DF, druids and spell-casting
Bent C Dalager
Talent to use for druidic abilities, and hints that there exist Druids
who do not cast spells and so have this instead of the more common
Power Investiture (Druidic). All this on page 22.
The Druid template (p. 7) is listed with Power Investiture 3
(Druidic), 20 points in Druidic abilities or spells, and a final 20
points in Druidic spells. Further, all the Druid lenses in Dungeon
Fantasy 3 are listed with Power Investiture (Druidic).
It seems to me there is no way to use the template or lenses as-is to
create a non-spell-casting druid* and yet doing so seems like an
attractive option. While it seems a simple matter to alter the Druid's
template to say "Power Investiture 3 (Druidic) or Druidic Talent 6†,
and 40 points in Druidic abilities" and allow likewise mutation of the
Druid lenses, I find it strange that this is not explicitly stated in
the books. DF on the whole seems very careful to spell these things
out rather than leave the deduction to the reader.
* - While you /could/ build a lens-Druid with no spells he would still
have Power Investiture (Druidic) which is a huge waste of points
for him and basically makes him a spell-casting druid with no
spells to cast.
† - Optionally Druidic Talent 3 and an extra 15 points in Druidic
abilities.
Am I missing something? Is there some reason the above approach is
suspect?
Cheers,
Bent D
--
Bent Dalager - b...@pvv.org - http://www.pvv.org/~bcd
powered by emacs
Phil Masters
<b...@pvv.ntnu.no> wrote:
>It seems to me there is no way to use the template or lenses as-is to
>create a non-spell-casting druid* and yet doing so seems like an
>attractive option. While it seems a simple matter to alter the Druid's
>template to say "Power Investiture 3 (Druidic) or Druidic Talent 6†,
>and 40 points in Druidic abilities" and allow likewise mutation of the
>Druid lenses, I find it strange that this is not explicitly stated in
>the books.
While the DF series adopts a hand-holding prescriptive approach (for
the full dungeon-bash experience), they have to assume that readers
have *some* sort of brains. And in any case, if you read the first
four paragraphs of Chapter One, you'll find an implicit promise not to
send the game police around to burn your PDFs just for building
non-template characters.
--
Phil Masters
* http://www.philm.demon.co.uk *
* http://philmasters.blogspot.com/ *
"We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public
in one of its periodic fits of morality."
- Macaulay.
Bent C Dalager
> On Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:41:27 +0000 (UTC), Bent C Dalager
>
> the full dungeon-bash experience), they have to assume that readers
> have *some* sort of brains. And in any case, if you read the first
> four paragraphs of Chapter One, you'll find an implicit promise not to
> send the game police around to burn your PDFs just for building
> non-template characters.
Sure, DF can be played entirely without templates even. However, the
prescriptive approach is proving to be remarkably effective at helping
non-GURPSites make decent characters in a short amount of time and
with a minimum of confusion. Spellcasters excluded (and especially so
wizards*), the choices given are by and large so self-explanatory even
a complete newcomer to the system can crank out a character in record
time. Not only that, but given that the templates have clearly been
designed by the very best munchkins SJG could get their hands on the
resultant characters are very points effective and ready to do some
serious ass-kicking right out of the box.
What surprised me, therefore, is that if someone were to build e.g. a
Barbarian-Druid they can easily end up with Power Invesiture 2
(Druidic) [20] and thrice Ally (Wolverine) (12-) [3x4] when they
probably /ought/ to be buying it as Druidic Talent 2 [10] and Ally
(Wolverine pack of 10) (12-) [23] (scrounging an extra point from
quirks to make up for the missing one). Slavishly following the lense
in this case basically wastes 10 points that could be put to excellent
use buying more druidic goodness.
The lens as written gives them the former ineffective build while the
latter more effective (and probably more correct for the concept)
build requires additional system insight. I really think there ought
to have been a footnote somewhere pointing this out, it can't be
/that/ uncommon to want to build non-spellcasting beastmaster types
etc. The flavour text for the lens further disparages it as being a
not very hot caster option and completely neglects to take into
account the possibility of buying IQ-irrelevant druidic abilities (†),
surely a /very hot/ option for the serious barbarian! (With the
Druidic Talent mutation, the lense really does not deserve its
Marginal classification either.)
And, yes, the main reason for my surprise is that I have come to
expect so very much from GURPS products - even a small wrinkle tends
to stand out :-)
Cheers,
Bent D
* Delving into GURPS Magic can be particularly daunting to the new
GURPS player, and coming up with 30 wizard spells can take a while
even for the veteran.
† While IQ is relevant for the Animal Handling required to /control/
one's pack of wolverines, a barbarian already gets that skill and he
can pump extra barbarian advantage points into Animal Friend to get
it up to a comfortable 15 or even better if he likes. If I
investigated this further perhaps I would even end up making the
argument that Druid should be a /choice/ lense for Barbarians.
Peter Knutsen
> GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1 lists the "Druidic Talent" advantage as the
> Talent to use for druidic abilities, and hints that there exist Druids
> who do not cast spells and so have this instead of the more common
> Power Investiture (Druidic). All this on page 22.
Isn't the cost for the Druidic Talent given in the PDF?
--
Peter Knutsen
sagatafl.org