I like this, but why not just call it magic? It's what it does afterall, and it keys of other primary skills for fighters. But it's still magic IMO. So the playing style problem may still exist.Deleriad wrote:Actually I think there's another interesting issue here which is what happens to RQ in a world where common magic is not actually commonly known? i.e. where magic is only used by specialists.
Is there a rationale for giving non-magic users something else? Heroic Abilities currently cost 1 MP to invoke which, to an extent, allows the non-magician another use of their Magic Points. What about extending these into "slightly heroic abilities" (i.e. they may require 70% in a skill and 12 in a stat without a hero point cost).
E.g. Impressive Pecs. Requires Brawn 70% and STR 12. When targeted by a spell that has the trait Resist (Persistence), the adventurer may spend 1 Magic Point to resist with their Brawn rather Persistence.
Anti-magic focus. Requires POW 12 and Perception 70%. When targeted by a spell with a resist trait the adventurer may spend any number of Magic Points. For each Magic Point spent this way, the adventurer gets +5% to their chance to resist the spell.
Obviously magicians may use these but they tend to either be low on MPs due to dedicated POW or need their MPs to cast magic so they will be of most use to non-magic users.
You could also extend Combat Manoeuvres.
E.g. Double attack. Requires 70% in a combat style featuring a 2H sword. If you gain a Combat Manoeuvre you can spend 1 MP to use the Double Attack CM. The Double Attack CM allows you to immediately attack a different opponent. This attack requires you to spend a CA as usual.
That might be more work than you're interested in and might not fit the setting but it is a way of allowing non-magic users to use their MPs for something.
However, those that actually use their POW, can make sure he has to use those stats. Those that attempt to swing greatswords at him will have to make sure they act first. The sorcerer will have to compete in this rocket tag as well. Unless he has a party that can make sure he doesn't get a crossbow bolt to the face before he starts casting his spells.My point exactly. The problem is that you can ignore siz, str and con, and simply use your magic to gain great values in those stats. So even though the sorcerer ignore 2-3 of his stats, those that use them gain no edge towards him.
But then I think our definition of caster is off. I'd not think of someone who boosted their combat prowess with Bladesharp as a caster. Nor would I think of somebody who uses bandits cloak to better blend in as a caster. They are simply people who have accepted that to fit in a magical world, you need to do magic. Casters would be the type of guy that can solve the problem using only magic, or give such a great boon that the problem gets trivial through magic. They have huge problems with MPs outside of Ebberron, and not wearing armour, inside Ebberron.But the fact is that some people will not enjoy playing people that make stuff happen magically, and I as GM will have to live with that. I cannot simply have all my players be casters, as some of them will not think it's fun.
Wat? I think you should re-read the Divine Magic section. There are loads of spells that are awesome that don't require you to be a Rune Lord or a Rune Priest, true you can only cast 5-6 of them per day if you are an acolyte. But do you really need that much more, you can get them back the next day, and if not you'd have to return to town, also, with extension, your best spell can last all day.Besides that, Divine magic only gets really good when you becomes a Rune Lord / Rune Priest, and those two positions come with extremely limiting responsibilities, in terms of donating 50% of one's income to the cult, etc.
However, sorcery also follow the rules for cults. So a gloranthan sorcerer would also have to donate some of his income to his cult.
Yeah, so it essentially adds one MP, and all my manipulation to the casting of shapechange.Yep, which is why I am hesitant to directly interfere too much. However, you can still easily just boost your Shapechange with max magnitude without problem, as long as you only use cast it on yourself, with minimum duration.
Yeah, I agreed that if one character can Fly, and everybody else is earthbound, and the fight takes place on a flying ship. The guy who can fly can do more things. In a dungeon Turning into a Wyrm is meaningless (Though I will certainly try), as it is just a Slarg who can't cast spells or use weapons.I am not trying to balance magic vs non-magic. I am trying to balance magic to be good in some situations, but weak in others. A magic user should be able to do maginifcent things, all the things you said. I just wan't him to rely on the party in some way - a mage should not be omnipotent in my eyes, which is also what you implied in your earlier posts is one of the problems in d&d.
So I'm not talking about nerfing concept 2 "till it can't do any of that", but merely toning down how much they can do (allowing turning into a lizardman, instead of a wyrm - blasting 2 of the enemies with lightning, instead of the whole party).
But again, I may just be too influenced by the fact that you were in the air during the last fight (where, by the way, you yourself agreed that there was a problem Wink ). If the fight had been in the city or in a dungeon, you would have been seriously hindered. I will continue thinking about what to do before I change anything...
For starters I will equip my NPCs better in the future I think.
Magic already is good in some situations and weak in others. If I didn't have a party of people that are bigger and more likely to get a bolt in the face than myself I would probably have died fighting those gnomes. It was an encounter were you didn't even want to make it a fight, because if we wanted to beat up the gnomes we could. Yet I still had to use magic points to get past them, since I would have been beaten up by the lowliest NPC. This is the hurdle of the sorcerer I think, you either go big, or you go home. So when I actually do decide to add anything to the party what I add will be great. When I don't want to waste resources, I wont be doing anything at all.
Do keep in mind that there are common magic spells that do Enhance, Diminish, Damage enhance and Damage Resistance at almost that effect.And I think I will also half the effect of some select spells, enhance, diminish, damage enhancement and perhaps damage resistance... But probably not shapechange, as I've come to realise that size is often as much of a minus as a plus. Especially in regard to NPC reactions.
Perhaps I'd consider making what you know as Ebberron Wizardry into Common magic, and then scrapping Sorcery entirely.
Sad to throw out the most awesome magic system I've ever seen though.
Also, do keep in mind, that whatever change you make, I will accept it, you are the DM and all. I just don't want you to do anything rash. Nor would I want to lose interest in playing this character by being nerfed to heavily.
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FTFY. Heck, one of the Game designers actually thought taking Two-Weapon Fighting and Weapon Specialization with a light weapon was Overpowered. Because you got the benefit of the feat twice.Dan True wrote:Mixster wrote:It's because game designers [s]typically are not min/maxersDan True wrote: But that's not really a proper way to write it.
Already at level 2 spells in D&D The game gets broken, at level 4 spells, it gets silly and above that wizards usually stops caring about what's happening around them. They are crazy good in any D&D based setting. The fact that WoTC never realised this is just silly. Neither did the makers of Ebberron apparently.[/s] In D&D don't understand their own system.
Luckily, the guys designing Runequest seems to know what is going on.