4E encounter spells for AD&D

[PeelSeel2]

Give them something akin to arcane blast first. Make damage scale with level. To me, even when I played 1e or older editions, it was ridiculous to have a magic user that would resort to a crossbow. If they are going to use one anyways, make it a neat in game effect that is 'magical'. Also, if their are going to be wands with lots of charges (50 I think in 1e or 100?), you might as well hand some of those spells out as permanently learnable. One thing that never broke my 1e campaign at all was having all classes have d8 hit dice.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Use caution and remember that unlimited means exactly that. Anything that can be spammed without a resource cost of some kind eventually will be. The old justification: "Because I can" still holds true.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Use caution and remember that unlimited means exactly that. Anything that can be spammed without a resource cost of some kind eventually will be. The old justification: "Because I can" still holds true.

This is why my final suggestion is such a good one - spammed as much as necessary, it is no more powerful than continually throwing daggers

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I dislike at-will "blastum" powers for magic users. It's too pat for my taste. I'd rather have magic users thinking of creative actions to take in a combat situation, rather than falling back on the at-will blast. I'm not fond of magic users as dart and dagger throwing machines, either, for similar reasons. It just doesn't seem in-keeping with the archetype. (I *certainly* don't like magic users armed with crossbows, although that isn't a allowed weapon in 1e.) I do think dagger/dart throwing is a little better than an at-will blast in one respect, though: ammo is a limited resource.

So one possibility would be a magical "blast" equal to a thrown dagger, and requiring a to-hit roll, but limited to a certain number of blasts per encounter. The magical blast fits the archetype a little better, and the limited number of blasts retains the resource management element. I'm still not really fond of the idea, though. I like to encourage more subtle and thoughtful approaches to magic, in addition to having a few "big blast" spells on-hand. I'd be more likely to grant at-will or limited-per-encounter cantrips, rather than "blastums."

In my game, I allow cantrip-like special effects based on memorized spells. I also allow lower level magic users to create scrolls, if the resources and time are available. I find that these two house-rules go a long way towards giving low-level magic users "something magical to do" while still upholding the archetype and "magic user concept" that I use.

 

[ExploderWizard]

This is why my final suggestion is such a good one - spammed as much as necessary, it is no more powerful than continually throwing daggers

Heh. Thats funny. I am designing a system with something like that in it. Its not "at will" but part of a list of things that wizards can do a X number of times per day along with a host of other powers, mix and match style.

 

[darjr]

How about...

For each spell slot given up, they could take a 4e spell of the same level. I would halve the damage, use the same casting limits of at-will, encounter, and daily, and limit them to no more of any of them than an equivalent 4e character would have. I'd use the same to hit mechanics too, just figure out the targets fort/ref/will by adding their save bonus to 10.

This way they would still be picking up regular AD&D spells at moderate to higher levels. Probably non-combat ones too.

Doing the at-will, encounter thing with existing AD&D spells would, it seems to me, imply a lot of work figuring out which ones should not be in either or any of the categories. I think it would still leave a lot of room for shenanigans.

Edit: I think either, without a lot more work, would leave a lot of room for the wizard to take unwanted advantage.

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

You can do this within the 1e system; just give him a wand. Something like a wand of magic missiles would work well. Other players could also receive a minor magic item to balance things out.

House rules tip: Don't keep track of charges, the DM's much too busy doing important DM-like things (such as drinking the beer that's so important to his concentration, or laughing cruelly at the players' latest mistake) to do math.

Instead, with wands, make the player roll a d% each time he uses it. If he rolls 00, it's out of charges and crumbles to dust.

You can adapt this technique to any charged item, which reduces the associated record-keeping.

 

[rkwoodard]

Wow

You can do this within the 1e system; just give him a wand. Something like a wand of magic missiles would work well. Other players could also receive a minor magic item to balance things out.

House rules tip: Don't keep track of charges, the DM's much too busy doing important DM-like things (such as drinking the beer that's so important to his concentration, or laughing cruelly at the players' latest mistake) to do math.

Instead, with wands, make the player roll a d% each time he uses it. If he rolls 00, it's out of charges and crumbles to dust.

You can adapt this technique to any charged item, which reduces the associated record-keeping.

Wow, that is simply great. I am stealing this for my Wizard's tower 3rd edition game.

Thank You,

RK

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

Whenever I post that tip, someone always says "yoink". *smug grin*

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Whenever I post that tip, someone always says "yoink". *smug grin*

I think I just saw PnP's head grow slightly larger.