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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8127376" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 38: Oct/Nov/Dec 1987part 2/5Welcome to Magic-User University: Of course, a big reason wizards don't run roughshod over the other classes in-setting is because they're supposed to be much rarer and require years of specialist (and expensive) training before they can cast even one spell. People who can just do magic instinctively, or take shortcuts to have it infused into them won't be mechanically supported for another 2 editions yet. Here's another excellent example of the balancing factors most groups ignore in-game, breaking down the sheer quantity of things there are to learn to get a solid grasp of magic theory, in the format of a three year degree course with 1-4 credits for each unit, requiring you to pass about 75% of the units in each year to get a basic grade and not be flunked out or have to repeat them next year. It's simultaneously aware of the silliness of it's premise, while taking the anal attention to detail very seriously. Unless you're planning to run a wizard school game, I very much doubt it'll see any use in actual play, but it's still an amusing read. The rules are not the physics, and there's a lot going on that we usually gloss over. It's good to have the extra details in optional rules so you can bring it into focus when a game needs it. The Critical Hit: This column engages in another round of self-promotion for TSR's own products, with a review of Unearthed Arcana. Thats a good two years old already! Couldn't you have chosen something a little newer? As usual, he tries to be as positive as possible, but even he can't ignore the facts that the editing is atrocious, the binding is shoddy, the whole thing was a cheap rush job, and a lot of the material is recycled from magazine articles. But it does give both players and DM's a lot of cool toys to play with. Which is really the secret of it's popularity, as at that time, the vast majority of products they released were purely DM facing, new adventures with perhaps a few new monsters, and if you were very lucky a unique spell or magic item to add to your repertoire. If it had been just one of many new sets of crunch like the 3e splatbooks, people would have been far less forgiving of it's flaws, and it would not be remembered today save as a minor footnote in the product lists. A somewhat irritating reminder of the lower design standards and slower pace things moved at back then.</blockquote>

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