Absolute Spell Control

[NewPie]

jeh jeh ... why not to combine spells and make some ??ber spells :F

[Samoth]

Combining spells is a different subject.

The suggestion is should you be able to overcharge spell  casting.  It should not be as efficient but one powerful spell may get you out of a messy fix.  Its a tactical decision - spend my mana now or save some for trying to get out of here.

I agree there should always be the chance things may backfire and damage taken.  This overcharging should increase the chances.

[NewPie]

Jeh Jeh ... lets copy Wizardry 8 system to this game and add nifty little overcharging feature to not fully copy it ;F

[Sotojinsai]

Absolute spell controll...

well i think it would be a great idea to mabey change the way your fireball spell looks what ever spell you want. that way you can be unique in your spell casting. however there should be a limit to the cusomizing.

for instance --
     instead of a plain old fireball  you could change it to mabey a small dragon head that shoots to the NME with its jaws wide open.  but not something like a huge dragon being summoned to hit the poor fella.  

color change would be nice too  but thats a given with this idea....

lov it, hate it, or ignore it.    thats my two cents.

[Seytra]

The look of the spell should reflect it\'s power. Tiny fireball for tiny power, large fireball for great power. Differenciate for newbie spell or experienced spell on minimal power setting: newbie slightly fuzzy and / or a little different each time, exp. spell well defined.
Newbie spell on steroids -> look should resemble overchargedness (like less controlled shape / way).

Overcharging-> no fixed limit, BUT:
- (charge-level - spell level)*complicated formula = chance of catastrophic failure. Should be some \"limes\" kind of thing that approaches 100% but never exactly matches 100%. So the really desperate can always try the level 1 spell on level 3000 if they have the mana for it, it\'ll just blow them up about 99.99996% of the time.

Undercharging -> makes the spell much more precise. You could then use the fire spell to make images in wood or something.

Also increase duration. Same energy, but shorter / longer duration, i.e. less / more power output per time unit, good for making images on wood with fire spell, or have three _really_ quick steps with \"increase speed\" spells instead of the *2 speed for 1 hour or so.

[Xanaroth]

An extra idea that could even add to this system, is a lower-mp by lvl.

Like you have 20 in red-way, that means your mp-usage is lowerd by normal usage - (difficult formula). That way when you get stronger, it is easier to buff those \"useless\" low lvl spells, and you can cast spells more often. It would also add more rp since you would stick with the spells of your way, making larger party\'s more usefull.

Another thing is that newby\'s cant use the most powerfull spells in the game and make the cost lower so they can use it, since their lvl would be so low their \"bonus\" would never cover enough mp to make it usable.

example:
Meteorite blast is a lvl 50 spell with 5000 dmg and 450 cost. A n00b finds it and lowers it to lvl 1 so he can use it. Now he has a 100 dmg spell for 9 mp. Tough if that formula is added to it, it would be 450 mp cost WITH a lvl 50 skill.

Now he tries it again, but instead of 9 mp, 75 mp comes out and it is useless to him.

[Seytra]

Sounds reasonable. If you\'re lvl 50, you then can lower the spell to lvl 1, 100 dmg / 9 mana. If you\'re lvl 1, it\'s 100 dmg for 75 mana, at lvl 100 it\'s 100 dmg for even lower mana.

This would reflect the better knowledge of the whole way the magic works and therefore one can tweak it to be more efficient. Newbies could maybe still use the spell, but only if they find something to boost their mana temporarily or aren\'t total newbies anymore.

[cmdratz]

Kramy and others:
   I have referenced below a program which may demonstrate this feature. I advise those interested to read its documentation before beginning the executable. SnowScape Battle System
Respectfully:
C. M. Dratz

[Kereshin]

I think this would make things interesting o_0

[NATIK]

I really like these ideas as it would make the magic system soooo much more fun to use, instead of having to find new spells for each monster, u would be able to overcharge the old ones at some risk if u overcharge to much, and then blast the monster away...

Like it, like it alot

[Kereshin]

I think charging a spell up just adds more depth to a magic system.

[Zeraph]

yes, I like this idea, as your magic skill level increases with each use of the spell it gets easier to cast & less time & mana are spent, also it will last longer, with less chance of backfiring.
I would like the ability for newbs to preform any spell they can get there hands on, only if it requires allot of lets say blue way then it has a high probability of backfiring & or not working... also if it works it will not be effective...
 

[XpYtZ]

Hey look, people are using the search function

From what I understand it will work that way to a degree. You may increase the power of the spell that you are casting but you risk serious personal injury if you fail and were super powering something...Or maby it was that you can cast anything but you risk serious injury if you fail on something really powerfull...I can not remember exactly.
Don\'t wory though. It looks to me like the system is well enough built to blow a hole through Talad himself.

[PlaneWalker]

I\'m not sure if this is what the original poster meant.  But this is what would be a nice spell system and much more flexible.

Since PS uses a Rune system, a slight modification might make it quite interesting.

All magic has a base values.

A character\'s stat is related to magic\'s base strength.  And the time it takes to cast the spell (and the time with runes), is depended on a user\'s skill level with the spell.

The Magic Spell can be modified with X number of modifier runes.

Some modifier includes.
1. Long - increase spell range.
2. Wide - increase field effect (fireballs, healing), increase number of target striked (chain lightning).
3. Power - increase spell strength further (more damage, more healing, etc.)
4. Accuracy - increase spell hit rate.


The spells could be outfitted with these runes to create a customized spell.

The inclusion of the runes increase the mana cost and time takes to cast it.
The spell could be customized in two way.  One way is in a menu, where user can drag and drop runes into the spell.  
The spell could also be customized on the fly.  By tying a key to each rune (keypad perhaps) and allow the player to type it in on the fly.

Example, a level 3 fireball has 3 slots to use.
There are 4^3 combinations to cast.

The customization by menu is self-explanatory.
Spell on the fly, assuming the runes are tied into the keypad with the same number as I listed above.

Cast Fireball
While spell\'s casting (a casting bar could appear to indicate time it takes to finish), player hit 3, 3, 2.

The fireball gets a large boost in damage rating and a slight boost in it effective area.

[Kereshin]

I think making hotkeys for gylphs is bloody brilliant! It doesnt compromise the system, but allows the user a convieniant alternative to drag-and-drop-oops-its-too-late-I-died in battle!