Wizards abilities?

[Malchor]

In Chainmail, besides spells, Wizards can:

• Attack/Defend as armored foot/horse
• Become Invisible (as elves, and become visible when attacking)
• See in darkness
• Affect friendly morale
• Affect enemy morale
  
• Are impervious to normal missile fire
  
• Missiles: Fire ball and lightning bolt
  
  

Are all of the above always in effect and at will? Are some of them limited in number of time? What about missiles, are both at will, unlimited and lacking any reload time?



For spells, the wizard's level affects the number of spells they can handle, as well as range, but here again, it seems like if you are not using the optional Spell Complexity rules, the Wizard can cast the spells available to them an unlimited number of times and without delay. Is that correct?

[howandwhy99]

My take: Monsters follow different rules. In Chainmail there are only monsters. I believe spells are resources and everything else is a special ability. So Wizard powers are always in effect and can happen multiple times in a round without limit and spells are non-depleting per round options.

D&D changed all of this by making some monsters, like wizards and heroes, into PCs. Also many magical powers became spells. So OD&D NPC wizards presumably follow the same rules as PCs especially their spell use. But regular OD&D monsters did not change. This will affect how we DMs use a wizard when adding Chainmail to OD&D.

[waysoftheearth]

Malchor my take (without overthinking it): Yes, and yes.

Sept 3, 2022 17:22:56 GMT -6 howandwhy99 said:

My take: Monsters follow different rules. In Chainmail there are only monsters. I believe spells are resources and everything else is a special ability. So Wizard powers are always in effect and can happen multiple times in a round without limit and spells are non-depleting per round options.

D&D changed all of this by making some monsters, like wizards and heroes, into PCs. Also many magical powers became spells. So OD&D NPC wizards presumably follow the same rules as PCs especially their spell use. But regular OD&D monsters did not change. This will affect how we DMs use a wizard when adding Chainmail to OD&D.

Great post howandwhy99

I might rephrase it: In Chainmail there are men and monsters. The main rules assume men. Monsters follow different rules...

OD&D also adds "levels" for PCs (but not generally for monsters), and so a progression from a weaker to a stronger variant of the same type of figure, which we only glimpse in CM with the "Wizard-1" concept.

[Porphyre]

Sept 3, 2022 17:22:56 GMT -6 howandwhy99 said:

My take: Monsters follow different rules. In Chainmail there are only monsters. I believe spells are resources and everything else is a special ability. So Wizard powers are always in effect and can happen multiple times in a round without limit and spells are non-depleting per round options.

D&D changed all of this by making some monsters, like wizards and heroes, into PCs. Also many magical powers became spells. So OD&D NPC wizards presumably follow the same rules as PCs especially their spell use. But regular OD&D monsters did not change. This will affect how we DMs use a wizard when adding Chainmail to OD&D.

Also, in CHAINMAIL, units are considered as troop types, not individual characters.

A full platoon of elves can become indetectable (i-e: "invisible") because they are equipped with elven boots, elven cloacks and maybe face painting, like the elven wardens in Lorien, but the individual adventuring elf cannot afford this "military" equipement as "starting gear" (mind that the elven cloacks in the Lord of the Rings are bestowed to the Fellowship as a very special gift).

Warring wizards probably don't go to battle without a full array of magical protections (they fight like Armored Foot) and magic staffs and wands fully charged to not worry about falling short of magical ammo in the battle (hence "at will" ability) 

[Malchor]

There is another way of looking at this.

When a D&D character reaches 10th level they have the fighting capability of Wizard (presumably two armored foot to horse. From a certain point of view, it could be considered that at 10th level, the MU has reached a point where through study and renown they now have the abilities/attributes to:
• Become Invisible at will
• See in darkness
• Affect friendly morale
• Affect enemy morale
• Be impervious to normal missile fire

While that combo is a bit OP, at that level the buff is not that huge. If this was done, I'd also give the Hero and Super Hero a buff on hireling/henchmen moral rolls for "renown."

[Malchor]

And just realized being a MU and fighting as Heavy Foot indicates some armor, fighting abilities, and/or arcane protections. So that might as well be added to the list or “abilities.”