One more thing (just read your last post).
Magic, the way I use in in my world, is energy.
# It's an energy on another plane of existance.
# There is a way to control that energy from our own reality.
That way is an ancient "language", that The Forefathers (some kind of creators of the world) used to drain energy for their needs.
# Casting is the skill to use the language: custom phrases, gestures, etc, so you can reach, give shape and control that energy.
# There are places in the world, where the Forefathers have set a "tranfer posts" of some kind, so they could easyly access the energy. Those posts were sealed long ago and around some of them the energy in leaking in very small amounts in our reality.
Beings, that dwell such places get used with the energy so they are resistant to it.
# When you cast a spell, what you do is command certain amount energy to a position in our world. The impact with anything that's in the way causes certain kind of effect. Depending on your Skill, you can control bigger amounts of energy, so you can get bigger effect.
# The effect could be anything, if you have the skill to model it. You can get damage, which could be ice, fire, water, etc. You could get healing by restoring one's living powers. You can get levitating objects. Anything.
# A set of gestures/phrases is called a Spell. It has proven to do this and that effect. Most Mages use "predefined", or known spells. That's because they want to live up to 20 years.
Experimenting with the Language can be catastrophic. So far you should know why.
# A Magic Item is a special item that encapsulates some of The Energy. It Energy load is not infinite. It comes to an end at some point. If you are Skilled enough, you can SAFELY "reload" your item.
# If you're not, well, you can destroy your item, or cause damage to youself, or even set your house on fire, or the whole village, or turn every living being in the kingdom in a sheep, or have an Armagedon next door.
# Magic is not for mass use. It is rare, but it's powerfull. It requires certain Skills (once again), otherwise don't get involved.
That's what magic is in my world, described in few words.
Boby Dimitrov
boby@azholding.com
Edited by - BobyDimitrov on June 6, 2001 10:22:43 AM
The concept of magic resistance
More about my world's magic system (provoked by Darkor):
Magic resistance is not such a dymanic feature, like Diablo's stamina. If a creature has resistance to Fire (fire damage done by the Energy, see above post), hitting it with fireballs won't lower that resistance. I'm more willing to go even for RAISING it. After all "what doesn't kill me, makes me stronger". It is normal to expect that a Drake that resisted 150 fireballs w/o much trouble will receive an increase in his resistance. Like in boxing - the more they hit you, the more you get tough (over the years, that is, i'm not talking about instant effects).
Boby Dimitrov
boby@azholding.com
Edited by - BobyDimitrov on June 6, 2001 10:31:14 AM
Magic resistance is not such a dymanic feature, like Diablo's stamina. If a creature has resistance to Fire (fire damage done by the Energy, see above post), hitting it with fireballs won't lower that resistance. I'm more willing to go even for RAISING it. After all "what doesn't kill me, makes me stronger". It is normal to expect that a Drake that resisted 150 fireballs w/o much trouble will receive an increase in his resistance. Like in boxing - the more they hit you, the more you get tough (over the years, that is, i'm not talking about instant effects).
Boby Dimitrov
boby@azholding.com
Edited by - BobyDimitrov on June 6, 2001 10:31:14 AM
Even more...
Maybe we should discuss vodoo and some shamanism stuff, coming to that physical/energy Magic... Although I consider physical only the EFFECT, not the SPELL itself. Here''s what I mean:
If you cast a spell that focuses energy from the Meta-univeree in some point of our space, so you could invoke fire damage, it''s the ENERGY that causes the damage, but you wont get ANY FLAMES, whatsoever.
If you cast a spell that focuses energy from the Meta-univeree in some point of our space, so you could set something on FIRE (real fire), then it''s the REAL FIRE that causes the damage, not he Energy.
So a Salamander is immune (totally) to real fire damage (heat, burning), but not to magical fire damage.
Boby Dimitrov
boby@azholding.com
Maybe we should discuss vodoo and some shamanism stuff, coming to that physical/energy Magic... Although I consider physical only the EFFECT, not the SPELL itself. Here''s what I mean:
If you cast a spell that focuses energy from the Meta-univeree in some point of our space, so you could invoke fire damage, it''s the ENERGY that causes the damage, but you wont get ANY FLAMES, whatsoever.
If you cast a spell that focuses energy from the Meta-univeree in some point of our space, so you could set something on FIRE (real fire), then it''s the REAL FIRE that causes the damage, not he Energy.
So a Salamander is immune (totally) to real fire damage (heat, burning), but not to magical fire damage.
Boby Dimitrov
boby@azholding.com
One way of balancing this is to introduce polarity to magic. So strong resistance to one type of magic (fire) is balanced by low resistance to the opposite (cold). So while your salamander is completely unaffected by magical fire, one cold spell could kill it in a blink...
Polarity as a rule is a quick and dirty solution IMO.
Creatures are what they are, with strength and weakness because they are evolving in a given environnement since generations.
You can introduce some dynamic in the system by allowing slight resistance increase at given places.
Most of the time the polarity rule is true, because a creature acustomed to fire will be probably have higher internal temperature... which make it sensible to cold.
But you can create an environnement such as the creature that evolves in it is resistant to manythings, or don''t have weaknesses.
-* So many things to do, so little time to spend. *-
Creatures are what they are, with strength and weakness because they are evolving in a given environnement since generations.
You can introduce some dynamic in the system by allowing slight resistance increase at given places.
Most of the time the polarity rule is true, because a creature acustomed to fire will be probably have higher internal temperature... which make it sensible to cold.
But you can create an environnement such as the creature that evolves in it is resistant to manythings, or don''t have weaknesses.
-* So many things to do, so little time to spend. *-
You guys raise some interesting points. I like the idea that a magic user can resist regular magic. It just makes sense that a wizard should be somewhat resistant to magic itself. I also agree that the same wizard should not be resistant to "true" fire, ice, wind, or any other real physical force. At least not without casting some kindof protective spell on himself. Just because the guy can cast a fire spell doesn''t mean that if he stuck his hand in "true" fire he shouldn''t get burned.
I also think that a rat or other non-magic user should have no chance of resisting a magic spell. Obviously there should be exceptions to certain spells (mesmerize, charm, fear, things of that nature) but if I cast a lightning bolt spell at a non-magic user I think they should get zapped. However, I think that those creatures could be more resistant to "true" magic based on their nature. Ex. a snow beast shouldn''t take as much damage from a "true" ice spell.
I don''t think it would be too difficult to design the menu with the regular/true magic option. You could set it up so that this option only applies to offensive spells.
I also like the concept of the illusion magic. I agree that it should cost very little mana/energy/mp to cast. Perhaps make it''s resisability based on the creatures IQ. I think that a dog isn''t smart enough to rationalize that it isn''t on fire if it has the smell of smoke in it''s nose, sees the flame, and even feels pain (makes sense that the spell would cause some pain to make the illusion more believable). The downside would be that a smarter creature that has been exposed to this type of magic would recognize it as only an illusion.
I''m sure that there would be many happy fans of magic users in RPG''s that would welcome a change. It is very frustrating when your only form of attack is completely ineffective against certain monsters.
I also think that a rat or other non-magic user should have no chance of resisting a magic spell. Obviously there should be exceptions to certain spells (mesmerize, charm, fear, things of that nature) but if I cast a lightning bolt spell at a non-magic user I think they should get zapped. However, I think that those creatures could be more resistant to "true" magic based on their nature. Ex. a snow beast shouldn''t take as much damage from a "true" ice spell.
I don''t think it would be too difficult to design the menu with the regular/true magic option. You could set it up so that this option only applies to offensive spells.
I also like the concept of the illusion magic. I agree that it should cost very little mana/energy/mp to cast. Perhaps make it''s resisability based on the creatures IQ. I think that a dog isn''t smart enough to rationalize that it isn''t on fire if it has the smell of smoke in it''s nose, sees the flame, and even feels pain (makes sense that the spell would cause some pain to make the illusion more believable). The downside would be that a smarter creature that has been exposed to this type of magic would recognize it as only an illusion.
I''m sure that there would be many happy fans of magic users in RPG''s that would welcome a change. It is very frustrating when your only form of attack is completely ineffective against certain monsters.
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