Okay, I have several problems with mages in T2: - They must almost always be glass cannons - Their spell selection usually ends up looking the same - Interesting/specialized builds, e.g. water mages, end up underpowered
I would like to make a go at fixing these (perceived) issues. I have two strategies I am considering.
1. Every school as a realm unto itself.
This would involve making each school stand mostly on its own. Schools would get additional spells of whatever sort I deemed sensible, e.g. the Air school would get detection spells and maybe movement spells.
Possible good points: - Presents an opportunity to add interesting new spells - Makes specialized mages possible, and active encourages specialization - Generally looks like it would do what I want
Possible bad points: - Might make some schools underpowered or overpowered, depending on what spells are sensible - Creates redundancy, especially for Sorcerers - Some schools would definitely get more attention than others - Risks making Geomancers and Warpers a lot less fun
2. Schools are interconnected.
Instead of making new, redundant spells, I could "interconnect" the schools by making more spells effectively multi-school. For instance, Elemental Shield could require a combined level of 20 in the four elemental schools and the Mana school, instead of just the Mana school... So with at least one point in each of those schools, you could pump any specific one and still get Elemental Shield at a decent level.
Possible good points: - If done right, could probably allow for more specialized mage builds without introducing redundancy. - Could allow (some) specialized builds to focus more exclusively on their schools of choice, with minimal skill point expenditure on other schools
Possible bad points: - The spell system could become pretty Byzantine, with every school requiring a bit of another school to get its full potential. - Some builds could end up with a lot of skill points freed up, making them much more powerful. - I haven't plotted everything out, but I don't think I could accommodate all the various types of potentially interesting specialized mage this way. New strictures might be introduced. - Again, there would be some risk of breaking gameplay for Warpers and Geomancers. - It would be more awkward than the redundant schools method from a gameplay perspective, since spells linked to a school could could be scattered through several tomes. - Might have unintended consequences affecting available spell choice for some classes (I'm thinking "half-casters" like Monks).
...
I'm still trying to figure this out. I figure I'll give option #2 a go in a git branch tomorrow... Meanwhile I'm open to any input. (Including input to the effect that my ideas are stupid and the problems I am describing are not signficant.)
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