Making Magic-Users Magical (Part 2)

So I've been reading old articles by Gygax from the Dragon magazines of the late 70s, articles that explain why he chose the magic systems he did, and what he thinks of the idea of variant magic systems. These are things I believe DO need to be taken into account, not just because it is "Old School" to play D&D as written, but because I agree that if you want to make variant rules, you might as well play a different game. The game is balanced a particular way in order to do certain things.


Here's a good enough summation for me to work with:

"Having read widely in the fantasy genre since 1950, I opted instead for the oft-used system which assumed that magic comes from power locked within certain words and phrases which are uttered to release the force. This mnemonic power system was exceedingly well articulated by Jack Vance in his superb novels The Eyes of the Overworld and Dying Earth, as well as various short stories. In memorizing the magical words, the brain of the would-be spell-caster is taxed by the charged force of the syllables. To increase capacity, the spell-caster must undergo training, study, and mental discipline.


"This is not to say that he or she ever understands the words, but the capacity to hold them in the memory and speak them correctly increases thus. The magic words, in turn, trigger energy which causes the spell to work...


"...Magic works because certain key words and phrases (sounds) unlock energy from elsewhere. The sounds are inscribed in arcane texts and religious works available to spell-users. Only training an practice will allow increased magic capacity, thus allowing more spells to be used."

- E. Gary Gygax, Dragon #33, 1980

In Dragon #16 (1978), Gygax says of his Vancian system, "If it has any fault, it is toward making characters who are magic-users too powerful. This sort of fault is better corrected within the existing framework of the game -- by requiring more time to cast spells, by making magic-users progress more slowly in experience levels." The AD&D Player's Handbook DID take Gygax's misgivings into account, increasing the experience points needed for every level beginning at level 5, reducing hit dice to 1D4, making variable damage by weapon mandatory ("nerfing" the magic-user's dagger), and including casting times and spell components in an effort to slow down the magic-users power potential.


The thing is, these reductions in power are great for campaigns that have been in existence for awhile...say Gygax's own campaign from 1973 with magic-users like Otto and Mordenkainen, or my old campaign magic-users of Lucky, Darkflame, and Arioch. But for beginning magic-users, it's a hard row to hoe.


In considering how to make magic-users "more magical" (the desired result being to make MUs a fun class to play, even at 1st level), I have the following considerations to account for:

1. Leave the game balance as un-broken as possible (in other words, the game was designed in its way for a reason; there will be no arms race created by upping power levels)
2. No re-writing of game systems (these are add-ons or optional rules; they should work with the rules as written)
3. No contradiction of systems already in place (we want to hold true to the spirit of the game; otherwise we might as well be playing a different game).

Having set the ground rules, time to throw down some options.

Do You Feel "Lucky" Punk? (Part 2)

My wife doesn’t like it when I get nostalgic. She says I start “acting all weird” (the proper term is “melancholic” but weird is weird, right?). Ah well…I can’t help it. Re-visiting my past is one of those things I do, and probably has a lot to do with why I horde and pack-rat so many mementos from the “old days.”

I can still remember when I presented Scott with Lucky. That’s right; I gifted him with the character that would one day be his signature dude. I’m guessing we were in the 5th or 6th grade (the more I think about it, the more sure I am that it was 6th, because I believe it was in Sr. Anne’s classroom that I gave him the character, probably during the break between “spelling” and “language arts”).

I had recently gotten hold of my first AD&D Players Handbook…the 2nd printing of the PHB with the wizard on the cover. I based the character on wizard illustration of the PHB, right down to the character’s name: Ringlerun. This was back in the days of my first campaign where all the characters were getting to be high level, in part due to my cumulative calculation of hit points. “Ringlerun” himself was created as an 18th level Arch-Mage using my new PHB, so that he would have enough clout to adventure with the veterans of the campaign (Bladehawk, Sneakshadow, etc.). Average hit points for an 18th level magic-user would have been in the 300s. That sounds about right.

The character was meticulously written out on a golden rod AD&D character sheet…I had received these at the same time as the PHB, both being purchased at MY local game shop: Fred Meyer’s.

By the end of class, I had a chance to talk to Scott and ask him how he liked the character. Fine, he said, but he decided to change his name…to “Lucky Drake.”

(later on, I would find out that Lucky Drake was the name of the protagonist in a choose-your-own-adventure book featuring pirates…Scott was reading it at the time, and loaned it to me later!)

Now that I consider it, it must have been 5th grade (I went to the same Catholic school till the 8th grade and the main things that changed from year-to-year was whether you were on the east side or the west side of the main hallway). I turned 10 in 5th grade…1983…and that was the year the PHB was issued with the new cover. And I may well have received the PHB for my birthday (contrary to the post where I said the Cook Expert set was my last gaming gift from my parents…this was it).

ANYWAY…the re-christening of his character was nothing new. Since my friends and I were often introducing new games to each other (games the rest of us didn’t own and thus didn’t know), “pre-gen” characters were often provided. I was the only one of my school chums to own a PHB, so I could make the characters (or convert old ones from B/X) and then they were welcome to tailor it to their own.

So Ringlerun became Lucky Drake. When we re-started our campaign (about the same time we figured out the hit points were immensely wrong), Lucky likewise re-started…at first level. In this new incarnation he was called Luchus (Lucius?) Draco, AKA Lucky. He was always “Lucky” to us…hell, even if Scott were running a different character we might call it Lucky.

Except me…I kept making the mistake of calling Lucky “Scott” (since I was used to being the DM) instead…which really pissed off Scott, who was tried to play in character. One game (in which we were not getting along especially well anyway), Lucky threatened to let my character “have it” if I “called him by something other than his name one more time.” I blithely forgot about this and when I unthinkingly did so a little while later (I was incredibly self-absorbed even then…future blogger!) my character was blasted within an inch of 0 hit points by a high level lightning bolt. Having survived the attack, Lucky teleported without error to his safe house…er…wizard’s tower to prevent retaliation.

Lucky’s 2nd incarnation, for which Scott would be best known, was a damn sight different from “Ringlerun.” While a young man of “indeterminate age” he was clean-shaven with grey and white streaked hair. Through some quirk of magic, his eyebrows would grow just as did his hair, and while he trimmed them to a certain degree, he kept them long enough to braid. At some point in our campaign we decided magic-users could use short swords, and he wore one of lesser enchantment. He also carried a staff of some type, generally used for mounting the skull of whatever his first “kill” of the adventure was…he would then cast a continual light behind the skull’s eyes to use as a macabre hooded lantern.

Lucky was Chaotic Neutral and reveled in it. He loved lightning and electrical spells, and my mind’s eye always imagined him with a crackle of static electricity or slight nimbus of energy surrounding him. He was extremely tall and thin…well, over six feet (Scott himself was tallest and thinnest of our gaming group…why should his character be different?) with a moderate Charisma and above average Comeliness. I don’t recall Lucky ever having apprentices (perhaps "Ringlerun" did), but he did have a tower-stronghold. Once he started over at 1st level, I’m not certain he ever got past 16th level (Mage status), and possibly not past level 13 or 14.He could cast maybe one 7th level spell per day (Mordenkainen’s Sword), but my memory is hazy on this…we all knew he could be devastatingly effective when it came to wielding magic…but he could be both Chaotic and fickle, and was not above leaving companions behind.

Which I always found cool. Once the players in our group had high level characters, and histories that stretched from months/years, PCs began to pursue their own agendas. For Lucky, the acquisition of magic (new spells) was of primary importance…with an Intelligence of 19, there was no maximum to the number of spells he could know and he wanted to know them all. Lucky would be enticed to go on adventures only when there was magic to be gained…he didn’t worry about righting wrongs or thwarting dragons. Hell, he was more likely to commit wrongs and barter with dragons if it would get him what he wanted.

Heh…as far as I’m aware, Scott grew out of gaming years ago, and has never returned to the hobby. But I’ll always remember Lucky...bat-shit crazy and not always that “lucky.”

He would have made a GREAT Criamon magi for Ars Magica.

Player Profile: The Wizard (Part 1)

My earlier post was going to start off talking about Vancian magic as segue into a discussion on the magic-user class in B/X. But then I started thinking of diversity in game design (i.e. “if you don’t like Vancian magic, play something else!”) as well as the other games of my youth, many of which were introduced to me by the player of the main magic-user of my old campaign.

Scott (as he was known back then) was a good friend for many years…I met him in the first grade, though we did not start hanging out till the 3rd grade or so, being brought together by a mutual buddy. He and I shared many of the same interests: drawing, science fiction, Shogun Warriors (the robot kind), books, and fantasy (he was big into Terry Brooks, whose Shanarra books I could never get through).

When first thinking of Scott, my initial impulse is to say, “not much of a gamer.” He was VERY creative, very funny (he had a very sly and sarcastic wit that often cracked us up), good with computers, and a fairly good creative writer. But my memory of him doesn’t include a whole lot of D&D gaming, and after Jason (our friend who became a Born Again Christian), he was the first of our gaming group to break away.

However, on closer examination of my memory, Scott WAS a gamer. He just wasn’t much of a D&D gamer. He introduced me to BattleTech and Mechwarrior, ShadowRun, and GURPS. He ran an Advanced Marvel Superheroes campaign for me (and instituted a “negative Karma pool” rule when I continued to kill villains with my Wolverine knock-off). He was the one friend of mine that had a LOT of video games, both console and PC, and we often played these when at his home.

Yeah…now that I think about it, he played plenty of D&D, too, though often when I wasn’t present. Part of that had to do with logistics (he and I weren’t making it to the same game nights) but part of it was purposeful; it may be that he and I had incompatible creative agendas when it came to gaming. Or perhaps we had similar ones...but we had strong enough personalities that we interfered with each other. Hmmm, sorry, I’m musing now…

Anyway, Scott always played the magic-user of the group. No one else wanted the role, and while he had a couple other characters (a MALE Drow cleric, a FEMALE half-elf thief) his usual characters were all magic-users, illusionists, or multi-class MUs.

In some forums, I have read that the Magic-User class draws (or used to draw, prior to D20 and fighting feats) the “munchkins” of the game. Scott was not a munchkin. He simply loved magic and the idea of it, especially the evocation type. Lightning bolt and chain lightning were far and away his favorite and most oft used spells, though I seem to recall him thinking Evard’s Black Tentacles was totally “rad.”

His best known character in our campaigns was his arch-mage named Lucky.