Topic: Fireball?

Just noticed that the fireball m/u spell is no longer in the spell lists as of Grindhouse.  I'm cool with that, just curious what the reasoning is behind its removal.

Re: Fireball?

Some more long distance game mastering from James I would imagine.
Think of the consequences.

Re: Fireball?

Mostly because Fireball, Lightning Bolt, etc; don't fit the Weird Fantasy vibe of the game.  Magic Missile has been up-gunned to be the go-to spell for ranged attacks, freeing up the third level slots for other spells.  Of course, you can just add FB back into the spell list.

Regards,

V

Re: Fireball?

Not sure that argument holds water.  There is plenty of lightning bouncing around Stargazer.  And if it is a belief that elemental magic is maybe less Weird then why are all the elemental walls still present.  If it is just to limit the number of ranged missile spells that m/us have available then it would be more fitting to remove a sort of generic spell like mm first, especially since it is an 0e late comer anyways.

All three spells have very different applications in any regard.


The migration of protection from evil to a cleric only spell makes sense for Weird setting reasons.

Re: Fireball?

It was just a way to lower the amount of flashbang spells in the MU's arsenal (note a lot of the damage-causing spells do less damage than they traditionally do), and removing Fireball and Lightning Bolt sends a message as well.

I had given a bit of thought to eliminating all damage-causing MU spells but that would have been slightly nuts.

Re: Fireball?

I was bored

Magic-User Spell changes between Deluxe and Grindhouse

First Level
added
Bookspeak
Faerie Fire
Summoning
removed
Protection from Evil
Ventriloquism

Second Level
added
Force of Forbidment
Speak with Animals
removed
Detect Evil*
Hideous Laughter

Third Level
added
Army of One
False Alignment
Howl of the Moon
Secret Page
Strange Waters II
removed
Blink
Dark Vision
Fireball
Lightning Bolt
Monster Summoning
Protection from Evil, 10' Radius*

Fourth Level
added
Seven Gates
removed
Massmorph

Fifth Level
Contact Outer Plane renamed Contact Outer Sphere
same spell, (although more accurate title should be Contact Star)

Sixth Level
added
Animate Dead Monsters
Barrier
Contingency
Lucubration
Mind Switch
Speak with Monsters
Weird Vortex
removed
Anti-Magic Shell
Control Weather
Freezing Sphere
Guards and Wards
Invisible Stalker
Lower Water
Part Water


Seventh Level

Jalo's Animated Artwork renamed Animated Artwork
Sheppard's Remote Surveillance renamed Remote Surveillance

added
Bestow Spell Ability
Witchlamp Aura
removed
Cacodemon
Fireball, Delayed Blast


Eight Level
added
Demand
Polymorph Any Object
removed
Incendiary Cloud
Spell Immunity


Ninth Level
added
Lost Dweomer               (He He He)
Temporal Stasis
removed
Gate                              (Still in the text but the 1st level spell Summoning is a lot more interesting.)
Meteor Swarm

Last edited by eldersprig (2011-06-05 15:18:14)

Re: Fireball?

Cleric spells got nerfed to an even greater extent.
From 68 total spells (not counting * spells) down to 46.

Re: Fireball?

eldersprig wrote:

Cleric spells got nerfed to an even greater extent.
From 68 total spells (not counting * spells) down to 46.

Cleric spell progression was improved and the functions of spells such as Bless and Protection From Evil (not to mention Heat Metal being added in there) make them quite useful.

The Cleric is my class of choice in the game I'm currently in.

Re: Fireball?

Does this mean you are currently playing a cleric in a game?

And if so, what is your approach to them as a player, at least in this iteration?

The righteous defender of the faith, whatever that faith may be or the Van Helsing seeking to destroy Sir Fang?  possibly something in-between.

Re: Fireball?

The Degenerate Elite wrote:

Does this mean you are currently playing a cleric in a game?

And if so, what is your approach to them as a player, at least in this iteration?

The righteous defender of the faith, whatever that faith may be or the Van Helsing seeking to destroy Sir Fang?  possibly something in-between.

Matthew Hopkins is my inspiration, and he's got a 7 Charisma so I always have him barking out orders to the other PCs in the most grating manner possible. "The slut there will go down this passage there, while dumbass here will go straight through the door. You, the useless one, you hold my torch while I prepare to combat the heretic!"

You know, there are a couple of players in this game that I've never played with before or really know outside of this game. I hope they don't think the way I play Marmaduke Pennycock is how I usually am... (perhaps exacerbated by the fact that my first cleric died REALLY QUICKLY the first session so I just did a Version 1.1 re-do with the next character...)

Re: Fireball?

@ elder

That's sort of the mental list I came up with too.  Clerics are much more Chaos vs Law in their outlook and casting now.  Magic/users have such a huge variety that I tend to believe they are more interested in learning as much as the can about as many aspects of magic as possible.  A sort of magical renaissance education if you will.

I love having some explanations for why things are different in this game from oD&D.  My players accept my decisons but they always want to know the whys of things.  Perhaps that's what you always get with older groups made up of mostly masters students and IT pros.