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.