I've always liked that teleport has a built-in chance for wacky misadventures. That said, I sometimes think that the "scrambled" result (take some damage and maybe wind up off target) is a bit dull. Questions:
1. What are some other possible teleportation mishaps?
2. Do you like the idea of homebrew mishaps, or would you rather see the spell unaltered?
3. Could other spells have a built-in chance for wacky misadventures? What would that system even look like?
I kind of wish that the DD3.x/PF spellcasting system had an underlying chance of spell failure and mishap. It would go a long way towards evening the playing field between linear fighters and quadratic wizards.
But it's not the sort of thing that players will appreciate being bolted onto a system just because the DM thinks it's a cool idea.
It's not the sort of thing that players will appreciate being bolted onto a system just because the DM thinks it's a cool idea.
Yah... I was imagining spell fumbles when I wrote that. Always a divisive topic, and more fuel for the everburning martial/caster disparity fires.
Look up Wild Magic and see how it affects spells. That can be your mishaps.
/cevah
Teleportation:
In Wizardry I (back in 1978-80 or so), if you misread your location spell (DUMAPIC), and keyed in the wrong coordinates [either by lazily skipping writing down the location spell result, or by messing up the math when reversing the coordinates] when teleporting (MALOR) from camp, your whole party teleports into solid rock for a TPK. Hope you had a save disk of your characters...
In combat or from a treasure chest with a teleport trap, you can teleport away randomly, and end up right in another combat in a different location. Which can obviously be better or worse than your previous situation, but at least you don't end up in solid rock.
Only with the teleportation zones of the map were you sure to teleport safely, without risking either an encounter or solid rock, by teleporting either to another safe zone in the maze [without an instant encounter] or directly to the castle [your base: all spells at full after a safe night's rest, temple can resurrect you, etc.].
Random Results:
Casting the game's version of Lesser Wish (HAMAN) or Wish (MAHAMAN) had a list of random effects. I never really played Wizardry 3, so I never saw spell books get destroyed: all the effects were positive when casting these Wish spells in Wizardry 1.
http://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/walk/w123calc.htm
*HAMAN and MAHAMAN: On a roll of (RANDOM 0 to Character Level) = 5 the caster will unlearn some spells. The following message will be displayed "But his spell books are mangled!"
*HAMAN For Wizardry 1 has 3 possible effects:
1. "DIALKO'S PARTY 3 TIMES" - cures Afraid, Asleep, Paralysis, Stoning, Silence, and Heals each character for (9 * ((RANDOM 0 to 7) +1)) Hit points.
2. "ZAPS MONSTER MAGIC RESISTANCE!" - the first 3 groups of monsters cannot make a saving throw against damaging spells.
3. "HEALS PARTY!" - cures Afraid, Asleep, Paralysis, Stoning, Silence, and restores all Hit Points.
*MAHAMAN For Wizardry 1 has 3 possible effects:
1. "DIALKO'S PARTY 3 TIMES" - cures Afraid, Asleep, Paralysis, Stoning, Silence, and Heals each character for (9 * ((RANDOM 0 to 7) +1)) Hit points.
2. "SILENCES MONSTERS!" - silences the first 3 groups of monsters for ((5 + (RANDOM 0 to 4)) rounds.
3. "DESTROYS MONSTERS!" - all monsters' Status=Dead and Hit Points=0.
*HAMAN For Wizardry 3 has 5 possible effects:
1. "CURE THE PARTY" - cures Afraid, Asleep, Paralysis, Stoning conditions.
2. "SILENCE THE MONSTERS" - silences the first 3 groups of monsters for ((5 + (RANDOM 0 to 4)) rounds.
3. "MAKE MAGIC MORE EFFECTIVE" - the first 3 groups of monsters cannot make a saving throw against damaging spells and are thereafter treated as being Level 1 for other calculations regarding the spells.
4. "TELEPORT THE MONSTERS" AWAY - Effectively, all monsters' Status=Dead and Hit Points=0. However, no XP are gained, though you do get full treasure.
5. "HEAL THE PARTY" - restores all Hit Points.
*MAHAMAN For Wizardry 3 has all of the HAMAN effects above plus 2 new possible effects:
6. "PROTECT THE PARTY" - each character's AC=-10 unless it is even better (lower). [This was back in the day when THACO ruled, and your AC was 10 when naked, and a -10 was magical plate mail, shield, and a good dex. {and I think the Apple version had this even in Wizardry 1, not just 3+}]
7. "REANIMATE CORPSES!" - cures Afraid, Asleep, Paralysis, Stoning, Death, Ashes conditions.
This I definitely remember:
In the Apple 2 version, MAHAMAN has a 1 in 3 chance of killing the enemies outright, causing you to win the battle. (Works even on the final boss!)
[https://www.gog.com/forum/wizardry_series/wizardry_1s_manual_lies]
Aside:
Oh, and death was not the worst result in the game during combat. You really did not want your high-level characters to get level-drained. You could lose 3 levels from the boss's lead vampire from 1 hit. It could take a week to get back that kind of XP. If you end up dead, you could have the temple raise you twice, with only a small chance of failure [but if it does fail twice, you are again using your saved disk], and that takes all of 5 minutes.