Wizards: Squishy or All Powerful?

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Although he does lose the use of any spell requiring a material component. And with a genre-savvy jailor, he's likely to be denied the use of verbal and somatic components, and probably line of sight too - cuffs, gags and blindfolds are cheap and readily available.

My own experiences with being a wizard in prison were ... limited.

It was a 1st-level Eberron campaign. The jailers weren't evil. They took my spellbook and components, but didn't bind and gag me. Also, the other PCs were in there with me, and just like I'd free them, they'd have freed me.

I had Color Spray prepared. But I needed three pigments. I told the other PCs, and we scrounged enough for one casting. And then we used it. Naturally as a 1st-level wizard I wasn't going to Dimension Door out of the prison, but we had a rogue who used a sliver of wooden bowl or something to make some Disable Device checks to get us out. And then I dropped the first guard with Color Spray...

I vaguely recall some rather frantic tower climbing (we were at the top of a tower, and fighting past all those guards was a really bad idea).

 

[Tuft]

In D&D, I've always had this nagging feeling that making magic items ought to be an adventure (or least an encounter), and thus be risky and award XP. Perhaps consumables made this way could be made in a batch for handling time. Forcing spirits/elementals/demons/etc. into the magic items would be one way to handle the flavor with obvious challenge issues. For powerful items, you can always do one-offs--research how to do it, then go do the adventure.

Earthdawn had this in spades. The good items in Earthdawn were called "thread items". These had several ranks of effects in them, so that the item could be improved over time. To unlock a new rank, you had to:
*) Research a certain bit of the item's prehistory, and/or:
*) Perform a certain deed that tied in to that history (slay a monster of a given type, build a monument to the item's maker...)

That was in addition to paying XP and performing a small ceremony. Of course, finding out the prerequisite for each rank required more research.


These were designed to be plot hooks, of course. Research had to be done at certain places, which required travel, and when deeds where required, well, obvious plot hook.

The problem was the frequency. I played in a rather large group (~10 players), and they required rewards rather frequently. And of course, any non-thread magic item was substandard as a reward. So, at 10 PCs with 4 thread items each (counting low) you could have 40 such mini-quests open at any time, spread all over the game world, each needing time and attention from our GM...