[crossfire] Spell brainstorming

[Kevin R. Bulgrien]

> Lots of discussion about spells, etc, on the slow down combat thread, but I 
> thought I'd start a topic with just general ideas on spells.

A different sort of attune/repel by vocation:

It is interesting how you can pick a particular spell path by vocation when
a character is created, but at least at mid-levels, after getting all the
different skills or talisman's, you can completely change your character's
vocation, or level each equivalently.  By vocation, I mean sorcery,
evocation, summoning, and pyromancy.  I stumbled on this idea because of
the description of one of the magic vocations indicates the character will
be a generalist of magic users even though it is difficult to see how that
is true in point of fact.

It strikes me that I have heard that it is not possible to have all of the
vocations/paths/skills/whatever at the same level at the highest level or
end-game, so this might not be applicable at all levels of play.

Nonetheless, it struck me when creating a character the other day that it
could be possible to change the way vocations are handled outside of the
attune/repel attributes that religion can impose on paths.

NOTE: Percentages given below are for discussion primarily, could be different
      but also could refer to experience earned and/or could be placed into a
      computation to determine mana used to cast the spell along the lines of
      attunement and repelling.

1) Vocational concentration - It is harder to master multiple trades.

   Let's say we create a summoner.  It seems fair to say that if a character
   is created as an summoner, that it should be difficult to change vocations.
   The idea I had was to allow normal/unmodified experience earning to occur
   inside the chosen vocation, but to inhibit the ability to cross-train in
   other vocations.  If the character later learns a new vocation such as
   pyromancy, this vocation would earn experience at a reduced rate... say
   75% of what the primary vocation earns.  A player could effectively switch
   vocations, but at a cost.  Further, for each additional vocation learned,
   the cost would be modified down another 25% (understanding that there are
   4 possible vocational paths in magic).  For reference: 100% + 75% + 50% +
   25% = 250.

2) The generalist - jack of all trades, master of none?

   Then, to make it even more interesting, a character could be designed that
   is a generalist from the start... not necessarily trained in all vocations
   at the start of the game, but able to use each vocation equally, though at
   a lower level than other vocations... say at about 60% effectiveness for
   each. Comparatively: 60% + 60% + 60% + 60% = 240.

3) Balancing growth by level - experience in one vocation aids in the
   understanding of new vocations.

   Say that talisman's are no longer able to be gained to automatically be
   able to "learn" new vocations.  Perhaps then characters are granted an
   option to learn a new vocation at various points in their career.  The
   character can choose the new vocation.  Presumably the levels at which
   new vocations could be added are 25, 75, and 100.

4) The generalist revisited - fair play.

   As 2) above, combined with 3) above could make the generalist a bit
   weak, one could consider that a penalty along the lines of "jack of all
   trades, master of none".  On the other hand, perhaps the generalist is
   permitted to learn additional vocations on an accelerated schedule, say
   at levels 20, 40, and 60, for example.

5) Acquiring new vocations - not necessarily granted.

   Perhaps achieving a certain level gains you the right to learn a new
   vocation at the hands of a master.  Early renditions of the feature
   could simply grant the new vocations for simplicity, but possibly in
   such a way that a future revision of the game could support having
   to do a quest to obtain the training needed to acquire the vocation.
   Perhaps some fee might be associated with acquiring the training
   necessary to start practicing the additional vocation.

6) Learning Spells

   The ideas above could be implemented indirectly by affecting the
   chance-to-learn percentages to simplify things.

Admittedly I have no real clue about role-playing game rule sets as I am
mostly a "player" not a game designer or DM, so this might be somewhat
preposterous, and further, after applying race mods and religious
attune/repel mods, perhaps the system would be way too complex, but it
is a thought on how one might achieve balance across the spectrum of
levels and vocational lines.

Right now, in the game there are places where talismans/skill scrolls
may be found so one can hit up those places frequently to increase the
chances of finding all of them, or, one high level player can give a new
player a pile of talismans to make a super-magician at low-levels.
Perhaps game balance would be facilitated by making it more difficult to
create these super-magicians.

Recognizing that certain vocations are considered poor should not be a
reason to avoid this type of balancing since repairing the poor vocations
should be done at a higher priority, but I guess I see the addition of
new spells to support growth throughout the game as being yet another
opportunity to abuse via gifting or repeat-plays of certain maps known
to give talismans or skill scrolls. 

Anyway, not sure if this will fly, but figured there was at least merit
to tossing it out as an idea in case it was okay or helped someone think
of a better way to manage the same things.

Kevin

PS & OT:

Physical combat?

Perhaps something of this nature could also be done with physical combat
skills also... to get away from having super-warriors that can use all
weapons equally well and made possible through the acquisition of skill
scrolls.  The originally granted skills gained through character class
and/or vocation would be unmodified, but additional combat skills would
undergo some modification.

Attune/Repel for physical combat?

BTW, is it possible for a hobbit to effectively become a two-handed or
poleaxe expert to the same basic degree a human/troll/orc can?  Curious,
because a skill scroll could give this skill to a hobbit that really
should be repelled from using this type of weapon due to physical limits.
I suppose other character stats might effectively take can of this, so
maybe this it is a non-issue.  I haven't tried it.