[MUD-Dev] Striving for originality

[Edward Glowacki]

On Tue, 2002-06-11 at 22:11, Kwon Ekstrom wrote:

> The simple fact of the matter is I think a "mage" should describe
> someone who spends most of his time learning magic and magic is
> his main ability.  If magic is secondary then you're describing
> something else entirely.  My system does support using magic as
> secondary... but if you're primary focus is magic then I don't
> think you should be standing where you can get hit.

My views are somewhat influenced by my experience playing Medievia.
My main character there was a mage hero, meaning basically that I
was a cleric/thief/warrior/mage, with the HP, mana, and other stats
as a mage, but the ability to use warrior and thief skills, as well
as cleric spells.  This combination is obviously very
self-sufficient.  It differs from a normal single-class mage in a
lot of ways, so keep that in mind when reading, but I think the
important concepts we're discussing still apply.

In a one-on-one fight against a warrior or thief hero (meaning they
had the advantage of more hit points and the ability to hit and do
damage with weapons far more effectively, plus they had access to
cleric and mage spells, though with very little mana), I could
almost always hold my own and survive, though I could rarely win.
This was due to the devastating effects of a backstab, and the fact
that every round they get their full allotment of attacks to do
damage while I could only do damage when I managed to get a spell
off (which was sometimes impossible if they used skills to knock me
down).

However, in certain areas, I was *more* effective than warrior types
because of area effect spells (hit all the mobs in the room at
once), mana shield (take damage to mana instead of hit points), and
mana kickbacks (gain mana from kills).

The other key consideration in Medievia was a character's equipment.
A warrior generally has a full set of HP equipment and another set
of damage roll equipment, and they switch between the two depending
on whether they need defense or offense, respectively.  Mages
generally have HP and mana equipment, though they are usually more
balanced and don't change as much.  I happened to have acquired an
almost full collection of the best equipment for a good aligned mage
in the game, so I was well protected in any situation.  I had enough
HP, and with mana shield protecting me, there weren't too many
places in the game where I wouldn't walk boldly knowing I could
survive anything I came across, at least long enough to run... =)

So, yes, I had less HP than a warrior, but by no means did I need to
run and hide all the time.

-ED
--
Edward Glowacki             glowack2 at msu.edu

"A wise craftsman never blames his tools." 
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