[MUD-Dev] Striving for originality

[Edward Glowacki]

On Fri, 2002-06-14 at 12:05, Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com wrote:

> I like that, although how did you deal with mage stacking? I'm
> making some assumptions here that the big spells would do a lot of
> dmg, but then with multiple mages in the same encounter, if they'd
> all saved up for the big spell, they'd almost negate the value of
> the melee?
 
> Every week you'd see troupes of mages wondering around killing the
> big mobs!

There are a few ways I can see to combat this:

  1. Don't let the mages gain that much power.  If the "big mobs"
  have 1000 HP, and given a typical mage spell saved in the manner
  you described, such a spell should maybe only do 50 damage.  So
  you'd need 20 mages combined to all cast at the same time for the
  instant kill, which will then split the XP and equipment that many
  ways, thereby making it pointless to organize such a posse.

  2. Make some of the big mobs more resistant to magic, such that a
  fighter in melee does considerably more damage than a mage with
  his big spells.  Also, selective immunities might help, if you had
  10 possible immunities, then a gang of mages might only be
  effective 1/10th of the time (assuming the gang is specialized to
  one type for the maximum collaborative damage inflicting
  capability).

  3. Fireshield. =) Assume a mage has 95 hit points.  If that mage
  casts a fireball that inflicts 200 points of damage, and the enemy
  has a magical barrier that reflects 50% of damage taken back to
  the attacker, the mage is then hit by 100 points of his own
  damage, which kills him. So the smart mage would be very careful
  when casting such dangerous spells.

  4. Chance of catastrophic failure.  Say there's a 2% chance that a
  fireball will explode in the caster's hand, and when it does,
  everyone nearby takes damage.  Maybe everyone in the party can
  handle one catastrophe, but can they handle 2 fireballs in a row
  failing?  Given a party of 10 mages all casting the same spell at
  the same time, there's a reasonable chance of a double failure
  killing the whole party...

  5. Magic capacity of the localized area.  Perhaps such a massive
  release of magical energy from a killer spell has a direct impact
  on other magic for a short time afterward in the immediate
  vicinity.  Other high power spells cast within that time either
  have a significantly reduced effect, fail completely, or even
  backfire on the caster.  Over time, the magical fabric of the area
  repairs itself enough to accommodate another massive spell.  So
  yes, 10 mages could kill the mob if they each used their killer
  spells, but due to the wait required between them, is it really
  any faster or safer than using lower-power traditional spells?

  6. Vulnerability while casting.  If a mage is trying to conjure up
  the mother of all fireballs, it might take a while to gather the
  energy or form the energy into the spell.  While that is
  happening, the mage is vulnerable to attack.  Also, perhaps when
  casting such a big spell, all the mages protective spells are
  temporarily negated (as the mage needs to exclusively focus on the
  intricacies of the killer spell).  Either way, one area-effect
  attack (or targeted attack that makes it around any defending
  warrior-types) from the enemy could devastate the mage...

-ED

--
Edward Glowacki             glowack2 at msu.edu

"A wise craftsman never blames his tools." 
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