On Sat, Aug 28/99, kim@... wrote:

> From: <kim@...>
>
> On Sat, 28 Aug 1999 jhenders@... wrote:
> > On Sat, Aug 28/99, "Daniel P. Sniderman" <slide@...> wrote:
> >
> > Heh. Does anyone actually use this song at all? I think they made the
> > drawback a bit too much, as I found the only way to use it was to play
> > it just before a fight, then the wizard can med up the extra int it
> > gets him and maybe get off one more bolt. All the casters I worked with
> > quickly decided it wasn't worth the extra hassle for what it gave you.
>
> Seems I'm arguing about this everywhere I go.
>
> People have this mistaken assumption that more mana = more
> spells. That is not the case. The amount of mana a caster
> has determines the number of spells he can cast without
> resting/meditating. The mana regeneration rate determines how
> many spells he can cast over a given period of time. You can
> have 100 mana or 1000 mana, if your mana regeneration rate is
> unchanged you will still cast the same number of spells/hour.
> Thus, more mana is advantageous in a single fight; it is not
> advantageous over the long term (if you use that advantage in
> a single fight, you pay for it with longer downtime).
>
> e.g. Your party tries to take and hold a room. The cleric
> has 500 mana. You attack and are only able to clear the first
> half of the room before the cleric is out of mana and must
> meditate. The cleric meditates. By the time he is at full
> mana, the portion of the room you've cleared has respawned.
>
> The typical reaction to this type of scenario is "damn, we
> could've done it if we'd only had more mana." This is not so.
> Say the cleric had 1000 mana. You attack and are able to
> clear the entire room, with the cleric finishing OOM. The
> cleric meditates. By the time he is at 500 mana, the entire
> room has respawned, and now the scenario is identical to the
> previous. More mana lets you take the room once where you
> could not before (single fight), but it does not enable you to
> hold the room (long term).
>
> So I would say the use for the song is if you can forsee a
> situation where you need additional mana for a single fight.
> Start singing it before, let the casters top off, then start
> the fight. That should let them get one or two extra spells
> in for just this one fight (after they've cast the first few
> spells, you don't need to keep the int/wis boost up). Having
> the effect last longer would be more convenient, but not
> advantageous.

Isn't this exactly what I described doing above? Maybe I wasn't clear
enough. And no, it's not worth the hassle according to the mages I have
worked with.

--
Artificial Intelligence stands no chance against Natural Stupidity.
GAT d- -p+(--) c++++ l++ u++ t- m--- W--- !v
b+++ e* s-/+ n-(?) h++ f+g+ w+++ y*