside from the bit about optimal ST for a wizard, I agree with Henry's interpretation. I initially read the 5 ST/1 Mana as Bill did -- that is, adding capacity to the stone rather than recharging it -- but Henry's take must be the right one.
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Old 05-25-2022, 02:53 PM   #24
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Default Re: Staff Zaps

What is the interaction between a powerstone embedded in a wizard's staff and the limit of five total active magic items?
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Old 05-25-2022, 03:14 PM   #25
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Default Re: Staff Zaps

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What is the interaction between a powerstone embedded in a wizard's staff and the limit of five total active magic items?
ITL stated that power stones are not subject to the rule of 5.
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Old 05-26-2022, 03:51 AM   #26
warhorse11h
 
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Default Re: Staff Zaps

Coming into this conversation late. Just got the PDF for Hexagram 9. My 2 cents, for what it is worth, is that the only thing that the text regarding the staff in HTH covers is the use of an occult zap in HTH. It specifically calls out a dagger staff as that is, under existing rules, the only staff version one may retain control of during HTH. It does not identify the occult zap as any type of spell, it only says to treat it as a spell fired by a magic item. Beyond establishing that a character can use spells in HTH, a point previously in contention depending on which rules one read, ITL LE, ITL or Wizard, the only change is that an option has been added or restored, depending on which set of rules you are using, to characters in HTH, the option to cast a spell.
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Old 05-26-2022, 04:02 AM   #27
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Default Re: Staff Zaps

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The only thing I don't like about the staff spells is that they're so advantageous that having a staff is almost a no-brainer. Any PC wizard who expects to be around for a while has a very compelling reason to have a low-cost mana battery.

Of course, there may be good roleplay reasons to avoid the staff, but you'd be sacrificing in-game advantage for character concept.

Aside from that, yes, I rather like the staff too.
The rules specify that a staff can only be shaped in certain ways and that certain items can't be a staff. That doesn't mean you can't craft a spell generating effects similar or equal to the staff spells and call it, Magical Focus", "Medicine Bag", "Crystal of Concentration", "Holy/Unholy Symbol", or whatever else you want, just insure that the description contains the line that a character can have only one of these special spells, otherwise, somebody will craft a dagger staff, holy symbol, magical focus and be trying to stack all the benefits.
This could allow one to craft wizards without obvious staffs, without losing the benefits of one. Otherwise, it is almost a prerequisite to have a staff as a wizard or die young.
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Old 05-26-2022, 10:05 AM   #28
phiwum
 
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Default Re: Staff Zaps

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Originally Posted by warhorse11h View Post
Coming into this conversation late. Just got the PDF for Hexagram 9. My 2 cents, for what it is worth, is that the only thing that the text regarding the staff in HTH covers is the use of an occult zap in HTH. It specifically calls out a dagger staff as that is, under existing rules, the only staff version one may retain control of during HTH. It does not identify the occult zap as any type of spell, it only says to treat it as a spell fired by a magic item. Beyond establishing that a character can use spells in HTH, a point previously in contention depending on which rules one read, ITL LE, ITL or Wizard, the only change is that an option has been added or restored, depending on which set of rules you are using, to characters in HTH, the option to cast a spell.
I agree. I still don't regard zaps as a spell and I don't think that the comment on p. 3 explicitly states that they are a spell, but that they are included as a spell for the purpose of HTH.

I picked up the PDF for Hexagram 9 because of this conversation (and a few others).
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Old 05-26-2022, 11:06 PM   #29
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Default Re: Staff Zaps

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Originally Posted by Bill_in_IN View Post
... Then, you had the Much higher Staff of Power Spell that was like IQ 17+ (I don't have my Advanced Wizard Book handy). It allowed for some occult type damage but that was about it. It was much more practical for a wizard to have a weapon talent with a silver weapon than a staff and a power stone.
In original TFT, a weapon talent was more practical if you didn't have IQ 16 and a decent DX, but Staff of Power only required a wizard to spend one learning point, and gave you a 2d unbreaking weapon that didn't interfere with spellcasting (unlike another weapon in hand). Learning a weapon talent could be done, but generally took a wizard 2-4 learning points to learn (unless they had enough DX to stomach the untalented to-hit penalty), and interfered with spell gestures.


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... Can a wizard purchase a power stone of 1 or 5 points and start adding his own ST to it at the described rate? Are those points levels the max for the stone?
Yes, those are the capacity, i.e. maximum charge level, for the powerstone.

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ITL page 163 doesn't state that there is a truly known maximum but does state what may be known to exist. To me, it leaves the door open for a wizard to store their energy at 5ST/point into a power stone.
The comment on the highest capacity powerstone is about how high you could enchant a stone's capacity. The 5 ST/point is for RE-charging a stone, but can't ever exceed the stone's capacity.

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I assume that he would be required to have greater magic item creation and IQ 20 to actually make the power stone.
Yes. Or to increase a stone's capacity, which requires further enchantment.

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Could a lower IQ wizard purchase a 1 point power stone and then start storing energy in it?
Yes, up to its enchanted capacity, which would be 1.

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So, the functional aspects of storing energy into power stones seem ill defined in ITL.
No, you just misunderstood the difference between enchanting a powerstone or increasing its capacity (using Greater Magic Item Creation, a lab, weeks of time, etc), and re-charging one (which any wizard can do) by spending 5 ST to restore 1 point, up to its capacity).
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Old 05-27-2022, 05:56 AM   #30
Bill_in_IN
 
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Default Re: Staff Zaps

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Originally Posted by Skarg View Post
In original TFT, a weapon talent was more practical if you didn't have IQ 16 and a decent DX, but Staff of Power only required a wizard to spend one learning point, and gave you a 2d unbreaking weapon that didn't interfere with spellcasting (unlike another weapon in hand). Learning a weapon talent could be done, but generally took a wizard 2-4 learning points to learn (unless they had enough DX to stomach the untalented to-hit penalty), and interfered with spell gestures.



Yes, those are the capacity, i.e. maximum charge level, for the powerstone.


The comment on the highest capacity powerstone is about how high you could enchant a stone's capacity. The 5 ST/point is for RE-charging a stone, but can't ever exceed the stone's capacity.


Yes. Or to increase a stone's capacity, which requires further enchantment.


Yes, up to its enchanted capacity, which would be 1.


No, you just misunderstood the difference between enchanting a powerstone or increasing its capacity (using Greater Magic Item Creation, a lab, weeks of time, etc), and re-charging one (which any wizard can do) by spending 5 ST to restore 1 point, up to its capacity).
Thanks. This makes sense. I was thinking that this was the way that it worked. I will go back and read through ITL to confirm. I will also look into what it takes to make higher capacity power stones. I assume that the cost will increase in some geometric sequence .As a GM, I will need to be prepared for that.
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