Weak wizard - strong wizard

[coyote6]

I remember reading some rules to handle this kind of power imbalance in the Buffy rulebook, but never got to play with them, and now my memory is foggy...

Anyone know what I'm talking about, and have experience with that kind of rule set?

I'm guessing you mean Drama Points. Drama points can be spent to add bonuses to rolls, reduce damage, and otherwise do dramatic things that the GM allows. In the Buffy RPG, the Slayers, vampires, half-demons, and similar badasses get fewer drama points than the Xanders and Cordelias and (early season) Willows -- I want to say Buffy gets 5, while Xander gets 10, but that's from memory, and I could easily be misremembering.

But that's the basic balancing mechanism -- the less-powerful get more drama points, so they can have their serendipitous arrivals, lucky shots, and crowning moments of awesome more often than the big tough PCs (who will be able to tear it up in every fight, and occasionally really cut loose -- by spending their more meager share of Drama Points).

As I understand it, the Dresden Files RPG is going with something like that -- the more magic powers/stunts you have, the fewer Fate points you will start with. Your plain ordinary cop will have tons, though.

 

[Leatherhead]

That leaves us with Luke Skywalker and Paul Atreides.

Those rats are bigger than a human and sitting like ducks in a canyon, those stormtroopers couldn't hit the broadside of a barn, and the hardest part about shooting a guided missile was surviving long enough to reach the target.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Those rats are bigger than a human and sitting like ducks in a canyon,

but experianced ace piolit wedge antilies says that can't be done with computer guidance....

those stormtroopers couldn't hit the broadside of a barn,

"Only imperial storm troopers are this presise"

and the hardest part about shooting a guided missile was surviving long enough to reach the target.

and the fact that multi million dollor computers can't hit them...



yea plot points that show luke is special fromt he start...he can hit the unhitable, he has a supernatural protection, and he is one of the best...

 

[Ktulu]

Pug from Magician: Apprentice.

Not only was he crappy and failed at casting in the early chapters, but by the end of book two, he's now Milamber, and easily the most powerful wizard in existence.

In fact, I'd say the entire Riftwar Saga is a great series showcasing low-level characters gaining power, magic items, and titles.

 

[coyote6]

Pug was a D&D magic-user; the world was based on one used in a D&D campaign that (IIRC) Feist participated in. Game books were published about the world of Midkemia, way before Magician was published. The "lesser magic" that Pug struggles to learn was straight-up AD&D magic -- have to memorize spells from the spellbook, forget them after casting, etc.

The greater magic he learns later, OTOH, was a totally different system. I always wondered if it were some kind of variant system they actually used in a game, or just a less weird system he wanted to use for the fiction.

 

[Cyronax]

How about Raistlin Majere. Yes he's directly tied to the AD&D 1e initially, but he was a very weak caster in the first Dragonlance triology. His main spells were sleep, magic missile, and other low level tropes during the heroes' first encounter with the draconians just outside of Solace.

And this was even after he had been put through the travails of the Tower of High Sorcery's 'Test.'

C.I.D.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Don't you have to take the test at 3rd-level? You don't normally come out of it with lots of power.

 

[Cyronax]

Don't you have to take the test at 3rd-level? You don't normally come out of it with lots of power.

Yeah that is true. I just meant that he was touched/empowered by a much more powerful force/being during his Trial (which was a development unique to him), but despite that special-ness he was still fairly weak.

C.I.D.

 

[Nifft]

I'm guessing you mean Drama Points. (...) the less-powerful get more drama points, so they can have their serendipitous arrivals, lucky shots, and crowning moments of awesome more often than the big tough PCs (who will be able to tear it up in every fight, and occasionally really cut loose -- by spending their more meager share of Drama Points).

Yep, that sure sounds like what I meant.

How'd they work out in play?

Thanks, -- N

 

[coyote6]

Yep, that sure sounds like what I meant.

How'd they work out in play?

Well, my BtVS RPG experience is all from con games, but it works pretty well IME. My buddy is in an ongoing Buffy game (with bits from Cthulhu, Angel, and I think now Supernatural), and it works well from what he says. I'm not sure how many long-term Slayer-level PCs they've had, though.