New Character and New Magic Items (AD&D)

[Mike]

New Character
Richard Foran
Richard Foran (locally known as Foran the Wanderer or by his own introduction as Foran) is a magicuser. He grew up in a small dusty town as a ranch hand on a cattle ranch, the location and climate of which was similar to the Wild West seen in western films. He rides a horse named 'Smoke' and dresses in leather boots, chaps, shirt and a horseriders leather coat. A wide brimmed hat sits on his head to protect him from the noon sun.

He has a great talent for Magic and was taken in my a local magicuser as an aprentice at the age of 25. Although he has a great talent he was taken in by Magicusers at such a late stage in life he is stuck in his labourer mentality and can not bring himself to correclty visualise and correctly activate spells using components, words and semantics. He feels much more at home herding cattle, drinking 'sipping' whiskey and entertaining the ladies. . . .

This mental block has handycapped his development as he stuggles to learn new spell effects (He has the usual percentage chance to be able to learn a spell which is based on his intelligence; however, when casting the spell he has a 95% chance of failure adjusted in his favour by 1% per level when casting the spell thusly it takes multiple times for him to cast the spell before it activates correclty. Note; once done correclty he can cast the spells as a normal magicuser). His mentor eventually died and Foran decided to journey the world in an attempt to break his mental block through stressful encounters.

He can cast very few spells, however, his teached created two magic items during his lifetime to help protect him until he can discard the physical and accept and embrace the etherial. The two items are listed below.

New Magic Items
'Six Shooter' Wand of Magic Missiles
This Magicuser weapon appear to be similar to a wild west pistol. It has an ivory grip and a highly decorated floral pattern on the silver barrel and six 'bullet' chamber. The wand is activated by cocking the item and gently squeezing the trigger. When the trigger is released the hammer hits one of the six chambers the sound of the hit acts as the command word for the item and fires one magic missile at the intended target. The magic missle causes 1-4+1 points of damage and will always hit the intended target as the first level magicuser spell Magic Missile. The device can be activated once per round.

The item can only hold six magic missiles at any one time. A magicuser can 'reload' the wand by casting a magic missile spell into the opened chamber. The magic missiles will shoot into one of the chambers and fill it with a coloured aura (indicating a loaded chamber!). The number of chambers 'loaded' in this manner depends on the level of the magicuser. One magic missile equals one loaded chamber. If the magicuser can create more than six missiles the rest are wasted.

Note: A silence spell will prevent this item from working correctly as the sound of the hammer hitting the chamber will not be heard. This sound activates the device.

Double Barrelled Stave of Fireballs
This Magicuser stave appears to be similar to a wild west shotgun. There are two hihgly decorated silver barrels, a wooden grip, metal trigger and hammer. As a shotgun the stave can be cracked open to 'load'. A loaded stave will store upto two fireballs, one in each barrel. The stave is activated by cocking the hammer and squeezing the trigger. The sound of the hammer hitting the stave acts as a command word to activate the device. Once activated one fireball will be released as the third level magicuser spell Fireball. The stave is 'reloaded' by cracking open the barrel and casting a Fireball spell into the barrel. A coloured aura indicates a loaded chamber. The Fireball will be of the same power, area of effect and damage as dictated by the level of the magicuser who casts the spell. The device can be activated once per round.

Note: A silence spell will prevent this item from working correctly as the sound of the hammer hitting the chamber will not be heard. This sound activates the device.

Let me know what you think people!

[mr_e]

I like the wild west side of it, makes for a pretty unique character. However, if you were to fluke the magic missiles on the first attempt at casting, he'd then be able to cast them normally, rendering one of those weapons almost useless. Do they have other advantages, such as reduced "casting" time that may keep them useful for longer? It just seems a shame to have these really nicely thought out items that could be effectively sidelined pretty quickly.

Then again, my knowledge of the mechanics of the game is fairly limited...

[Mike]

Well to charge the items he would need to be able to cast those spells pretty confidently anyway, but the point is he is not comfortable to do that! You could say that the stave and wands are actually a physical representation of his mental block. The day he is able to put them into their wooden case and on a shelf is the day he will be able to fully use his magical talent in the normal manner. I don't know if there is any basis in phycology there but I am sure your sister would be able to comment pretty confidently! :D

[mr_e]

...Note; once done correclty he can cast the spells as a normal magicuser...

I'm inferring from that that he potentially won't need those items after casting the spells once, ie if he lucks out and the 5% is rolled on both first castings. You're coming at it from a roll-playing perspective on this one (ie he'll stop using them when he himself feels confident), which I think I totally missed the first time round. In that case, it's cool, and a great character.

[Fez]

love the whole idea of the character and these magic weapons. its a wonderful twist on the old cowboy story of a peaceful man having to take up the gun to protect himself [clint eastwood in the unforgiven], but here he will have to learn to put them down in order to potentially become more dangerous. i am intrigued to know if you think he will operate 'normally' in a d&d game or if he is more suited to that western revamp - was it called boot hill? i think there would be a knock on effect, certainly for me at least, to come up with something beyond the bog standard character outline for when foran's companions are being drawn up. a run of the mill sword fighter would seem uninspired by conparison.

[Mike]

I think he would fit in quite nicely in a normal adventure, it forces me to role play quite strongly, the spells could be used regularly but with a high failure rate, this means that the distaste and frustraition would be palatable for the entire adventure, he would not be totally useless as he knows two very useful offensive spells which he casts through his recargable wand's and stave! I am glad about the positive feedback our glorious DM was rather . . . . unimpressed with the idea! :D

[johnriley1uk]

Your DM is not opposed to your new character, but just considering the effect he would have on the rest of the party, which Fez has already alluded to.

However, go for it and we'll see what happens.

[Mike]

That is good to know. I am surprised by the perception change though. It would be no effect if it was described as a magicuser with a couple of wands of magic missiles and a stave of fireballs! :D

Am still having fun with Sir John but I would like to play this one next time if possible. . . . might change my mind between now and the next change!

[johnriley1uk]

Treasure list and xp details are ready for tomorrow night. The adventure segment is not quite finished, but I thought it would be useful to have things ready for a clean change over into the next leg.

I suspect you will be amazed at what you have achieved.

And how did Mort end up with so much of the treasure? What an impressive bit of thievery!

[Mike]

I think it really comes down to the theory of 'ooh that is shiny - Mine!"



I will look forward to it. I don't want to have a new character for the next leg - the Sir John character still has a long life left before the new installment.

[Fez]

i dont want to change characters until a complete 'break' in the adventure comes when these have run out of steam and a different setting is needed. mort has developed much more than i had initially guessed, especially over the last six months, and has stolen so much stuff there may be a bit of "er, excuse me i think you'll find that's mine" when the treasure is announced. and there's still so much work for the glorious mistress still to do, as well as driving a knife so far into alion's back it punctures a hole out of her chest.

[Fez]

a picture for your character or a bit to 'western'?

[Mike]

Very close to my imagination to be honest though better colour! He would be a smokin, drinkin, brawling, full on cowboy!