Magic

[Saint Faucet]

"If memory serves me right correctly", we've been told that magic will be a skill that can be learned. My question now is "Where is the spell power being drawn from?"

Will magic be mana-based, component based, a combo of mana-component, constant-spell-rememorization based or something else?

I personally hate the combination mana-component based system that Asheron's Call uses. It seems to penalize mages that much more in the game.

[Lordosis]

Rolfe is the brains behind the magic system, but I'll tell you what I can. The main thing to understand is that there is NO MANA. That's right, you will never have a stat named "mana" like in almost all other games. The purpose mana serves in most games is to limit you from casting spells all day one after the other. Obviously, that is a necessary limit to have. But "mana" is just so contrived.

In Arcanity, casting spells will be a drain on your mental stamina, just as melee is a drain on your physical stamina. Doesn't that make more sense? We think so. Don't you feel drained mentally after doing all your math homework or after doing your taxes? I thought so. If you ever read the Dragonlance series of books, you'll remember that when Raistlin (forgive my spelling, Rolfe would know how to spell it) cast a powerful spell, he would collapse afterwards. It would even make him physically sick in some cases. That's the idea were trying to implement. So if you drain your mental stamina down far enough by casting spells, it can affect your physical abilities.

As for memorization. Well, think of it this way. Memorizing a spell is a way of "keeping it handy". If you had to open your spell book and read out a spell everytime you wanted to cast it, the casting time would be very slow. But if you have the spell memorized, you just start the motions/words of the spell right away, it takes much less time. No looking down to read. So that's how it will work in Arcanity. Memorizing a spell effectively lowers it casting time. Yes, this means you can cast a spell directly from your spellbook if you want to. That will be useful if you just want to cast a one time spell, like a strength spell for your buddy or something.

We aren't big on components either. Components will be very important for alchemy however, but that's off topic. There may be some spells that require components, but it would probably only be very powerful spells, not your "bread and butter" spells.

As for where the power is really drawn from, well, that depends on the type of magic. For example, druidic magic draws from the life force of all living things, clerics draw their powers from the gods, etc.

[Rolfe]

Right. What Fogerty said. However, mana does EXIST, it just isn't something you have in you. You're not a battery. I think Fogerty was just trying to really drive that point home though in that mana won't be a stat on your screen. The word "mana" really refers to the energy that powers the spell. You don't have that mana inside of you. When you cast a spell, you draw the mana from somewhere and harness it to cast your spell. Remember Magic: The Gathering for reference on this. Now when you harness mana and use it to power a spell, that takes serious mental concentration. You're mental stamina is kind of a measure of how hard you can make yourself concentrate before you go "slap happy". When your PHYSICAL stamina is very low, you just can't run as fast or lift as much as normal. Well when your MENTAL stamina is very low, you can't concentrate as well as normal and so you won't be able to concentrate on the intense mental intricacies involved with harnessing mana and using it effectively.

[Ibamin]

What sort of downtime are we looking at here? Obviously you'll have to have some way of regaining mental stamina, and I am wondering if your going to have to spend 5 min. Real time sitting and waiting until you can cast another spell. Will there be items to increase mental stamina? (kind of like mana boosting items in EQ)

[Rolfe]

There will be countless items with countless effects, and I'm sure some of them will help you channel mana more efficiently, thus requiring less of your mental stamina to cast spells. On downtime, it's not going to be Everquest. There will be mana potions and other ways to bump your mana up faster most likely. We're going to avoid unreasonable downtime like Everquest

[Ibamin]

Ibamin starts chanting down with downtime :) I'm really glad to hear that I wont have to run around asking for a clarity :)

[Deafsong]

Kay, I've moved onto magic.
Will the 4 magic types be varied obviously in effect on the game. Like Will Psionic mages and Clerics and Druids be forced to approach the same problem in completely different ways, because their magics are different? Or are they all the same, differing only in the 'theme' issues of the origin of their magic energy and path of their use?.

Ex. Does a Psionic mage have a Blind spell that does exactly the same thing as the Druid's 'Root' and the Cleric's 'Hold' and the wizards 'Bubble': Preventing the enemy from esscaping? (I just pulled those names outta nowhere... honest)
Ex. Does the Wizard have a Fireball, the Psionisct have a Tk Blast, the Druid and Cleric a 'Smite' that all do the same thing?

I would much prefer that the mage classes be vastly different in more then just the 'theme' issues. Force them to approach problems differently, rather hten lumping the problems into the normal two groups, Mage solution, and Warrior Solution.

Deafsong...

[Cynycal]

so how powerful can magic get here? i mean i'm not talking a "destroy server" spell or anything but maybe something that could have a lasting effect with a very very powerful magic user..

[Rolfe]

Well, there are some spells that are somewhat duplicated. Like I think there's a paralyze and a root spell. One is druid and one is cleric I believe. But we took care not to duplicate too many spells. There are very few duplicates in fact. Everyone has some way of doing damage magically, but it's not as simple as "Smite" and "Shock of Flame". We also took care not to make duplicate spells WITHIN a school of magic. That's right! That means that you won't get Shock of Flame at level 1 and then Shock of Ice at level 4 and then Flame Shock at level 8 etc. Instead, you learn to channel more mana and thus do more damage with the Shock of Flame spell.

The themes were kept as clear as possible and we tied them to their mana source as much as possible. So Cleric spells usually deal with mind and body. Druid spells are similar in that they deal with life, but it's the difference between biology and physiology. One is specifically dealing with humans, and thus goes more in depth on humans. Clerics have healing spells, Druids only have regeneration spells.

There are other differences. Clerics can't really summon creatures, but they can summon holy weapons (for permanent use) at higher levels. Druids are capable of calling animals for help (not really the same as summoning), and at very high levels they will be able call animal spirits for help. That won't be the same thing as a pet mind you. Wizard magic deals with true summoning. You can summon one or several pets to command, and then just put your shields up and let the pets do the work.

What about Necromancers and Shamans, Shadow Knights, Paladines? Necromancy is actually a sub category of each magic, like in AD&D. Necromancers will have to master several types of magic. Shamans would likely study Druidic and Cleric magic and would have a good knowledge of Alchemy. Shadow Knights would be just like Necromancers, but would devote much of their time to practicing melee. And Paladines would be clerics that practice melee.

[Rolfe]

Anything that has a lasting effect on the game almost has to go through a living person's discretion. It can't be automatic in the game that when you get to level 50 (again, there are no levels in Arcanity, but I find it easier to relate examples using levels) you automatically get a spell that lets you blow up trees permanently. As soon as someone hit level 50, there'd be no trees. High level magic users may very well be able to alter the face of Novus somehow, but it will be a rare occurence and it will have to be regulated somehow.

[Uncle Dukey]

Hehe, imagine the havoc that would ensue with deformable terrain.

[Lordosis]

Ya, we threw out the idea of deformable terrain pretty quickly after thinking about human psychology :) On a similar note, I'm thinking of allowing some blood/guts and other stuff that doesn't affect the gameplay to stay on the ground for a while. It would just be for show. And I guess the faint of heart could just set an option that turned it off :)

[Dyson]

I was wondering about Psionics- are they going to be mirrored to the Ad&D Psionic system, or are there "psionic spells?" Also, will there be such a thing as "sources of power" (likened to the Sources & Ley Lines in Birthright), to limit use of the most powerful spells? It might add another dimension to being a wizard (or druid, for natural sources)- rather then being cloistered in your tower, if you want to use certain types of magic (or very powerful regular magic) you'll have to seek out hidden caches of magic around the land. By agreement, perhaps certain groups of wizards could share sources, so a guild might be formed around one particular magical site; the wizards would mutally protect the sight for their exclusive use, and such...

[Ibamin]

ok in most games I play a spellcaster, so my opionion might be unrealistic, but I'm just throwing it out here.. what about for the stronger spells having to have a rare component... maybe it only "spawns" once a week realtime and you have to go find it. And to cast some extreamly powerful spell a wizard must own a tower and cast it with some "followers" there to support him. Another idea is spellcasters to have the ability to "channel" power from themselves to others. What do you think... I also think that the guy above me has some really good ideas (sorry couldn't remember the name)

[Ruadin]

I like the idea that spells won't be limited by mana but rather by mental fatigue. I'm also glad about the fact that there won't be simply more advanced versions of the SAME spells as you gain power. That's a huge pet peeve of mine and makes very little sense. If you're capable of casting a fire missile, there's no reason you should be able to turn it into a fireball at the more advanced casting levels. Its the same concept except only using more magic power perhaps and more advanced channeling and knowledge of magic mechanics (if such a concept does exist!).

Also I'm all for different magic specializations - like fire, water, earth, healing, light, dark etc. As far as spells that are common to multiple disciplines - I think these should be slightly varied and the rationalization would be that they use slightly different means to achieve the same spell - so slightly varied results should be expected.

For example, a druid "root" spell could be accomplished by having plant vines come out of the ground and hold onto the person - a sort of entanglement spell. For the cleric, it would probably be in the form of some kind of magical force (maybe a giant invisible holy hammer) that bonks them on the head causing temporary stun effects (ok maybe not quite like that but this is after all JUST AN EXAMPLE! :)
Using that same example, a druid wouldn't be able to cast that spell indoors, while a cleric can. So there are negatives and pluses to each spell...

More on this later :)