Spells (was: god legends)

[Choinski, Burton]

I'd have to have some time looking at the existing spells.  I think oblivion
should probably be a bit higher, perhaps 4, simply because it is presently
such a "Bam!   you're gone" spell, and so damn cheap.

A lot of the spell effects probably need to  be gone over and rewritten and
clairified.  BMC should probably be re-figured for all spells based on a
sort of "complexity guideline".

For example, the order of complexity for doing direct damage might be:
    Direct damage to inanimate
    Direct damage to animate
    Direct damage to sapiant

With the logic being that inanimate has the lowest resistance (usually none)
to being "harmed", while living things have an active resistance and
intelligent creatures even more so (or not, depending on how you envision
how the magic works).

In reality, I have no problem with the existing spells as long as they are
all cleaned up, editied and perhaps expanded on.

A possible change to make magic more mysterious might be to have the actual
mana cost be a bit more uncertain.  At present, Joe Wizard with 44 mana
points knows he can cast a spell that takes 4 mana 11 times.  *yawn*

Imagine a "mana flux table" (yea, another table, but this would be in the
"advanced rules".

Take 19 colums (labeled 2 to 20).  Each row represents one of the current
spell BMC (BMC 2 here as example):

BMC 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
2 | 3 |


At the start of a scene (or when ever he flet like it) the GM could roll a
d10 and not ethe number.  Whenever a player casts a spell the GM rolls 1d10
and adds it to the previously noted "flux".  Reading across the tabel to get
the actial BMC for that spell cast for magic use purposes.  Obviously the
higher BMC lines could have a bit more variance (perhaps by +/- 2 at BMC 5,
mayby +/- 3 at BMC 10, etc).  If the player happens to exceed his mana
points due to flux, for ease of use you simply drain DOUBLE the excess from
their energy level.




----------------------------------------
Burton Choinski
Principal Software Engineer, Quality Engineering
email: burton.choinski at matrixone.com

phone: 978-589-4089
fax:      978-589-5903

MatrixOne, Inc.
210 Littleton Rd.
Westford, Ma 01886
www.matrixone.com

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