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| Rate this magic system | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: April 27, 2013, 7:29 am (369 Views) | |
| Onime No Ryu | April 27, 2013, 7:29 am Post #1 |
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I'll be your Undertaker this evening
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Here's a magic system I came up with for a generic fantasy setting. Rate it, please. In this system, magic works a little bit like the Five Elements Theory of Wu Xing. That is to say, there are five parts, and each part works in different ways with the other parts. Unlike the traditional Five Elements, they don't have a cycle of weaknesses or strengths, but they do have varying forms of compatibility and incompatibility. Corpus magic focuses entirely on the caster's own physical body. The strength of the muscles and bones, the speed of the reflexes, the durability of the flesh--these are the kind of things Corpus covers. Think of it like Chi energy for martial artists, but it cannot be outwardly projected. Imperium magic focuses on using the caster's willpower to dominate an outside aspect or object. All of what we usually deem as traditional magic, except for a few things, fall under this: Elemental Control, such as controlling fire or water; Control of other beings, such as summoning creatures or raising skeletal servants; Object control, such as manipulating the way a chain moves or calling a lost weapon back to your hand. Curatio magic focuses not just on healing, but on restoring and preserving the optimum state of an object. Therefore, things such as healing spells, curing spells, barrier spells, and other protective magics fall under this category. It does not include buffs or debuffs--the natural, unaltered state of an object is what Curatio magic protects and maintains. It cannot, however, restore things like tools or machines, because the natural state of these objects would be lumps of ore and other materials. Mutatio magic changes the properties of objects. This is your buff and debuff magic class, because by changing the properties of weaknesses into strengths, you can make targets stronger. For instance, a sword's edge will have places that have dulled again or places that have rusted after long battles. Change the property of rust back into the property of clean steel, and the property of dullness back to a property of sharpness. One could also use this magic to temporarily become invisible or intangible by changing the properties of their own bodies. Mentem is mental magic, concerning the mind not in the physical sense, but the sense of consciousness. This magic can create illusions, manipulate emotions, create bonds with people/creatures, use psychometry, read minds, and perform telekinesis. Each of these elements can be very effective on their own, but by combining them with other elements you can achieve even greater affects. However, some elements are incompatible with others. Consider Curatio and Mutatio, which do completely opposite things. These two magics would not work well together. Corpus is compatible with Curatio and Mutatio. It is incompatible with Imperium and Mentem. Curatio is compatible with Corpus and Imperium. It is incompatible with Mentem and Mutatio. Mutatio is compatible with Corpus and Mentem. It is incompatible with Curatio and Imperium. Mentem is compatible with Mutatio and Imperium. It is incompatible with Corpus and Curatio. Imperium is compatible with Mentem and Curatio. It is incompatible with Corpus and Mutatio. Also, in this magic system, one would have a primary affinity for a particular style of magic. This is what they are naturally best at. However, there is nothing stopping you from learning any other kinds of magic other than your own talents and efforts; but, the order in which you learn these magics and their relation to your own magic is also important. Out of your Compatible magics, whichever you begin to learn first will be about 80% as strong as your primary magic. The one you learn next will only be about 60% as strong as your primary magic. So for instance, if a Corpus user learns Curatio first and Mutatio second, this is how effectively he can use each type of magic: Corpus: 100%. He can masterfully learn and use Corpus spells. Curatio: 80%. He can use most Curatio spells, they just won't be quite as powerful as someone whose primary school is Curatio. Mutatio: 60%. He's only about half as powerful as someone whose primary school is Mutatio. Complex spells may be out of his reach. But what if you want to learn a type of magic you're incompatible with? Well, first of all, at best you can only be about 40% as proficient with it as you can your primary magic. Second of all, you can use each magic on its own, but trying to combine their effects will be impossible. Since learning a new type of magic is usually meant to make the user stronger, this method doesn't have nearly as many benefits. If a Corpus user attempts to learn Imperium first and then tries to learn Mentem, this is about what his skill level will be: Corpus: 100%. He can masterfully learn and use Corpus spells. Imperium: 40%. He's below average at using Imperium spells--they won't even have half their usual strength. Complex spells may be out of his reach. Mentem: 20%. He's barely capable of using Mentem spells. At most he might master the basics of the school. So you could potentially learn all five schools of magic, but the order in which you do it and the natural affinity you have affects how well you can use them. There are no jacks of all trades, and your primary affinity will always be the magic you're best at. Combining magic in compatible ways can make you more powerful and open up new methods of using magic, but even compatible magics will differ depending on how effective they are. For instance, someone who specializes in Curatio and combines it with Corpus will still have different abilities than someone who specializes in Corpus and combines it with Curatio. This is because the ratios of the magics are different. So what do you guys think? Questions, comments, suggestions, critiques? |
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| Dreaming Sun | April 27, 2013, 9:14 am Post #2 |
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MOO MOO MOO MOO MOO MOO MOO MOO MOO MOO MOO MOO MOO MOO MOO
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I like the idea, and the way it works with the compatibility, but... I honestly see a very severe of imbalance. Cutting it down significantly (I know it's more complicated than this, but...) basically, you have: Corpus: Body Imperium: Kinesis Curatio: Restoration Mutatio: Change Mentem: Mind Sort it out that way, and you can... sort of see a problem. A Mutatio master, at least from my understanding, can do virtually anything a Curatio master can do, but better; why would you "restore" an object to its natural state, when you can "improve" upon it? There is seemingly no advantage, as someone who uses Mutatio can do anything better, or worse, if convenient. Similarly, Mutatio seems far superior to Corpus; Corpus allows change in the way the body works, but Mutatio allows... change in general. Admittedly, I would assume a Corpus master would be more used to working with a body, but why can't a Mutatio master just focus on the body, and change more things than just it? And Mentem and Imperium seem far more overpowered than Mutatio. Mentem is filled with generic mind abilities, which tend to be overpowered in general. I assume, is this system's "ultimate" branch in a way, that's supposed to be rare, so I guess that can be let slide. However, Imperium... in the category of "Imperium" (which, I restate, should theoretically be as varied as "restoration"), you have elemental magic, necromancy, life magic, and telekinesis, the second and third normally being separated into a category on their own in most magic systems, while the first is normally itself separated into another half dozen. Also there's crossover between Imperium and Mentem since they both have telekinesis and from a flavour point of view it works better in Imperium but that's my two cents. Anyway, that's basically my really main, huge complaint: You have Mentem > Imperium > Mutatio > Corpus > Curatio. I mean, you can make a case between Mentem and Imperior and between Corpus and Curatio, but... Mentem and Imperium have so much more potential than the other three. That's a severe problem. My other complaint sort of relates to the above, but not really, and that complain is "counterplay". I assume most characters in these settings would follow this one magic system. If this is an RP, it's different to a novel, but I'll just assume it's the former from what we've discussed before and thus, counterplay is incredibly important. Basically, counterplay is the ability to give a smart writer or character the ability to press their advantage with proper strategy. Autohitting is awful because it facilitates no counterplay. Things that rely entirely on chance facilitates no counterplay. Things like time magic facilitate no counterplay, and here, Curatio, and especially, Mentem, facilitate no counterplay. Elaborating upon that comment, Curatio has no counterplay because of its clearly defined abilities; restoration. No matter what, with enough energy, you'll be able to restore something. There's no counterplay; there's no unique way of stopping someone from using Curatio magic other than knocking their head off (not that it's absolutely necessary since Curatio's not going to be doing much since look up ~). Mentem is far worse, since, well. Instant mind break dead. Or, instant break aorta dead. Or, lol I can read your mind haffun doing anything. They're all effectively autohits, and the only way they can be countered is if your character has the broad, and honestly, rather boring, "strong willpower", or, in other words, plot armour. It seems very difficult to write good fights with these, basically. Corpus and Imperium seem pretty healthy in this regard, but... well, Corpus is severely underpowered against anything that's not Curatio, unless you allow control of ridiculous levels, where, of course, basically every attack becomes an autohit and yay, balance and counterplay issues again. Imperium has healthy counterplay, but it's overpowered, so mrr. So, suggestions, then! First, sum of of complaints: Corpus: Incredibly limited. Underpowered most likely, and if not, overpowered with no counterplay. Difficult to balance. Imperium: Too many options for one school. Curatio: Underpowered. No counterplay anyway. Mutatio: Pretty cool. Healthy. Mentem: Overpowered, because no counterplay. I don't like Mentem, I really don't. However, it's understandable if there's an "ultimate" school that's just... really rare and not usable by most PCs. Mutatio's nice ~ I have no suggestions. Nerf Imperium. One school should not have all of elemental control, necromancy, life magics, and telekinesis. I'd say make it only elemental control. Kill telekinesis from this list, and necro and life should move elsewhere. Buff Corpus and Curatio. I understand that Corpus is the control of one's body, but... if you keep that definition, it'll either be overpowered or underpowered. I'd suggest expanding it to fit control of all human/human like bodies. So, you can increase the efficiency of your own body... but also change others. Even if they are dead. I find necromancy would fit best in this category, as a result. Curatio, being restoring the natural state already, I feel, should expand to generic nature magics. I'm unsure where to place the life and summoning magics that used to be in the old Imperium. It could sort of fit into Corpus (control of all bodies...?) or Curatio (summon life that preserves the natural order...?) but they're both fishy. I'd also recommend some sort of "domain" system, where, in each of these schools, their are "domains" that are basically schools of these schools. So, in my suggestion, you could have, say, Fire, Wind, Water, Earth domains in Imperium, while, in Corpus, you could have say, Self Control, Necromancy, and Debilitation off the top of my head. That way, if you want some martial artist that wishes to increase his physical capabilities tremendously, you still have that option in this setting by focusing on the "Self Control" domain. But yeah, that's my two cents from what I gathered from the post and wow this is longer than I thought. Overall though? I quite like the system, particularly the compatibility idea. It works, and, if an RPer wanted a certain set of skills for a character, you could almost certainly find a place for them in this system. I feel there are balance problems, but that's pretty easily fixed by just moving everything around, and, except in Mentem, counterplay problems aren't huge. Overall, it's definitely cool! |
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| Green | April 27, 2013, 2:51 pm Post #3 |
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THE Man
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I like the idea. The compatability system and learning system are both great. You're getting very specific with it all and that will lead to diversity. DS makes a lot of good points on balancing issues, but like he said, they shouldn't be hard to fix. Overall I rate this as an: I like it/10 |
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5:59 PM Jul 10