[MUD-Dev] Striving for originality

[Travis Casey]

Friday, June 07, 2002, 5:23:22 AM, Matt Chatterley wrote:
> On Wed, 5 Jun 2002, shren wrote:

>> 'skills' able to do different things, functionally.  You can
>> inflict ranged damage with a bow?  Fine, but why do you need
>> another source of ranged damage other than "bows"?  It seems you
>> then end up trying to balance bows, slings, and crossbows with
>> "magic", which never seems to work.  One is more powerful than
>> the other, always, and any attempts to balance them never seem to
>> work out.  Melee weapons should do melee damage, ranged weapons
>> should do ranged damage, and magic should do all sorts of useful
>> things that arn't melee damage or ranged damage.

> In a way, yes, in others.. no. Surely one of the big attractions
> to magical characters is the ability to make an oncoming group of
> orcs explode in a big purple flash?

For some, sure.  But not for everyone... some like the "wise old
magician/advisor" role.  Some like the chance to be mysterious and
cryptic.

One thing that might be interesting to see would be an emphasis on
curses -- instead of zapping enemies for damage, curse them.  Fun
things like "any drink will turn to vinegar the moment it enters
your mouth", "any weapon you pick up will cut you before you can put
it down", and the ever-popular "every ogre you meet will instantly
fall in love with you."

These may not be as spectacular as fireballs, but if there's no easy
way to get a curse removed, people will be very, very hesitant to
mess with magicians.

> To my mind, the place of the battlefield mage is at the back,
> behind the others -- the same as we might use artillery support in
> a more modern battle.

In D&D, supportive magic is a common thing to use at low-to-medium
levels.  Don't throw a fireball in, cast a Strength spell on one of
the fighters.  Cast Bless on the party.  Enlarge, Haste, and
Invisibility can also be good spells to make others more effective.

Also at medium to high levels, the magician's role in protecting
from other magicians becomes more important.  Spells like Detect
Invisibility, Detect Illusion, Dispel Magic, Remove Paralysis, Spell
Immunity, etc. become important.

--
Travis Casey
efindel at earthlink.net

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