Magic Resistance in DragonQuest

When it was first released one of DragonQuest's more unique aspects was its magic system. Multiple colleges with differing styles of magic in each made it very exciting and appealing. Being able to pick and choose what spells your Adept character would focus on was cool and meant that every Adept, even one from the same college, would be different. I really liked this and still do.

Like many other RPG systems DragonQuest includes rules for resisting the damage or other effects caused by magic spells. This is often called saving throws in other systems. Initially this post was going to be about damage from spells and why, for some spells, it could be resisted and others not. Particularly why spells that caused actual physical damage could be resisted. The longer I collected my thoughts about it the more obvious it became that the question I was really looking at was how does magic resistance work in DragonQuest.

Magic Potion Table for DragonQuest

Some time ago I had gone through and collected a list of all the spells that met the requirements of [50.9] and could be made into magic potions.  These were split into a table for General Knowledge spells and Special Knowledge spells and given percentages for a D100 roll.  Nothing too exciting but thought it might be useful to others.

A PDF can be grabbed on the Downloads page.

Here's a screengrab (lower res):

A Look at Character Progression in DragonQuest

While I was working on the DragonQuest Economics post I was wondering just how well the guidelines about Experience Point and Monetary rewards worked out over an adventurers career.  Does the adventuring character have sufficient money to cover training costs and upkeep?  How long does it take to reach Hero rank?  Can he afford healing potions?
Clearly I needed to spend a bunch of time answering these questions and so I started a human character named Bernie the Boring.  Bernie spent what experience and money he started with and then I artificially advanced him through adventures till he reached Hero rank.

Worksheets for Magic Colleges

I've added individual spreadsheets for each magic college in DragonQuest and Arcane Wisdom (except Lesser Summonings) to the Downloads page.  I use them for my Adept characters to track my rank in the various spells and also which SK spells I have acquired.  As a GM I use them for NPCs so that I know what spells they have and at what Rank and Cast Chance.

Undead in DragonQuest

A recent post on a Yahoo! DQ group asked about the life draining effects of the Greater Undead in DragonQuest.  I answered there but thought I would also post my take on them here and perhaps expand on it a little.

Extending Maximum Weapon Rank to 10

Why Do It?

Since the 1^st edition of DragonQuest was released it has always bothered me that the so few weapons allowed the character to advance to rank 10 or, in many cases, even rank 8. This is important to the characters as their ability to achieve Adventurer or Hero rank (see [86.2] in DragonQuest rules) depends upon the character getting 8 skills to rank 4, for Adventurer, and 8 skills at rank 8 for Hero rank. A player choosing weapons for his character with thoughts of getting that character to Hero rank will be quite limited in weapon choice. Only one Hafted Weapon can go to rank 8 and only one Pole Arm. Even the Swords are limited with only 7 of the 13 going to rank 8 or higher. A low maximum rank means low hit chances (obviously),  lower initiative values, a lower chance to repulse an attempt to close and a lower chance to riposte (or prevent a riposte).

DragonQuest Economics

The economic rules for a fantasy RPG need to be reasonably sound and I believe should follow historical examples if for no other reason than to make it easy for a GM to research costs for things that the rules do not cover.  It is also important for making the game world feel more real.  If a GM has to make up a price for something on the spur of the moment it is better if the GM has a good framework to work from with prices for a broad range of items.  As DragonQuest includes Merchant skill as well as other income-producing skills it is even more important that the economic rules of the game make sense. This post hits on the topics of currency, income and the costs of goods compared to the middle ages and then looks at the economics of the professional skills in DragonQuest.

Healing in DQ

The combat system in DragonQuest can be quite deadly with even the lowliest of opponents able to severely injure or even kill the most heroic of characters by getting an [18.2] Endurance hit or a [18.3] Grievous Injury with their attack.  As Endurance damage is recovered slowly [85.1] at one point every three days the ability to get an injured comrade back on his feet in the middle of an adventure is pretty important.  In DQ you have the usual options of healing potions, healing spells and the arts of the Healer skill though there are some significant limitations and roadblocks for beginning or just poor adventurers.

PCs vs. The Average Guy

When discussing what adventurers may do the descriptive text of the rules is often at odds with the mechanics of the rules.

[83.1] "It is to be assumed in all rules concerning the amount of activity an adventurer may accomplish that adventurers are an above average lot of people and should not be compared to present day humans. Also, when compared to non-adventuring members of their respective races, adventurers have, on the average, 50% higher numerical totals in all characteristics."

While I agree with the general sentiment of the first sentence the second does not make sense when looking at the actual mechanics of DQ. I touched on this in my previous post about Stealth.

Stealth of Monsters in DQ

In DragonQuest the term monsters means any entities that an adventuring party might encounter or come into conflict with which aren't from a player-character race or species.  This description does include a variety of sentient entities such as the Fairy Folk.
A number of monsters are described within the rules as being stealthy with it typically noted as being X times that of an average human. So what is the stealth of an average human?

Investing Spells in DQ

The DQ rules include a ritual available to all adepts that allows them to store spells inside of objects for casting later.  This is under [32.3] Investment Ritual.  Because there were essentially no limits placed upon what items could be invested with spells or how many invested items one could wield a set of rules developed over time in my campaigns.  I've linked to the handout as a downloadable PDF on the Downloads page of this blog.

The costs for "investable" items were derived from the Shaping rules and also Rune Magics runestick materials.

Hope it is useful or provides food for thought for other DQ players.