Magic mechanics

[Azradesh]

I was thinking about magic use in RPGs and would really love it if this game did not use the massively over used mana system. I think it'd also be pretty cool if magic wasn't mostly reactive and combat based.

 

Some random ideas and things I'd like to see...

• Spells you had to plan ahead to use
  
• Maybe you need reagents
  
• the use of symbols/runes/glyphs on your gear/weapons or the ground
  
• an altar of some kind
  
• sacfice something to gain something
  
• all of the above
  

If I'm playing a mage I'd like also to see and use magic in every aspect of the game, to see/feel/hear things others don't, to bypass problems that other classes may have greater issues with. I don't want it just to be the magic unlock and the magic persuasion.

 

I'm no game designer and so I'll leave it up to you lovely devs to sort it all out, but I just thought I should throw that out there.

 

Anyone else have any thoughts on the matter?

[eimatshya]

If we're talking about ritual magic, then requiring advanced preparation makes sense to me. I don't really like when games make you prepare more conventional spells in advance, though (e.g. the Vancian magic system). When you have to memorize how to cast a lightning bolt but then forget it as soon as you cast it, it makes magic feel... not very magic. I don't know, I've just never got the D&D magic system. It has always made magic feel week and awkward to me.

 

Being able to cast powerful spells through a ritual system that employed some of the stuff that OP suggests would be kind of neat, but I'm not sure how much of a dynamic system you could make within the confines of a computer game. Having to work a ritual in a specific instance as part of the plot would work, but being able to use it in unscripted ways seems like it would be difficult to program. I guess it could work for stuff like summoning.

[IcyDeadPeople]

Since this is primarily a party-based game, I hope we will also see some interesting synergies, where perhaps a mage can cast fire on an oil trap set by a stealth character, etc.

Edited September 19, 2012 by IcyDeadPeople

[Eleneithel]

In most cases I've seen, RPG on PC rest on a magic system where there is either a limited number of spells that you can cast before resting, either a limited diversity of spells that you can cast as long as you have a sufficient amount of mana.

 

Maybe Project Eternity is an opportunity to implement a more original magic system. For those who know Warhammer FRP (2nd edition), I have always find interest the wizard's ability to cast spells without limitations, but their ability to cast at will is balanced by a system of secundary effects known as Tzench's curse. I would find interesting that spellcasters of Project Eternity be bound to a similar system with the following characteristics (for exemple):

 

- Ability to cast spells at will

 

- After a certain amount of incantations (following the will or the constitution of the character), the caster tires and has more chances to fail a spell or to provoke secundary effects because his magic mastery is weakened by his own fatigue.

 

- Spells could have secundary effects to a certain extent (the more powerful the spell, the more chance there are secundary effects). These side-effects would differ following the type of spells with a great variety of effects: the death of the spellcaster, the spell hits the wrong target, the spell reverse his effect, ens...

 

 

Sure it would be harder to play a spellcaster in such conditions, but it can be a way to balanced their powerfull magic (or their most powerfull spells) with a part of unknown. I think magic is a force that cannot be entirely controled, dominated and remains an enthropic and hazardous power. The skill of a spellcaster would reside in his ability to channel magic as well as his ability to use magic at the right times and not overuse it. In such mechanics, a spellcaster would not be as vulnerable as a D&D wizard because they always must rely on a vast diversity of skills and talents to survive, not only their ability to cast magic.

[KenThomas]

Definitely cool ideas Eleneithel. Those are pretty creative limitations. Typically in rpg's if not given significant restraints the mage always becomes the character that has absolutely by far the most effect on a battle.