Issues with the Half-Wizard

[barna10]

I like the idea of the Half-Wizard....but HATE a few aspects of it

First, the name...it's not a "Half Wizard", it's a "Former Wizard"

If you continue to cast spells, why wouldn't you get better at it? I'd assume a normal Wizard doesn't get better at casting spells because he spent more time in school but rather because he casts spells all the time. It's stated if Priest is chosen as the other O.C.C., spell strength DOES go up, but WHY?! That makes no sense.

Why can't the new O.C.C. be a Mystic or Warlock? Maybe the mage didn't have "the calling" until half-way through apprenticeship. ( I HATE play-balance being passed-off as good design)

Also, why does P.P.E. increase if Spell Strength does not....err...brain is beginning to hurt

And why state they CAN learn spells, but "[he] is not interested in learning new spells or furthering his understanding of magic"...says who? What other aspect of me role-playing the character is going to be dictated by a game designer? Is this a board game? Why couldn't this be a character that had a jerk off a teacher, left Hogwarts to become an accountant, but then regretted their decision and now has the itch to practice magic again...oh, I know why, because K.S. said I am not ALLOWED to play that character.

Further, why does the class get better at Recognize Enchantment and Recognize Magic? Wouldn't the same reasoning apply as Spell Strength and Caster level?

This is just a brain-hurty passage: "Spell Strength is the number others must save against when the character casts a spell, but since the Half Wizard stopped practicing magic at Level One, his Spell Strength is 12 and it does not improve with experience in his chosen, non-magical occupation." ARGH!! If the character casts spells while adventuring....THEY ARE PRACTICING MAGIC! If the character knew spells, and NEVER casts them, that would qualify as never practicing magic after first level!

I think this is a great seed of an idea that helps fill-in a ton of possible character concepts. As-written, I would not allow it in my games because it is just meh.

[Library Ogre]

I think this is a great seed of an idea that helps fill-in a ton of possible character concepts. As-written, I would not allow it in my games because it is just meh.

My original version was based on spending skills... you need X, Y, and Z skills to begin the training, and then spend skills for other aspects of it. I had versions for hedge wizards, suppressed warlocks (those with a bent towards elemental magic who went into something else for some reason), and lay priests.

[barna10]

I think this is a great seed of an idea that helps fill-in a ton of possible character concepts. As-written, I would not allow it in my games because it is just meh.

My original version was based on spending skills... you need X, Y, and Z skills to begin the training, and then spend skills for other aspects of it. I had versions for hedge wizards, suppressed warlocks (those with a bent towards elemental magic who went into something else for some reason), and lay priests.

Would have loved to have seen your design

[Library Ogre]

I think this is a great seed of an idea that helps fill-in a ton of possible character concepts. As-written, I would not allow it in my games because it is just meh.

My original version was based on spending skills... you need X, Y, and Z skills to begin the training, and then spend skills for other aspects of it. I had versions for hedge wizards, suppressed warlocks (those with a bent towards elemental magic who went into something else for some reason), and lay priests.

Would have loved to have seen your design

I've been a big proponent of "get things by spending resources" for a while. Minor psychic? Spend skills. Major psychic? Spend a bunch of skills. Adequate combatant? Spend skills. (skills being the only real currency the game has).

[barna10]

I've been a big proponent of "get things by spending resources" for a while. Minor psychic? Spend skills. Major psychic? Spend a bunch of skills. Adequate combatant? Spend skills. (skills being the only real currency the game has).

Great approach.

It always bothered me when random rolling for psionics and getting "major" which meant you lost half of your O.C.C. other skills...really sucks if your a Rogue Scholar, means almost nothing if your a Reaver Assassin (16 other skills vs 3. Scholar loses 8 skills, Reaver loses 1-2)

Not sure the Ultimate edition change (no longer losing skills for being psychic) is an omission or deliberate change, but I welcomed it with open arms as written!

[Library Ogre]

It always bothered me when random rolling for psionics and getting "major" which meant you lost half of your O.C.C. other skills...really sucks if your a Rogue Scholar, means almost nothing if your a Reaver Assassin (16 other skills vs 3. Scholar loses 8 skills, Reaver loses 1-2)

My rule wrt to that was, if you got Major psychic, you could choose minor psychic, instead. But, I have a whole argument about ratio-based reductions v. set number deductions for that.

[Curbludgeon]

I'm a big fan of emulating point-buy in Palladium. Other than a generally undefined sense of Power Level (e.g. Cosmo Knight being 5-7 steps above a Saddle Tramp) skills are the best choice to make fungible. I like the notion of, as an example, trading skills for superpowers, with the end result being akin to the RMB Vagabond getting an extra minor power.

I'd love to see any notes lying around on an original take for the Half-Wizard. One option which I think could have broad applicability would be, after an initial skill exchange for the Principles of Magic skill and general ability to channel PPE, would be a rate by which slots can get turned into a larger personal pool. That would work well at depicting things like Nexus Born or citizens of Arzno/Lazlo/Colorado Baronies, whom potentially maintain childhood PPE levels into adulthood.

[Library Ogre]

I'd love to see any notes lying around on an original take for the Half-Wizard. One option which I think could have broad applicability would be, after an initial skill exchange for the Principles of Magic skill and general ability to channel PPE, would be a rate by which slots can get turned into a larger personal pool. That would work well at depicting things like Nexus Born or citizens of Arzno/Lazlo/Colorado Baronies, whom potentially maintain childhood PPE levels into adulthood.

You have most of it; be literate, know lore: magic, and you can spend 2 skills to become a hedge wizard... you have your base PPE for your race and class, and know Sense Magic. You have a 10 spell strength, never get any better at casting spells, but you can cast 1st and 2nd level spells, spend skills to get more PPE and some wizard abilities.

(I went with bad SS and no increases partially because a previous version wound up extremely powerful, but I'd have to dig into my HD to find those old files)

[thorr-kan]

My original version was based on spending skills... you need X, Y, and Z skills to begin the training, and then spend skills for other aspects of it. I had versions for hedge wizards, suppressed warlocks (those with a bent towards elemental magic who went into something else for some reason), and lay priests.

I've been a big proponent of "get things by spending resources" for a while. Minor psychic? Spend skills. Major psychic? Spend a bunch of skills. Adequate combatant? Spend skills. (skills being the only real currency the game has).

We keep having this conversation... (Mark and I both independently latched onto the "skills as currency" idea (currency...nice turn of phrase!). While we disagree about particulars, we both think it's an excellent part the game-design-space that should be developed. Which of us is a published Palladium author with material released into the wild is left as an exercise for the reader. )

Sorcerous proficiencies from Nightbane and the Rifter are an excellent example of that. On the flip side, I thought the original Rifts major psychic losing skills in lieu of powers made perfect sense. N&SS's Martial Art Forms are another worked example.

I have *ideas* but beyond some half-hearted threads on these forums, I haven't done anything with them. Maybe if I can stabilize my health and get some energy back, I can turn that around.

Mark, if you dug up the notes from your HD, do you think you could get permission to post them as homebrew?

[Library Ogre]

Mark, if you dug up the notes from your HD, do you think you could get permission to post them as homebrew?

The psychic stuff never belonged to Palladium (except in the sense of being a derivative work).

And while I can't find the original post, I apparently posted the idea to my blog earlier this month and forgot about it. I'd do things a little differently, 20 years on, but here it is:

https://rpgcrank.blogspot.com/2022/10/p ... owers.html

(And a bit about how the Coalition, especially, but any large population, could use psychics as part of their defense network)

[thorr-kan]

Mark, if you dug up the notes from your HD, do you think you could get permission to post them as homebrew?

The psychic stuff never belonged to Palladium (except in the sense of being a derivative work).

And while I can't find the original post, I apparently posted the idea to my blog earlier this month and forgot about it. I'd do things a little differently, 20 years on, but here it is:

https://rpgcrank.blogspot.com/2022/10/p ... owers.html

(And a bit about how the Coalition, especially, but any large population, could use psychics as part of their defense network)

Very interesting reads. Thank you for sharing.

[barna10]

I'd love to see any notes lying around on an original take for the Half-Wizard. One option which I think could have broad applicability would be, after an initial skill exchange for the Principles of Magic skill and general ability to channel PPE, would be a rate by which slots can get turned into a larger personal pool. That would work well at depicting things like Nexus Born or citizens of Arzno/Lazlo/Colorado Baronies, whom potentially maintain childhood PPE levels into adulthood.

You have most of it; be literate, know lore: magic, and you can spend 2 skills to become a hedge wizard... you have your base PPE for your race and class, and know Sense Magic. You have a 10 spell strength, never get any better at casting spells, but you can cast 1st and 2nd level spells, spend skills to get more PPE and some wizard abilities.

(I went with bad SS and no increases partially because a previous version wound up extremely powerful, but I'd have to dig into my HD to find those old files)

In addition to spending skills, I would look at time as a spendable resource. If you go by the rules in Heroes Unlimited or BTS1, it works out to about 360 hours of training for the base level of a skill, if spending the base of 10 hours per week in class and studying. I have always thought this was a bit restrictive for most skills, and light for things like Medical Doctor....

That being said, seeing as you can add a skill about every 3 levels, on average, I'd look at how often characters level at your table and base a cost in time for allowing someone to add a skill.

Personally, I allow a "timeout" (ie the character sitting out for a session) for a character of 1-2 sessions for a secondary skill, 2-4 sessions for an "other" skill. This makes more sense at higher levels than lower, but I keep the "timeout" the same regardless of character level. I use the same mechanic for learning spells instead of worrying about the "2 days per level" mechanic. This usually translates into 1 session to learn a spell.

Realistic? Probably not, but neither is learning how to become a Medical Doctor by going out and killing demons (ie getting XP)

This does not override the groups ability to simply take time off in-game. For example, the group might decide to lay-low in a town for a few months. In this case I translate "session" to "month".