Magic school discussion

[cromcrom]

Hello here.

I think elemental and nature school feel a little close, elements feel like a part of nature.

And where would you place spells like "open locks", "sharpen edge" or "reinforce armor", (if you ever create them, of course ^^) for example ? Light magic ?

And why 3 quickCast slots ? Could it depend on skill, if it is relevant ?

And maybe some spells could use reagents, in a good old DnD way ^^

Thanks for fixing the no post issue, btw, it seems to work now

[Georges Dimitrov]

Thanks for getting the discussion going!

It's sure that nature has elements as well, and globally Nature Magic will get the classic Air and Earth spells in other game systems. The division between elemental and nature is done because there were too many spells relying on elements to fit them in one school, and also to better characterize the Mage class vs the Druid class (I'll talk more about how magic schools and magic user classes are related in part 2 of the post).

Light magic is also the color of enchantment, so it gets weapons/armor buffs. Open locks? That's a good question. Mind maybe, as it's a question of mind controlling/altering matter.

3 quick slots because it uses the same user interface as the weapon attacks (which had 3). It seemed like a good amount to force you to make choices about what you want to be readily able to cast.

Reagents for normal spells, I wouldn't say so. But maybe some other special kind of magic could require them...

[Jeremy Frenette]

I really hate reagent style magic. Every D&D Campaign I've ever been in or ran removed material components.

[cromcrom]

3 quick slots because it uses the same user interface as the weapon attacks (which had 3). It seemed like a good amount to force you to make choices about what you want to be readily able to cast.

I LOVE skills. I think everything should be tied to skills. So in that case, the better you are in magic, the more slots are open for quick cast. Just a thought, nothing to get crazy over ^^

[Jeremy Frenette]

3 quick slots because it uses the same user interface as the weapon attacks (which had 3). It seemed like a good amount to force you to make choices about what you want to be readily able to cast.

I LOVE skills. I think everything should be tied to skills. So in that case, the better you are in magic, the more slots are open for quick cast. Just a thought, nothing to get crazy over ^^

I like that idea. But we want at least three quick slots minimum. So We might run into a gui/space issue.

[JohnWordsworth]

A bit late to the party, but hey. I just wanted to chip in and say that I like the idea of reagent magic for a small handful of special spells to make them feel more special. More than 'every now and then' would become a PITA, but for super powerful spells I like the idea that you need to consume a reagent in the process (could be automatic if it's in your inventory, but in that case the casting takes a second or two more to emulate the time to retrieve the item).

Another option is to make consumable reagents optional to add extra power to a spell. i.e. Cast a fireball with a small pot of sulphur in your hand and it will do 50% more damage (but the component is burned up).

[Jeremy Frenette]

It may be jarring to just have a delay on the spell.
Personally the first time that would happen to me, I would immediately try to cast the spell again.

But perhaps some sort of "Casting" icon could prevent it?