> Lots of discussion about spells, etc, on the slow down combat thread, but I > thought I'd start a topic with just general ideas on spells.
A different sort of attune/repel by vocation: It is interesting how you can pick a particular spell path by vocation when a character is created, but at least at mid-levels, after getting all the different skills or talisman's, you can completely change your character's vocation, or level each equivalently. By vocation, I mean sorcery, evocation, summoning, and pyromancy. I stumbled on this idea because of the description of one of the magic vocations indicates the character will be a generalist of magic users even though it is difficult to see how that is true in point of fact. It strikes me that I have heard that it is not possible to have all of the vocations/paths/skills/whatever at the same level at the highest level or end-game, so this might not be applicable at all levels of play. Nonetheless, it struck me when creating a character the other day that it could be possible to change the way vocations are handled outside of the attune/repel attributes that religion can impose on paths. NOTE: Percentages given below are for discussion primarily, could be different but also could refer to experience earned and/or could be placed into a computation to determine mana used to cast the spell along the lines of attunement and repelling. 1) Vocational concentration - It is harder to master multiple trades. Let's say we create a summoner. It seems fair to say that if a character is created as an summoner, that it should be difficult to change vocations. The idea I had was to allow normal/unmodified experience earning to occur inside the chosen vocation, but to inhibit the ability to cross-train in other vocations. If the character later learns a new vocation such as pyromancy, this vocation would earn experience at a reduced rate... say 75% of what the primary vocation earns. A player could effectively switch vocations, but at a cost. Further, for each additional vocation learned, the cost would be modified down another 25% (understanding that there are 4 possible vocational paths in magic). For reference: 100% + 75% + 50% + 25% = 250. 2) The generalist - jack of all trades, master of none? Then, to make it even more interesting, a character could be designed that is a generalist from the start... not necessarily trained in all vocations at the start of the game, but able to use each vocation equally, though at a lower level than other vocations... say at about 60% effectiveness for each. Comparatively: 60% + 60% + 60% + 60% = 240. 3) Balancing growth by level - experience in one vocation aids in the understanding of new vocations. Say that talisman's are no longer able to be gained to automatically be able to "learn" new vocations. Perhaps then characters are granted an option to learn a new vocation at various points in their career. The character can choose the new vocation. Presumably the levels at which new vocations could be added are 25, 75, and 100. 4) The generalist revisited - fair play. As 2) above, combined with 3) above could make the generalist a bit weak, one could consider that a penalty along the lines of "jack of all trades, master of none". On the other hand, perhaps the generalist is permitted to learn additional vocations on an accelerated schedule, say at levels 20, 40, and 60, for example. 5) Acquiring new vocations - not necessarily granted. Perhaps achieving a certain level gains you the right to learn a new vocation at the hands of a master. Early renditions of the feature could simply grant the new vocations for simplicity, but possibly in such a way that a future revision of the game could support having to do a quest to obtain the training needed to acquire the vocation. Perhaps some fee might be associated with acquiring the training necessary to start practicing the additional vocation. 6) Learning Spells The ideas above could be implemented indirectly by affecting the chance-to-learn percentages to simplify things. Admittedly I have no real clue about role-playing game rule sets as I am mostly a "player" not a game designer or DM, so this might be somewhat preposterous, and further, after applying race mods and religious attune/repel mods, perhaps the system would be way too complex, but it is a thought on how one might achieve balance across the spectrum of levels and vocational lines. Right now, in the game there are places where talismans/skill scrolls may be found so one can hit up those places frequently to increase the chances of finding all of them, or, one high level player can give a new player a pile of talismans to make a super-magician at low-levels. Perhaps game balance would be facilitated by making it more difficult to create these super-magicians. Recognizing that certain vocations are considered poor should not be a reason to avoid this type of balancing since repairing the poor vocations should be done at a higher priority, but I guess I see the addition of new spells to support growth throughout the game as being yet another opportunity to abuse via gifting or repeat-plays of certain maps known to give talismans or skill scrolls. Anyway, not sure if this will fly, but figured there was at least merit to tossing it out as an idea in case it was okay or helped someone think of a better way to manage the same things. Kevin PS & OT: Physical combat? Perhaps something of this nature could also be done with physical combat skills also... to get away from having super-warriors that can use all weapons equally well and made possible through the acquisition of skill scrolls. The originally granted skills gained through character class and/or vocation would be unmodified, but additional combat skills would undergo some modification. Attune/Repel for physical combat? BTW, is it possible for a hobbit to effectively become a two-handed or poleaxe expert to the same basic degree a human/troll/orc can? Curious, because a skill scroll could give this skill to a hobbit that really should be repelled from using this type of weapon due to physical limits. I suppose other character stats might effectively take can of this, so maybe this it is a non-issue. I haven't tried it. _______________________________________________ crossfire mailing list crossfire@metalforge.org http://mailman.metalforge.org/mailman/listinfo/crossfire