[CF List] wraight (& fireborns)

[lembark at wrkhors.com]

-- Peter Mardahl <
     
     peterm at tonks.EECS.Berkeley.EDU
     
     > on 03/06/02 10:00:48 -0800

>>
     
      Henric Karlsson wrote:
     
     >>
     
     
     >>
     
      i wonder if those who claim fireborn are hard to play ever really played 
     
     >>
     
      a fireborn. I made a fireborn character yesterday, devoted myself to 
     
     >>
     
      gorokh and got flaming aura, with fireborns ability to get ac with 
     
     >
     
     
     >
     
      In the early levels, fireborn can be EASIER to play, because you
     
     >
     
      get a lot of mana and grace.  However, fireborn are hurt badly at
     
     >
     
      high levels because they cannot wear armour or use weapons,
     
     >
     
      and are thus denied all the protections these normally give.
     
     >
     
     
     >
     
      The same is true of Quetzalcoatls:  they're hozed at high levels,
     
     >
     
      but strong at low levels.
     
     
Better way to say it is that you have to be more careful at
higher levels. Q's are especially tricky -- they can use 
high-powered weapons that help greatly and w/ sufficient
patience can learn some heavy-duty spells. 

FB's can get 30 pow w/ a +3 ring and still wear another
or a talisman for combined free action and whatever you
like. Given sufficient protection spells their hight speed
and dex make them hard to hit (and Ruggilli makes them 
more-or-less immune to missiles). Add, say, a ring of
free action and amulet of reflect spells and complete 
immunity to most poison and all fire. You have a pretty
secure item. At higher levels w/ good POW you can summon
some serious pet monsters or holy creatures. That and 
ball lightning will take you pretty far (with a few
potions of cold resistance for good luck).


>
     
     
     >
     
      Such are the tradeoffs of these two special races.
     
     >
     
     
     >>
     
      another somehow absurd thing is mana regeneration increasing food 
     
     >>
     
      consumption. I find it beeing in contradiction with the idea of 
     
     >
     
     
     >
     
      I don't consider this exactly absurd.  It's a bit strange, but it's
     
     >
     
      not so very unreasonable.  And it makes all those mana points
     
     >
     
      which get blown out cost the player something, which is good.
     
     >
     
     
     
High mana regen == high exertion == high food use. Put it 
another way, casting all those spells takes energy, which
has to come from somewhere.

>>
     
      magician, beeing strong in mind and usually weak in body; strong muscles 
     
     >>
     
      consume lots of food, but strong mind consumes somewhat same as a weak 
     
     >>
     
      mind. the stronger the magician is the more he needs to eat? I recall 
     
     >>
     
      very few fantacy worlds where magicians are eating all the time, 
     
     >>
     
      ususally they are described as spending more time with books while the 
     
     >>
     
      barbarians and fighters eat and practice.
     
     >
     
     
     >
     
      We have no obligation to follow everyone else's lead.  Furthermore, we
     
     >
     
      should not, or we're just reimplimenting the same damn game.  We should
     
     >
     
      only consider this issue in and of itself and its impact on the game.
     
     >
     
      I think it is a positive thing to require food use in order to regenerate
     
     >
     
      mana.
     
     
Think of spells as an expenditure of personal energy. At
that point the high food use tends to make sense.

--
Steven Lembark                              2930 W. Palmer
Workhorse Computing                      Chicago, IL 60647
                                           +1 800 762 1582