Re: Wild Mages and Spelljamming helms

> Actually, the Wild Mages magic is not really a "higher octane" version of
> "regluar magic".  It is merely a more unpredictable form of it.
>
My argument was not that the Wild mage was higher octane magic.  Far
from it, I wanted to suggest that it was a much "lower octane", and you
did not counter this by saying it is more unpredictable....that was my
point.
>
> Again, the mage does not have to "summon his spell energies" to do any of
> these things.  The Concordance states that all of his magical ability is
> *transferred to the helm upon first sitting on it!*  Therefore, the mage
> actually has no innate spellcasting ability from that point on.  What he
> gains in exchange, however, is the ability to control and maneuver the
> ship as an extension of his own body.  He no more needs to "summon
> magical energy" to speed up the ship than he needs magical energy to go
> from a walk to a run in a normal situation.

Allow me to clarify.  This energy is used by the helm to speed up, to
turn, to do whatever. Even though this energy is drained from the mage
as soon as he sits down, it is still the energy that the helm is using.
You do _not_ have to check in every instance, but if the mage wants to
do something that would overly stress the ship (as DM you know what
situations these would be) the Helm might _surge_ due to the unusually
structured magic energies it is using. These surges would have to be
from a seperate chart than the one in the Tome, surges that would be
specific to the situation.  I do not believe in an official DND rule, in
fact DND doesn't urging you to use rules you like and get rid of those
you don't.  It is obvious that I won't convince any of you who do not
want to use this... but those who might like it, should feel free....

  If a mage in wildspace really
> wants to see funky effects and screw up his allies and enemies both, let
> him stay off the helm and throw a couple of lightning bolts using Nahal's
> Reckless Dweomer or something.
This is the most important point.  If a wild mage can cause a wild surge
when he is on the helm, especially when he is in the stressful situation
of combat, would be enough to forbid such a mage from taking the helm.
HOwever, in space, especially in combat, nothing is certain, and
sometimes the wild mage is the only option you have.  If your choice is
sitting still or risking a surge, in combat, you have to take the
mobility even with the risks.


Hey, its a game.... do what's fun!

Tempest