Wednesday 26 December 1979

The Homefall Campaign

Geography

The maps below are 800km per hex at the equator, and show Europe for scale in the top left. The map extends to 70N and 70S. Brown is rough, green is forest, yellow is desert. Ocean currents and the southern continent and attached ice shelf are shown (the northern ocean has no ice-cap, just seasonal ice). The continent just above the centre is Homefall, the centre of the campaign (and the main landing site). The next continent to the north-east is High Haveen, which has some habitations almost as old.

The players had a part of the map

Developing a character

Stats are 3D6 variables (but 2 may be chosen to be 10+2d4 or 11-2d4) Roll up/down at top/bottom of the range. Stats are Str,Dex,Con;Size, Build, Cha;Wis, Wpr, Int; Psi, Sanc, Atm. Women have -5 each Size and Build, +3 each Con, Cha. With no priest system, Sanctity and Atman were meaningless. There was a psi system, but it has been lost.

Hit points = Str+(Siz+Bui)/2, if con > 12, add points about 12, if below 9, take points below.

Effective strength for combat is increased by the factor from the table below, and the effective dexterity is reduced by the same amount.

Size+Build to Modifer conversion
Siz+Bui Mod Siz+Bui Mod Siz+Bui Mod
-12 to -7 -5 16 to 21 0 41 to 50 +5
-6 to -1 -4 22 to 25 +1 51 to 60 +6
0 to 4 -3 26 to 29 +2 61 to 70 +7
5 to 9 -2 30 to 33 +3 71 to 80 +8
10 to 15 -1 34 to 40 +4 81 to 100 +9

Handedness — D12 for right hand, D6 for left; higher score is dominant. Subtract difference from the off-hand's agility (modified dex) and half that from its strength in combat.

Magic system

See .DSYS for the outline. The main differences here were to have magic types and sub types, so you could specialise even further, at the cost of having the closely related spells just at par, rather than at bonus or penalty. The types were

Enchanter = Dictor (word based and command magic), Quaesitor (detection) = Willpower
Warlock = Praetor Naturae (nature magic), Sorcerer (body magic), Surgior (healing magic) = Con
Witch = Aerior, Aquior, Gaeaior, Pyrior = Cha
Wizard = Pyrior, Luminor = Str.

Note that Surgiors or Warlocks replaced clerics in this iteration.

I did have an algorithm for the fatigue table I used — minus at Level L after casting N spells is (L^(N/2L) - 1) until linear, with an extra INT-12 free spells. Spells could be pushed — the excess doubled — at a cost of 4 extra spells.

Saves against magic were based on a function of level (basic Magic Resistance Level being about 2 + level/2, some variation by character class), plus bonuses for wearing unenchanted armour (+4 for normal sized chain, +6 for normal size plate), an extra +4 for not having magic talent, plus any specific enchantment bonuses. Roll adjusted MRL or below to save. A creature needing a +N weapon to hit could be hit by a character with (MRL-7)/3.

Saves by dodging or against poisons were rolled against Dex of Con.

Combat System

Attack factor = Fighter level + 1/2 (Dex-10) - enc penalty

Defense factor = (Fighter level/2) + 1/2 (Dex-10) - enc penalty

D20 + Attack - Defense of 10 or better is a hit.

Weapons are given damages against 5 armour types — None, Leather, Chain, Plate and Special, to which half of the effective modified Str is added (add 1/4 offhand Str to main hand Str for two-handed use), plus a D6. Strengths above maximum are capped, and below minimum are adjusted to double the shortfall. Encumbrance base is 2 for leather, 4 for chain, 6 for plate, scaled up for large size+build, down for higher Str.

Examples

Greatsword 5/6/3/0/-3 Parry -12 Speed 6 min 20 (expects 2-handed use)
Battleaxe 1/-2/-6/-8/-14 Parry -3 Speed 3 min 14
Dagger 0/0/-4/-8/-12 Parry +6 speed 1 max 11

Parrying exchanges the next blow for a type of defense. In this case, the attacker adds his weapon's parry value to his attack factor and subtracts the defender's weapon parry value (shields have a zero parry value). Initiative is D20+speed (low is good).

Marksmanship is Level+dex-10, with a penalty of half the base enc for the armour type per arm for wearing armour on the arms (e.g. 1 plate arm = enc 3; one leather arm = enc 1, together enc 4), and there is a base defense factor modified by the range

Examples

Longbow 12/10/6/2/-3 damage -1/20m base defense 8 + 1 per 10 meters of range Str 15/Dex 12, 1 shot per round
Light crossbow 13/11/6/3/-2 -1/5m 0+1/8 Str 6 (14 to manually cock), 3 rounds per shot.

Encounters

Although I took over part of the New Earth game setting, I discarded not only the standard cleric, I also jettisoned the standard non-humans (well they weren't part of the manifest for the campaign). While the first strand of the campaign took up the Oktvabrina storyline, a separate thread investigated where strange weapons were arriving, and found evidence of offworld tampering (which then led to a world-hopping cmapaign, via world-gates, seeking to close off this route of invasion). Two types of off-worlder were encountered — Kintor, small and vulpine, and Hrulgani, large and ursine. They take roughly the elf and dwarf niches of traditional FRP, but only very roughly — spellcaster or high-finesse warrior as opposed to the unsubtle bruiser. They are drawn from the background of my SF writing, though none of those are spell-casters. The how-to-roll-up for these (and the Ayassa, who became a player character option at one of the stops along the way), are lost. I do remember that Hrulgani had low WIS (perhaps 2D8).

Kintor standard battle suit — Armour type Special, 20 point zap every round, 10 shots of 40 point. Absorbs 25 points of energy per round, flies at 30". The traded version had values Plate/5/10*20/15/24". Both gave night vision.

Hrugani standard kit was Armour type Leather absorbing 10 extra points, or 25 points of energy every round. Ground infantry used a great axe, while the aerial troops used a rifle (stats as crossbow with +10 damage, firing every round).

Kintor Mage (Sorcerer 5)
Str 7/5 Size 0 Wis 12 Atm 17 16 hp
Con 19 Bld 7 Wpr 13 Psi 9 +11+level
Dex 13/13 Cha 13 Int 18 Snc 9 MRL = 9
Alternate: Enchanter Wpr 17 Con 18 15hp, +11
Kintor Warrior (Fighter 8)
Str 13/12 Size 4 Wis 12 Atm 18 24 hp
Con 18 Bld 6 Wpr 14 Psi 10 A=11 D=7 Mark=12
Dex 14/16 Cha 14 Int 17 Snc 9 MRL = 9
Hrulgan Flier (Fighter 8)
Str 20/27 (34 2-handed) Size 49 Wis 10 Atm 15 58 hp
Con 15 Bld 20 Wpr 12 Psi 10 A=10 D=6 Mark=13
Dex 15/13 Cha 11 Int 12 Snc 9 MRL = 11

Hrulgan Axeman — as flier, with damage 24/21/17/14/9, parry = A+4, speed -1

Hrulgan Elite (Fighter 12)
Str 22/30 (38 2-handed) Size 53 Wis 11 Atm 16 73 hp
Con 18 Bld 20 Wpr 14 Psi 10 A=15 D=9 Mark=20
Dex 18/16 Cha 14 Int 14 Snc 9 MRL = 13

Dramatis Personae

I even still have the character sheets from the campaign, and its subsequent evolution into plane-spanning. I shan't post their details (stats, possessions, weapons and such) here, but if any of the players read this page and want the details, I can send them. The roster was

Played by Martyn Wheeler

Patti (F7, human) with the gross magic longbow, Alin Karadh “the Mad Axe Murderer” (F10, human), who was the wielder of Glass, the gate-closing axe (much like Changeling from CJ Cherryh's Gate of Ivrel), Chenin (F9/MU8, human) with a longbow and staff of power, and a black cat familiar. I remember her for the heartfelt cry of “they die” when after many arrows, she brought down one of the first encountered Kintor in their flying suits. And for Martyn's cry of “raise the cat first” when both were crisped by a fireball (and she had less than twice the number of hit-points it had).

Played by Pete Windsor

Enthom (MU7) and his boring nondescript bodyguard Bryan Non-entity (F11). Bryan later went on to pick up the artifact sword Sundancer, and from then on has had the role of Sundancer's Feet. Thean (Priest3/Psi3)

Played by Pete Hutchison

Toyah (Th2/F4, Ayassa, deceased), Tom (F4, human)

Played by Rob Corlett

Erlan (F6, deceased), Charlemagne (MU5/Psi3), Golana (MU7/F1/Th1)

Played by Sue Lambiris

Hiratia (F11/MU7) She picked up Moonsinger, Sundancer's complement. Letillian (F6/MU6/Th2, Kintor), Elissa (MU9)

Played by Tim Durdin

Angie (MU7/F6), Korrek (F5)

Played by Will Gulland

Haram (MU5/F2), Shara (F6)

Played by MGA1 (a Mike Abbott, IIRC)

Marta (MU3, human)

Played by Neil Taylor

Harold (MU7/F4, human) with his black cat; Taras (MU7/F3)

Played by Karen

Umar (Mu5/F3, human) who gained a white Pern dragon in her travels, Jenny (F2/M5/Th2/Psi6)

I'm sure Martin Bonner played in this campaign — ISTR a Hrulgani fighter, their low WIS appealing to his style of play (called Jack?), but can't find any character sheets.

They may not have been very high level (the fighters with artefact weapons being the only ones into double figures, and that only after having evened out the experience scales so the fighter level breaks were always easier than MU ones), but they were quite tough enough. The reason for stopping the campaign was the usual that it was getting too powerful, and the systems were starting to give under the strain. The free multi-classing was achieved by putting xp into the class pot for which it was earned (using a weapon gave fighter xp, being sneaky, thief xp, and so on). Thean, the Grey priest, joined from a world along the way where such folk did magic, but in a very free-form fashion.

Karen ran a separate, higher level, party that took up the battle vs Oktvabrina theme — Tenar (F10/Mu9/Psi4 — was a druid imported from Martyn Wheeler's game, where hse had picked up both the high-power non-sword weapons — a spear +3 and a scythe +5/prot+5 — given out for lack of takers, with an owl familiar and pet bear), Allecto (MU11, another import, with a familiar owl, and a pet sabretooth), Ben (F9/Mu4/psi5, hawk familiar), Alyx(F9/Th7), Tarlannon (Mu8), Petra (Mu9/F8 — who would have been a druid had I been running such, with a pseudo-dragon familiar and a sabretooth pet), Jasper (F9/Th2).

Major Weapons

Glass — the Gateclosing Great axe — speed and parry as battleaxe, size and damage as pole-axe. +4 flaming (+5 vs regenerating, +6 vs cold/inflammable, +7 vs undead) weapon of sharpness. Int 16 Ego 18. Closes (or re-opens) gates at the cost of ma magic item; may cast light at will (cold blue light, the colour of its flames). See invisible, detect evil, infravision, heal once per day, prot +2, -1 hp/die, reduced aging rate. Disintegrate once/day, understand languages. Darkness 3/day. Prismatic spray 1/day.

Moonsinger — The female sword — size, speed, parry as shortsword, damage as bastasrd sword in 2 hands. +6 defender of cold, +9 vs fire creatures. Int 16/Ego 18. 6m radius sonic attack d6/rd when wielded in moonlight, glows in freezing temperatures. See invisible, detect gems, evil. Heal 1/day. Immunity to cold, Prot +2 Dark 3/day, coldbeam (8+d4)d6 daily, wall of cold 2/day, cloak of cold 2/day. The wielder will become female if she isn't already.

Sundancer — The male sword, +6 (+7, +8, +9) flaming defender, in sunlight acts as a dancing sword, glows as gem of brightness at will, and has contiual light effect. May ignite at will. See invisible, detect metal, evil. Heal 1/day Immunity to fire, Prot +2 Light 3/day, firebeam (8+d4)d6 daily, wall of fire 2/day, cloak of fire 2/day. The wielder will become male if he isn't already.

Wednesday 27 June 1979

PCs from the olden days

My first PC was a fighter, in plate, wielding a 2-handed sword. These things called “kobolds” died a lot when he attacked them, and yielded up a chest full of copper coins. He survived the one delve, including cowering from a carrion crawler, but was never played again. The second character was the only fire-and-forget mage I've run. He died on the way to the dungeon, when a random encounter came up as displacer beasts. They don't Sleep very well…

Linda

The first character who went up levels was from my brother's dungeon (early 1977):

Human Female Thief. Str 13 Int 9 Wis 11 Con 16 Dex 16 (12Left) Cha 12 Will 8 Size 12 (5′9″) Psi 0

Cash 36GP, Exp 7586 (4th level) Hits 16 (with the original D4/level HP for a thief), AC7 (leather).

Sling, +1 sword, +1 dagger, pack, ring of regeneration, ring of invisibility, horse (with harness).

The original character sheet (half a coding form from the local computer lab) also contains a hit-list of characters (run by lower VIth formers, and other such vermin) that had sassed her. She had a brother Leon, who was a bard (as per an early Strategic Review), and no discernable character development.

Osrica

The most significant character (and only one for whom records survive) from the dungeons I ran at the time (again early 1977, with vary variant systems already)

Half-elf Female Mage Str 9 Int 16 Learning 15 Con 15 DexR 18 DexL 10 Cha 21 Will 15 Size 10 Psi 8 Sense 15

Elementalist +12 Generalist +4 Illusionist +0. MU 106248eps (8th), Fighter/blade 3000xp Fighter/Missile 3400 xp107 Spell points.

Attacks values (sword) vs dodge 6; dodge 16 parry 6/slice 3/jab, antiparry 0 Blow strength Stab10/Cut12

Equipment - Sword +1, locater; Flame lance (22 charges) Regeneration ring (1 pt/10 rounds) Invisibility ring, Bracers R10, Illusion Gloves, Personal wand of lightsabre x2 (enchanted item that multiplied spell points flowing through it).

Spells (Red Book precursor system)
Spell Learning bonus Use bonus Notes
Conjure Elemental +1 +1 1/2 8-dice = power 33
Dimension Door +3 +1 1/2
Monster Summoning +1 +1 1/2 Umber hulk 37, small white dragon 31
Wizard Lock E24
Dispel Magic (G)
Read Magic (G)
Cloudkill 4 die = 31
Icestorm +2 1/3 3d10 = 27
Wall of Fog E14
Shield (G)
Detect Magic (G) +2 2/3
Phantasmal Killer (I) +1
Sonic Attack +1 4 die = 28
Demon Summon Vampire = 41
Silence
Lightsabre +3 +0 =26, +2 per plus

She was one of a family with similar names that my brother played (I still remember the regrets I felt when the oldest of them, her brother Ulric, fell to a carrion crawler in the Hall of Machines…)

Ororo

The highest level D&D character I ever ran was almost my last ever spell-caster. From Martyn Wheeler's 78-9 dungeon

Human female elementalist Str 12/12 Int 17 Wis 9 Faith 13 Con 10 Immunity 13 Dex 14/15 Cha 22, Size 8 Build 9 Will 7.

Elementalist +10, Generalist +4, Illusionist -3 Enchanter -7; Level 12 (904,822xp) 140,384 GP 28 HP

Staff of Wizardry (105 charges left), Rings of spell-turning, fire resistance, prot+1, scrolls of Improve Invisibility (x2) Forcewall (x2) Firestorm (x3) fly (x3)

Cat

Her familiar

pseudodragon elementalist Str 7 Int 10, Wis 16, Faith 5 Con 15, Imm 12 Dex 24, Cha 20, size 15, Build 14, Will 31

Elementalist +9, Illusionist+9; Level 11 (714,500xp) 48 HP

Ring of invisibility, ring of 7 spell storing (Disintegrate, Teleport and a bunch of Elemental summonings)

Ororo and Cat together

This chaotic good pair chafed rather under the rigid lawful-good senior members of the party (she joined at first when most were at levels 4-5), especially the treasure division system based on xp-hours of delving less value of current items, and the strange ideas about what were or were not fair targets. Having managed to be the one to pick up this staff to try, she adopted a “take it off me if you think you're hard enough” approach, which being at least nine tenths of the law, led to acquiesnces by the lawfuls. Having it, she used it only in extremis (usually to summon elementals as dumb hit-points). She first took damage at about 7th level when a gas spore exploded; and only died once at 12th level, when a ~20th level enchanter lich managed to mass charm much of the party, including the fighter with the vorpal blade. And she rolled an 00 on her system shock roll — but the GM ruled that the number of hit-points her familiar had were enough to mean that she had never really died, and only needed the healing effect of the raise to re-attach her head.

By the end, Ororo's role was combat air patrol (she is the subject of the many of the early memorable experiences catalogued elsewhere), but with the campaign emerging from the dungeon into almost heroquesting, in a cross-planar (from misty moors, to fire, to ice, to the magic garden) expedition to a magical place of power, she finally found something that was a worthy goal. She would perform the quest again herself, to the strange garden of the Crystal Pyramid, and rather than looting the pyramid, perform certain rituals about the sundial that lay between the entrance gates (cast iron, not inter-planar portals) to gather the power to create her own demi-plane, a small island surrounded by the shimmering void. Entered from the plane of ice, it was to be a place of snow covered pine forest, with people of the pines all over. Some 50 miles from the entry, behind a maze of force walls, a valley that was a summer garden, with a little cottage where she could retire.

But the campaign underwent a system conversion to use a different combat system, and the changes in relative character ability that this wrought crashed the campaign. At that point she was the highest level equal (behind the Enchanter, Fortash, who was about to break to 13th).

Tuesday 26 June 1979

.DSYS

Systems from Martyn Wheeler's old Dungeon Delving Campaign

Magic system

This magic system, known to the players as .DSYS, and to others as another instance of “Oh god, the Cambridge Magic System”. WPR is Willpower, another, new, characteristic.

Stat bonuses
Stat Caster Type 1 2 3 - 5 6 - 8 9 - 11 12 - 13 14 - 15 16 - 18 19 - 21 22 - 26 27 - 30 31 - 33 34 & up
INT All -9 -6 -3 -1 0 +1 +1 +2 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6
CHA Elementalist -9 -6 -3 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8
DEX Illusionist -6 -4 -2 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9
WPR Enchanter -9 -6 -3 -1 0 +1 +1 +2 +2 +3 +3 +4 +5

Stats used are INT&CHA for elementalist spells, INT&DEX for illusions, INT&WPR for enchantments and INT twice for general magic spells. Open ended rolling up and/or per species bonuses could result in high stat values (a Noldor elf had, IIRC a percentile roll that pushed 18(00) CHA up to mean 30 and then took a D4 bonus on top of that). At least in some branches of this system the stats used for bonuses were intended to make women and elves potent at Elemental magic.

Specialisation Bonuses
Humans,Elves, etc: Wiri
In specialisation +3 Elementalist spell +7
Out of specialisation -8 Illusionist spell +3
General spells +0 All other spells -10
Generalist caster +0

Wiri were a local “special”; warriors or mages, always Lawful/Good, small furballs with legs. They had reasonable natural armour, but could not wear other armour, and gained one size up of hit dice. They needed some stat minima, and took 5000ep base for warrior, 6250ep base for MU, if I understand my notes correctly. I don't have the full spec, as I never cared to use them.

Casting spells

Excess E = ( bonuses + d20 + MU Level ) - (10 + 2 * spell level) - penalties

Maximum castable level = (INT * (MU Level))/6

Excess
0 or greater spell succeeds, effect depends on value of E
-1 to -3 no effect
-4 to-6 backfire, see spell table for effect
-7 or Less Insanity, see table below
Insanity
Value of E Effect on MU Experience Levels Lost
-7 to -9 Feeblemind 3d6 mins None
-10 to -11 Feeblemind d6 hours 1
-12 to -13 Catatonic 3d6 mins 2
-14 to -15 Catatonic d6 hours 3
-16 to -17 Permanently catatonic 4
-18 to -22 Homicidal 5
-23 to -27 Death 6
-28 down Irrecoverable Death N/A

NOTE: Levels lost cannot be recovered by a clerical “restoration” spell. After an insanity result, the MU cannot cast any spells for a number of days equal to |E+7|

Casting time

Standard casting time = ( spell level + 2 ) seconds (where 1 round = 2 seconds)

For each second reduction in time there is a penalty of -1 on that cast. If the caster wishes to reduce the casting time below 1 second, a different penalty system is imposed:

Penalty for 1/N second = N * (spell level + 2);

Fatigue

The other source of penalties on spell casts is due to the MU 'running out of energy' as he/she casts more and more spells. According to the level of the MU casting the spell, and the total number of spell levels cast already (NOT including the spell about to be cast), consult the following table (sorry, there never was a formula that I knew of):

MU level counts down, one band per level, so up to level 30 here, and across (marked in fives of levels cast, so the table runs up to 30 levels cast). The bands are of increasing penalty (zero for white, -1 for dark grey, -2 light, -3 white again and so on). The red line means each spell level cast is an extra -1, so for 1st level caster, the table is 0,1,1,2,3,4... Fatigue recovers in 60/CON hours after incurred.

Spell lists

Generalist spells are things like Detect Magic, Detect Evil, Read Magic, and Dispel Magic. Enchanter and Illusionist spells are roughly the two schools as per the usual spell listings, and Elementalist are all the rest, but the repertoire was drawn from the much smaller pool of spells in the original rules set. The spell lists are too cumbersome to scan in (line printer paper), and a pain to transcribe manually, so only a sampler:-

Sample Enchanter spell effect charts
2) The Healing touch of Fortash

Backfire - not known

Success - heal = (E+1)/2 points, rounding up

2) ESP

Backfire - Thought projection as for E = 4d6

Success - range = (E+1) paces, duration 3(E+1) minutes

Sample Elementalist spell effect charts
1) Knock

Backfire -Hold Portal, E= d20

Success - open door at STR = E+14

1) Magic Machinegun
Excess Number Range
@ d6+1 each missile
1pace ~ 75cm
Backfire Take d6 damage
0-1 1 5 paces
2-3 1 10
4-5 1 15
6-8 2 20
9-11 2 30
12-14 2 40
15-19 3 50
20-24 3 60
25-29 4 65
+5 +1 +5
3) Fireball/Lightning bolt/Cold beam
Excess D6s Range/length
Bolts and beams fold to their full lengths.
FB fills dice times 200 m3
Backfire Storm spell on caster E=2d10
0-1 1 20 paces
2-3 1 35
4-5 2 50
6-8 4 60
9-11 6 70
12-14 8 80
15-19 9 90
20-24 10 100
25-29 12 110
+5 +2 +10
4) Fire/Lightning /Ice Storm
Excess Damage/round Duration Range Diameter
2s rounds, remember!
Backfire: Storm spell on caster E=5d6
0-1 2d4 1 min 5 paces 5 paces
2-3 2d6 2 8 7
4-5 2d8 3 10 9
6-8 3d6 4 20 12
9-11 3d8 5 30 14
12-14 3d10 6 40 16
15-19 5d6 7 45 20
+5 +d6 +1 +5 +5

Example

My L12 MU Ororo, with Int 17 (+2), Cha 22(+5), Dex 14 (+3) Wpr 7 (-1) is +10 Elementalist, +4 for general spells, -3 Illusionist, and -7 Enchanter.

At 1/4s casting time, Magic Machinegun is at penalty 12, giving E = 22+d20-24 = d20-2 when fresh. If she does that all round, for the second half of the round she is at an extra -1, and after two rounds, with 16 spell levels cast, she is at E = d20-5, and thinking about slowing down.

A 2s Fireball is then E = d20 for her.

Flaws

The numbers meant generalist spells were rarely used and out-of-specialty never. Sub-second casting is probably too easy. The de facto need to bring spells down to 1 round or less means that a new spell level is gained every three levels - even MU12s didn't cast higher than 4th level except outside adventures. The system as written also suffered a legacy problem from its ancestors, that using Charm spells to control the minds of others could cause the enchanter to gain WPR, and hence increase his stat bonus, but no other spells had such permanent benefit.

The three-way division of spells worked with the small spell lists of the time of devising (pre-1978), but would need reworking for the bigger lists - I'd started to do that by splitting Enchanter to put the body/life-form affecting spells into a Sorcerer group (CON), and the raw energy spells from Elementalist to Luminor (STR), and evening up the stat bonuses to (INT+req)/3 - 8 rather than use tables - but that didn't address the other flaws.

Cleric system

A cleric has (level*(level+1)/2) + (faith-13) piety points. D20+points used must exceed the spell level. A roll of 1 always fails, and at least one point must be used per casting. Failures have no effect. Spell levels ran from 4 (for things normally given as abilities) through 15 for the normal lowest level spells, up to 50 for the most powerful spells; or to a first approximation, spell level = 10+5*common level for spell.

There was a separate druid system, which combined elements of both of the above, but it was imported from another campaign, and never quite fitted. The idea that system had of making Druids not at all hasty (just like Ents) was that they didn't mesh with sub-second MU castings, and encounters geared to that sort of speed.