Impact of attributes: Intellect restriction of spells

[Gulliver]

Many people have complained about the lack of impact of attributes in the beta and specifically about might rather than intellect influencing the damage of spells.

 

I am somewhat split over this. On the one hand, I do think it makes sense to split raw magical power and the ability to intricately control spells into two different attributes. On the other hand, intellect influencing only aoe and duration does not seem to give intellect the kind of relevance I would like it to have for wizards.

 

As a suggestion: How about giving spells an intellect requirement? What I mean here isn't an intellect requirement that is vertical, i.e. that is linked to the level of the spell, which makes low intelligence mages useless in DnD for example, but horizontal, i.e. that every spell level has spells with a range of different intellect requirements. Very simple spells (e.g. spells that simply blow stuff up) can be cast by any wizard of sufficient level, more complicated spells require high intellect.

 

With this concept, bookworm-type mages would profit greatly from taking intellect and muscle mages with intellect 7 remain a viable option for someone who wants a wizard at the front lines exploding people.

[Grand_Commander13]

... How is this any better an idea than making so that Intellect drastically increases the duration and area of effect of spells, so a control mage would be more interested in Intellect than Might?

 

In fact, how does this help? It sounds like it's just an attempt to shoehorn in the requirement that mages be smart, without the setting or the system actually requiring it to be so.

[Gulliver]

... How is this any better an idea than making so that Intellect drastically increases the duration and area of effect of spells, so a control mage would be more interested in Intellect than Might?

 

In fact, how does this help? It sounds like it's just an attempt to shoehorn in the requirement that mages be smart, without the setting or the system actually requiring it to be so.

 

It creates a sensible impact of intellect on spellcasting. Why on earth would a fireball of a mage with high intellect have a larger area of impact? In fact, why would any spell? More area really just means: more of the same stuff. Sensibly, putting more energy into a fireball would make a bigger explosion. Why does being smarter make you able to disperse energy over a larger area, but might enables you to create a higher energy density? If might governs the energy of spells, then neither duration nor area make any sense as a result of intellect. Energy = energy density*area or energy=power*time...both should thus be governed by might, if anything.

Frankly, the mechanical impact of intellect seems to have no connection to what that attribute is supposed to describe.

 

Also, it creates reasonable restrictions on a muscle wizard as a powerful, but simple wizard.

[Hamenaglar]

 

... How is this any better an idea than making so that Intellect drastically increases the duration and area of effect of spells, so a control mage would be more interested in Intellect than Might?

 

In fact, how does this help? It sounds like it's just an attempt to shoehorn in the requirement that mages be smart, without the setting or the system actually requiring it to be so.

 

It creates a sensible impact of intellect on spellcasting. Why on earth would a fireball of a mage with high intellect have a larger area of impact? In fact, why would any spell? More area really just means: more of the same stuff. Sensibly, putting more energy into a fireball would make a bigger explosion. Why does being smarter make you able to disperse energy over a larger area, but might enables you to create a higher energy density? If might governs the energy of spells, then neither duration nor area make any sense as a result of intellect. Energy = energy density*area or energy=power*time...both should thus be governed by might, if anything.

Frankly, the mechanical impact of intellect seems to have no connection to what that attribute is supposed to describe.

 

Also, it creates reasonable restrictions on a muscle wizard as a powerful, but simple wizard.

 

 

I love the concept of a muscle wizard. I could believe that casting spells might be physically taxing and that physical power is necessary. I could also believe that more intelligent wizards have learned better to control the energy and disperse it over larger area. But as you pointed out, if strength/might/whatever is necessary to produce certain energy, how come that an intelligent wizard can spread this energy over wider area, but can not condense it to a smaller area for more damage.

 

Also considering that the greater the area of effect, the more energy was actually dispensed (in a quadratic growth actually), meaning that probably high intellect wizards/low muscle wizards disperse more energy than high muscle/low intellect wizards.

 

I would really like an explanation for that. In terms of in-world physics, meta-physics and magic-physics.

Edited August 25, 2014 by Hamenaglar

[PrimeJunta]

IMO making the AoE effect of INT more pronounced and combining it with making the area controllable from base radius to radius with INT bonus would sort this out nicely. High-INT wizards would get significantly more control over their spells, low-INT ones would be restricted to base radius. It's a tangible benefit but not so much it would make INT a must-have stat for AoE spellcasters.

[Gfted1]

I haven't really been able to give AoE spells a good testing. With the nature of PoE combat being what it is, I can only fire one spell off at the beginning of the fight and then 3 seconds later everyone is in one giant pile so I cant use AoE anymore. So far, for me, there has been zero benefit to AoE size or duration being bigger/longer.

[PrimeJunta]

IMO the base AoE is too big for almost all AoE spells. I can fit most enemies within the base radius fireball already, for example, and the priest AoE buffs/debuffs are ridiculously large. I say shrink 'em and make the INT bonus bigger.

[Sensuki]

I haven't really been able to give AoE spells a good testing. With the nature of PoE combat being what it is, I can only fire one spell off at the beginning of the fight and then 3 seconds later everyone is in one giant pile so I cant use AoE anymore. So far, for me, there has been zero benefit to AoE size or duration being bigger/longer.

Same. I open with a Fireball, usually. Then that's about it as far as AoE is concerned.

[Gulliver]

IMO making the AoE effect of INT more pronounced and combining it with making the area controllable from base radius to radius with INT bonus would sort this out nicely. High-INT wizards would get significantly more control over their spells, low-INT ones would be restricted to base radius. It's a tangible benefit but not so much it would make INT a must-have stat for AoE spellcasters.

 

That would also be a possibility.

But as I pointed out, more area with the same damage would equal more total energy, which doesn't really make sense from a lore standpoint. One way to solve this would be to scale the damage inversely with the area.

 

Also, the scaling could work in both directions, say from -15% to 30% for max int. Frankly, I'd think that the possiblity of making aoe spells smaller would be far more useful than making them larger. In fact, them being larger might often hurt more than it helps.