Monday, July 25, 2011

Labyrinth Lord Cover to Cover: Part 9, page 12, The Magic User

For this series of posts I will be using the free PDF of the 
Labyrinth Lord rules that can be found Here at Goblinoid Games
This is the ninth part of a series, here are links to the
1st, 2nd, 3rd,  4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th parts

The Magic User

   My favorite class to play next to being a dwarf. There is no restriction on being one though its prime requisite is intelligence. Not only do they have the smallest hit die but they are unable to wear any armor and can only use small weapons such as a dagger. As a trade off for being one of the weakest at the low levels they are the only magic using class  that can get 9th level spells and thus become amazingly powerful at high levels.
   I will say one thing about the class. I prefer the OD&D Magic User as it represents a purer view of what the Vancian magic system was in the books by Jack Vance. Because Labyrinth Lord uses variable sized hit dice and weapon dice Magic Users start out quite weak. I have nothing against the changes made to the class, its just that the change makes Magic Users different when compared to the Magic Users in the Dying Earth books. For a better idea of what I mean I would advise reading the last part of the article Cause For Incursion (the Supplemental part) at Game Set Watch, it also has a number of other interesting insights about OD&D as well. While the @Play articles are mostly about Roguelikes, because the earliest of them, including Rogue itself, happen to be based on OD&D it gets talked about in a number of the articles.
   I have nothing against the weak Magic Users that have populated roleplaying games since variable sized hit dice. They are as I said one of my favorite classes to play and one of the few I can actually keep alive. The tactical knowledge needed and the ability to judge when you need to cast or more importantly hold your spells is something I enjoy about the class. It takes a different kind of thinking to be able to prepare the right spells and to get the full use out them. Magic Missile may be a certain hit but I would prefer to use Sleep or Ventriloquism to avoid a fight all together. Or at least I would in a game played Old School, more modern games tends toward rewarding the killing of monsters instead the acquiring of their treasure.
   The Magic User that is presented in Labyrinth Lord matches up to what is expected and follows through with an interesting list of spells. One thing of interest is that not in either the Elf's nor the Magic User's entry is it mentioned how many spells they start out knowing. You have to go to page 19 to find that out.



This is the ninth part of a series, here are links to the
1st, 2nd, 3rd,  4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th parts
Labyrinth Lord rules that can be found Here at Goblinoid Games

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