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Bagpuss said:
I think some flaws with the recovery idea for mana have been pointed out on Monte Cook's forum. IE: That it slows down the game as it encourages the party to rest a wait while the arcanist charges up ready for the next battle.
Hmm... not an issue for me.
if the circumstances are that they can rest, if time or situation isn't an issue, they don't have a need to press on, then it makes perfect sense for them to do so.
it wont slow down play since, if they are right and there is no risk involved, the "you rest" takes seconds to resolve.
In my games, there is a mix. often there are reasons to push on, whether it be specific time contraints of the plot or simply "they will figure out we are here so we better get done before they find us" etc. On the occasions when time is the party's ally, I expect them to make use of it.
If they press on and go in tired (low mana or low HP) when there is no reason for them to do so, they will likely suffer for it.
So i don't see this as a problem, but it certainly could be for some.
Bagpuss said:
I'ld be more inclined to go with a token mechanic myself (although I've not worked one out yet)
I haven't seen one yet that i like.
But, as you said, we haven't had one worked out yet so, until we do have one, there is really not much to say about it.
Bagpuss said:
The advantage of this is a arcanist would be able to pull of low level spells early in a battle, but later they would be able to carry out more powerful spells. The melee characters would need to protect the arcanist while he builds up tokens (proably via some concentration use).
Its tough to listen to a description of a system thats not in existence yet and comment effectively on it.
Obviously the system shouldn't in essence shackle in this one "script for how fights go" ("defend the mage until his big whammy spells is up".) But for me the bigger question is for out of combat magic, where there aren't enemies to require tasking everyone else to "defend the mage" duties and the mage can gather mana tokens pretty much at will.
Obviously, in theory all these problems can be solved, but in practice we wont know until it happens.