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Originally Posted by shovelquest
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did taunt even exist in a game before 1999?
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It was added to 1E AD&D in the supplemental book Unearthed Arcana (1987).
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Taunt (Enchantment)
Level: 1 Components: V, S
Range: 3" Casting Time: 1 round
Duration: Instantaneous Saving Throw: Neg.
Area of Effect: 2 levels or hit dice per level of caster
Explanation/Description: A taunt spell enables the caster to jape and jeer effectively with respect to any creature with an intelligence of 2 or greater. The spell's dweomer gives the magic-user's words and sounds real meaning to the subject creature or creatures. These words and sounds will challenge the subject(s), be insulting, and in general cause irritation and anger. If the subject creature or creatures fail to save versus spell, the taunt spell will cause them to rush forth in fury to do battle with the spell caster, and each and every affected creature so coming will certainly attack the spell caster if physically capable of doing so, i.e. they will seek to use body weapons and hand-held weapons rather than attacking from a distance.
Separation by an impenetrable or uncrossable boundary (a wall of flame, a deep chasm) will cause the spell to break. Only one sort of creature can be affected by a single taunt spell; in a mixed group of orcs and goblins (for instance) the caster would be able to affect either the orcs or the goblins (caster's choice), but not both at once. The magic affects creatures closest to the spell caster first, regardless of maximum range. Thus, if a group of gnolls were being taunted by a 10th-level magic-user, the nearest ten creatures would be subject to the spell first, even though the spell caster might prefer to affect the gnollish shaman at the rear of the group. Troops under a strong leader would gain a saving throw bonus of + 1 to +4, at the DM's discretion.
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It was later added to the 2e AD&D Players Handbook (89), removed in 3e (2000), kinda brought back for 4e (2008) and then turned into goad/compelled duel in 5e (2014).
It was also a skill/spell in JRGs during the early 90s. The earliest Final Fantasy that used it was FF3 (1990, the actual FF3 btw not the US version of FF6) in a skill called Provoke.
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Provoke is the Viking class's command ability, which forces the enemy party to attack the user and lowers the enemy's Defense equal to the following formula:
Enemy Defense = Original Defense x (100 - (0.5 x JobLv))%
The success rate of Provoke is as follows:
Job Level 1-20 = 60%
Job Level 21-40 = 70%
Job Level 41-80 = 80%
Job Level 81-98 = 90%
Job Level 99-100 = 100%
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I'm not quite autistic enough to look through 80s JRPG spell lists but I wouldn't be surprised.
The way taunt worked in JRPGs is more in line to how it worked in MMOs and later editions of D&D where the guy with lots of AC and HP directed attacks at themselves. In AD&D 1e it was only used as a "Tank" taunt by Elvish Fighter/Magic Users because they could wear armor and cast spells. It was incredibly OP though because it was an AoE and would let you do things like set up ambushes, kill people in "self defense" in the middle of town, force casters/ranged into melee, combine it with illusions to have people run into traps.
They actually made it even more OP in 2E AD&D by making it a ranged AOE, instead of PBAOE, with a range of 60 yards and an effect of 30 feet. They also allowed you to use ventriloquism with it.
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If used in conjunction with a ventriloquism
spell, the creatures may attack the apparent source, depending upon
their Intelligence, a leader’s presence, and so on.
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So you could drop an anger bomb on a group of NPCs and force them to attack whatever you wanted pretty much. Ventriloquism also had a range of 10 yards/lvl (90 max) so you could sit back and do this pretty safely.
For 3e they pruned a lot of the OP stuff from AD&D so it probably was cut for balance reasons.
Interestingly looking around at the torilMUD skill lists I didn't find any Taunt but I did find Rescue.
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Rescue - allows you to jump in another player's place as target for the monster he is fighting.
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This is a bit like the Cover ability from FF3 and FF4 (1991)
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Final Fantasy III
The Cover ability is available for the Knight class. The Knight will automatically take physical attacks for any allies in HP Critical status.
Final Fantasy IV
Cover is used by Cecil as a command ability once he becomes a Paladin. Cover has a Charge Time of 0. He can use it to take damage in the place of an ally of his choice. He automatically covers any characters who are low on HP.
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But yeah anyway taunt and aggro management skills have been around in table top and video games prior to 1999.
11-15-2024, 07:22 PM
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