It's true. I know you'll find it hard to believe. Last night, Andy's first level magic user was killed after trying to outrun a bear by fleeing into an abandoned tower and falling through rotten floorboards. At full hit points, he was killed by a 1D6 damage roll. Poor Cael!
I'd forgotten how lethal D&D could be at lower levels. I myself got knocked down to one hit point by a single hit and only a healing potion was able to bring me back from the brink. We lost our cleric a couple of weeks ago thanks to a critical roll, and now we have no magic user. It's just the dwarf and the fighter left.
Saying that I'd forgotten how lethal it can be, it also helped me to remember why it was I got attached to characters who got past the lower levels; they'd survived their first few adventures and with better THAC0, hit points and saving throws they stood more of a chance of survival. It was then that I felt comfortable making plans for the future of the character.
Right now, I daren't make plans for dinner.
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Mages should consider internships over adventuring if they're serious about mastering their craft.
ReplyDeleteI've always imagined that level 1 mages were not so much serious wizards as they were dudes who thought "Hey, I just learned how to cast a spell! That makes me awesome, right? Time to go fight monsters!"
Also, your post inspired me to spend the last hour writing an extensive treatise on 1st level adventuring magic users. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteCirsova, I'd love to read that. You can email me at farsightgames(at)yahoo.co.uk
ReplyDeleteYeah, I always felt what a badge of honor when a magic user survived into the higher levels.
ReplyDeleteNot that the player at the table who always played the fighter would ever understand; to them it was always, "You cast magic missile? Cool. Now go hide in the corner for another 8 hours while I take out all the other monsters."
And then you get into the blue box Expert Set and it's all like "Yea I can fly and totally turn you to stone and what's that, Fighter? Oh sure I'll help you kill that dragon with another bad-ass Fireball! Yeah!"
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