Re: Legends: probability of spell research

From: thompson@sun446.nas.nasa.gov (Keith C. Thompson)

Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1993 00:32:59 +0000

In article <DRESNICK.93Mar16173610@marinara.mit.edu> dresnick@athena.mit.edu (David I Resnick) writes:
>Hi,
>
>I've been thinking that eventually I'll want to research a spell.  I
>know that factors which influence success are: level of spell, level
>of person doing research, whether the spell is in your discipline,
>whether you are in a magic guild, and how much extra money you invest
>if in a guild.  But how much do these have an effect?

You may not be able to find the spell you want in a guild.  In general,
you should have a 31st level arcanist do the research.  If you are not
playing with a group, that pretty much means that if you want to get spells,
you need to take a hero position if you want to research spells early.
The spells that are available from guilds are not likely to be the
ones that you want, and you'll need lots of crowns.

>For example, if I want to learn 122 (character netherworld posession),
>a level 4 summoner spell, what roughly are the odds for
>
>A level 21 Wizard?

(21*5 - 4^3)/2 -> 20% base chance, and there is a random +/- % chance
added to this, up to 10%.  This is pretty bad odds.  A 31st level arcanist
has around a 40-50% chance at 4th level spells.  That's about as bad a
chance as I would be willing to take.

>A level 11 Summoner?

(11*6 - 4^3)/2 -> 1% chance of success.  Get out your healing potions!
And you'll be cursed for sure, and most likely insane.

>
>I'm not going to try this until I get some extra silverleaf, but I'm
>still curious how to estimate these odds.  How bad is the curse you
>get if you fail, and how big is a "slight" chance of insanity?

The size of the curse and chance of insanity appear to be related to
how bad you blow your research roll.  Although I know of one character
that died researching a 6th level spell with his turn saying that he
had every advantage (that's 90%+).

Also, never research spells when you are wounded, as the wound% is
subtracted from your % chance of success.

- Keith

References

Legends: probability of spell research
dresnick@athena.mit.edu (David I Resnick)
Tue, 16 Mar 1993 22:36:13 +0000