Sorcerer Stories

[Morfedel]

Since we have been discussing sorcerers, and debating on whether or not they are too powerful in a game, I thought I'd make this request.

I'd like to hear actual in-game stories of sorcerers who sought to become too abusive (for lack of a better term), and how the Seneschals running those games kept them under control without using altered game mechanics?

In other words, since there are many saying that Sorcerers do not break the game for non-sorcerers, I'd love to hear actual examples, if you have any - I'm not a naysayer... I'm just uncertain. :)

[Lxndr]

I've already given you an alternative example, where a Seneschal's sorcerers (some Big Bads) were doing their best to be abusive, and then a completely non-magickal player-character walked in and single-handedly slew TWO of them.

If that's possible, certainly the reverse (Seneschal vs. PC sorcerer) is possible.

[Morfedel]

I was kinda hoping for a little more info, details, rather than a summary. What were these NPC sorcerers doing, and what did the PC do more exactly?

And I didnt just want one story; I was hoping to hear details from several people.

As it is, I went and re-read the sorcerer rules. Remembering they have to use ManaI-3 to quickly refresh their spells, and age faster and faster as they do so, it isnt so bad after all - perhaps. :D

[Lance D. Allen]

Details, huh? ::cracks knuckles:: Alright, here ya go...

    Jaga glanced upward, gauging the hour by the position of the stars above him. The sky looked a bit different than it would in his native Savaxen this time of year, but he wasn't so far south that he was completely lost. He judged it to be well before midnight, but still a good couple hours after sundown. He allowed a slight sigh to escape his lips as he moved away from the tavern. Tracking supernatural rumors through a city wasn't the easiest thing to do, but that last fellow had given him the clue he needed after a few pints of cheap ale.

    It seemed that there was a building and surrounding area which had very recently begun to give people the shakes whenever they ventured too close. Even the beggars who would normally have found shelter in the near empty storage building had cleared out. For one who'd been raised on tales of sorcerers who could steal a man's courage away, this sounded precisely like something he should look in to.

    It didn't take him long to find the building from the directions he'd been given. He began to feel the first tinglings of fear as he moved closer, but he steeled himself against the fell magics, and forged ahead. He crept up to the nearest doorway, silent as only years of man-hunting could make him, and listened intently for a moment. Someone was inside, but he could hear nothing more than a continuous murmuring.  Jaga checked the door, wondering if he'd have to try to force it, but to his relief found that it was unlocked and unbarred. This sorcerer was far too confident in his fear spell, and it would prove his undoing.

    Once inside, Jaga heard the murmuring more clearly, and it seemed to be a droning chant. He moved slowly and quietly forward, cautiously peering around each corner as he neared the source of the droning and the flickering reddish light. He noticed with a chill as he got closer that the chanting was not a single voice, but two. Common sense should have turned him around, but his hatred, banked low and smoldering, drove him forward. One last crate, and he was able to spy out the dark ritual. He muttered a silent oath to Wodan as the scene filled him with a fascinated horror.

    Centermost was a large brazier, filled with glowing coals, and a wooden table, upon which was bound a man in the garb of a cymric druid. Opposite each other were two black clad figures, both chanting. One had his arms raised, and seemed to be making arcane gestures with his hands, and the other had raised a knife to glint in the light of the two torches which lit the infernal rite. Seeming to overlook the tableau were the slaughtered corpses of two city guardsmen, the blood from their severed throats drying black on their livery, and their halberds still clutched in their rigored hands.

    A quick prayer to Thule, God of Single Combat, passed Jaga's lips as he silent drew his only javelin from it's case. He was too slow to save the druid, and the muffled scream as the sorcerer cut into his chest would always echo in the Savaxen hunter's ears. As the sorcerer raised the still-beating heart from the druid's chest, and cast it into the brazier, Jaga drew back to throw; A brief count, one, two, to focus himself, and his arm whipped forward, sending the javelin across the short distance to bury itself dead in the gesturing sorcerer's chest. Before he'd even hit the ground, Jaga's sword was drawn, and a battle cry rang out as he charged the surviving sorcerer.

    "THUUUUUUULE!!!" His blade was coming back in readiness for a killing stroke as the sorcerer dropped the bloody dagger, screamed something in his foreign tongue, and made some gesture toward Jaga. Instinct alone allowed Jaga to spin and knock the halberd stroke askew. The corpse that he'd taken for a victim had risen to strike at him. Still running on instinct, he struck back, but the corpse was fast enough to block, though it was obviously an off-balance stroke. A quick return strike removed the top of the slaughtered guard's head. Behind him, Jaga could hear the sorcerer chanting, and knew he'd have to act fast; unfortunately, the corpse didn't seem ready to die, as he ignored defense, and struck him sharply in the lower ribs. Agony shot through him as the blade bit into his side, cutting through the heavy leather jack he was wearing for protection.

    Desperately, he turned once more and struck with all of his skill and hatred at the chanting sorcerer, whose face showed an unholy glee which was quickly replaced with shock, then nothing as the sword crushed through his ribs and into his heart. But Jaga had no time for elation as, in the same moment as he ended the sorcerer's life, the corpse struck him soundly in the head. Only his helm kept his head from being split like a rotten melon.

    But as he reeled toward the wall of crates, expecting death to come and bear him away to the halls of his ancestors, he watched the second corpse, which had also risen to move toward him, slump to the ground as the stricken sorcerer lay in a growing pool of his own blood. He wiped blood out of his eyes and looked back to find that his own foe had also fallen. Well, it seemed Wodan wasn't ready for him just yet, but he still had to get out of here before he bled to death.

[Bob Richter]

Very nice, Wolfen.

Actually, I've always been of the opinion that TROS Sorcery is very weak. Only the fragility of humans in TROS makes it seem strong. Compared to the kind of mojo that gets slung around in the typical DnD melee, TROS magic is nothing.

Well, except they whole "destroy the world" bit, but nobody does that.

[Morfedel]

Very good, wolfen; was that a narrative of an actual game session, or a piece of made-up fiction? :)

[Lance D. Allen]

Actual, in-game events. Some dialogue added for dramatic effect. I was running the game, expecting this character to get dead before the session was over after he said he was going to attack.

[Lxndr]

Actually, I've always been of the opinion that TROS Sorcery is very weak. Only the fragility of humans in TROS makes it seem strong. Compared to the kind of mojo that gets slung around in the typical DnD melee, TROS magic is nothing.

Well, except they whole "destroy the world" bit, but nobody does that.

Yeah, playing a PC sorcerer has shown me how weak Sorcery is, on a day-to-day basis... and simultaneously how strong it can be when necessary.  It's definitely a potent force, but I don't think it "unbalances" characters when it comes to spotlight time (yeah, in terms of potency, but not spotlight time).

[Salamander]

Very nice, Wolfen.

Actually, I've always been of the opinion that TROS Sorcery is very weak. Only the fragility of humans in TROS makes it seem strong. Compared to the kind of mojo that gets slung around in the typical DnD melee, TROS magic is nothing.

Well, except they whole "destroy the world" bit, but nobody does that.

I dunno...
I had an NPC Sorceror in my Renaissance Campaign, a  Father Sigmund, cast a simple spell I composed to make people and animals basically consider you to be a non-threat. As long as the Sorceror is in sight the spell is in effect. It was pretty neet-o until somebody took the good Father outside for a quick chat about the Cahbalist symbols on some chests...

The spell had a difficulty of something like four or five I think.

As for TRoS Magic being weak, I have to disagree. It is massively more powerful than magic in many other systems. I have one player who devised a spell that allows him to fling people into walls with a strength of 8. Unless our friend is wearing harness he is in for a world of hurt. The CTN of 2... Of course he has not used it yet, 'cause he is a smart player and he knows that if he is caught using it, he is in big trouble. He has a patron, but he wants to keep from taxing said patron unless it is absolutely neccessary.

I have another Sorcerous PC in the party who uses his spells for reconnaissance and mapping. His drawback is that he is Haunted... He hears the voices of spirits nearby and sometimes they are not friendly. One time he cast a spell to see into a river access sewer they were going to use to sneak into Florence. He looked about and a nearby walking dead felt his presence and went after the point of the vision. The sorceror casting the spell freaked out and dropped the spell, thinking that the Florentine rebels had a witch in their employ. So for the next few hours they were walking on eggshells waiting for a witch to come for them. They forgot all about that when they were attacked by the walking dead whose spirit had gone insane and was trying to get some company in the form of the Sorceror whose spell it had "smelled".

I don't use anything to keep my sorcerors in check. They are fastidious about policing themselves. Simply because they know that if they screw up they are either on a stake going from rare to medium or worse.

[Ingenious]

A CTN of 2? Throwing someone into a wall would have a target value of 3 would it not? Hence the CTN of 2 seems impossible to me. How did he setup the spell? If range is touch, that's another 1 point, 2 if it's line of sight... So we have thus-far a CTN of 4 or 5. Duration I assume is instant, if we're talking about a spell of one. So that's an additional 0. Level I am going to assume is 2(why waste another point to the CTN to make it a movment 3 based spell?) So that brings me to the conclusion of the CTN being 6 or 7. Or even five if the level was 1 instead of 2.... 20mph is still plently fast to be throwing someone.

And your misconception that being in plate would make such a thing not hurt, you are incorrect. You see, throwing someone like this would mean that the damage is applied as falling damage, unless you as GM do otherwise.. and falling damage hurts worse when in plate. Unless I am interpreting the book incorrectly. I do not have the book at the moment to check this... but I am almost positive of it.

Of course, I failed to take into account the possibility of this spell being formalized.. but even with the -2 modifier for that.. you would still be left with a CTN of 3-5.
-Ingenious

[Lxndr]

Isn't there a rule that the damage of a spell, by definition, is equal to its CTN.  No more, no less?

[Salamander]

Good points guys. I will have to get him to break down the spell for me...

[Lance D. Allen]

Isn't there a rule that the damage of a spell, by definition, is equal to its CTN. No more, no less?

Something that does not, as a spanning rule, sit right with me.. but in this case, it definitely makes sense to limit the "strength" to the CTN.

Question is.. Is that the raw CTN, or modified CTN? As in, if you cast it with gestures and dialogue, you have the potential to lower the CTN by up to 2 points.. So should you use the raw CTN, or the post gestures-and-dialogue CTN?

Me, I'd go with the raw.

[Bob Richter]

Don't confuse TROS's unforgiving damage system with a powerful spell system.

While many of the effects from DnD's grimoire are replicable in TROS, they are invariably difficult and lengthy procedures, often of no actual use in combat. They also invariably wreak the mayhem they actually should.

I *LOVE* TROS damage.
:)

[Lxndr]

Me, I'd go with the raw.

Me too.  Otherwise a formalized spell just got smacked with a huge and, quite honestly unreasonable, penalty. "Oh look, you studied that spell and got better at it.  Too bad it got weaker."