Yikes! The magic system seems to be much bigger that I imagined it would be: physics, spells building, augmentations crafting, runes, rituals, energy sources, etc. I'm definitely intrigued to see who you are going to balance classes (if you having classes) and make the mundane combat (melee and ranged) as potential interesting as magic has the to be that's a conversation for another thread or two (*evil grin*).
ElementsSince the elements are basis of magic system and still appear to be somewhat up in the air I decided to try and refine my own ideas and in the hope of producing something you might find useful. I started with a blend of traditional 4 and 5 element systems: various different flavours from various different cultures. I added a dash of almost forgotten PnP RPG memories and seasoned with a pinch of recently indulged CRPG experience. The whole thing was allowed to simmer over lunch and reduced it until I was left with:
The primary elements are six nearest the centre: positive and negative energy, fire and ice, earth and sky.
The elements on the left in opposition to those on the right however the left side (other than negative energy) are not inherently negative. The elements' child nodes are things they are associated with: their spheres of influence, properties, forms, etc. The fact that the two "energy" elements have a lot more children may not represent them being more powerful but they are probably more eclectic or, if you prefer, versatile. I avoided including illusions (upsetting many Gnomes) preferring to provide positive and negative versions (under Nature and Spirit). There is also an argument to say that Spirit and Nature could be elements of their own but for now I've left them there because ...
RacesWhile I was working on the elements it struck me that a couple of the playable races were particularly attune to one element or another: Avians to Sky, Dwarves to Earth, Elves to Positive Energy (Nature).
So I decided to see how far I could take this association. I started with the standard fantasy assumption (probably ingrained in me by D&D) that Humans, as the jack of all trades, should not be associated with a particular element. The three I mentioned above were obvious and Pantherians seemed to lend themselves to Fire (they prefer hot, dry places; hate water; and all cats like to curl up in front of a good fire). With five down and two to go: Reptilians seemed closer to Ice (they are cold blooded and, in my mind at least, potentially amphibious) but no matter what, I couldn't associated Simians with Negative Energy. Despite their aggressive tree chopping ways I didn't think you'd ever forgive me if I suggested making your engineering monkeys evil!
Then I remember the close relationship Humans have with Simians. Perhaps there was an elemental reason for this connection. So if I took the arbitrary decision that Simians also lacked an elemental association what race could I associate with Negative Energy? Mythruna appears to lack an evil playable race (what no Sith?) so I had little choice but to look beyond playable races, at least for the time being:
My approach was to try and shoehorn the elements to fit the races however if you like the idea you can always amend the races/lore to fit the elements and so, for example, Reptilians may become Aqualians or some such.
SpellsI like the idea that your life energy is your health, stamina and mana all combined. Everyone has draws from a single pool in a way that best suits their play style. Presumably for balance melee and ranged combat will have a similar "do and die" option that mages would have (unless of course there are no classes).
Wands are tricky to discuss because they require complex field manipulation and I'm not sure whether this applied to all energies or if they are piggy backed onto shaped gravitational energy. A beam is easy, similar to a laser. You have some component or components that turns the beam annular. Things like magic missile are more difficult to describe as they involve creating one field within another, filling that field with energy, and punching it off. A minimum of three fields are in effect and only one is a beam. In Mythruna magic, "magic missile" will not be a trivial thing to make.
Does this just apply to magic or just mechanical magic (wands and circuits)? Or were you simply talking from a programming perspective which will be transparent to the player? I think this case illustrates the difficulty of trying to align magic with science or engineering. While we both find this approach attractive there are limits and at some point I think we have allow magic to retain some unexplained mystique. On these occasions saying "its magic" isn't a cop out but similar to the way we accept Star Wars lightsaber blades and blaster bolts simply because they're cool.
As I see it (with my somewhat blinkered view) there are 6 forms of casting (with some associated D&D style nouns):
- self
- object/location
- projectile/directed (arrow, bolt, javelin, missile, spear, beam, ray, etc.)
- self AOE (aura, circle, sphere)
- object/location AOE (aura, circle, sphere, wall, pillar, storm)(
- projectile/directed AOE (spray, cone, ball)
Additionally there may be modifiers such as "explode on impact", "recursive", etc. So Chain Lightning could be normal Lighting with the "recursive" modifier so that some of the energy is reserved and used to recast itself from the initial target. Alternatively this may simply be due to the properties of electricity and metal which reach a critical mass when there are enough armour clad warriors in close proximity.
Combination and Cumulative EffectsI also jotting down ways in which different primary elements could be combined to create new secondary "elements" which might also be useful. Some basic examples might be:
- earth (stone) + (lots of) heat = lava
- earth (sand) + heat = glass
- ice + heat = water
- water + heat = steam
- earth + water = mud
- mud + water = quicksand
- water + cold + air = snow
Of course that barely scratches the surface but you get the idea. Unfortunately it also raises a question about how elements in opposition apply to each other. Fire + Water = Nothing but Water + Fire (Heat) = Steam? Do the order and quantity of elements in a formula become important?
Similarly, in combat, can attacking with different elements produce cumulative effects? To use a Dragon Age example, if I freeze someone with Cone of Cold spell and follow it up with Stone First is there a chance my frozen opponent could shatter? Or to use a Magicka example, if someone is wet from being in water or hit by a water spell and I cast an electricity spell at them does it do more damage?
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