| From: | Jason Ustica <usticaj@**.ERAU.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: No mage bias?!!! (Was: potential ...) |
| Date: | Wed, 19 Apr 1995 22:35:34 -0700 |
> > Sure, they get the spellls. But in Character Creation, they suck!
> > [...] the mage was slow, had no skill points, was weak, and couldn't
> > afford an Ares Assault.
But he has magic. Otherwise he'd just be a normal joe off the street (well
maybe not, but you get my drift). Where as the non magic using character has
good stats, decent equipment, and decent skills, they don't have the
tremendous advantage of using magic.
> Huh? You put a low priority on Attributes, make Will high, buy a couple
> of spell locks, and lock Increase Reaction and Willpower. Etc. etc.
Uugh... spell locks. They're nice until some one gets smart and starts
grounding away through them. Also, does every mage in you group take
this route to become powerful? Wouldn't that get old? Half the fun of
having a character (at least for me) is making unique stregnths _and_
weaknesses. If I had a mage character that died, and I wanted to make a
new mage, I wouldn't make a little clone of the last one, with the same
priorities, same spell locks to make up for weak attributes, etc..
I view the mage/non-mage dilemma in SR to be the same as AD&D. Mages suck
big time in the beginning, where as fighters can hold their own. However
as time and experience progress, mages become unbelievably powerful.
Most fighters never expereince the exponential growth in power while they
progress in levels as Mages do. In SR the mage has nearly unlimited
potential for growth and advancement, while the muscle character is
fairly constrained in ways to grow. I beleive this is the way it should
be, so as to limit the effectiveness of mages in the beginning. Just
imagine in AD&D (I'll assume most of you play, I admit I do) if the mage
was allowed to use armor, use swords and the like, _and_ cast spells?
This is what happens when mages go about the way which is described in
the above quoted text, which I happen to think is really lame. It stifles
character development, and detracts from the entire spirit of being a mage.
Flame me if you will, I doubt I'll ever change my mind about how I feel
about mages vs. muscle during chracter creation and development.
/------------------------\/-------------\
|Jason Ustica || Embry-Riddle|
|usticaj@**.erau.edu || Aeronautical|
|GO L.A. KINGS!! (please)|| University |
\------------------------/| Prescott,AZ |
\-------------/
