Spellcasting Specialization Suggestions

[Lun]

Just to bring spellcasting in line with weapons, a specialization ability to weight rolls would be very much appreciated.

Spellcasting Specialization
(OOC: When channeling, combat rolls are weighted upward. Also unlocks further abilities specific to this weapon type.)

Overcharge
(OOC: Fire one supercharged bolt of <magic> at a hostile target after expending additional energy. 10 second cooldown before next use. Deals high damage.)

Blast
(OOC: Fire one bolt of <magic> each at up to three hostile targets simultaneously with a five second roundtime, expends additional energy. Scales to number of channels.)

Attune Elements
(OOC: For 10 seconds, your casting take half the time to cast (rounded up), though accuracy is reduced by 20% and dodge is reduced by 25%. This ability has a 45 second cool-down period before it may be re-used, and you will have a 5% accuracy penalty and 10% dodge penalty while under the cool-down effect.)

Compression Pattern General
(OOC: Increase channeling expenditure to 2x (1 channel 2energy per second). Increase damage with all types of magic by solidifying it/compressing it.)

[gralkik]

Overcharge
(OOC: Fire one supercharged bolt of <magic> at a hostile target after expending additional energy. 10 second cooldown before next use. Deals high damage.)

Increasing or holding back to "charge" up power should come at a great cost. Such a chance to backfire, killing or severely injuring the caster and those that are near them. With great power comes greater consequence.

[Jirato]

This probably isn't going to be a popular thing.... but, I was thinking about magical specializations the other day. More to do with that post someone made about "when everyone is super" or something. I liked the idea of giving specific, one-time specializations to further refine characters towards certain styles. But I was thinking about magic, and wondering what exactly that would be.

I came to the conclusion that magic specialization is... the ability to use magic. That's extremely unique in and of itself. I don't really feel it needs to be specialized further, because you're already picking a specific realm of magic to learn and, in the case of elemancy, drilling down to a mastery of a specific element. Those are your specializations. So technically, you're already specialized, yay!

[Jirato]

That's not to say I'm never going to add any new magical abilities. If I do though, they won't be put in with the mindset of "This is your specialization ability" though.

[Bryce]

Just to bring spellcasting in line with weapons

Funny.

[Lun]

Mostly I brought it up because of how unreliable the damage and hit rate of magic can be, in terms of raw casting. Most weapons benefit from having a specialization that weights rolls upwards, whereas magic doesn't. So while someone can generally get more hits and more damage on their weapons, magic users get none o' that.

[preiman]

You do however have the options of channeling more to send your damage through the roof, lots of tricks, offensive, defensive, and utilitarian, and you can always have that power with you. It does not degrade, it can not be disarmed, and you can never be forced to leave it behind

[Lun]

Heres my anecdotal piece regarding magic, Preiman. It's not all bells and whistles like you think it is.

Nutkick is disarm for mages, only there's no picking your weapon back up for a full 15 seconds or so, making most pure-magicians completely incompetent and useless in battle. It also bypasses being guarded, so there's absolutely no defense against it.

Being knocked down via any form of control, such as tackle, shove, hamstring, or significant enough damage will lock us into RT on the ground. Happened to me once. Dropping channels to reduce energy drain does nothing, since you get channel prep RT when getting back up anyway.

Channeling uses up energy per second per channel (1/2/3, meaning 1 round eats 5, 10, or 15 energy) instead of a flat 5/6/7 energy per round, and 3 channels doesn't guarantee you're going to do more damage. It just raises the cap.

I'm sure somewhere out there is a mage that just gets max damage rolls 100% of the time, but a significant amount of time, I'm dealing around the 20-30 range with 3 sorcery channels, or 20-30 with a mixed cryomancy/sorcery channel. So I'm pulling an average 10-15 energy per cast, to deal 20 damage, which is what a normal person does with a dagger for 4 or 5 energy.

The channel more for damage thing is variable amongst magic, and channeling more is just like switching to a larger sword, or axe. A greataxe or executioners sword can do just as much as a full channel mage, with less energy cost and includes a parry. Yeah, full channels or mixed channels of lava, boulders, and pure fire will usually deal in the upper range of damage. But full channels of aeromancy might top out at 60 or so.

[Orris]

Well if you want to be doing a lot of damage you shouldn't be using air anyway, right? That's like using a walking stick and complaining it's not comparable to a greatsword. I see air as the utility branch of elemancy, it has the indispensable Aero Jump, and Aero Nova is great for knocking down a whole room. It's a little thing but using aero to dry people off is nice. I haven't seen the new Aero Dodge in action, but it sounds like it would be great for a weapon using elemancer light on their feet with rapiers or something.

Anyway, a way to increase our rolls or damage would be cool, but I don't think I'd spend points on it. I'm already very happy with my destructive power, and I love the reactions it gets in groups.

[Noctere]

Interesting that you brought up aeromancy. I have been working on some 'fun' for that particular branch. It may never be released but if it does, it will definitely 'clear the air' about a few things. Aeromancy was never intended to be a major damage dealer but with any luck, I might toss ya a bone. However, it should be noted that pyromancy will always be the king of damage, geomancy tends to focus more on defense and smashing things with boulders and hydromancy has always had a little bit of everything.

Concerning the whole, archaic caveman tools (weapons) vs magic deal, it should be noted that magic is by far more diverse than weapons will ever be. True that some weapons can achieve bigger numbers and less energy but even the mightiest super hammer of celestium DOOOOM will have trouble in places where magic will not. Magic, in many cases, can bypass many armor types.

For example, if someone was wearing a 'masterful magnificent mighty steal cuirass of power'® then a melee weapon which uses crush damage to impact against it will do almost half damage but an elemancer with a little lightning will actual do INCREASED damage. Electricity versus metal does not make for good protection.

Also fire spells do interesting things against armor if aimed repeatably at the same place. Let's just say things will get a little hot under the collar. Fire is also the king of damage against nethrim and across the board tends to do very well against many things.

There are many other examples of how certain magic types will do much better than a normal weapon. I won't give up all the secrets but let's just say a little common sense and some experimentation will reveal the awesomeness that is magic in this game.

[Dorn]

Plate only does so well until it comes up against magic. I can think of only one mob that causes more damage on plate than what I've seen with the more aggressive magic types, and it isn't a Drakolin (Though damn do they hurt)

EDIT: Out of curiosity though, does being mounted increase magic damage? I know it improves overall attack roll, but how about damage?