Words from the Magi
The Bastille Gazette Serving FW since Oct 1998 Archived Article

January 2001

New FW Character Class!
Posted Thursday, January 18, 2001 by
PanzerMagi
New Class - Televangelist

While waiting for the game it's the perfect time to make suggestions for ways to improve the Forgotten World. One way would be to add new character classes to the game. I'll detail one such class below, and may possibly follow up with a couple of others at some point in the future. Though probably not. You know how I am with follow through. Heck, you're lucky this article doesn't just trail off somewhere in mid

Class Information for the Televangelist / Faith Healer

Description: The Televangilist / Faith Healer class combines aspects of both the cleric and illusionist classes to create a truly potent combat class. High level Faith Healer spells include:

7th Level : Chant of the Damned (a.k.a., The Choir Spell)

Combining aspects of mass charm, confusion, and fumble, the Chant of the Damned causes up to 1d10 victims per level of spellcaster to save vs. spells at +1 or fall to the ground speaking in tongues and convulsing.

4th Level : Be Seriously Healed

Similar to the Cleric spell, Cure Serious Wounds, Be Seriously Healed cures 3d6 of damage but causes its target to collapse in either a faint, or a tongue-speaking state similar to that caused by the Chant of the Damned for 1d4+1 rounds.

3rd Level : Sweat like a Pig

Often cast before battle, Sweat like a Pig can only affect the caster (cannot be cast on others). Once cast, the caster will be covered by excessive sweat for 1d20+1 round/level. This sweat increases charisma by 1d6, improves save vs fire based attacks by 2 and halves damage from such attacks, and causes opponents in combat to make a save vs. poison or be repelled, and forced to flee from the battle field for 1d4 rounds.
Saves Lore
Posted Thursday, January 4, 2001 by
PanzerMagi
Saves Lore

One thing I loved about Neverwinter was all the lore surrounding saving throws. In PvP, saving throws were a constant source of consternation, and dedicated tinkerers such as myself were willing to try just about anything to improve them. The odds are that few if any of those little tricks actually did any good, but I'd like to think that at least some of them did.
And more importantly, even if they didn't work, they *should* have.
Which is where the Forgotten World comes in. While the game is in a design stage, it's the perfect time to put things in like these. Saving throws are an enticing unknown, and coding in such mischievous traits will provide obsessive players such as myself material for endless months of experimentation.
To get things started on the right track, I'll make a few suggestions. Some of these were rumored to help saves in the old Neverwinter, some just sound like fun.

1) Prime Factor Exp: Having an exp total that is a prime factor.

2) Lucky Copper: Carrying a single copper piece.

3) Too Ugly to Die: Having a particularly low natural charisma.

4) Item Order: Placing items in your inventory in an order that makes sense based on some "system" - i.e., from head to toe (boots, armor, rings, girdles, weapons / shields, cloaks, then stones / necklaces, etc. Note that girdle comes after armor, as AD&D girdles are described as being broad leather belts - in other words, they're like those kidney belts some folks use before lifting things. And, hence, girdles are *not* meant to be those things that Captain Kirk started wearing after the second season.)

5) Timer Jeopardy: Waiting to cast spells / complete your turn until your combat timer has nearly expired.

6) Quick thinking: Completing your turn with as much time left on your combat timer as possible.

7) Pearl Bonus: It was rumored that all Pearl-plan only items gave some benefit to saves. While highly doubtful, it's still a fun rumor that adds to the mysticism of any restricted-access items.

8) Lucky Ticket: Assuming we have quest items like sewer tickets, the notion that having one in inventory gives a saves benefit is always fun.

9) Lucky Hit Points: The notion that certain hit point totals give better saves than others. For instance, many claimed that 87, 89, and 92 hit point clams had great saves, while 90 hit point clam saves sucked.

10) Spell benefits: Some spells were supposed to benefit saves, some were just rumored to benefit saves. If the spells actually worked as they officially should have, we would have all been running around with 5% failure saves - so obviously they didn't all work as claimed. The notion that some might help a bit (even the ones that weren't supposed to, like "Friends") was always a source of experimentation.

Well, this list is actually rather short. I'm sure I'll think of plenty others over time - as will all of you - but it will at least serve as something of a starting point. And anyhow, knowing which ones actually get put into place would take all the fun out of it. I just hope that there *will* be some. Goodness knows we'll probably believe in them whether they're there or not.