Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5356956" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 206: June 1994part 5/6Role-playing reviews: A bit more magic reviewed here this month. So many different takes on it are appearing these days. It’s one of those things that makes TSR seem more than a little behind the times. The rationale why spells work the way they do can also be pretty interesting, but Rick isn’t so bothered, and just wants to get to the effects. Fluff is something you read once or twice, crunch is for a whole campaign. Which of these books will make worthy additions to yours? The wizards grimoire is for ARS Magica, and is sufficiently specific that rick can’t see players of other systems getting much use out of it. The kind of crunch you can spend years mastering, it combines the wondrous and banal, and the detailed and vague as well. There’s probably too many undeveloped ideas, needing a good pruning to bring things together and make the good bits better. Less can be more, and all that. The compleat alchemist is a system-independent book from WotC that feels like one of those old articles from this magazine. And like the old alchemist classes from the magazine,  it’s light on roleplaying advice and the characters are ill-suited to adventures. It’s like it’s actively trying to make itself not useful to the average game. How do you expect to sell it to us?  GURPS Magic 2nd ed, on the other hand, is solid as a rock mechanically, and full of ideas that you’ll actually want to put in your game. You can always trust GURPS, rain or shine, which is a lot more than you can say for most systems. The worst you can say about it is there’s a few vague or redundant spells, the overall building system manages to keep things both imaginative and well balanced. Earth, air, fire and water puts the attention on clerics, showing us what you actually do with them in terms of playing, and filling in lots of cool high level stuff and new spells. Like much of dark sun’s stuff, they need this because it is so different from the D&D norm. They should be decently competitive with wizards again after this. Sage advice: Why does locate object have different durations for wizards and priests (That's a typo. They got the regular and reversed versions mixed up. )Is the bonus spells for high wisdom table right? (no. Congratulations, you've spotted more errata. Skip thanks you from the bottom of skip's heart)How can a non-thief disarm a trap. (by describing exactly what they intend to do with the mechanism. Old skool fiat system strikes back!)How long does an undead creature stay away after turning (24 hours - roll needed to turn. Not a long-term solution. )Isn't enhance overpowered compared to wishes. (Not really. At that level, superbuffing is a perfectly standard tactic) Can imps, quasits & pseudodragons become familiars (Yes. For plenty of other examples. check out issue 86. ) I haven't read the general spell keywords (well maybe you should, before ploughing into the spells. You can't learn a culture if you don't know the language.)How do you get the acid from melf's arrows off (apply a little common sense, and then rub it in with elbow grease. ) Are liches immune to harm spells (yes, but not for the reason you think)Can fighter/mages use their fighter THAC0's for touch spells (A few years ago skip would have said no, as he did regarding fighter/thieves using their fighter THAC0 for backstabbing. But skip has mellowed a bit since then. So Skip'll say yes. Don't go thinking Skip's not still a badass mutha though. )Is an invisible character invisible to themself or not? (They are. The complete wizards handbook is another case of freelancers being irresponsible and sloppy. )Is animate dead an evil act (sorta. It won't change your alignment straight away, but it will have a negative impact. )Can forget disrupt spellcasting (Probably. )Does prayer buff the damage of your spell attacks (Oh yes. This is why you should have a priest on the team.)Can there be specialist wizards in dragonlance (Only if they become renegades. That thar's forbidden magic round them parts)You got my question wrong! I was asking about what happens when druids absorb defiling damage from defiling regeneration. (Don't you get bolshy with skip. Skip is still The Sage, and you aint. Skip will answer you, but if you don't pay up on time, Skip will track you down and cap yo ass. )Does creating an illusion of an attack break invisibility (yes)Why are memorization and casting times so different (preparation for anything usually takes much longer than doing it. Even magic has to obey that rule) Can ottilukes resilient sphere block teleportation (Probably not. Too weak.)Can undead be raised (Recycled question. We sorted that out over a decade ago, and the answer's still the same. )And this month's newly enhanced pantheon iiiiiiiiiiiiiis........... The norse pantheon! Are you ready to ragnarok? Come on up and collect your prize!</blockquote>

Verification