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silverfoxdmt73
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Magic: Divine or Arcane Wisdom?

Sun 01 Oct 2017, 13:21

Any ideas or preferences on how magic is going to be handled?

I would guess that the God(s) are going to have a hand in things, but will there be any scope for other types of magic, such as arcane scrolls, books and things like that?

I would imagine the dwarves and elves would also have their distinct branches of magic?
 
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Tomas
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Re: Magic: Divine or Arcane Wisdom?

Sun 01 Oct 2017, 19:54

Indeed! This is big subject and not completely nailed down yet. There will definitely be a number of different disciplines of magic, some specific to certain cultures. We'll have more specifics for you soon!
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silverfoxdmt73
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Re: Magic: Divine or Arcane Wisdom?

Sun 01 Oct 2017, 21:19

Thanks for the reply.

Looking forward to seeing how magic develops..
 
LupNi
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Re: Magic: Divine or Arcane Wisdom?

Mon 02 Oct 2017, 13:17

I'm getting really curious about this as well. Since I saw somewhere the mention of "Magic Points" on the character sheet, I kind of hope it isn't just a "mana pool" system. I don't like situations where you can't do your "cool move" because you're out of mana/spell slots... I'm hoping for an original mechanic using the strengths of the Year Zero system, I think mutations in MY0 did that well!

I realize it's early for this kind of thoughts, please excuse my hunger for rules sneak peeks :D
 
Harper
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Re: Magic: Divine or Arcane Wisdom?

Mon 02 Oct 2017, 14:31

I'm getting really curious about this as well. Since I saw somewhere the mention of "Magic Points" on the character sheet, I kind of hope it isn't just a "mana pool" system. I don't like situations where you can't do your "cool move" because you're out of mana/spell slots... I'm hoping for an original mechanic using the strengths of the Year Zero system, I think mutations in MY0 did that well!

I realize it's early for this kind of thoughts, please excuse my hunger for rules sneak peeks :D
How about if magic cost are based on spell difficulty, (higher the spell the higher the cost) but the cost can be reduced by any successes beyond that need to make the spell?
So if you only need 1 success to cast the spell, but you rolled 3 successes, you get to reduce the cost in mana by 2 point,
(After you run out of mana, I'd make it you need to roll Strength equal to the cost or fail, with the option of temporary reducing your strength to cast spell, (so if you had a Strength of 3, you could get three extra mana, but must reduce your strength by 1, if you Strength hits zero, you die,) 
 
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King_Kull
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Re: Magic: Divine or Arcane Wisdom?

Tue 03 Oct 2017, 00:56

Not a friend of magic systems where the magic user can’t cast a reliable spell. It doesn’t have to be something powerful but little spells that magic user can cast without cost. That doesn’t mean that they have to succeed in automatically hitting an opponent but that they can use at will some powers - a fighter or rogue can use his attacks every round why not the caster? Like the use of st will spells in 13th Age or Cantrips in D&D.
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Peter
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Re: Magic: Divine or Arcane Wisdom?

Tue 03 Oct 2017, 11:38

It will be interesting to see how this pans out. There is already the push mechanism in MY0, you could imagine something similar for FL. Maybe Magic Points and then the option to push on when they run out?

It's a bit of an old preference from d20 Conan, but it could also be fuelled by human sacrifice by the less savoury sorcerers.... Or maybe that's too Sword and Sorcery...
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Re: Magic: Divine or Arcane Wisdom?

Wed 04 Oct 2017, 10:55

How about if magic cost are based on spell difficulty, (higher the spell the higher the cost) but the cost can be reduced by any successes beyond that need to make the spell?
This is my preference, too: magic based on difficulty. I posted in the KS comments a couple of weeks back, which I'll repost here, slightly modified:
On the subject of magic, I personally hate magic points, and prefer systems that have a difficulty assigned to each spell. If you take longer to cast it (being more careful), the difficulty reduces.
So a very easy spell (cantrip?) might have a difficulty of 0, meaning you can cast it in 1 round without penalty. A difficult spell might have a difficulty of 5, meaning you could cast it in 1 round, but for a difficulty of 5 (-5D to the pool?). Each round you spend concentrating on it reduces the difficulty by one, until after 5 rounds of focus you can cast it without penatly.
The beauty of something like this is that the more trained and powerful you are as a sorcerer, the easier it is to eat those difficulty modifiers and sling powerful spells around reasonably quickly.
Speaking of which, I also hope to see deadly backlashes on failed spells. Magic should be dangerous, and the mechanics should encourage careful concentration to cast anything complex.
This approach completely removes the need for mana points, but does require a Magic skill, which it looks like we won't be getting.  Not sure if there is an elegant way to handle spellcasting, where you don't need mana pools or a dedicated skill...  But that sounds like the ideal situation, for me anyway.
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King_Kull
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Re: Magic: Divine or Arcane Wisdom?

Wed 04 Oct 2017, 13:12

Perhaps I should clarify my wish for using magic by giving an example:
Every character will be able to swing a weapon to hit an opponent. What I don’t want to see is that a magic user have to cast a spell and then have to hit his opponent. I think a caster should use his spells like a combatant using a weapon. A dice throw to hit but not to succeed at the spell and then trying to attack with another dice roll. These spells don’t have to be very powerful but something like a bolt with as much damage as a normal weapon would be great in my opinion. And therefore I’m no friend of Mana Points or something similar. It will limit the caster and I hate it when a magician has to bring out his crossbow or staff. I didn’t like such a character in the past and don’t like him today.
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vandraren
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Re: Magic: Divine or Arcane Wisdom?

Wed 04 Oct 2017, 14:05

Agree that Mana Points might not be the way to go.
I would have Magic as its own skill and let the different spells have different difficulties. So you need a number of successes to be able to cast a certain spell.
Maybe different schools of magic would require different talents to unlock the spells of that magic school?
A player who chooses the class Wizard then gets one magic school from the start. Could also unlock a second magic school from the start by using the third (free choice) talent.
This system would also allow a Fighter to choose a magic school as the third (free choice) talent and set some points in the "Magic" skill allowing for a little bit of "multi-classing".

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