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Old 11-25-2021, 05:05 AM   #1
Shaira
 
Join Date: Apr 2019
Default Magic Affecting Multiple Targets

Hi everyone,

I think one of our shared pleasures with TFT is working out what the world of Cidri is like, based on the implications of the official TFT rules. This is never truer than with the magic system; the implications of the official spell list are quite profound for how Wizards and magic work.

For the most part, TFT magic seems relatively low-key. Even at high levels, most spells affect a single target within a fairly limited range, and for a short duration. Spells where a mighty sorcerer might fling a fireball at a horde of goblins don’t really fit within the TFT paradigm. However, spells do exist which allow Wizards to exceed the “one spell, one target, one effect” paradigm. Here’s my potted summary:
  • The Megahex Spells. The Avert, Freeze, and Sleep spells have more powerful variants, Megahex Avert, Megahex Freeze, and Megahex Sleep, as their names imply, affect all targets within a targeted megahex (which presumably means a targeted hex and all adjacent hexes). This potentially allows up to 7 1-hex targets to be affected by a single spell. Generally, the “Megahex” versions of a spell are 5 or 6 IQ points more difficult than their single-hex originals.
  • The Slippery Floor and Sticky Floor spells are automatically “megahex” spells.
  • Spells like Fire and Shadow have more advanced, higher IQ versions with affect 3 or 7 hexes, potentially affecting up to 3 or 7 targets. The Cleansing spell itself may affect up to 7 connected hexes.
  • The Blast spell allows the Wizard to damage targets in every adjacent target to him or herself, again potentially affecting up to 6 targets (or more if the Wizard is a giant, say). The Dazzle spell affects all targets within 5 megahexes for 3 turns, potentially a large number of “targets”. The Friendship spell “calms” everyone within a 10-hex range line-of-sight of the caster.
  • Finally, and this one’s a bit of an outlier because it's IQ 20, the Word of Command can affect a potential huge number of targets, limited only by the range of the Wizard’s voice, which, as ITL makes explicit, can be vastly boosted by the Great Voice spell.

Notable exceptions are spells which control animals or people, or those which do direct damage like Magic Fist, Lightning, etc; none of these spells are able to harm more than one target per casting, regardless of the Wizard’s power.

All of the above, IMHO, fits very tidily within TFT’s initial concept (in WIZARD) as an arena-based man-to-man combat game; its implications when scaled up to apply to a whole world and its societies are, of course, profound.

I’m not really looking to houserule here, but I do have some questions about the RAW. For example:
  • How effective are Wizards on the field of mass battle? Word of Command is obviously going to be rare, but I could imagine a small group of wizards backed up by apprentices causing havoc with judicious use of Megahex spells and 7-hex Fire and Shadow.
  • Is there any circumstance in which a powerful sorcerer could shapechange, geas or control more than one person at a time? By my reading, that’s outside the paradigm, although it might be a moot question as, with turns only 5 seconds long, a Wizard could (ST permitting) geas several targets by casting the Geas spell over several successive turns.
  • The TFT paradigm appears to have no scope for spells affecting the broader environment. For example, large-scale weather control magic exceeding “Fun With Sylphs and Undines” scenes, etc.

I’m cool with magic being small-scale, tactical, and restricted in effect – it makes for a gritty Cidri where Wizards aren’t godlike beings. What are your experiences and opinions?

Cheers,

Sarah

Last edited by Shaira; 11-25-2021 at 07:39 AM.
Shaira is offline   Reply With Quote
 

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