ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

This has bothered me for a little while. It's very strange that Resolve can trigger off of damage that is clearly from a non-magical, even natural source, such poison vines, dragon breath attacks, and similar. There are also some enemies whose melee attacks cause elemental damage but thematically are not magical creatures (and some egos). I think that these types of damage should be distinguished as non-magical for the purposes of Resolve. Antimagic is already a challenging playstyle, but Resolve is so powerful an effect that I don't think that this change would be too drastic. It would also go some ways towards making Antimagic feel more thematic. I don't think it's right that Resolve on a Mage Hunter would trigger from a Wyrmic's breath attack.

Magical effects that cause physical damage (Stone/Earth/Gravity, for example) are something of a grey area, I can see arguments for both sides.

One way to go about this would be to implement a physical/magical/mental split for damage types, too. I don't know if this would be a worthwhile pursuit, considering the small degree of overlap, but it would open the doors for more general resist types (instead of only specific resists and the all-encompassing "resist all").

I think this is a thread destined for philosophical discussion, so I will get us started.

What is the relationship between the "particles" and their "source"? For example, let us look at the Flame spell and the Fire Breath talent. In the one case a ball of flame is conjured and tossed at you, but is the magic still present after the initial conjuring? For Fire Breath I imagine some combustible fuel is projected forth and ignited, so it is indeed "natural". The question I think we must answer is if there is any difference between Flame and Fire Breath once it reaches you. Under the current implementation there is no difference, and that bothers you, but to be honest I don't think the physical laws of Maj'Eyal have been set forth with great enough detail to determine which implementation is correct.

I would personally prefer a deeper integration of the "powered by arcane/nature/etc" into the game, so I am a +1 for that idea but could be convinced otherwise.

Forget realism, look at the gameplay mechanics. Resolve should be an anti-magic thing, and so having it triggered by wyrmic breath attacks is unintuitive to the gameplay. I agree with the idea of a more integrated arcane/natural/etc damage type system.

I wonder what people think about adding something like the interplay between technology and magic in Arcanum? Here the obvious dichotomy would be natural versus arcane forces. In Arcanum two opposing forces (say a wilder versus an archmage) would actually result in each other talents being reduced in effectiveness versus each other, but you could also argue that maybe both extremes would be more susceptible to each other instead. Then anti-magic becomes powerful because an anti-magic character would have inherent bonuses versus natural and arcane sources... or maybe that would simply be OP.

Grey wrote:Forget realism, look at the gameplay mechanics. Resolve should be an anti-magic thing, and so having it triggered by wyrmic breath attacks is unintuitive to the gameplay. I agree with the idea of a more integrated arcane/natural/etc damage type system.

Mm... from a gameplay perspective, though, that would be nerfing resolve, which probably doesn't need a hit, imo. It's currently a weaker premonition with some resource regen tacked on (the sustain cost for prem is irrelevant for anyone that can get resolve, so...), so making it where (I do believe) most elemental damage wouldn't ding it would significantly weaken the ability.

Another +1 to a fuller implementation of arcane/etc, though. It'd be hilarious to me if AM shield (and/or resolve) blocked (/triggered off) damage from arcane powered weapons, heh. That would be an incredible buff to the talent