On Magic Users and Darts: What's Up With That?

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Azzy]

You're asking me to remember THAT far back?

 

[Dausuul]

If you were an MU and an enemy was in melee range, attacking was seldom high on your priority list.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I'm pretty sure that it's just planning for the most likely scenario, rather than the worst-case scenario.

Without darts, the staff-wielding magic user would have to choose between approaching the monster, or doing nothing at all. I'd rather be out of luck on the rare occasion where I'm forced into melee, than be entirely helpless in every situation where I'm not forced into melee.

It really does seem like the dagger is the right choice, though. Did they weigh much more than darts? That could have made the idea of dagger-throwing less ideal. It would still be preferable to a staff, of course.

 

[Enrico Poli1]

In AD&D 2e, as a M-U I always started with Staff, then took Dagger at 5th level. Staff was more in line with the wizard stereotype. Plus, magic staves were more interesting then magic daggers.
On the contrary, I don't even remember my magic users to throw darts. That was the weapon of some fighter specialists...

 

[Salthorae]

Pretty sure it was a 2e thing.

I remember them having a RoF of 3/1, but even then you only got 1 Weapon proficiency to start the game. I always did a dagger just in case because it had flexibility.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Most of my magic-users (of which there weren't many) carried just a dagger. And it was there purely as a last resort, or if I needed to cut something (not someone). My reasoning for a single dagger over staff or multiple darts was to keep my encumbrance down. Even with random stat generation over point buy/standard array, there's no way I was putting a good roll into strength as an m-u.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[HarbingerX]

No idea where it came from, but I'd hazard a guess that it was to give an MU a bit more choice than daggers. Darts are far cheaper, weigh less and can be thrown farther than daggers. There was probably someone in Gary Gygax's campaign at some point who wanted a ranged-attack only MU and didn't like how expensive daggers were.