Re: hps of classes

[Simon McIntosh-Smith <Simon.N.Smith@cm.cf.ac.uk>]

> >A wizard is someone who is naturally more attuned to the mystic arts.

>   Why?  Because he is called a wizard?  I'm much more of the "a character
> is what he acts like" point of view.  If you play a character in such
> a way as to develop fighting skills:  i.e., wearing armour, quaffing
> str,dex,con potions, having monstrous weapons, then, by God, that character
> IS a fighter.

I'd say it was the other way around. My natural abilities are intellectual;
no matter how hard I try I will not be as good an athlete or as competitive
in sport as some of my friends. Similarly, my friends may not be able to
deal with the research that I do, no matter how much tutoring and training
they may receive from even the best tutors in the world. So, I am more
inclined to follow careers they may in some way be classed as "intellectual",
and up to now this has meant I have been an academic. My natural skills
steered me toward my career. I did not decide I was going to be an academic
then start to exercise my brain so that I could do the job. 

So it should be with wizards and fighters. A character is a wizard BECAUSE
he is more in tune with magic. The skill comes first, leading on to the
career. I think the problem lies in the fact that we have a simplified
system for calculating results of actions from a characters stats. Drinking
a potion may make you stronger or more intelligent, but no-one would claim
that this would naturally make you a better fighter or magician. A fighter
who presumably trains in melee techniques should be more effective in
combat than a character of any other class, even if they have the same
strength - this is like the THAC0 system in AD&D. Being a fighter MEANS
you do spend all your time training for melee - that is your job, as that
is where your natural skills lie - otherwise you wouldn't have been a fighter
in the first place. Quaffing potions is no substitute for this - why should
you be as good a fighter as Bruce Lee just because you are as strong etc as
him? He gained his abilities from all the training he does as a fighter;
his ability does NOT just depend simply on his strength or reflexes.

What does everyone think about this kind of idea?

Sy

PS Another thought - in AD&D (can you guess what RPG I play!?) PCs
can only use weapons they are proficient in - other weapons can be used
but at a penalty. I wonder if we could incorperate this idea into
Crossfire, or indeed, if it would be desirable? Perhaps the guilds could
train you in the use of a weapon for a small(?) payment - weapons could
be grouped in some way - slashing swords, piercing swords, polearms etc,
and as a character pays for proficiency of a particular category this
fact is recorded in the player file. As a weapon is wielded, a proficiency
check is made to test whether the wielder should be penalised in using
that weapon. Perhaps even specialisation could be allowed - paying for
the same proficiency more than once would improve how good you were at
that weapon - although we'd have to limit this in some way. I'd say this
would be a more realistic way of increasing weapon skill and power than
all this improve scroll business, which everyone seems to agree is being
taken a lot too far. The guilds could like like the bank of Skud inside,
with tables labelled "drop 500 Platinum to be trained in using slashing
swords" etc. Everyone would start out with a certain number of proficiencies,
dependent on class - fighters should get the most weapon proficiencies etc.
Just an idea anyway...