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DFRPG / Re: I am dissatisfied with 'Focused Practitioners', particularly Mortimer (spoilers)
« on: July 09, 2014, 07:23:21 PM »
Because the generic wizard hasn't actually specialized to the degree that a true specialist has, yet can be just as good as the specialist, even though the specialist spends all of their training time and effort on a particular narrow branch of the art.
Mortimer, the book character, is a master of magics dealing with ghosts and spirits. He doesn't use any of the trappings for his wizard spells - trappings that Harry tells us aren't technically needed but are aids - because he doesn't actually need them. Harry doesn't even understand how Mortimer accomplishes all the things he does.
Yet in the RPG, even if we ignore the rules preventing people with the Ritual ability from improving, and even if we ignore the rule that requires specialization bonuses to be 'stacked' so that you can't have a +3 without having both a +2 and a +1, and even if we grant them an initial specialization bonus like Thaumaturgists get, Focused Practitioners can't be better at what they do than generic Wizards who focus on the same subject - yet those Wizards can do everything the FPs can and more.
And that's not even touching the idea that focus items are really sort of 'training wheels' that compensate for magic users' limitations instead of granting true bonuses as in the game. That's just a convention issue that I'm basically willing to accept for sake of simplicity.
FPs can't even pick up bonuses by invoking Aspects, because Wizards will have their own magic-related Aspects that will serve just as well. The FPs aren't actually focused. They are merely limited.
Mortimer, the book character, is a master of magics dealing with ghosts and spirits. He doesn't use any of the trappings for his wizard spells - trappings that Harry tells us aren't technically needed but are aids - because he doesn't actually need them. Harry doesn't even understand how Mortimer accomplishes all the things he does.
Yet in the RPG, even if we ignore the rules preventing people with the Ritual ability from improving, and even if we ignore the rule that requires specialization bonuses to be 'stacked' so that you can't have a +3 without having both a +2 and a +1, and even if we grant them an initial specialization bonus like Thaumaturgists get, Focused Practitioners can't be better at what they do than generic Wizards who focus on the same subject - yet those Wizards can do everything the FPs can and more.
And that's not even touching the idea that focus items are really sort of 'training wheels' that compensate for magic users' limitations instead of granting true bonuses as in the game. That's just a convention issue that I'm basically willing to accept for sake of simplicity.
FPs can't even pick up bonuses by invoking Aspects, because Wizards will have their own magic-related Aspects that will serve just as well. The FPs aren't actually focused. They are merely limited.