spells

[Bonifarzia]

Against what opponent did you try Animate Shadows? It has a save roll on Dark Way meaning that it will fail a lot of creatures that have a large Dark Way skill. Also what level are you in Dark Way?

Taste of Death has a similar save roll in which case only a fraction of the damage will be applied.

Greetings,

Thanks, Jorrit, that is indeed a valuable and interesting information. Please, allow me to comment on this.

Wouldn't it make more sense to take into account the concept of antagonistic and synergistic ways for things like save rolls and spell resistances?
From an intuitive point of view, it would make more sense to train the opposing way of magic and/or antimagic in order to resist certain kinds of spells.
Or is that just a simple, temporary solution to test the mechanics until antimagic will be available?
And most of all: Why do mobs that are supposed to be challenged in close combat not benefit from the existing resistance mechanisms?
If a creature has a very strong protection against physical damage, shouldn't it be protected against some types of magic as well?
I see great potential in this concept of resistances for putting things in better balance here and making the game experience much more interesting.
Of course, the same holds for physical attacks with respect to damage and armor types, be it for hunting or PvP.
One last suggestion... it would be a good thing to give players a minimal amount of information about essential things like those resistances.
For instance, the tooltips that describe a magic way or armor skill in the stat window could give some clue about this.

[jorrit]

Thanks, Jorrit, that is indeed a valuable and interesting information. Please, allow me to comment on this.

Wouldn't it make more sense to take into account the concept of antagonistic and synergistic ways for things like save rolls and spell resistances?
From an intuitive point of view, it would make more sense to train the opposing way of magic and/or antimagic in order to resist certain kinds of spells.
Or is that just a simple, temporary solution to test the mechanics until antimagic will be available?
And most of all: Why do mobs that are supposed to be challenged in close combat not benefit from the existing resistance mechanisms?
If a creature has a very strong protection against physical damage, shouldn't it be protected against some types of magic as well?
I see great potential in this concept of resistances for putting things in better balance here and making the game experience much more interesting.
Of course, the same holds for physical attacks with respect to damage and armor types, be it for hunting or PvP.
One last suggestion... it would be a good thing to give players a minimal amount of information about essential things like those resistances.
For instance, the tooltips that describe a magic way or armor skill in the stat window could give some clue about this.

There are some mobs that are protected against magic.

As to resisting magic of opposing ways, that would be another way to do it and there are some ideas on that in the future. On the other hand I don't think it is strange that a mage who is strong in Dark Way has the ability to resist Dark Way spells as well, after all he knows a lot about the Dark Way, that includes knowledge useful to deflect/avoid the spells.

And I agree that there is too little information on this available. The only information you get is the failure message. When the spell fails because of this reason you can usually see it from the description of the failure what went wrong. Or at least get a little hint.

Greetings,

[Bonifarzia]

There are some mobs that are protected against magic.

Sure, and I have no doubt there will be further balancing with this.

As to resisting magic of opposing ways, that would be another way to do it and there are some ideas on that in the future. On the other hand I don't think it is strange that a mage who is strong in Dark Way has the ability to resist Dark Way spells as well, after all he knows a lot about the Dark Way, that includes knowledge useful to deflect/avoid the spells.

Agreed. Maybe a good way to deal with this is to take the higher rank of both, as it encourages players to choose from opposing ways and not just attempt to train everything. I guess the team already has some good concept for this.

And I agree that there is too little information on this available. The only information you get is the failure message. When the spell fails because of this reason you can usually see it from the description of the failure what went wrong. Or at least get a little hint.

Sure, I have also been paying attention to such messages when trying to understand the new rules. The suggestion about tool tips in the stat window is mainly  to help new players make a decision which skills to train and what that will actually be good for.

And thanks again for the feedback.

[EStripus]

I agree with the idea that a mage that is maxed or a higher level in one way of magic would be more knowledgeable and more likely to defend against the way in which he is trained, but the body is mortal and fragile. It is not the body that is resistant to the powers of magic, as the body is not composed of that magic, for PCs. The highly trained mage would know the secrets to undo the spell before it harmed him/her.  To utilize the power of magic properly takes concentration.  Therefore, it would take concentration to focus his energies into defeating the offensive spell. If the mage is distracted in some way, then he would fail at defeating the spell even if he knows the way to defeat the offensive spell. There is a difference between knowledge and action. Another example would be that a swordsman that has maxed swords is invulnerable to blades, we know this is not true. The swordsman is only tougher to defeat when attacking him with a sword, not impossible.

Since this is a game there are certain things that remain true, players will always seek power and excellence in their chosen skills. There are already many characters that have maxed different ways. That number will continue to grow until eventually magic will become virtually obselete to fight with.

[EStripus]

I suppose a good IG mechanics for those that like to duel solely with game mechanics would be an equation. The damage taken by a higher level mage of the same way by a lesser skilled mage would be computed by the difference in levels. The larger the level difference the lesser damage. Even a low level mage could get in a lucky 'shot'. He could have the right timing while the master is casting another spell and unable to invoke the dispel words.  There could be multiple low levels all attacking at once; only one spell can be dispelled at a time. A warrior(s) could be pressing their advantage and keeping the mage distracted with having to dodge blades.  Two master mages of the same way on opposites of a wizards' duel or a war could in the end have only one 'winner'. If the other mage knows the contra-way to his specialty, that will only put the magic system in a downward spiral. The player will then max the contra-way and it will be a pointless stand off.

About saying that the mage that uses the contra-way could hurt the other mage...again the mortal bodies are not made of the magic. Any spell from another way should be able to damage the mage; because he would have either no knowledge or less knowledge than the attacking mage of a different training. He would than be unable to dispel the attack.