Author Topic: Concepts  (Read 24621 times)

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Re: Concepts
« Topic Start: October 20, 2011, 05:35:27 PM »
I'd like to point out the conclusion of an IRC discussion we had yesterday as well: The current magic system is one of the least flexible possible and precludes several otherwise-traditional spellcaster roles from being played effectively. The three mentioned specifically were Illusionist, "nature mage" and Necromancer. Within the framework of the existing magic system, these and other classic archetypes are literally unplayable.

It, additionally, has some very awkward bases (I'm looking at you, Death) which have very little practical application. While it is technically supposed to cover "Unlife", GM rulings on spell research have left it capable of little more than a way to kill, protect yourself from being killed by Death, or find out how someone died. Combined with other facts -- such as the strange or complete lack of interaction between certain bases and intents -- the result is that only one mage archetype is possible: a blaster.

I think the root cause of this awkwardness, as Tim put it yesterday, is that the system's balance is based around proximate end effects and not ultimate effect, leading not only to the issues mentioned above, but things such as extremely high-power zero-usefulness spells. 5/5/5 Fire/Perceive? Compare that to the Body base which works with literally every intent.
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Life in Night that they walk; Gods, heretics, thieves, and murderers.
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