RE: [Arianne-general] Magic System Comments

[Brian T. <bri...@ho...>]

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  Where does magic come from?:
The ultimate source of magic is from the gods of Arianne, but for each spell
that is cast the source of magic depends on the type of magic itself. The
essence of magic is channeled through the caster and their equipped objects
in the process of casting the spell. The casters abilities determine how
much of the essence may safely be channeled by the character at any one
time.

Just to note that I think that it is allow to try to cast a powerful spell
with a low level but with the risk of failing it and being damaged.

Agreed, this is discussed later in the html.  You can cast a spell but the
success is effected by your level compared to the spells difficulty(I
discussed most of the computer mechanics in the system html)  The person may
have a book that says this to cast this spell you do this, but until you
have 'learned' the spell you have to use the more mechanical method of
choosing the forms from the menu, rather than simply using the quick cast
button that exists for 'learned' spells.  Until you have 'learned' the spell
you don't really have enough experience with it to say "Hey, I got it now, I
understand"



Elemental(Fire,Earth,Air,Water):

For Elemental magics if the player is below level 128 ability the magical
essence is stored in in Runes these runes are tetrahedrons of crystal. These
runes are formed from the magical substance known as lodestone. Lodestones
are found or mined and are useless in the original form. Lodestones are
taken to Temples to be aligned to the type of magic that they will hold.
Depending on the quality of the lodestone and the skill of the cleric that
is attempting to align it the lodestone will wind up having some finite
volume for the magical essence it will hold. Once a lodestone is aligned it
will have an affinity for other runes aligned to the same essence, so much
so that should 2 or more runes of the same alignment be brought into contact
the result will be a single rune with the combine essence volume of those
combined, however due to the energies that the runes contain they become
less stable as their essence volume increases, unless runes are combined in
magical ways to raise their size as well, but casting these types of spells
require the use on ritual magic and usually are only performed in Temples,
due to the use of void magic and the sheer amounts of magical essence
required.

I dislike the idea of the monopoly, I think that to fill the Lodestone it
should be able to be done by anyone with the knowedge. Anyway if you think
that this break your idea, just skip this line.

Sorry building the social structures again.  The spells that I say are cast
at the temple, are mainly cast there because they are very powerful spells
and take much essense to cast and ability to control.  Any spell can be cast
by anyone if they know, but I would say certain spells would be highly
guarded by the temples.  In fact the exact method of casting most essense
transfer spells would include some very powerful void magic to guide the
essense from the source into the runes, so these would require void casters
with high ability in the elemental essense that they are trying to transfer.

Natural(Body,Mind,Spirit):

For natural magics the source of magical essence is the caster them self.
Casting a Body spell will drain Constitution, casting a Mind Spell will
drain Willpower, and casting a Spirit Spell will drain Karma from the
caster. The casters ability in each area defines how much of their own
magical essence they can channel and form into a spell. Because of the way
in which natural spells are cast the casters are unable to heal themselves
for losses in each of these areas. A healer would cast Heal on another and
in turn loose their own Constitution(unlike for damage this loss is direct
and is not related to size) so for a healer to truly be a healer they would
have to be able to recover their own Constitution quickly by having a high
Recovery stat,at higher levels they maybe able to drain strength or syphon
it from other players. Mentalist would specialize in Illusions and Telepathy
and be able to drive other characters mad (key rotation) or be able to drain
Intellect from other characters, at higher levels they maybe able syphon
Intellect from other characters. Mentalists would drop in Willpower for
every spell cast and so to be an effective caster would have to be able to
restore willpower quickly by having a high Meditation stat. Spirit casters
would be able to communicate with the dead and effect the Essence of other
players at the cost of the casters own Karma. To be an effective Soulist the
caster must be willing to lead a very pious life and must be very devout to
there gods, specifically the Spirit god.

Someone that talk with Deads? It could be a good idea.

BTW I just remind that we still have to choose a place for the afterlife.
Don't worry I've started working on some preliminary stuff, in my journals,
but I want to get the living world to a good point before I struggle with
the afterlife.


How are spells cast?:

Spells are cast using combinations of Mantra(spoken,prayers and singing),
Tantra(hand and body forms such as dance), Yantra(written symbols, sigils,
tattoos, and mental images). Generally speaking each portion of a spell
defines the spell effect, the effected target, the range, and duration of
the spell. Each type of magic has a particular method of casting that is
favored for instance Air elemental magic will favor heavily the spoken word
as the method of cast and Body natural magic will prefer hand and body
forms, however methods are not completely exclusive and different
combinations may result in the same spell being cast. There are advantages
and disadvantages to each method of casting ;such as for speed spoken
methods will be the quickest, followed by hand forms, and final drawing will
be the slowest; however as far as duration the spoken method will be the
shortest with handforms being the next durable and finally the effects of
some drawing/sigils may be very long indeed. As for range the spoken methods
limits will be hearing distance, the hand forms effects are limited to line
of sight, and the sigils maybe limited to within the drawing itself. For a
strong caster they would have to master several ways of casting a single
spell to prevent from being crippled by a single type of attack against
them. These attacks maybe be circles of silence for spoken casting, binding
spells for handforms, and stupefying spells for any of the forms.

Of course should a caster lose sufficient Intellect due to a club to the
head this may have the same effect as a stupefy spell.

Ok, I am realizing that perhaps sectorial damage isn't as good as I think,
what would be the point of having a stupid mage or a handless warrior?. We
could make something to heal these damages, perhaps on temples or a spell.


   Casters that are low on intellect will wait for willpower to raise their
intellect back to the level where they can cast.  Handless warriors will
have to goto a magic that can cast a body spell to make the hand regrow, or
make them a magical hand!?

How are spells learned?:

Spells are learned through several possible methods. ...

Will the list of Spells be close? Or we will create a group of spells that
can be mixed to get a new spell?

I think that we are doing the second.
Yes the second.  The effects and the costs will be variable and we can keep
adding effects as we think them up/discover them we will merely add the
spells that use these new effects the the spell tree.
Also as the scale is exponential, a level 255, can mean that the spell takes
no essense and that it is powerful.
If you are casting the original level 1 spell it would cost less to cast and
be as powerful as you originally cast it when you were a level 1 caster,
however you would be able to cast it with 100%(or nearly) certainty that you
would cast it successfully.  3 advantages, cost to cast went down, power
went up, percentage success went up.  In this case if we cast the spell at
level 1 it is the same power but the success is better and the cost went
down.  Because you are talking about 3 possible effects I would say there is
a minimal cost for casting any spell, but if you are very high the cost to
your resources is limited(a caster >128 doesn't lose essense from the rune
for elemental spells) and the success is better.  But really why cast it at
level 1 unless you really need to conserve energy of some sort.  If I knew
it at level 64 I would cast it, unless I thought it would fail when I really
needed it.
 Just a question:
Could be a spell level 1 casted by a skill 255 mage be more powerful than a
spell level 2 casted by a skill 1 mage?
It would cost less if cast at level 1 and be more likely to succeed, but if
both were cast and successful the level 2 spell would be more powerful.
This is a choice the caster has to make power, cost, success.

How are items the caster is wearing effected by the magical essence during
the cast? / How do they effect the cast?

We could use AD&D approach, a Mage can't use armor. But as we are classless,
it will give a bit advantage to a warrior like chraracter.

Also you can penalize for things that make hard to cast the spell, just as
having two swords and cast something with hand forms. You know.
   Exactly, but stay away from AD&D insinuations please.  If a caster casts
a fire magic spell and they are wearing a wood buckler the buckler may catch
on fire(depending on the quality of the buckler,bashed wood catches fire
more easily than whole wood, and the power of the spell) if they are wearing
steel armor they maybe burned if the spell backfires, etc...  Some materials
will insulate and some conduct depending on the type of material and the
type of magic.  Steel armor may rust if subjected to too many water spells.
But some items may actually windup assisting the caster in channeling the
essense, conducting through itself and the caster has an advantage.  For
fire the steel may help the caster when they are wearing steel gauntlets and
cast burning hands more damage will be done, but if they are wearing
dragonhide it will conduct less and the amount of damage will drop.  Many
possibilities, this should simply be a switch for conducts/neutral/insulates
for each item and magic type and the ability to conduct/insulate will be in
another field for each magic.
 For instance:
                     Fire conducts +5 fire +5 air/electricity  -3 earth  -3
water however if a spell backfires this could be a disadvantage.  Fire magic
backfire will conduct more of the heat back to damage you.  Water and earth
backfires would be insulated but for water after contact with water the
quality of steel would drop due to rust.

More to come.

Brian Thompson