More about wizards by kunadam

[GlassJaw]

Wizard minis have been holding wands, staves, books, orbs and other implements from long before Rowling began typing.

But since when have they been tied to specific effects? It's just not a necessary limitation from a game design standpoint other than continually tying mechanics to fluff, which has clearly been the 4E design direction.

 

[Voss]

Is more focused overall really a bad thing? At the moment, 3E wizards can do anything. Maybe not at all once, but if they can't do something today, they can swap some spells around and do it tomorrow.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

But since when have they been tied to specific effects?

They're not tied to specific effects in Harry Potter.

 

[med stud]

On top of that, the implements sound unbelievably LAME! Sheesh, the devs have been reading Harry Potter too much. Ugh.

To be fair to the developers, implements are pretty classic to real world magicians. It defenitly predates Harry Potter (not to mention the staff, which Tolkien made important before JK Rowling was born).

 

[Zurai]

But since when have they been tied to specific effects? It's just not a necessary limitation from a game design standpoint other than continually tying mechanics to fluff, which has clearly been the 4E design direction.

Since before first edition. I don't think I've ever seen an RPG with magic that DIDN'T include wands and staves that produced specific effects.

 

[Atlatl Jones]

Since before first edition. I don't think I've ever seen an RPG with magic that DIDN'T include wands and staves that produced specific effects.

In the Mabinogion, which is about 600-800 years old, many of the wizard types used wands to work their magic. Staves have been around at least since Tolkien, if not before. Orbs have been around for ages as well, in various forms.

 

[Raduin711]

I expect to see classes that fill the spaces that the old specialist wizards used to fill. Not just Illusionists, but Necromancers, Enchanters, Transmuters, Conjurors, Diviners, and so on with their own spells. That is an exciting idea to me.

But having to wait for these classes past the PHB... this saddens me.

 

[Smerg]

But since when have they been tied to specific effects? It's just not a necessary limitation from a game design standpoint other than continually tying mechanics to fluff, which has clearly been the 4E design direction.

This is a mixture of two concepts.

The first idea is the requirement for material items. Clerics had it easy as they could by one small wood icon at level 1 and still be using it at level 20. Mages were 'technically' supposed to be hunting down bits of bat guano, broken mirrors, and all sorts of other unusual items. The concept was to simply the lists of material items (tons of fluff with little to no crunch value -- this also saves lines of text over some 300+ spells which can go to better spells and items).

The second idea is the metamagic rods of 3.0. The idea that some piece of carved wood that a priest gets at level 1 is the same piece of wood that the Pope (or other level 20 church official) uses to unleash divine magic seems a stretch. History is filled with descriptions of relics that are passed down from cleric to cleric. The same goes for mages where famous wands, staves, orbs, and tombs are transfered from master to apprentice depending on the level of the apprentice to use and manipulate an item.

These two ideas are very iconic to the nature of magical or divine spells in our understanding of the world and it saves having to say that your mage (when no one is looking) is running to the local bat cave for more guano.

 

[GlassJaw]

Since before first edition. I don't think I've ever seen an RPG with magic that DIDN'T include wands and staves that produced specific effects.

Thank you captain obvious.

Of course, wands, staves, etc are common to wizards in fantasy literature. But to have these implements tied to specific effects, and by effect I don't mean "spell", isn't good design. It's confusing and hokey and is based on fluff.

Why do I need a staff if I want to cast Cone of Cold or Ray of Enfeeblement? It's just random design. It's arbitrary.

It's one thing if need an implement to use magic at all or an implement boosts your magic power but did you ever see Harry or Gandalf have to switch implements to cast different spells? It just stinks of trying to emulate the fighter's golf bag of weapon for the wizard.

 

[RandomCitizenX]

Where is it stated that the implements are NEEDED to cast the spell? The only previews I have seen *including the Dragon article about wizards* made them out to applying bonuses to the spells.