Re: Magic

Scott Hauck (hauck@cs.washington.edu)
Mon, 10 Aug 92 20:05:37 -0700

Wes Jones writes a bunch of neat ideas to add to a mgic system.

A couple things that need to be pointed out on this topic before it proceeds:

1.) I don't think the Great God Atnerks is going to be happy with combat-magic.
>From what he's said in the past, this is one of his personal opinions. Outside
of this, magic in combat is hard to deal with. With a spell-toting combatant,
the unit can either cast one of several spells, or fight normally. We currently
have the choice of weapon to chose, but that's easily resolved by just picking
the weapon that will do the most damage. However, in magic this isn't as simple.
First off, how do you chose between "Fireball", which does 20 points of damage
to a unit, or "Phantom Armor" which diminises damage taken by 10%? What the
right choice to take is depends on the creature(s) being fought - a strong
opponent would call for the defensive spell, while a lone Orc would be better
fried than defended against. Also, what if you have to chose between "Fireball"
and "Ice Storm"? Against a Fire elemental, the choice would be obvious.
However, how does the system know that you know that a Achilles is suseptible
to Fire but not ice? This is a nasty problem that I don't think is easily
overcome

2.) I believe the magic system is slated to be moved to a multiple-school
system. Ie instead of General Magic, there'd be FIRE MAGIC, NECROMANCY, etc.,
and spells would be gained from one or more of these schools (ie. SUMMON FIRE
ELEMENTAL is only predicated on FIRE MAGIC level 3, while PHANTOM SHIP might
be predicated on AIR MAGIC 2 and WATER MAGIC 3). It might be more interesting
talk about what the schools should be as well as what the spells are.

BTW, several things in Wes's proposal I really liked:
A.) Illusions - being able to magically alter your appearance, faction number,or
even unit ID would be very fun additions.

B.) Charm spells - being able to alter the declared attitudes, or even
temporarily take control of a unit.

C.) Skill augmentation - spells like INVISIBILITY which increase stealth,
TELEPATHY which increases trade, etc. Also, it would be nice for spells which
fit with other skills, such as ENCHANT WEAPON, require not just magic skill but
skill in WEAPONSMITHING, thus making magic useful for the masses

So, I guess my current list of schools would be:
LIFE FORCE (Healing, Undead)
ELEMENTAL MAGIC (Weather, Water Walking, Flying)
MIND CONTROL (Charm, Clairvoyance)
ILLUSION (Invisiblity, Appearance alteration)
ANIMAL SUMMONING (Call Dragon Men, Create Orcs)

What do people think?

Scott


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