I think this is in the right forum. Anyways, anyone have a good/creative idea for change MP to something else? The whole concept is starting to seem a little silly to me?
What about the D&D version, spells per day?
Thanks in Advance
-Dark Weasel ^.^
ID:265404
 May 17 2005, 1:14 pm
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While I generally prefer spellcasting classes I tend to end up playing fighter types in games because of plenty of tedious management generally involved with mages. The DnD one is completely annoying and depending on the game MP can be also since you generally end up either having to slowly wait for it to regenerate or head to some place to restore it.
The game Sacred does the whole thing interestingly. Rather than having MP each spell has a regeneration time. So if you cast fireball you have a set time to wait before you can cast it again which is generally fairly short. There are also various skills to reduce the time and various item properties can also help. Whenever you increase the power of the spell you increase the time it takes to regenerate. Which forces you to make a decision between a more powerful spell or longer wait times between casting. | |
I'm pretty fond of Shadowrun's magic system. You'll have to read up on the system (free quickstart pdf is available here) because it's quite different from most out there, but I'll try to summarize it here.
Players may learn spells at a particular force rating. When they cast a spell, they select which force to cast it at, up to the level they have learned. Lower force spells are eisier to resist or break, but you can also resist the drain easier. Every spell has a drain code that tells you how much drain there is, and gives a number modifying how difficult it is to resist the drain. After the spell is cast, the mage resists the drain with a willpower test. (They can also use their "magic pool" to help offset drain, if they haven't already used it all for the spell casting test or defense against other people's spells.) A strong willed and/or skilled mage will probabably resist all the drain from lesser spells, though even the most powerful mage could end up with drain from the simplest spell if he's unlucky. If a mage casts a spell with force less than or equal to his/her magic attribute (6 for most starting mages) then the drain is just stun damage, a.k.a. fatigue. If the player fills up their stun meter they just pass out and any spells they are sustaining immediately drop. They have the option to cast higher force spells if they know them, but in that case the drain is straight out physical damage. | |
Thanks, those were all great suggestions. I'm thinking about doing something like stamina or energy. Probably energy. Energy will probably have no bounds. However, when you rest you only regain to a certain energy number (let's say 100.) No matter how many times you rest or your level, it will go to 100. However, by eating food and drinking, you will gain energy (like Food 5 to 10 ENR and water 1 ENR per drink) These will take time (and money for food). Water will probably be around monsters, so you can't just sit there and get your ENR to 5000. What do you think?
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Well, if magic is tied to a fixed stat, and combat increases with level, won't that leave your spellcasters behind a bit? Maybe have all attacks/special moves/etc drain energy.
Otherwise sounds like a good start. I am not to fond of level based systems for a variety of reasons, but each to their own! | |
However, if you want to limit spellcasting, why not tie it to stamina, health, and/or reagents? There are a wide variety of ways to approach this problem.
You should first start by thinking about the role you want magic to play. Then consider how it happens. Do sorcerors have to cut pacts with daemons? Summon elemental energies? Perform ornate rituals and ceremonies? This will begin to suggest limitations.