It's come to our attention that the system as it stands seems to unfairly gimp casters. The core problem is that fighters (warriors, savages, and monks) can spend skill points to become more combat effective through Brawn, Fortitude, Weapon Specialization, and the like. However, if a caster wants to do so, they're stuck buying combat skills. As Jessi put this to me, this essentially makes everyone, "Glorified templars," referencing a fighter/caster hybrid class from Solar.
The solution on the table is to create a skill that allows characters to prepare additional actions and grant casters a stronger affinity for it. I think it's worth testing. However, I agree with Nick that I'd like to see the system as it stands before we do so. Thus, we'll be launching without this skill. If we find that casters are truly that ineffective, this will be among the first measures we test to correct the situation.
I'm happy to debate the proposal further, or other ideas for allowing casters to buy more combat effectiveness. However, there are several important things I want people to keep in mind as we go forward:
- Don't let the apparent weakness of a class prevent you from playing it. We're committed to making every single class fun and effective. Play what you want to play, and trust that we'll balance things that don't work.
- Actions of one class are not equivalent to actions from another class by virtue of their relative versatility. A wizard action, for example, can produce any number of effects, while a warrior action can produce only a few. Whether or not the classes can prepare the same number of actions at each level, it is not an apples to apples comparison.
- Most non-fighter classes can create items to temporarily boost the number of actions available to them. Rogues can create poisons, disciples can create salves, wizards can create scrolls, etc. This costs them, of course, but it's nonetheless worth considering in terms of overall effectiveness.
- Combat effectiveness is not the same as global effectiveness. Fighters are supposed to be superior combatants; that's pretty much all they do. Other classes like rogues, wizards, and disciples fulfill utility and support roles that the fighting classes cannot. Essentially, if you only want to be good at fighting, play a fighter; if you want to be good at other things, play something else. Just because one class can dominate another in a fight doesn't necessarily make it better.
- Bearing that in mind, casters do have skills they can purchase to increase their effectiveness in their chosen role. Lores are my favorite example of this. A wizard can make his entire group more effective by knowing everything about what they're fighting. As the game develops further, more skills like this will become available.
That being said, what options does everyone think should be available to a caster who wants to be more combat effective? Is an extra actions skill a good solution, or is it overpowering? Weigh in in the comments below.
We've considered the idea of an unlimited, single-packet spell that does very little damage. Essentially, it would be a level-limited skill that would let you inflict one point of damage per rank. Thus, a 4th-level wizard with maximum ranks could call 4 damage with packets. I don't think this is overpowered, and it may be a viable solution.
The idea of a specialization mechanic has also been considered. For example, you might have a skill that says all spells that inflict fire damage inflict five more points of damage. Again, I don't think this is bad, although it would potentially complicate marshalling a bit. "Why are you calling 30 fire when the action only calls 20? Oh, right..."
The problem, unfortunately, is in generalizing these things to healers, and I believe that's where the debate originated. Most of us agree that it would be game breaking to allow healers to throw unlimited amounts of healing, no matter the amount. The only alternative, then, would be to give them additional actions. Because it's the simplest solution that would solve the problem for both disciples and wizards, it's the one currently under consideration.
P.S. What is this "mana" you speak of? We don't have anything like that around here. :P
well why not allow healers to throw a single base dmg spell as well? they need to be able to defend themselves in times of danger? or even create a skill that helps reduce cool down times? it could be a very expensive skill available only to healers (since they would need it the most) and would effect only heal spells or something of that nature.
"she looked into your eyes / and saw what lay beneath / don't try to save yourself the circle is complete."
One possible solution I'm tinkering with is the idea of buying extra preparations for actions you already know. Thus, instead of buying an extra wizard action, a character might buy an additional preparation of Ember Dart. Essentially, you specialize in a specific action.
I'm still up in the air as to the cost. Presumably, it would scale with the action rating, and caster classes would have a stronger affinity for it than fighter classes. Since you'd eventually outgrow the actions, there'd probably also be a special option to drop the skill.
I definitely like it better than buying generic actions, since the usefulness of extra actions increases exponentially with level, whereas the usefulness of a specific action never really goes up. What does everyone think?
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- Bureaucrat 1.0, Futurama
well how about we add like a 0 mana base spell. like at the start the wizard can chose between fire and ice, then they can "cast" a basic fire spell for like 2 dmg or something unlimited times while they wait for skills to recharge. this way a pure caster can still defend themselves even when all their better spells have been used up. you could take like a combat magic skill or something to up your dmg on the base spell by adding mana cost or something to it.
which brings me to my next point. Combat Magic/Casting as a skill. it would allow you to chose a spell X amount of times and cast it at an enhanced rate i.e. dmg spells deal more dmg, effect spells last longer or are harder to resist etc. this could help make casters a little more bothersome in combat. just and idea.
"she looked into your eyes / and saw what lay beneath / don't try to save yourself the circle is complete."