[TORG] Why don't wizards run around in tin cans?

[Cedric Chausson]

Hey,

IMVHO, another thing not to forget is that not all mages have access
to all spells. That is the reason why spell books are so valuable. The
gamer's perspective where you get to choose your spells at creation is
skewed for commodities sake, you usually give the player the spell
book and let him decide which spells he wants and he chooses according
to his skillss and spell adds (and often players choose their skills
and spells adds according to the spells they want!). They are few
things that you can do to avoid this. This is why during the character
creation process, I always asked players to choosse their skills
first, with only a short description of the kind of spells they could
be used for and then after I gave them the spell book. Of course, this
is not 100% perfect especially with older player who know the
different spells but it tends to lessen the optimization factor.

Also in the general world, things are not so simple and NPCs mages do
not have access to all spells as they are costly and the mage that
taught you does not have acces to all spells. If spells were as easily
accessible like things you download on the net you would maybe have a
lot of persons running around in tin cans but the fact is not everyone
far from it has access to Armor of the Draconis Metallica.

This is all the more so that do not forget that the spell
characteristics in Pixaud's are supposed to be the stats for the best
of the best. You are supposed to downgrade the characteristics of the
spell to get the more commonly known versions. So for most of mages
the protection from the spell might be not as good as the pure version
or the spell might be so hard to launch that only a few can manage it.

Just my two cents and all of this IMVHO,

Cedric the Heretic,



2009/8/4 Samuel Phillips Koller <spkoller at uwm.edu>:
> *in a thick Russian accent*  One word..TRADITION!!!
>
> Ok but seriously, why would they?  It makes no logical sense for them to do so, presuming that game mechanical math reflects physics or magical principles they are aware of.
> The average caster will have sunk as many points as possible into Perception and Mind, with Spirit as a close third (disconnect = BAD) so they are likely to have about 10 in toughness, if that.  SO if they are wearing the best you can get at early game (plate mail) then they are going to end up with an armor value of 16.
>
> Now come the math.  Light armor has an effect = toughness of 16, the same as plate mail.  A few simple manipulations (cast=> duration, Diff=> backlash, Backlash => effect) and our mage might well end up with a armor toughness in the 20's.
>
> Enchanted plate mail you say.  Well obviously, but lets have a look here.  Presuming are mage is reasonably competent, he could very well manipulate the effect value up to 30.  30-25=5 so the power push table says that our plate mail now has a value of +8/27.
>
> But let us say instead our mage decided to run out of the house in his underware.  A few rounds of manipulation later (most of them dealing with cast time and duration) our magical underpants (silk lining) are +6/25, almost as good as the plate mail, and certainly less expansive!
>
> just my 2 cents
>
> S Koller
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dominick Riesland" <rabbitball at gmail.com>
> To: torg at justintimeadventures.com
> Sent: Tuesday, August 4, 2009 12:11:58 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
> Subject: [TORG] Why don't wizards run around in tin cans?
>
> As far as I have examined the rules, there is nothing preventing a
> wizard from running around in Armor of the Draconis Metallica (or
> other similarly tough metallic covering for their otherwise soft,
> fleshy bodies), and yet they never do. Why is that?
>
> Dominick Riesland, aka Rabbitball
> Creator of the Cosmversal Grimoire
> "There are always possibilities, my sergeant told me. But he never had
> his possibilities torn away like wings from a fly."
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