CLOK BBS

Channeling now works as follows:

A single channel will always have an unavoidable cost per second.
A second channel will have a fairly high chance at having its energy cost avoided, based on Channeling skill.
A third channel will have a low chance of having its energy cost avoided, based on Channeling skill.

Expect further tweaking to follow.

I was asking what skills to train in order to reduce energy cost while channeling the other day, and was linked to this post much to my dismay. So there is nothing I can train in to reduce the base cost (which is quite a bit compared to attacking with a weapon in my experience). My question is why was this decision made? Why will as I gain in power/skills never become better than a brand new mage?

If you trance a single channel while a another person battles with melee, the energy usage will in most cases be the same. Melee weapons are typically 5 energy per attack, while maintaining a single channel is 1 energy per second, cast time is 5 seconds - that's also 5 energy per attack. Users of heavier melee weapons will be using 6-8 energy per attack, if they want to dish some extra damage.

The channeling skill allows for magic users to be able to hold more than one channel for less energy usage, allowing them to use multi-channel casts at less cost, so you'll definitely be better than a brand new mage in that respect. They'll get tired out extremely quickly using multi-channel casts, you'll be able to keep going significantly longer.

The base cost of a single channel is a primary balancing factor for magic, hence why we don't allow it to be negated. Others have already mentioned previous instances of casters who could run amok hurling 3-channel spells indefinitely before this change, which is not acceptable. Higher-power spells are supposed to be inefficient - you sacrifice efficiency in favor of more power and faster results. Channeling skill will help you alleviate some of that inefficiency, but the baseline 1-energy-per-second cost has to remain, lest we have a repeat of casters throwing about magic with no cost, which is just silly.

Alternatively, just as a suggestion you could have the energy drain from a 3rd channel not influenced by channeling. The second channel would then be hard to train off but possible with channeling. The first channel would be strongly influenced by channeling. I'm not saying this is how it should be done, but it would give the same outcome, not allowing highly trained characters to toss around high cost spells for long periods while still allowing those who wish to use their spells more conservatively to hunt for longer. There would be less of an energy cost associated with one channel spells than with melee but since they tend to not do much damage... it might be warranted. I don't mind things how they are but I just thought I'd throw this out there in case it hasn't been considered.

Channeling simply needs at least a base cost, period. This is not only due to casting, but to the several passive effects that simply channeling something can afford. Take away the base cost, and several passive active-channeling effects are now free, trivializing the balance that requiring an active channel creates.

Rias, thanks for answering I really do appreciate it. As you guys are pretty open about design and such I was simply trying to understand the system.