Transporting Orbs

[Ambrus]

Back when I was LARPing a storyline came up in which there were 10 baseball sized marble orbs to be collected and coveted by the PCs. I ended up with one and usually kept it in a belt pouch on my belt. Since the pouch wasn't much bigger than the orb, it made pulling the damn thing out a pain in the butt. Also, running with the thing banging into my hip and thigh wasn't much fun, but it made the issue of transportation easier.

Then the GMs decided they didn't like the idea of PCs benefiting from concealed orbs so they decreed that their magical benefits would only apply while being held and/or plainly visible. Wonderful. Suddenly anyone with an orb either got no use out of having it or they advertised themselves as targets of the first order. My hand got cramped from hours of tightly clutching the damn thing under my cloak. I briefly acquired a second orb and joked that I would carry both of them strapped to my chest in a lacy see-through bra for the sake of convenience and visibility.

 

[CleverNickName]

I don't think it will be that much of a problem. After all: spellbooks, foci, and spell components could just as easily be fumbled, dropped, disarmed, stolen, etc. under the current rules system.

 

[Wormwood]

I don't think it will be that much of a problem. After all: spellbooks, foci, and spell components could just as easily be fumbled, dropped, disarmed, stolen, etc. under the current rules system.

Wizards have been juggling pinches of sand, eyelashes and live crickets for 30 or so years.

The orb will do just fine.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

I'm going to be upset when it breaks and spills at that Chambord inside....

 

[gothmaugCC]

I guess you guys have never had a DM mean enough to obliterate/steal/disintergrate/grab your clerics holy symbol. I had a DM a few years back who did it often enough that our parties cleric had a holy symbol tatooed to his characters palm!!! If the dynamics change, and wizards now need to use some sort of arcane focus (instead of a pinch of bat poop), you better believe that my intelligent NPC's are going to disarm that object ASAP.

Seriously though, I just find orbs annoying to deal with. My wizard in my current home game got an "eye of such-and-such" early on in his career. The DM had planned to make it a legacy item. It got real annoying to constantnly be digging around in my pack for the thing every time i had to brandish it to use its powers.

We also have the home rule that when you roll a "1" you fumble and drop what your holding. Dropping an Orb in a dungeon with a creative DM can be quite humerous and frustrating at the same time

 

[Raven Crowking]

I can't wait untill my first 4ed wizard drops his orb and the damn thing rolls away in the dungeon and/or:

Falls of a precipice
Falls through a grate,
Falls into a sewer,
Bounces down some stairs
Gets knocked away like a croquet ball.

Seriously, what a pain in the ass carrying an orb around. At least a wand or staff or tome is large enough to ba stable and not roll away when dropped, and easy to store. What do you do with an orb? Keep it in your pocket? Thats assuming they are cue ball sized. If htey are small (like marbles) then you can put them on a chain, but what if they are large (like a crystal ball)? Can you imagine lugging a basketball sized scrying orb with you through a dungeon?

Anyhow just a bit of fun speculation

We'll be hearing in a year or two how Orbs (as with other gear) cannot be targetted, lost, stolen, or broken, lest the DM be accused of wrongbadfun & unfun play in general. Bad DM! Bad DM!

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

It is one more reason to have a high Dex for your wizard. At lower levels you can do this. At Epic level, you can play with four orbs just like Goblin King Jareth in Labyrinth.

 

[gothmaugCC]

SO bards in the new edition are just going to be Wizard orb specialists with ranks in Perform: Juggling?

 

[Andor]

But on the plus side Orbs carry so much potential for confusion and double entendres.

 

[Tarek]

Especially since Wizards will also carry a staff... and we all know that a wizard's staff has a knob on the end.