Alfheim magic characters for a noob

question
alfheim
#1

I am a complete noob and have just purchased the Master edition rulebook hoping to run an Alfheim campaign. I have so many questions! I hope you friendly folks can help me understand.

Whilst I know I can tweak or add any rule I want, I think I should understand the foundation before making changes that might not play out well.

I’m looking at a starting Mage compared to a starting Fighter. They have a roughly equal chance of an attack succeeding, but the Mages does D10 damage whilst the Fighter does D6 damage. The Mage can attack from FAR using “Fire Missile” which also sets the targets gear on fire causing further damage or causing the target to waste an attack to put the fire out. The Mage seems hands-down better. Alternatively, the Mage closes to CLOSE range and uses “Vampiric Ray”. Now they do more damage and get healed each round. Again, the Mage seems hands-down more effective in a fight - the very place you’d expect a Fighter to shine.

Furthermore, the Mage gets utility spells so the Mage has more to contribute outside of a fight as well.

This feels unfair. Have I missed something in the basic Master Edition rules that make an Alfheim fighter more effective in a fight than an Alfheim mage?

I’m aware of the “Spell Burn” rules on page 87, but I’d expect a mage to be able to make their INT roll quite often, so this would have limited impact. Are there any alternatives?

Whilst I’m here a few more little questions:

The Mage’s starting loot are “Astral Grimoire”, “Memory Ring” and “Master’s Skull”. The first two grant 3 INT spells, but the skull does not grant any and there are no spells on the basic loot table. Does this mean Mage who picks the skull as their starting loot starts the game with no spells?

The Priest can choose the starting loot “Amber beads” which contain a spell. The description says “That SPELL … only fails on a natural 1”. Does that mean it succeeds on a 2 or more regardless of the current target? What if the spell was “Healing Nova” whose description explicitly calls for a “HARD WIS roll”? The idea of a priest standing at the back and spamming “Healing Nova” every round to heal every ally feels game destroying. If someone wanted “Amber Beads” what spells should I allow?

#2

Okay, there is a lot to unpack here.

First of all, welcome to the shield wall!!!

Second, the best advice I can give you is to avoid armchairing the rules and just grab 3 or 4 of your friends and play the game. Make some characters, go on an adventure, roll some dice, and have fun. What I think actual experience will teach you is that these concerns, which seem worrisome at first, are, in fact, not even a problem in an actual game. When I see statements like, “the mage seems better or “this feels unfair,” I just want to tell folks: go play, go actually play the game, and then circle back and let me know. That mage might roll 1-3 for damage all night, or get cold on attack rolls, and even if the mage is lighting up enemies for the group, then usually the team is thankful that mage is on the squad. “Thank god we have Gandalf and that fire bolt on our side.”

If you do play, and the mage feels off balance with the rest of the group, just apply spellburn, or put a 4 round cooldown on the casting (this applies if you have that Johnny-One-Speed in your group who spams spells). Those are easy tweaks and not a reason to get all narrow-eyed toward the game.

For master’s skull, isn’t the ability to heal a spell-based ability?!? It’s a pretty powerful one (please don’t even suggest drinking from it is the way to gain the healing, ew, lol). Plus, with dark pact, that mana (blood) battery now allows you to boost rolls, also a pretty cool spell-like effect. From my standpoint, lean into it. And if that still doesn’t feel enough for your group, let a player take those and still choose another spell to start. What feels right for you and your table? Again, let’s try to avoid an armchair kneejerk where we all scrunch up our noses. Go play as a killer blood mage necromancer and see if it isn’t super fun.

Yes, spells and abilities that only fail on a Nat 1 mean just that. Roll anything but a 1 to succeed.

Healing nova seems incompatible then, doesn’t it? It requires a hard wisdom roll. I don’t think it becomes a choice for a new character in that regard. In our games, we don’t have any munchkins who would want to spam healing nova anyway (or see that spell as anything but a milestone for later on), but again, if you have that player, just put spellburn on it. Or a cooldown. Or add a once per location limiter to it. Again, your game. Your table. Players should work with their DMs at the start for “level 1” characters.

As for particular spells, I would allow pretty much any of them, with the potential limiters outlined above. Be flexible with the rules. They are more guidelines anyway. If you have munchkin-like players in your group, gently redirect. “Hey, this is a level one character here. Let’s make [insert spell here] a milestone moment for you down the road.” Or “hey, that’s cool, but let’s add a once per location limiter to this, if that works for you.”

In any event, go play some sessions. Enjoy the game. Our group has literally over a thousand hours in ICRPG at this point, and it’s always super fast, fun, and flexible.

#3

Hey there, firstly welcome to joing ICRPG: ME, theres lots of fun to be had!

I’ll say that when it comes to Masters Skull most GMs ive run into will just allow a player to start with 1 free spell if they take it

This is a very big point of icrpg, the discussion between players and GMs to allow their characters to shine.

I hear what you mean, mages seem like they get a lot of options. But i will say that ive played a lot of just regualr melee characters and never felt super outshined by the mage. On paper it seems unfair but at the table it really does equalize. Especially from table to table in which different gms have different rules for magic.

Lastly the Amber beads +healing nova is a well known tactic. Very powerful combo, and yes the spell never fails on a nat 1. But you are giving up so much priest utility to pull it off. And icrpg is a game in which all it takes is 1 decent roll to drop a character or 2

#4

Welcome to the shield wall!

ICRPG is not a carefully balanced system with intricate synergies for careful players to uncover with deep study.

It’s a fast, simple system, and a mindset to get you rolling dice with your friends.

Try it, then hack it into the game YOU want to play. If a spell feels overpowered, ask the player to take it as a Milestone later. Or, give them a slightly nerfed version, and they can upgrade it as a Milestone.

If you have players who want to study the text and build the most OP character ever, this is not really the game system for them. However… the game gives you plenty of options to match that energy. Have you seen some of those monster entries? :scream:

I’ve run games with players that took +6 DEX, +4 MAGIC Quickdraw, and Arcane Cartridge.

The character can kill multiple targets per round, but damage capacity only gets you so far. When you have a God-Tier Wizard that’s awesome… but what happens when you get yourself into God-Tier Sh*t and the Wizard rolls a Nat 1? Amber Beads are awesome, but Amber Beads+Healing Nova means that character is gonna have 1 option 90% of the time. ICRPG characters only get 10 HP, even at their best, they are very squishy.

Don’t overthink it! Jump in, and if something feels off, don’t be shy about asking your players to make some adjustments to their “build”.

(Edited to add: Also… all of your concerns are completely reasonable and valid. You’re not wrong, and you’re not missing anything. ICRPG prioritizes speed and simplicity over depth and balance. We’ve just found that the depth happens during the game, and balance isn’t usually worth worrying about).

#5

Squidge, I think you are overlooking a painfully simple solution, a riff on the optional rules in the Advanced Magic section of the Master Edition book: have Mages pay casting costs for their spells in actual hit points.

#6

This is great advice. It’s simple, it’s spicy, it adds texture and drama, it doesn’t add a bunch of extra rules or fiddly points to track.

#7

These are all things that i had questions about too when getting into icrpg. I found that i was thinking too much about players trying to beat the system itself. But most players, in my experience, just want to play in your adventure and have the experience of being a character in that world. If you run into a player that wants to play against the system in that way, you can always put some of the rules in place that others here have suggested (spend 1hp to cast is a good one). I would also recommend watching a live play of the game to see it in action — that really helped it click for me. look for “doomvault: the classic icrpg dungeon” on youtube. good luck

#8

Ahhh! That is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!!

#9

I like that idea - and you are right I had missed it.

#10

My thanks to everyone who has taken the time to reply.

Long term, I fully agree that game balance can take a back seat to having fun, and playing the “weaker” character in the group can be part of a good concept.

What I didn’t explain at the start was that I’ve volunteered to run an introductory table for our gaming group. The players may not know each other and may never have played a TTRPG before. I want all the players to be able to do what you’ve all been suggesting - just dive in and try it.

However, first impressions matter and what I see echoed a lot in the replies so far is that the first impression of the Alfheim mage is concerning. Especially so, given that my players don’t know me nor each other and may have never RPGed before. As the GM I have to go in feeling confident that I no matter what type of player they turn out to be, no matter what character they pick, no matter who else is in the game, I have a good chance of lifting their character into the spotlight and making them a hero. A mage lurking in the background makes me feel less confident I can deliver that to new players.

Thanks again to everyone.