Circle Magic

[Karyuu]

Originally posted by Wormtail_
A little more information on the WoT series and \"linking.\"

Only female \"Aes Sedai\"(channelers) can link, and males cannot.

Males CAN link. Well, they can -be- linked, anyway. A female is needed to do that.

[elscouta]

If you want to create a circle, have warriors to protect the mages during the sorcery (don\'t tell me such a spell is cast in less than 5 seconds), you need probably a lot of people. This is no longer a group, this is an army

[Wormtail_]

Well, males can link, but there must be one more female in the circle than the males at any time. Well, always a female, 2 if a male is linked. (source - The World of Robert Jordan\'s Wheel of Time )  

I think the idea of a sexist magic ring is a bit hard to realise, there are way more people playing a male character then there are female, and I generally think that it shouldn\'t matter if you\'re a guy or a girl when playing a game. This idea makes the difference between male and female a bit to big IMHO.

I was merely posting an example of how linking was done in an 11 book (and still more to come) series. Perhaps a restraint on certain races linking could be used. There may be some races who are more used to working in groups, and others who just want to stay out of linking altogether, but can link in smaller groups. This would have to be based off the storyline.

[Axsyrus]

Yeah, it might be pretty hard to make a magic circle containing a few krans and dwarfes

Maybe you could do something like this with the 2 human and 2 elven races. For example, you can\'t make a ring with just Ylians, you need the same amount of Xacha aswell. This would go for Dermorians/Nolthrir too. Races like Kran/Dwarfes should be pretty restricted in joining a magic ring, maybe only one of this race can be in a ring. Lemurs and Diaboli however would be able to make rings without needing any other races. for Enkidukai, Klyros and Ynnwn there would be other specific rules since they aren\'t really magic based but don\'t completely suck in it either..

[Deddarus]

an alternative would be that 2 or mages could link and their mage skill is averaged for the linked spells but their mana combined

in this way a powerfull mage could help out a less powerfull comrade.. meaning he couldnt cast to his full capability but the lesser mage could cast beyond his ability

[Kereshin]

I *heart* the idea of Circle Magic because it makes mages more powerful and connects the magical community. It also balances out becuase being a lone mage can be sometimes difficult. I think however the Mage/Warrior Combo attacks arent such a good idea, because it may get confusing, but thats just me. I also agree with having risks, because having a huge order of 350 Uber-Mages in a circle may create unfair advantages. I like the idea of consequences and maybe even having the spell backfire.

[Syzerian]

Maybe if the energy if being focused to one specific person they can have too much power and light and energy vents out of their mouth and eyes as they let out a demonic scream and explode, killing everyone in the circle.  This kind of act would most likely leave the mages involved paralyzed and drain of all energy which would bring the dangers of a simple beast sneaking up behind and killing them.

[FESFES]

Wouldnt this give mages too much power over archers, knights, ect

[Kereshin]

No it wouldn\'t because it most games the mages have a disadvantage, and with risks, it balances it even more.

[Stydracos]

Hehe, The title had me immediately thinking of The Wheel of Time  .

There needs to be risk though to such a potentially awesome spell. The bigger the circle the more powerful and risker, also harder to cast and more mana required.
Perhaps risk could be that every member of the circle tries to pass their spell casting to allow the lead/focal mage a better chance in cast the spell.

Something like :

- The focal is the first one to start the circle.

- The focal links to another who accepts the link.

- This continues with links forming until the last link is back with the focal.

- The first link after the focal casts the spell then the next and so forth with the last caster being the focal.

- If someone fails they suffer a manaburn or whatever and are damaged (most likely fatal).

- Death in the ring is bad and the dead mage is removed the two it was linked two are now linked and suffer some transferance damage (this allows for a casscading effect and heightens the risk).

- The final chance of the spell is left to the focal/leader as it checks to succeed modified by the rest of the mages success.

- Failure now loses the spell and results in a  manaburn (larger?) with transference damage to the first and last link. After the focal is removed, either the circle is broken or the first link takes over? not sure...

- The best way I can see it is the chance for the focal to succeed is only modified positively, make a spell impossible for one to cast but every successful link reduces the difficulty by an ammount until it is possible.

I hope that was understandable. I don\'t know anything about the magic implementation, this may be a laughable approach. It may sound complex its would most likely be simple in play requiring practice and paitence, I guess a nightmare to implement though.

One thing to note, if your worried about the power of the ring and your an archer.... just kill the focal to stop the spell or hit one of the weaker scrawny looking mages you may kill them all.

[Kereshin]

I like the linking idea, its great. So is the death of a mage and mana burn. I think though that a defensive or a non combat spell should have lesser risk than an offensive. Just a thought.

[PlaneWalker]

Hm... I was havnig a similar idea before I found this post.  I have been thinking a lot about combined forces, but not just limited to mage, but can also include other combination such as swordman and mage (think Chrono Trigger).

I suggest a system where the circle/combo can consist up to 2-6 players.  Also it\'s hard to get all into position, so here\'s my suggestiong on how initiating a circle will go, broken down into steps.

1. A player takes a glance at a list, which list the circle/combo that the player can initiate and complete with others.  Note that the list only display spells that can be completed by party members nearby.  If a party member is too far away, a spell that needs that member won\'t appear on the list.

2. A player select the spell and activate it.  A notice will send out to all players that will need to be involved.  If more then one player can fulfill the circle/combo\'s requirement, both of them will receive a notice.  A circle also appear on the ground that indicate how close the required players needed to be for the circle/combo to activate.

3. The players receiving the notice has a set time limit to move into the circle and trigger the it by clicking on the notice (15 seconds or something) before the circle/combo dissolve.  If two players can fulfill a requirement that only require one.  The player that first respond by entering the circle and trigger the notice is the one that will be in the circle.

4. When, within the time limit, the requirement is met, the circle is triggered.

A player can only trigger a circle once.  And the players that assist in activating that circle will not be able to initiate their own for 30 seconds.  Also circle initiator will bear a larger portion of the spell cost then other assistance.

[Lardhoc Aewheros]

Magicians joining their powers together is a common feature in many fantasy books, so why not in a game? It is simply a great idea! The only downside I can think of is that it would make mages so cool that the amount of non-mages may shrink, even if equally advanced features would be available to all sorts of fighters. I don\'t know what others think but mages are already so much cooler than everything else in most games and I don\'t expect Planeshift to be an exception.  However, I would greatly love circle magic.

[SirTokesalot]

do u have to be in the same party to use, or can 2 partys all join in the cricle spell (how big can a party be in ps)?
 if the spell fails dose the whole party share the dmg? or the last person to cast it?
 If someone is hit while casting dose it distract them enought for it to fail or do they take more dmg?
i think that if your are meditating on a spell you are less prepared to block.
 for non magice classes could there be a life share skill or something?
that could be use in a similer way to make it more fair?

[PlaneWalker]

To Lardhoc:  The problem with mage being too popular is the reason why I say some circles would require non-magic users \'s skill.  In this case the mage provides the power and the fighters redirect those power in ways most effcient to them.

To SirTokesalot:  I don\'t think it would be easy for 2 partys to try to fulfill each other\'s spells, so I think a circle spell is limited to one party.  I\'m not sure how big a party will be in PS, but I\'ll take a wild guess of 4~6.
If the spell fail, the initiator will take the majority of the negative effect while the assistors will receive only a fraction.  And if an assisstor is hit while casting a concentation check could be made to see if he/she loses the spell.