mccolm@ucla-cs.UUCP (10/08/85)
<AAARGH! <SNAP!> No more line-eater...heh-heh-heh...<urp!>>
The classical way of thinking about warriors vs. magicians in combat is that
the warrior is desperately trying to close the range and attack before the
magician can get off one of those awful spells. Magicians, by the way,
respond to this by being able to whip out some horrible magic item and neatly
fry anyone within a respectable distance, or at least slow them down.
Warriors, on the other hand, learn to run faster. Implied in this, by the
way, is the fact that magicians are smart, and warriors aren't.
Missile weapons should be, by and large, ineffective against magicians,
except in ambushes, while hand-to-hand melee weapons are much more promising.
It is not known why the sword is the caster-basher of choice, but there must
be a reasonable explanation...
The minor detail that a warrior can run 720 feet per minute (8mph) means that
the prospect of casting spells at charging warriors doesn't look too
attractive to the stock AD&D magician. Of course, in my variant, the average
magician can fry the average warrior in the time that the warrior runs
70', and can do serious harm within 30'. So the loyal hit-point-soaking
screen of warriors becomes a luxury not strictly necessary for any but the
well-dressed Vogue-Wizard.
How, you may ask? Simple. Under my variant, a spell requires 2 seconds per
spell level to cast, with certain exceptions. And all movement rates are in
seconds, not turns or rounds. This simplifies everything, and also shows
that AD&D dragons are so large because they have metabolisms slower than
tortoises.
Incidentally, the laborous research on the "WEB" project [Trenkole and others,
See Arduin] yielded results guaranteed to be useful in this application.
Certain other bits of research are extremely handy, if correctly applied.
But if your magicians are being rushed by infantry, would you put it past
them to decide to fly, and criticise the opponents' tactics from the air?
On a related topic, I agree that the "guaranteed damage" based on strength
and magic item bonuses is silly. One character from the grisly past was so
strong that he decided to fight with a two-handed canoe! It was just the
right size for his damage bonus, and was a nice, long weapon. Bleah!
"Ooglie" would have a good drinking buddy in a "RuneQuest" character of mine,
named "Ratface" for obvious reasons. (Recessed cheeks, long tapering nose,
gray whiskers, recessed jaw, big ears, charisma of 4, Very Short...)
P.S.--Can we ditch the religion coversation, if you please? Whether your
religion affects how you play the game is your trip, not anyone elses.
And it bores me to Cleveland to hear about it.
--fini--
Eric McColm
UCLA (oo' - kluh) Funny Farm for the Criminally Harmless
UUCP: ...!{ihnp4,trwspp,cepu,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!mccolm
ARPA: mccolm@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
Quotes on the Nature of Existence:
"To be, or not to be..." -Hamlet (Wm. Shakespeare)
"I think, therefore I am." -R. Descartes
"<Gleep!>" -Gleep (Robt. Asprin)